Ash pits for wood burners?

[Anonymous]

We've just got some wood ash back where it belongs here in England... keeping "on topic" I wondered what was done with the old wood burners... on logging lines etc...
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[orsonroy]

Mostly, the ash was dumped right onto the ROW somewhere, and spread around as a siding ballast and general ground cover. Once steamers switched to coal and started burning LOTS of it, railroads had to start building ash pits and some sort of disposal system for it.

[Anonymous]

Loggin locos were not always wood-burning, despite the seemingly-obvious source of fuel. Lots of Shays and other geared locos ran on coal or fuel oil that was brought into camp with the other supplies. Wood creates a lot of sparks that can be dangerous in the woods!

The Canadian Museum of Science & Technology has a two-truck Shay that runs on fuel oil.

Andrew

[cacole]

Wood didn't leave enough a***o need an ash pit -- the ashes were just dumped onto the track and then shoveled off to the side, or left to blow away in the wind.