[Default] On Sat, 5 Apr 2008 23:32:01 +0100, "sean neill" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> finished tucking into their plate of fish, chips and mushy peas. Wiping their mouth, they swiggged the last of their cup of tea, paid the bill and wrote::
>I have been told that on the Ffestiniog, the (oil-fired) locomotives use >8 times as much fuel as the diesels, which would fit, as efficiency is >5% at best (at the pressures used, it takes 1100 BTUs to turn a pound of >water into steam and 100 to raise the steam to working pressure IIRC). The reason why the FR went oil-fired when they did was that FR locos have always had to be worked hard to operate the line, leading to the risk of sparks from coal-fired engines setting fire to the commercial woodlands next to the line, and the fact that in "fire conditions" they wouldn't have been able to run any service. Now a lot of the trees have been felled, coal burning technology's moved on quite a bit and oil is too expensive to "just burn" - they went off using waste oil some years ago. Brian L Dominic Web Sites: Canals: http://www.brianscanalpages.co.uk
