Well.....how about diesel fuel!!

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Jim:
My impression was that fuel oil ran out quicker than the sand did.   Of
course, I'm talking about those days when engines had a 1600 gal.
tank.  At outlying points, it was not unusual for the railroad to  deal with
the local fuel oil distributor.  One of the assigned  duties of operators was
to check fuel on the engines laying over and report to the dispatcher  the
amount of fuel remaining.  The gauge on the Baldwins didn't show  gallons
(e.g. 400 gals, 1,000 gals, etc.), but one had to count the bolts  holding
the gauge on to estimate fuel remaining.   Calling the fuel oil  distributor
was left to my judgement.  At one time, I called the distributor  at
10:30 PM and asked him to put 100 gallons on an engine.  He said  he'd
do it that time ONLY and that with there was no profit in making a 
delivery for 100 gallons.   In service, it required 400  gallons to get an
engine back to Norfolk.  That was the gallons remaining  in the
gauge for the engine headed back on the local.  I gambled. Well, it  ran
out of fuel entering the yard and I heard about that.
 
Fueling from trucks still exists today.  At Danville, Ky., NS used  fuel
trucks to top off the tank on the Chgo - Jacksonville trains (and  others).
It was NS's goal to make 8 round-trips Jacksonville-Chgo before  sending
the engine to the shop.  Then there was the Vicker experiment -- NS  fueled
through freights from tankers at Vicker until leakage became a concern  of
the locals. There is a pipeline that runs through Montvale and NS parked  some
tanks on the siding at Thaxton, six miles away,  and had tank trucks  from the
tank farm fill the tank cars for distribution over the system.
 
NS has computerized estimated fuel remaining on engines in service so  that
it can be determined whether or not the engine needs to be brought to  the
fuel platform.  "Garbage in; garbage out" the computer wizards  say.  The unit
on a Chgo-Norfolk train ran out approaching Portlock.  Fifteen seconds  later
the second unit went down.  Kinda wonder if the crew was left with the  train
hanging out over Bridge 7.
                                                                     Harry 
Bundy
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