Oil Firing

From the Guardian this morning:

'The government on Friday launched a consultation on cutting the target for new EVs to as little as 50% of all new cars in 2030, down from 80% under existing rules, in proposals that could add millions of tonnes a year to the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions.

But in a broadcast interview, he also defended his “pragmatic” approach on extracting oil and gas from the North Sea. His government will shortly have to decide whether to allow new drilling at the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields, with a consultation on the former closing on Monday.

The decision to consider weakening one of the UK’s key climate policies on EVs was announced hours after the country recorded its hottest day of the year so far – and the fifth hottest ever – after five heatwaves that scientists have said are almost certainly worsened by global heating caused by carbon emissions.'

The longer serious action is delayed, the more drastic the measures required will be. It's not going to happen under Burnham, he's too scared of losing votes. It's the old problem of the five year election cycle.

 

We need two get the Q1 out of the NRM, you could steam that on old telephone directories - apparently

Tom

 

I did some estimates on the electric-steam concept last time it was discussed. There are two or three 50kV electric railways in the world, where you might just about get away with it. However it would be unlikely that you could run anything else on the section fed by the same substation at the same time. An electrically heated steam locomotive would be about 10% efficient. DC traction motors are about 92% efficient and AC traction motors about 94%. I'm all in favour of railway electrification, but only for conventional electric trains.

 

Deleted.

 

Cairngorms?

 

The HRAmemo said:
“If your own risk assessments identify a risk, please think carefully about what action you could take until further information is available. Please remember the implications beyond your own fence - and take an abundance of caution. Consider what the public and other stakeholders would expect you to do in these circumstances as a responsible heritage railway.”
They can’t say don’t use steam but that sends a strong message. In the case of the Highlands, I suspect their risk assessments would allow steam to carry on if it is that wet.

 

That's well written - and having seen a couple of accounts from people burned out at Stourbridge, the risk calculation is obviously shifting

 

Yeah, but Chapelon would have taken 10000hp in and got 14000hp out...

 

Follow arable land is simply being given a rest as part of the crop rotation cycle. Rape can play a part in this cycle
Rapeseed - Wikipedia

 

Watching Omaha on videos on the NYMR, I have yet to see a video of it running with a clean exhaust. On many videos I've watched of American oil fired locomotives the exhaust seems very clear. Is there something going on with Omaha which is causing incomplete combustion?

Very interested in this as I genuinely think that in the years to come, all 'premier league' lines will have at least one oil burner in their fleets and its only a matter of time that one will appear on the mainline.

 

As I think has been said above, it's a chicken and egg;
Can't run it until proven safe, too dry to test run, can't train the crews on it unless it is run. As soon as there's rain, you need to run the coal-fired steam to get some value out if them, so you can't run the oil-fired engine.

I imagine it will settle down in time

 

Lack of practice probably. The oil feed has to be constantly trimmed to match the draught.

 

It is the plural "directories"that suggests to me that there is a problem with this approach in the modern era ............

 

As a model it was certainly tried in Gauge I when third rail was standard to electrify outside about the mid 1960’s.
I don’t what the voltage was - probably one or two dozen volts DC - but compared to an electric motor it drew a lot of current. The pick up was from live brass coarse scale O gauge rail with slip on brass fish plates lining up the lengths , asked to provide electrical conductivity as well these fishplates were known to behave as though they were fuzes.
To get the current through the boiler shell to the immersion heater inside advantage was taken of the properties of a sparking plug.

 

There is the inspired quote: “As you would expect with a climate perfect for growing grass, England is too wet in the West and too dry in East”.

ie Plenty of productive permanent grazing in the Midlands, in the favoured parts eaten off right it would naturally “tumble down" to this.
It might be semi permanent for something like 5 t0 10 years -" ley farming": deliberately seeded to be deliberately
ploughed up.
Semi permanent or not, typically but not necessarily, there would be crops of hay made and carted off but mainly it was eaten by the livestock straight into their digestions.

 

Just scale up the Hornby oo gauge live steam system!

 

In the book "British Steam on the Pampas" the author, DS Purdom who was the CME of the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway until 1951, devotes a section to the subject of oil firing. He notes that over 500 locomotives used oil fuel with no increase in the cost of boiler maintenance over coal firing and that engine availability was increased due to the reduction in servicing demands. No fire arch was provided but refractory lining was applied to the sides and ends of the firepan. He references a paper " The application of oil fuel for the modern locomotive " Institution of Locomotive Engineers, paper No 345, journal No 126 , Nov-Dec 1935. Steel fireboxes were standard practice from 1922 onwards. Whether burning coal or oil a life of 20-25 years was normal. In later years fireboxes were of welded construction with all tubes and firehole door rings also welded. Roof stay nuts were removed and the stay ends rivetted over. A novel system of combustion control was developed whereby oil feed, atomising steam, blower and damper doors were operated with one handle.