*************Response to The Only Email Received by My Website*********************
Hi,
Thank you so much for the feedback. In a year of having the site, you are the only one that has emailed my darewehope.org mailbox. Congratulations!
Your comments on the cost of mainenance are certainly well-founded. As a historical reference I have a book that is a study of motive power for the New York Central, comparing the operating costs of steam, electric and diesel power. The steam's requirement for regular maintenance took it out of service so much (lower availability) that it fell behind the other forms of power on cost. I am also familiar with steam in a hands-on way, having been in charge of a boiler retube at one time and having been very involved with the repair and the operation of a couple of others, "countless hours of maintenance" pretty well describes keeping them running
The biggest motivation for me for my interest in steam and for the website was the oil crisis of the 1970's. Then the cost of petroleum was not as important as the shortages. It just wasn't there to be bought. So I would like to see a backup transportation system that is not dependant of petroleum. As the supply shrinks and the demand increases or even stays the same, more crises are coming. We are not going to build the hydrogen economy during the next oil crunch. There are a lot of steam locomotives just sitting around unusable. There are also many historical ones that are operational, not considered available as backup transportation, but whose maintenance is covered by teams of fanatic volunteers.
Sparks are definitely a concern, with the current liability system we have. The woodburning Heisler at Sumpter sets everything on fire. That is only a problem during fire season.
The low BTU value of biofuels is more a nuisance than a show-stopper. Historically, the major railroads were willing to put up with low-BTU coal if the price was right- eg the Northern Pacific burning subbituminous coal from their own mine at Colstrip, Montana. That was probably 8000 BTU/lb, which is not much more than wood pellets. The problem with cordwood, in my experience, is not so much the low heat value as that it must be handled so much. By the time it gets into the firebox it has been lifted 3 or more times. Briquetted fuel can be moved with bulk handling equipment and stokers.
It is very interesting you tried burning corn in a Heisler. Do you have any documentation, eg something written or photos, of that experiment? I would like to put it on the website.
Your name appears to be Polish. Did you see my Wolsztyn page?
http://www.darewehope.org/Wolsztyn.html
If you have the chance, I highly recommend the Wolsztyn Experience. Real revenue trains! Parawozy! Railfan and Railroad Jan 2008 had a good article, and Live Steam had one (in two parts) recently.
Thanks again for writing,
Chuck Turner
*************The Only Email Received by My Website*********************
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Steam feedback
Date: Sun, January 27, 2008 6:54 pm
To: cturner@darewehope.org
HI Charles,
Came across your website. A few feedback comments for you. I am member of a small historical railroad. We have the only operational steam locomotive in the state of Vermont. We have a 22 ton two truck coal burning Heisler locomotive. Operating a steam locomotive is very labor intensive. The old adage for steam, one hundred hours maintenance for every hour of operation. Yes, this did include track maintenance and operations support. Our experience from operation, steam locomotives are very mechanical, very high maintenance. Even with a small operation like ours we have countless hours in maintenance. We are in the process of rebuilding the universal joints in the running gear. Time and labor intensive. There is a reason that all the major railroads changed to diesel as quickly as they did.
As for fuel. Coal was used in place of wood for many reasons. Very little live sparks going up the stack to endanger the adjoining countryside. Coal has much more BTU available to produce the heat needed to boil water. As an experiment, we did try running on dried corn. Not nearly enough BTU power, too much hot ash going out of the stack, plus the smell of burnt popcorn.
I laud your thoughts, but from practical experience, steam is not the best way to provide future transportation.
************************************************************
Responses to some earlier comments:
(from M.H.) How about some maps of original locations of railroads around Portland? Well, I'm trying for my little view here, how I see history and the future, and what little things I might be doing that might affect the future. Also, I'm sort of enamored of the steam thing. So, even though I am very interested in the rail artifacts around my neighborhood, and even though I think electric trains are really the future, I am going to resist putting purely historical information on the site. I think there is a lot of that available elsewhere. Here I will show things I interact with somehow. So I will probably have something about the old roadbeds nearby (Oregon Electric and Southern Pacific Red Electric), but it will be some oral history I have heard or photos I have taken or something like that.
(from B.H.) How did I get interested in this? I was born in 1955, so I just missed the steam trains in the USA. When I was a kid, I liked trains and at about age 8 I started HO model railroading. I made some rolling stock, some great little structures and some scenery, etc. But in junior high school I decided model railroading was, like, irrelevant. But during the "energy crisis" of the 1970's I renewed my interest in steam locomotives- transportation that could use no petroleum fuel. I studied and photographed and volunteered, first at Snoqualmie, WA (now the Northwest Rail Museum), then the Sumpter Valley Railway and the Western Steam Fiends at Brooks, OR. Now with ever-increasing concern about the future of petroleum and global warming, it is time try some ideas.
(from B.H.) Is there enough wood and fiber to run all the trains in the US on steam? This one kind of stopped me. I'm sure the short answer is "no" but wait! I just want to see ONE locomotive running! Or maybe five! Here is a page about "Will we cut all the forests down for locomotive fuel?"
(from D.K.) What about the poor efficiency and high maintenance requirements of steam locomotives? I have some thoughts on this, and here are some efficiency notes
(from A.T.) How will get the stories before it is too late? I want to make a record of the ones I have already heard, and I want to hear more from the people I know, and make records of those. But this site is all about how I am interacting with this history that has been and is being created. So the stories I don't hear aren't really a part of it. Sad, perhaps, but I'm not taking on the job of recording all the memories. I'm just recording the parts that reach me. The oral historians need to get the rest!
May 14, 2008
Copyright © 2008 Charles Turner