My plan to provide fuel to existing historical wood burning steam locomotives starts with the Sumpter Valley Railway, of Sumpter, Oregon. Since I am already invoved with them (I am a life member and I am currently an engineer, etc.) I am familiar with the operation and have an interest in helping the organization. We generally run the oil-burning Mikado #19, and have been keeping the wood-burning Heisler for special occasions. There are several characteristics about the Heisler that make it less desirable for the regular train operation: slower maximum speed, time needed to fuel between runs, tendency to start forest fires in fire season, more physical effort required to fire, and some mechanical problems that have not been fixed yet. Recently there have been complaints about the cost of firewood. Now that is something I can help with.
On 5/28/2007 I took the load in the truck (from 5/12/2007) out to Steve C.'s and then went back to Tami and Chris', got another 1/2 load, took it to Steve C.'s, then took the truck home empty. It is the wife's truck, after all!
On 05/12/2007 I combined the last 1/2 load with part of the first load (collected with trailer 1/4/07) and took it out to Steve C.'s .
Then I went to Tami and Chris' and got another truck load. I split up some approx 20" stuff that was sitting at the edge of the back lawn.
Went to the Sumpter Valley Railway, McEwen, OR (5/4/07-5/6/07) with Steve M., to attend the Safety Meeting for train crews. On Sunday, Steve M. and I took the "Valdez" Ford pickup and retrieved the wood by the road at Matt M.'s place. That was the stuff Ben and I left for others. We sorted that wood either to a rack for loading on the locomotive, or in the "to be split" pile, depending on diameter. Then we moved the wood from the work flat, all as Ben and I left it, to either the rack or to the pile. Bill H. and his son helped us with that transfer. There were a few that were too long, and I couln't find the working chainsaw, but Greg P. got an enormous saw from his truck and cut those up. I put a few miscellaneous pieces on the top of the rack to fill it out, and Steve M. split some of the doug-fir that Steve C. brought over, for use at the McEwen depot.
The final, filled rack (5/6/07).
Big pieces to split later.
Steve M. with stove wood for McEwen Depot.
Greg P. with chainsaw to cut long pieces.
The fifth load (a half load) at Tami's (4/7/07) in the truck.
Wednesday, 4/4/07 Pete M. called me from The Dalles, Oregon, about 90 miles from Portland and about 240 miles from Sumpter. He got that far on his trip to Eastern Oregon and his almost-new truck got a "check engine" light and lost power. Oh, no! Another truck broken in the Firewood-to-Sumpter Story! With his travel trailer stuck at a trailer park and the truck (with the part-load of fir firewood) stuck at the shop till at least Monday, he wondered how to get the wood back home, then to the railroad. So I called up Paul V., a member who lives in The Dalles, and he and Pete arranged to get the wood to Paul for transport from The Dalles to the SVRy this weekend.
On Thursday, 3/29/07, when I got back from working in Eugene, I loaded the little pickup with 1/2 a load of the Doug fir and took it to Pete M's for transport to the Sumpter Valley Railway. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture. But that really wasn't a problem, because I had my cell phone, that has a camera in it! I just had to sign up for all kinds of web photo album services...but here is my first cell phone picture put on the website:
Firewood delivered to Pete's.
On Saturday, 3/24/07, Ben T. and I went to the SVRy and got a tour from Matt M. of the 7 acres owned by him, next to the track at Huckleberry Road. There was 4' length wood scattered around, cut to clean up dead and down and crowded trees. So Ben and I tossed the wood that was near the right-of-way down next to the track. After lunch, Ben and I unloaded Steve's truck, then took the #110 10-ton diesel and the #501 work train flat to Matt's, loaded the wood and brought it back to the main McEwen yard. The next day we gathered wood that was at the upper corner of Matt's property, which had been cut by the power company to keep it from growing into the powerlines. We didn't have a truck handy and we were running out of time, so we left it for the others to take back to the yard.
Chuck Turner with wood tossed down to the right-of-way.
Ben T. riding flat.
Ten-ton #110 and work flat #501 with wood loaded. Sure it's a diesel, but there's something quite pleasant about this sort of railroading.
In western Oregon wood falls from the sky. We are still cleaning up after the winter's wind storms. We just needed a way to get wood from the west to the east. I asked SVRy member Steve C. if he could help. Because of his family and work situation, he travels east with his pickup almost every weekend, and he said sure. So I started taking wood to his place.
Also on Saturday, 3/24/07, Steve C. brought a pickup load of the fir from Tami's out to the SVRy but had blown something in his engine- it made a tremendous amount of noise and had less power. He said that was about 1/2 the wood I had left at his place. After lunch, Ben and I unloaded Steve's truck.
The Douglas fir in Steve C.'s truck at the Sumpter Valley Railway in Eastern Oregon. Sorry about the blown engine.
Four loads (3-1/2 pickup trucks full) in the stack at Steve's in Western Oregon.
1180.5 Lbs. I weighed every piece with a bathroom scale before splitting.
249-1/2 lbs. This wood stood upright in the rain from 1/14/07 until 2/24/07. The volume was 4.94 ft3 so the density was 50.5 lb/ft3. Assuming .45 SG for dry wood, that would give 79.7% MC dry basis.
Two hundred forty-nine and a half pounds in the truck.
The second load to Steve C.
The first load and second load stacked at Steve C's.
Some of the firewood behind the garage. Half became part of the second load. This wood sat under the deck from 1/14/07 until either taken to Steve's or weighed 2/26/07. The top five pieces in the back pile (not including the tiny one) weighed 169 lbs and had a volume of 3.79 ft3, giving a density of 44.5 lbs/ft3. This gives 58.6% MC dry basis.
First load to Steve C.
First load stacked at Steve C.'s.
© 2007 Charles Turner