An oil burner engine is a steam engine that uses oil as its fuel. The term is usually applied to a locomotive or ship engine that burns oil to heat water, to produce the steam which drives the pistons, or turbines, from which the power is derived.
This is mechanically very different from diesel engines, which use internal combustion, although they are sometimes colloquially referred to as oil burners.
An early pioneer of this form of engine was James Holden, of Britain's Great Eastern Railway. In James Holden's system, steam was raised by burning coal before the oil fuel was turned on.
Video Oil burner (engine)
Conversion
Some oil-burning engines were originally designed to be coal powered but were converted. When a coal-burning steam locomotive is converted to burn oil, various modifications are usual:
- the grate is covered with broken firebrick to act as a reservoir of heat. If the oil flame is blown out (e.g. by a downdraft when entering a tunnel) the hot firebrick will re-ignite it
- the lower part of the inner firebox is lined with firebrick
- shorter superheater elements are fitted
The latter two changes are needed because oil firing produces higher temperatures than coal firing, and can cause rapid erosion of metal. For a similar reason, the smokebox is sometimes painted with silver-coloured heat-resisting paint.
Maps Oil burner (engine)
Oil-fired steam locomotives
Australia
- NSWGR D55 Class
- NSWGR D59 Class
- VR J Class
- VR R Class
- WAGR U Class
- WAGR Pr Class
India
- Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
Nilgiri Mountain railway
Great Britain
James Holden's use of oil firing on the Great Eastern Railway is mentioned above and it was used sporadically on Britain's railways, usually because of coal shortages. A Parliamentary question was asked about it in 1919.
- LNER Class U1
- Snowdon Mountain Railway
New Zealand
- NZR JA class (North British-built locomotives only)
- NZR JB class
- NZR K class (1932) - converted from coal 1947-53
- NZR KA class - converted from coal 1947-53
North America
- Sierra Railway 3 Railtown 1897 State Historic Park
- Sierra Railway 28 Railtown 1897 State Historic Park
- Union Pacific 3985 UP Heritage Fleet
- Union Pacific 844 UP Heritage Fleet
- Union Pacific 4014 UP Heritage Fleet
- Union Pacific 737
- Mount Washington Cog Railway
- Santa Fe 3751
- SLSF 1522
- Great Northern 2523
General
- most cab forward locomotives
- some Fairlie locomotives
- Advanced steam technology locomotives
Oil-fired steamships
- USS Drayton (DD-23)
- USS Terry (DD-25)
- USS Perkins (DD-26)
- USS Sterett (DD-27)
- USS McCall (DD-28)
- USS Warrington (DD-30)
- USS Burrows (DD-29)
- USS Monaghan (DD-32)
- USS Trippe (DD-33)
- USS Walke (DD-34)
- USS Ammen (DD-35)
- USS Jarvis (DD-38)
- USS Henley (DD-39)
- USS Jouett (DD-41)
- USS Jenkins (DD-42)
- USS George Washington (1908)
See also
- Oil refinery
- Steam power during the Industrial Revolution
- Timeline of steam power
References
External links
- The General Becomes An Oil Burner
- Fuel energy & steam traction
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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