FUELING OIL BURNING LOCOMOTIVES AT FT. SMITH, ARK
By H. E. Huber

During the winter of 1942-1943 leased Frisco engines 3653 and 3654 were sent by the KCS to replace engine KCS 85 on the Spiro-Ft. Smith branch. Both of these engines were oil burners and they posed some different ways of fueling them, since the engine servicing facilities were for coal burning locomotives. Here is how it was accomplished.

A tank car of crude oil was spotted on the elevated track next to the engine. Since it was winter, the oil had to be heated before it would flow through the pipes. Each engine was equipped with a valve on the steam dome to accommodate a ¾ pipe. The lid on the tank car was replaced with one that had two connections on it, one for the steam line and another one for an air hose. A 10' or longer pipe was lowered into the oil. This pipe had four "fingers" at the bottom of it that allowed steam to heat the oil to make it flow freely. When the oil was hot enough, the steam line was disconnected. The engine had been spotted with the steam dome directly opposite the dome on the tank car. The engine now had to be moved forward to get the oil hatch on the tender even with the dome on the tank car. This was the moment I had been waiting for! Engine watchman Charlie Washburn would let me move the engine forward to line up the oil hatch with the dome on the tank car. The 4" oil filler pipe was swung out from along side the tank car and put over the oil hatch. The air hose was connected to the train line air hose and turned on. The pressure of the air on top of the oil in the tank car caused the heated oil to flow into the fuel oil bunker in the tender. Needless to say, it had to be watched very closely; otherwise you would have oil everywhere! The KCS suffered a great oil spill at Ft. Smith during the stay of these two engines, but it was not caused by oil flowing into the tender.

An oil burning locomotive, when not is use, does not have the fire burning constantly. What happens is that the engine is fired until the safety valves lift. Then the oil is cut off by the emergency cut off valve on the tender, allowed to empty the fuel line to the burner until the fire goes out. The firing valve and dampers are closed. Mr. Washburn always put a lid from a 55-gallon oil drum on the stack. This was to help hold heat in the engine. When steam pressure dropped, the fire was lighted and the process of raising the steam pressure was repeated.

The train crew usually tied up at around 4 P.M. and went to work the next morning at 7 A.M. The shutdown of the fire in the evening usually lasted until around 4 A.M., when Mr. Washburn would light the fire and build up steam for the starting work time.

Lighting the fire was accomplished by resetting the emergency shut off valve, removing the "lid" from the stack and opening the dampers. A good-sized chunk of cotton waste was soaked with kerosene, set afire and thrown in front of the burner in the firebox. The blower, atomizer, and the firing valve were opened and the oil would ignite immediately, and it would not be long until steam pressure would be at working pressure.

Mr. Washburn really enjoyed the stay of the Frisco engines 3653 and 3654 while they were at Ft. Smith. He often remarked that connecting and disconnecting steam and airlines sure beat shoveling 8 to 10 tons of coal each day and no fires to clean and no clinkers to contend with.

After school I would go immediately to the KCS yards and would stay as long as I possibly could. Darkness came early in the winter and the temperature was, as a rule, in the lower thirties and upper twenties, the warm cab of the engine was most welcome. I can still recall to this day how enjoyable these moments were. After the engine had been fueled, watered, lubricated and sand put in the sand domes, Mr. Washburn would sit on the fireman's seatbox and me on the engineer's seat. He would be firing the engine to "bed it down" for the night. We would talk about the war news, schoolwork, KCS stories, and mostly about the radio program, Lum and Abner. He was a great fan of theirs and so was I (still am). We would rehash the previous programs and he always got quite a chuckle about our discussions. I would stay as long as I thought I possible could without getting into trouble at home. It would be completely dark by now and I would bundle up in coat and cap, put my gloves on, get on my bicycle and head for home down Wheeler Ave. to Spring St., up Spring St. hill to 16th and then on home.

My time spent in the KCS yards during the 1940's provided me with good times then, and now--lots and lots of very good memories.

FC:KCS.105

The following is a tank car incident that happened to Mr. A. C. Washburn at the KCS engine servicing facilities on South D St between Wheeler Ave and South 7th in Ft Smith one day.

When he took the cap off the oil line that was under the tank car oil immediately started flowing onto the ground. He naturally assumed the valve in the dome was closed, but it was a defective valve and was open. The first thing he did was go to the dome to shut the valve. It being defective, he couldn’t. The only recourse he had was to put the cap back on the oil line on the bottom of the tank car. The oil was already heated to make it flow faster and it was really flowing out of the 6” pipe, so much it made the job of putting the cap back under that pressure almost an impossibility. It was quite a few minutes before he could accomplish getting the threads together in order to stop the flow oil crude oil. He was sitting on the ground in oil. His overalls, shirt and shoes were soaked.

The Ft Smith Fire Department was called and they used a fire hose to wash the oil down to a sewer on the corner of Wheeler and South D and down the sewer line it went.

Can you imagine if something like this happened in 2008 how many environmental agencies would have been involved and the tremendous fines the KCS would be assessed?