Here's a photo from this week showing the progress on David Kloke's replica of Central Pacific #63, Leviathan. Leviathan was a sister engine to Jupiter. Photo credit belongs to Christine Funk.

Looks beautiful! Will she burn wood like her sister? Hope to see travel around a bit, after the Michigan event. An engine this size would be perfect for that. It happens very frequently in the UK but not so much here.

Joshua

Sadly, she's an oil burner. You'll have to wait for the "Lyon" replica to be completed before you see any new woodburners out and about. www.vtlyon.org

She will travel around, but I'm not sure how often. I would definitely head to Michigan if you can.

Very nice! Concerning the recent thread, you know, this locomotive isn't not quite a mainline 4-6-2 like the British A1, but it's in the ballpark.

It doesn't seem like a monumental leap to progress from building new locomotives like this to an NYC Hudson replica or whatever.

Josh, It is my understanding that both the Jupiter and 119 at Golden Spike burn oil, and the wood is just for show, since the originals were woodburners. Perhaps you have Jupiter confused with Eureka, from the Eureka and Palisade RR that gets around from time to time. She is an original woodburner.

Tim, both replicas were constructed as oil burners, but Jupiter was later converted to burn wood and 119 was converted to burn coal to be more authentic. This page confirms their current fuels:

http://www.discoverlivesteam.com/magazine/03/03.html

When I was out at Promontory some years ago one of the engineers mentioned that at least one, if not both, replicas were originally built as oil-burners. (I don't remember for sure, maybe the UP replica was always coal). Then one year on New Years Day they had a steam up. Turns out there was no provision made for heating the oil. The engine(s) worked ok in the engine house. When they got them outside, the oil congealed, and the fires went out. They threw whatever wood they could find into the fireboxes to keep up enough steam to move them back inside.

He said that as far as he knew, these were the only engines ever built as oil-burners that were ever converted to solid fuel. So, not only for authenticity, there was a practical reason for converting to solid fuel.

"They threw whatever wood they could find into the fireboxes to keep up enough steam to move them back inside."

This sounds a bit suspicious to me. Without any grates, burning any significant amount of wood would be a really bad idea. It might destroy the fire pan.

It was actually accepted practice to fire up an oil burner on wood when shop steam (or in later days, gas, where so equipped) was not available, so long as one was careful. Not just on backwoods shortlines, either.

From the SP Firing Manual, No. 11479, Eff. 1/1947: p.39-61
(b) "Wood may be used in starting the fire when steam is not available for firing up locomotive. Care must be taken when putting the wood in the firebox not to damage the brick work or burner."
(l) If wood has been used in starting the fire, it must be completely burned or removed from the firebox before moving the locomotive to avoid danger of setting fire to adjacent buildings or inflammable material. Sparks from burning wood may readily go through the flues and stack when locomotive is working.

A couple of tourist lines fired up this way; the Roaring Camp & Big Trees did for a number of years while burning Bunker C out of tank cars hauled in direct from Richmond, CA (the shop is now equipped with gas plugs), and the "new" Edaville was firing up their Hudswell-Clarke on wood as of the time I visited a few years ago. The advent of thinner oils that don't require preheating have otherwise made the practice obsolete, with the ability to tap air into the firing manifold and light off.

I stand corrected. Sounds like what you heard was quite plausible, Jim. Still, I am thankful for shop air, No. 2 diesel and an environment that is not brutally cold.

Supposedly, Utah isn't "brutally cold." And, compared to the mid-west, I guess that is true (I haven't had the pleasure). But, being from Southern California, the two winters I spent in Utah courtesy of Uncle Sam were "brutally cold!"

And yes, according to the SP rules we used when we ran our ex-SP 10-wheeler, #2353, wood was an accepted way to get a cold engine going when shop steam or another "hot" locomotive wasn't available. It did caution to make sure all unburned wood was cleared out through the damper box before lighting the oil. We never tried it, but did the compressed air and #2 diesel thing.

Considering that the fire pan is lined with fire brick, I don't think there would have been any problem with burning the pan.

Early on we used to fire the 1522 up on wood until she had 20-30 psi, heat the oil and then change over to oil. It was a messy pain in the butt and after a year or so, we put a tee in the oil feed line ahead of the firing valve and used diesel fuel to light her off. Much better.
One trip, we got out before daylight and when I really started working her hard, it looked like the fourth of July coming out of the stack for a minute.

Nope. Cass Pacific Coast Shay #2.....built as wood burner (only one as such), burned oil it's working life, and now converted to coal at Cass.

The Cass 11 was also converted to a dirt burner after being oil fired for its entire working career in California. Then there's the curious case of the Rio Grande 464, switched back to coal by the Huckleberry after operating one or two seasons as an oil burner at Knotts Berry Farm. And don't forget Dan Markoff's "Eureka" and the V&T "Inyo," both converted from oil back to wood in their most recent restorations -- not to mention a sure handful of "Left Coast" engines sold East back in the day that got the treatment. The list goes on!

Add Aberdeen And Rockfish 40, now at the Valley Railroad, to the list of oil burners converted to coal. The 40 came to A&R as an oil burner but was converted to coal when put in service. As proof, the oil tank was standing on steel legs accross the Aberdeen wye from the sandhouse being used as a used oil storage tank into the mid nineties. Unfortunately the tank was scrapped. I am sure there are others locomotives still around that were converted from oil to coal or wood.

John Bohon