OIL VERSUS COAL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 968, 8 November 1910, Page 4

OIL VERSUS COAL.

AN EXPERIMENT ON THE RAH* WATS. Taranald oil as locomotive fnel is at present being subjected to a series of experiments by the Railway Department. The first of the tests, which are being conducted by Mr. Murison, of the chief mechanical engineers staff, was carried out yesterday, morning, 'when a tank .engine, specially equipped for oil consumption, with an atomiser" for spraying the oil into the firebox, hauled some heavy freight cars from Lambton Station to the Upper Hutt. To the casual observer there is practically no difference in the outward appearance of a tank' engine as compared with a locomotive using coal energy,'save that' the former carries no coal, and, when working under the best' conditions, emits far less smoke than the : other. So far as actual performance went, the tank engine did all that- was required of it, and therein nothing was proved that had not been proved before. The real problem which is engaging the attention of the railway authorities is not, the merit of the performance, but the cost. In the. United States and in Russia, where'tank engines are matters of ■ history, the crude oil fuel'flows in at' the back door, so to speak. It is not barrelled, but flows in. pipes to supply stations, where the'engines'fill their oil tanks in much the same way as they now ■ fill their water tanks from supply depots en In order to make fee comparative statistics as fine as possible, the Department, ia setting one train against another, weight for weight,,engine for engine, task for task, the coal being required in the one 'train to accomplish exactly- what the oil in the other train is being called upon to perform. The results are expected to afford'reliable data as to the comparative cost- In the meantime the Taranaki oil people are in great hope.