OIL FUEL FOR LOCOMOTIVES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 393, 19 May 1910, Page 4

OIL FUEL FOR LOCOMOTIVES

RESULT OF NEW ZEALAND TESTS. It .has been deported recently that the New Zealand Railway Department experimented with the use of New Zealand petroleum for locomotive purposes. The result of the test was referred to on Monday by the Hon. J. A. Millar (Minister of Railways), who stated that the experiments itook place at Ohristdhurch, the locomotive running through the Lyttelton tunnel so that experience of the smokeless properties of the oil could be obtained. In this respect the experiment was quite satisfactory, hut the Minister stated that although the oil was good as a fuel, it requires to ,be refined a little before being used in locomotive furnaces, as there was too much sand in that used at Ohristchurch. The oil was taken from (the New Plymouth wella. "But the most serious defect," continued the Minister, "is that the oil cost more than coal." Incidentally, he mentioned how New Zealand railways are handicapped in the high price of fuel, the average cost of coal being 22s per ton, whereas the Victorian railways, against which New Zealand's system is sometimes contrasted, obtain (fheir supplies at a cost of a little over 6s a ton. Further tests with oil fuel are liemg made on the New (Plymouth line. If these are effective, and a good supply can be guaranteed, the Railway Department favors the introduction of oil fuel and the conversion of its locomotive furnaces- from coal to oil-burning can be effected at a comparatively small cost, —Wellington Times.