ATSF Oil conversions

Need help figuring out when ATSF started converting their tenders to oil. I have a couple Tenders in HO I'm wanting to convert to oil and looking for any help possible.

 

I can't answer your question, Nick, but am surprised no one else has. I suppose it would depend on locations. I do know that ATSF burned coal in the west for a time, but then converted to oil. They MAY have continued to use coal in eastern yards. If you are just looking for their appearance as oil tenders, just search for 3751, 2926 and other ATSF steamers. As I recall they are pretty boxy.

 

According to the Santa Fe Ry. book by Glischinski, the first Santa Fe oil conversion was performed on a 4-4-0 - in cooperation with Union Oil - at San Bernadino in 1905.

 

This. Union tried to work with the SP on it, but the Octopus wasn't interested. The Union method didn't work, so the Santa Fe kept at it until they developed a flat spray head that spread the oil out over the grate. That happened in the first few years of the Twentieth Century. I seem to remember a 1901 date on the oil company approaching the SP, but I don't remember where I read that.

The Eastern Lines were the last holdout for coal as fuel on the road. Coal burners were delivered as late as 1937, as were oil tenders which had a mounting spot for stokers built in for possible conversion later. Some Santa Fe engines had their fuel type switched several times as they were reassigned to different regions.

E.D. Worley of Iron Horses of the Santa Fe Trail disagrees with the 1905 date. He reports 915 Class (later known as the 900 Class, after the 900 Class Mikados were renumbered into the 885 Class) locomotives delivered from Baldwin as oil burners in late 1903 and throughout 1904. That would be on page 203, lest you consider it an insufficient citation without that (and there's little doubt one person in this conversation would). In any case, you really aren't talking about coal tenders converted to oil unless you're talking about 4-4-0, Ten Wheeler and old Consolidation types. Tenders designed for oil fuel began to be delivered very early, and the Santa Fe had enough extra tenders (due to enlarged tenders being built for existing engines and their original engines replacing yet smaller tenders on older power) to swap them when engines were converted. So except for those earliest examples, the tenders themselves were seldom converted.

 

The book "History of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Ry" by Bryant has a few more details.

Supposedly Union oil asked SP to loan them a loco on which to conduct experiments, but the SP refused - no date is mentioned.

Union then made the same request of the Santa Fe subsidiary Southern California Ry., who sent 4-4-0 #10 to a Union facility in Santa Paula.
The original Union oil conversion design couldn't produce enough power, so the loco was moved to San Bernadino where it's said that Union and Santa Fe continued the project on a cooperative basis, culminating in the development of the flat spray nozzle, which was deemed a success because it finally allowed the loco to produce sufficient power to traverse Cajon Pass.

 

There's a nice shot of number 10 in Iron Horses with her oil tender. She was a 96,000 pound 1887 Manchester with 61" drivers. Most or all of the One Class (of the 1900 renumbering) seem to have been converted to oil, if the pics in that book are any indication. All but five were built by Manchester that year, and about the same weight, though some had shorter drivers and a few had 63" drivers. They were numbered 643-652, and wound up on the Southern California. The other five were built in 1889, numbered 451-455, and wound up on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe. There were fifteen engines in the class. If I'm looking at pages 74 and 75 of Iron Horses correctly, 2, 6, 10, 11, 12, 14 and 15 (among others?) were so converted. The diagrams hint that 3, 9, and 13 were as well. Numbers four and eight almost certainly were not, as they were scrapped in 1902. These developments seem to have bought time for the rest, as they weren't scrapped until 1912-1924. Most or all but 4 and 8 seem to have wound up in southern California.

Tenders on the earliest oil burners--the conversions of eighteenth century power--seem to have fit two patterns. There was a purpose-built tender. Most tenders at that time sloped outward at the top to act as funnels when loading coal. These tenders had rounded top edges on the front, back and sides, very round top corners, and look not unlike tanks. Many had appliances on top--auxiliary air tanks, in some cases. Their tanks were 18' 4 1/4" long and stood 4' 9 3/4" above the frame, and held 3850 gallons of water and "14,000 pounds" of oil. They seem to have mostly been built for 4-4-0s. And a good many coal tenders seem to have been converted with an oil tank which seemed to be designed to slide into the coal bin. How many varieties of this design there were is hard to say. But they all looked the same on top, with rounded sides poking up over the usual funnel-like tender sides, and flat ends. These were fitted to the tenders of 4-4-0, 2-8-0, 4-6-0 and 2-6-0 types, if not others.

There may have been other early oil tenders or conversions. And I might be looking at them in Iron Horses of the Santa Fe Trail. But few locomotive photos are taken from overhead, and many oil tenders are hard to differentiate from coal tenders when seen from ground level.