When wood burning engines first existed and if forests along the line were used for fuel, after the crew chopped it down, how were these still green, wet logs able to burn or burn properly in the fire box ? Was this wood then first brought to a mill where it was traded for dried out, cut wood ? Or, the type of wood they sought naturally just burned right there in the fire box ?
I can remember my Grandfather telling me about cutting firewood and selling it to the railroad. They would take seasoned (dried), split wood to the tracks and stack it along the fence. Then tie a rag to the fence to signal the engineer that the wood was ready. The train would stop and 5 or 6 men would form a chain to fill the tender. Conductor would estimate how much wood was loaded and either tie the money into rag or put it in a can that was wired to the fence. He said the railroad paid good and never cheated farmers. If railroad started cheating the farmers then their wood source would disappear.
I doubt the actual train crews did any chopping. As Bill mentioned above, they usually bought wood from farmers or other individuals along the right of way.
Ah ! So my guess was correct about green wood. I always pictured the crew going into trees and cutting them down since I thought these forests were owned by the RR and thus why track was purposely run into/next to them. Well, it was, but the owning/chopping/seasoning was a separate business. Now it's really logical...Thanks. One related question if I may : When steam went to coal burning was the firebox changed/modified for this ? Or coal was merely spread across existing grates? My gut tells me that it had to be redesigned ...
Once the firebox was hot, even green wood could be burned. The intense heat dried out wood quickly. Even in the woods, on logging railroads, they usually had a gang or crew which would buck, split, stack or load. The train crew did not commonly do this task. Although in some cases they did. This is how my maternal grandfather got his start, working for a large, well known logging railroad. He eventually worked his way up into the engine cab as a fireman.
coal burns at a MUCH higher temperature than wood. The grates in the woodburners were of a different design, since the wood burned at a cooler temperature and could have different draft setups with smaller holes for the wood ash. Coal will damage these older grates, even grates from the steam era when coal existed could get severely burned and damaged if not taken care of properly. In live steam (1/8th scale) we had a wood fired pacific at the old club that we actually melted holes clean through the grates when we switched it to coal. This is what happens when you "overcook" a grate This one even had a patch where a chunk of the grate fell out and a steel plate was bolted in to replace it.
