FIRING WITH WOOD

When your wood burns up and falls through the grates it does you no good when it is sitting in the ashpan. Your heating value is lost. Many of you remember the old cast iron cook stoves and how ashes were piled up against the sides of the heating area. It was to retain heat. It works the same with the firebox of a steam engine. Those ashes piled along the sides are keeping your pressure up when you're working it hard. When I am firing with wood, I push the ashes to the front and the sides of the firebox. If this sounds crazy to anyone, look at the principle behind the Russell engine with a universal boiler. That make and model of engine had the water leg in the firebox with an opening just large enough for a thin fellow to crawl through. Well, that water leg and smaller opening insures that all of the air that reaches the tubes is well heated. I think most people would agree that a Russell universal is a very easy engine to fire. Putting deadplates around the firebox of a Case will not make it act like an engine with a universal boiler, but it does reduce the chance of cold air reaching the tubes and make it much easier to fire with wood. For those of you already doing this, you know that it works. If not, give it a try.

When using the deadplates around the firebox in a Case, it not only makes the engine easier to fire with wood, but you will also use way less wood than you would without having them there. It retains the heat so well that once you get it cooking, it takes much less fuel. It might be a little slower firing up in the morning but when it helps the engine run much more efficiently, that usually doesn't make much difference to me. I'm always there early anyway.

The type of wood usually doesn't matter as long as it is dry. Some people say you need aged oak. That is great, but if we have good hardwood slabs, chances are they are going to be burned in the house, not in the steam engine. We fire with the leftovers. If the firewood is still a little green, take an axe and split it up into narrower strips so you can lay it in pretty tight and make the most efficient use of the space you have, as once you stack wood in your firebox higher than your lowest row of tubes, you're going to be out of business real quick. Chunks of green wood aren't going to help matters much. You need to keep the bottom of the firebox completely covered so no cold air is hitting your tubes. You can tell by your smoke if you have holes in your fire. With slab wood I have always fired bark side down while firing up in order to let some air pass through while the fire is starting and there is not much draft yet. When I am working it, however, and there is plenty of draft, I fire bark side up so the flat side of the wood is down and is as low as possible in the firebox, thereby giving the widest heating surface possible. The flat part of your slab is where all of your heating value is. I have found round wood to have little or no heating value, at least in the make of engine that I have; it should be split. If you're going to let it smolder in a fireplace or Franklin stove, round wood is great. In a steamer you need immediate heat. If you have a Minneapolis or something with a huge firebox, you can probably throw in anything and make it work. Even in an engine like that, though, if you have deadplates around the firebox, you will still use less wood than without them.