oil firing

— Another solution of the problem, shortly to be the subject of extensive experiments on the G.W.R., is oil-firing. This was abandoned on the G.E.R. forty years and more ago because the rising price of oil made it too expensive a method to continue; but the boot is now on the other leg, and the high cost and poor quality of present-day locomotive coal add considerably to the attractiveness of oil as a substitute. Other conditions being equal, oil-firing has much to commend it on long runs, and the firebox equipment needed is of a relatively simple construction.