Grand Canyon Rail Road

Weaver offered a Consolidation several years ago. The Consolidation that Weaver offered was a Baldwin and the actual LS&I unit converted to Grand Canyon uses was an Alco.   The CB&Q Berkshire (Correction Mikado) is the locomotive that burned the Peanut Oil.
Weaver offering.

CB&Q berk  (Correction Mikado).

**Ahem**

Ex-CB&Q MIKADO.

Rusty

Sorry Mike, but you better count the wheels under that Grand Canyon #4960. She is a FORMER CB&Q Mike (2-8-2), and no longer looks anything like her CB&Q days.

Correction noted.

Thank you, Mike CT

Guys,

The engine I'm talking about did not look as you have pictured it. First of all it was NOT a steam engine it was a silver Alco as I remember it it was a diesel engine. I remember having a discussion with the conductor and they burned used cooking oil. with an orange pin stripe on the nose. I will try and post it. I have a digital camera. It had the old time silver passenger cars. All in all the entire consist was 6 cars the engine and 5 passenger cars.

Mike Maurice

From "Trains" magazine, May 2010:  "After one year of inactivity, Grand Canyon 2-8-2 No. 4960 returned to the rails in 2009 with a new, environmentally friendly fuel: waste vegetable oil."  Photo by Eric Hadder.

The shot (uncredited) of the diesels shows the ALCo mentioned above, but there is no mention in the article to indicate that it also burns vegetable oil.

Exactly! it was magnificent! Do they model it anywhere?

A 2006 picture of the Alco FPA4 at the South Rim.

About as close as you could get is a Weaver FA-2 undecorated.  Click on the underlined phrase to link.

Mike CT,

Thanks! I guess I'll just have to keep dreamin'!

There is a sizable movement promoting recycled vegetable oil as a fuel for diesel automobiles. My brother in northern California is somehow involved with a small filtering and reprocessing operation. Some (very) low-level criminals have even been busted here in Tucson and elsewhere for stealing used cooking oil from McDonald's and such places and reselling it to motor-fuel reprocessers. As I understand it the stuff works OK, but they have to blend it with some petroleum-based fuel or the diesel won't start from cold. So running the Grand Canyon Alcos on vegetable oil is no big surprise. 

As for the steamers, a steam engine can be made to run on anything that will burn or generate heat - coal, oil, natural gas, firewood, or recycled copies of OGR. You could even build a nuclear-powered one if you had enough money (and clout with the Feds). All you would have to do to run an oil-burning steam loco on recycled vegetable oil is some relatively minor adjustments or parts changes to the burners and fuel feed system. It would, however, most likely be a lot more expensive than the heavy bunker oil normally used in steam locomotives.