oil firing

oil firing (uncountable)

1. The burning of oil in a furnace to provide heat, or in a firebox to generate steam in a boiler.
   • 1945 November and December, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 330:

     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.

   • 1961 February, Cecil J. Allen, “Salute to the "Claud Hamiltons" & "Directors"”, in Trains Illustrated, page 115:

     Oil-firing was now becoming more expensive than coal and no more "Claud Hamiltons" were so fitted after No 1859; the apparatus was gradually removed from the engines so equipped, [...].

• oil-fired

• “oil firing”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.