Afternoon service. Members of the steam crew at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum perform some afternoon maintenance on their locomotive, after the conclusion of the day's passenger runs. The two gentlemen pictured are using something similar to an Alemite Grease Gun to "shoot" the rod bearings on WP 165, before putting her away for the day.
Oil-fired locomotives, such as this one, are a fair bit noisier than coal-burners as they sit like this in the yard. In addition to the dynamo whine and air pump activity that folks are used to with coal-burners, these engines have an atomizer, which uses steam to break the oil stream up into small droplets, so they can burn more readily. That atomizer makes a continuous rumbling noise, which makes the fire sound like it is roaring, to an even greater degree than it is. And of course, these locomotives also have to have their blower running continuously, in order to create a draft and keep the fire hot. Blower essentially shoots a stream of steam up through the smoke box and up the stack, creating a low-pressure area around the front tube sheet, which puts a draft on the firebox and keeps oxygen flowing in from below. When the fire is extinguished on an oil-burner, things suddenly get very quiet.
