Smokebox Design: Anyone Else Seen This Method?

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

On the Tea-room / “… Today” I posted a photo of my 7-1/4″ g. loco with its smokebox off and superheater partially withdrawn, to cure a leaking header.

What I discovered, not previously known though I’d helped build the loco originally with no superheater, was that the chap who fitted the superheater much later had modified the smokebox for easier servicing.

He had cut the original slot around the live-steam and exhaust pipes, right back through the rear rim of the drum. So support the boiler, chisel out the fire-clay type sealant and a thin “tin” cover, remove the external screws from the saddle, then just slide the smokebox forwards and off. All without disturbing any of the plumbing*!

 

Martin Evans, in his Manual of Model Steam Locomotive Construction, tells us some constructors split the box along its centre-line and butt-join the two halves with internal cover-plates and discreet screws. Otherwise you need try to manipulate tools and parts with 12-inch scale hands inside an 1/8  or smaller scale drum… I’m told bottling ships does not entail oily soot and rusted nuts.

Now, I am sure I know who carried out the modification, a few years before I acquired the engine, but not sure about crediting him on an Internet forum! (Nor, come to that, the boiler’s designer.)

 

Besides my etiquette and security worry though, I wonder if he had devised this modification himself?

Or has he used an idea from other designs not known to me?

 

+++++

* Here, the “plumbing” is all from the tubeplate and smokebox saddle. Disconnecting externals such as an ejector exhaust or hand-rails, is taken as read.

[Author]

Posts