The Home Machinist!

Very nice!

Interesting results Steve, looks plenty accurate for a live steam locomotive!

What I think we might be seeing here is the tubes were originally welded to the tubesheet however as suggested above the weld did not properly penetrate. Over the years as the boiler was heated and cooled and the metal contracted and expanded the tubes/welds have basically pulled away from the tubes...

Hard to tell but I had the same thought as Bill S. - it does appear that the firebox side of the tubes are welded.

The members of WLS have plenty of pictures of the Norfolk street location. Are you a member of WLS? If not you should become one, live steam clubs need all of the support that they can get these days since it is expensive to maintain facilities and pay for insurance. Not a member, but when I get my...

The members of WLS have plenty of pictures of the Norfolk street location.

Are you a member of WLS?

If not you should become one, live steam clubs need all of the support that they can get these days since it is expensive to maintain facilities and pay for insurance.

Interesting discussions, some of these things I had not thought of. I had assumed it was something to do with grate area vs. smokebox area in order for these engines to draft correctly.

I have noticed that some of the most modern steam locomotives built (such as the Reading T-1, FEF-3, Big Boy, etc.) all have long smokeboxes in relation to their boiler length, especially when you compare them to some Atlantics and earlier engines which seem to have very short smokeboxes. Can anyone...

You could always install a round "block" with bushing as you suggested and if it wears then you could swap it out for a traditional square one.

At some point all locomotives will wear in places and need some level of overhauling in the shops.

If the boiler is old and the tubes are weak from corrosion you can actually puncture right through them with a brush/rod.

Would it be possible to make a wooden form in multiple peices, with one "key peice" you can pull out and have the whole thing collapse in and come out in peices? If you had a couple of references, you could remove it for annealing and re-install. I havent done anything similar myself, but may be an...

Excellent pattern work Jesse! Are the steam passages cored as well?