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Ed Perry

Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 5:52 pm
by sabin
Has anybody had contact with Ed Perry lately. I have left phone and text messages for about a month with no reply. [update on my boiler re-flue] He has always returned my calls in the past so I am wondering if there might be health issues.
Thanks, Jim Sabin

Re: Ed Perry

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2018 11:13 am
by NP317
I hope Ed is OK. He must be in his ?late 80s? by now?
16 years ago he made an excellent boiler for my Ten Wheeler. Even then I could never get any communications response from him.
Eventually (after months of silence), I got an email that the boiler was being shipped by a specific freight company.
Hopefully Ed is OK and simply doing his "normal" communications.
~RN

Re: Ed Perry

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2018 12:16 pm
by gwerhart0800
As a data point, Rich Ulin just got a new boiler from Ed a few weeks ago. It took longer than originally promised, but it was a bit complicated because it has a copper firebox, copper tubes, but the rest is steel. (Don't ask me why Rich wanted the copper firebox ... I don't really know why.)

Re: Ed Perry

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2018 12:50 pm
by Bill Shields
I cannot imagine any reason why a person would want a copper firebox in a steel boiler..especially when the copper probably cost more than my house, farm and all the equipment combined.

pictures of two full-size steel boilers with new 1" thick copper fireboxes being installed
copper firebox in steel boiler 2.jpg
copper firebox in steel boiler.jpg

Re: Ed Perry

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2018 7:28 pm
by BClemens
Any socialist country can afford a copper firebox; and a total copper boiler for that matter - why be cheap when spending other peoples money? The choice for steel for the outside shell is great though - there must have been an engineer involved somewhere in the craft.

Re: Ed Perry

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2018 8:41 pm
by James Powell
Strange that, the GWR did it, as did other UK railways...before they were nationalized. I seem to think the Standards have steel boxes, not copper...

(but it's not so important when you scrap a copper box to build a new one- the $ from the old one goes into the new one...not like with steel, where most of the material is gone...)

If it didn't make sense from a $ prospective, the UK companies likely wouldn't have done it. The higher new price probably mattered less than the small (but measurable) increase in lifetime n, and lowered overall costs.

Re: Ed Perry

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2018 9:30 pm
by Bill Shields
these boilers (pictures taken about 10 years ago) were all being built on donations

Re: Ed Perry

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2018 11:32 pm
by NP317
About 35 years ago I was in the UK on business. My host housed me near his home in Alton, south of London, and near the north end of the Blue Bell tourist steam line.
And of course he got me a Saturday morning ride on the steam train. It was pulled by a pair of Pacifics, with the A4 Mallard on the point!
We did NOT set s steam speed record that day.

Being the steam rebuilder I am, I met my host at the mid-line station and disembarked the train at their main shops.
I got us a tour of their facilities, from their Master Mechanic. There we toured a 50-ton (approx.) 0-6-0 that was getting a new copper firebox installed!
(Thread content, with respect to Mr. Perry.)
Fascinating to see so much copper!

It was an excellent day, and we finished our adventures at the local bar for the Bass Brewery, in Alton.
And that's an entirely different and interesting story...
~RN

Re: Ed Perry

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2018 8:31 am
by sabin
Funny how things go astray. For those who addressed my question, thank you. Sounds like it's normal dealings with Ed.
Jim

Re: Ed Perry

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2018 11:02 am
by NP317
sabin wrote: Thu Nov 15, 2018 8:31 am Funny how things go astray. For those who addressed my question, thank you. Sounds like it's normal dealings with Ed.
Jim
Jim:
Yes, I plead guilty.
Hopefully Ed Perry is doing his normal: Quietly, behind estimated schedule, and excellent.
Keep us informed, please.
~RN

Re: Ed Perry

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 12:09 pm
by Andy R
Yesterday I picked up a custom boiler from Ed Perry.
It will replace the 41-year-old boiler that was on my 7.5-in gauge mogul.
Ed also built and installed in the boiler a Gene Allen style dome throttle.
He is busy building other boilers.