An Old Boiler

Occasional Special No. 3. Part C


Hello Chums

In my previous postington, I mentioned the frontplate, often called the 'throatplate', of the outer firebox seen in the picturingham had been removed. I thought it might be useful to see a boiler with the throatplate in place:-





You can see the heads of the stays securing the outer firebox's throatplate to the inner firebox. We saw the holes for these stays in the lower part of the inner firebox in the previous postington.

This picturingham also shows, as far as my coarse photography permits, the rivets for the foundation ring - lots 'N' lots of them, closely spaced. Running in a vertical direction at the front corner are the rivets holding the throatplate of the outer firebox to the wrapper plate [the 'side plate', if you like].

Hopefully the picturingham gives you an idea of how the inner firebox fits inside the outer firebox.

***

At the front end of the boiler is the tubeplate, which separates the boiler from the smokebox. It is rivetted in place and has the maximum working pressure of the boiler on one side and, when the engine is working, smokebox vacuum on the other. Here's what it looks like - please excuse the gravel!





This is from a saturated locomotive - if it was superheated there would be larger diameter holes for the flues as well as the holes for the boiler tubes. The large hole is for the steam pipe from the steam dome to the cylinders.

Next, we'll have think about stays. No tittering at the back, please. Not the stays on a lovely lady's corset - the stays stopping the inner firebox from bulging out all over the place. Come to think of it their jobs are similar.

To be continued...

I wish to acknowledge the especially kind assistance given to me by @Hailstone and @chrism in the preparation of this postington.


'N' Gauge is Such Fun!

Many thanks for looking and all best wishes.

Tickety-tonk

John

Early 80s designs in the 1/160 range would be much appreciated! 

Not on your list but the CAI Red and Cosco blue high cubes from your 1/160 range would be good additions as see them a lot on modern trains

HC do not appeal to me as they did not exist in the 80s/90s. MSC sand has already been done. Something different would be ideal.

OCL blue
Nedlloyd grey
GOLD brown
Cti red
BEN grey
ACT white
Matson red
Triton brown
Original Suttons would be nice too.

Tim

Quote from: Newportnobby on April 23, 2026, 01:44:31 PMThe maroon is somewhat dark and the lettering is a little faded

You can say that about most of us! Glad the chassis fitted!
Bob

In my defence, it was on offer and you can't have too many NDVs/BGs if you're modelling a parcels terminal...

Meanwhile, I had a Farish ref 4101 maroon BG with a busted chassis and my appeal for one resulted in @Bob G stepping up to the plate and sending one c/w bogies and wheels. It was received today and I've replaced the pizza cutter wheels with more modern ones (379-412) which is an easy way of improving the looks. The maroon is somewhat dark and the lettering is a little faded but it's back in revenue earning traffic so big thanks to Bob

A model of DoG would be unusual so, if you can repair the damage, I'd like to see the finished article

Well, here's a pleasant surprise.

Taking another break from the (characteristically slow) layout build, I've decided to reduce the number of locos in the 'To Be Repaired' box. I have 3 Minitrix Britannias which I don't think need much attention apart from a good clean, so I thought I'd start with those. I have Boadicea, John of Gaunt, which I renamed and numbered myself, and Firth of Forth which I bought at a show with the intention of bringing it back south of the border and renaming Hereward the Wake. But what's this?

  A fourth, reliveried as 71000 Duke of Gloucester! I have absolutely no recollection of acquiring this, and I certainly didn't convert it myself. Unfortunately, it has been in the wars a bit. Someone has cut the cab roof off for some unfathomable reason, and it is missing the chimney and one smoke deflector.. I've acquired some Midland carriages and it would be ideal to haul those, so I would like to repair it and keep it as it is but it may be too much effort. I knew very little about the prototype until I looked up the restoration website. I did know that it haunted the WCML, so I don't expect I even 'copped' it when I were a spotter. DoG nameplates are available from the NGS and I think I have a spare smoke deflector somewhere but I may just bin the body and use the chassis for another project which has been in cold storage for 30+ years...

Something may appear on my workbench thread at some indeterminate date in the future.

Cheers,

Chris

Excellent, as always, John. Thanks for posting!