Quote from: Train Waiting on April 21, 2026, 10:19:15 AMThe video features Eddie, a native of these parts, pronouncing 'Gateshead':-

Fascinating stuff.

With all good wishes.

John

Well John - sitting here, far away, that video made just me feel a bit sad. Albeit meself was born on the other side of The River, me Dad was born in The Felling and brought up in Blaydon and branches of our family go back a long way round Felling and Gateshead....

Gateshead was a thriving town - had its department store ( Shephards of Gateshead, one to rival Fenwicks in its day ) - that land now occupied by, rant, Tesco. And don't get me onto to that, double rant, Metro Centre....

My paternal Grandma shopped there at Shephards as did many of her cohort. It all reminds me of of what "the planners" did to Blaydon - another victim of 60's concrete - they wrecked an architecturally fine town that I remember as a child. Yes a lot of the terraced housing had to go, it was unfit,  but not the town centre. For Blaydon they built a precinct - which they ended up knocking down and replacing with another which is still no replacement. And now - blink and you would miss the place as you drive by. I could really start to "super rant" if I am not careful...

Anyway - at least there is good news in that that Gateshead viaduct is coming down... what goes around comes around.

And at least Blaydon still has a library where Garibaldi's head is preserved ... look it up... and i am in a good Blaydon & Winlaton FB group full of history of the town that was once the terminus of 18th century Lead Road amongst its many other things of historical significance,

With all good wishes,

Colin.

BTW - and indeed "hud" - but there are those parts in the North East, or were because of the continuous levelling,  who would say "heed" ... an then there would be Pitmatic pronunciation or two as well...

Ah, Shephards of Gateshead. Used to love going there, cos they had a sliding door which opened and closed by itself.

Also used often to make a trip to Felling baths as a teenager. That was brand new state of the art back then!

An Old Boiler

Occasional Special No. 3. Part A


Hello Chums

When I wrote the postingtons about boilers for the remarkably brief mini-series, I was aware that I was describing parts of a boiler without being able to provide an accompanying picturingham. A recent visit to the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway provided an opportunity to take some coarse photographs of a boiler from, I understand, a Hunslet 'Austerity' 0-6-0ST, which might be of interest.

Before we continue, my greetings and thanks to the wonderful people at Haverthwaite who seem to be intensely relaxed at a coarse modeller peering at the innards of their precious locomotives.





The picturingham shows the outer firebox and the part of the boiler which protrudes into the cab. Called a backplate, faceplate or backhead, according to whom one is speaking.

The firehole is obvious. As are the mounting pads for various fittings such as the gauge glasses. The profusion of dome-shaped thingamajigs are the stay heads.

At the side of the outer firebox you can see one of the flanges which hold the rear of the boiler in place on the frames whilst allowing it to slide back and forward, due to expansion and contraction as it heats up and cools down.

The front of the boiler is fixed firmly to the frames, which permits the fitting of the steam pipes to the inside cylinders and their exhaust to the blastpipe without worrying about movement.

Finally, even through the mirk of my coarse photography, the welded insert repair to the outer firebox can be seen. A corroded or cracked piece has been cut out and a new steel section welded in. Careful work and diligent testing is required for boiler repairs as we are looking at a pressure vessel - in other words, a potential bomb.

To be continued...


'N' Gauge is Such Fun!

Many thanks for looking and all best wishes.

Cheerie-bye

John

An Old Boiler

Occasional Special No. 3. Part B


Hello Chums

I know, I know! I shamelessly 'plugged' this 'Occasional Special' as having interesting stuff about locomotive boilers and all I've shown you is a picturingham of the firebox end of a boiler with the cladding removed. Nothing new about that - every steam railway enthusiast and her pet poodle will have seen one of these, either in the metal or in an illustration in a book or magazine. You'll be saying, "Pull your socks up, laddie, and show us something new."

After taking the course photograph seen in Part A, I shimmied [wobbled on crutches, more like] to the other end of the boiler and took another coarse photograph. "Not yet another picturingham of a smokebox," I expect you are saying. Not quite:-





You see, the boiler has been partly dismantled and this gives us an opporchancity to examine parts normally only seen by a boilersmith.

We have already discussed how, since Robert Stephenson's time, a locomotive boiler has an inner and outer firebox and a series of tubes. The tubes are absent, but you can see the holes in the inner firebox into which they fit. That's the bigger holes. The smaller ones towards the bottom are for the stays that hold the inner firebox to the frontplate of the outer firebox. This has been removed.

You can see the water space between the sides of the inner and outer fireboxes - possibly narrower than you expected.

The thick piece of metal, with lots 'N' lots of holes, at the bottom is called the 'Foundation Ring'. Certainly, it's the foundation of a boiler, but it is a bit of a stretch to call it a ring. More a rectangle with rounded corners. The inner and outer fireboxes are rivetted together through the holes in the foundation ring.

There's more to see, of course, but, for that, we'll look at another coarse photogarph in Part C.

To be continued...


'N' Gauge is Such Fun!

Many thanks for looking and all best wishes.

Pip-pip

John

Excellent, as always, John. Thanks for posting!

An Old Boiler

Occasional Special No. 3. Part C


Hello Chums

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





You can see the heads of the stays securing the outer firebox's frontplate 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 frontplate of the outer firebox to the wrapper plate [the 'side plate', if you like].

Right-o, lets have a butcher's hook at the part of the frontplate we cannot see in the picturingham:-





Sorry about the gravel! This is the frontplate of the outer firebox, with its bottom part cut off. This is rivetted to the boiler shell and the outer firebox's wrapper plate as mentioned ante - the smallest diameter holes, arranged in circular patterns, are for the rivets. The big hole is for the regulator rod, passing from the regulator handle on the faceplate to the regulator valve in the dome.

You can see the holes for the tubes - the top row of nine matches the top row in the inner firebox, seen in a previous picturingham. This is the boiler from a saturated engine, if it was fitted with a superheater there would also be larger diameter holes for the flues.

Hopefully the picturinghams give you an idea of how the inner firebox fits inside the outer firebox.

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...


'N' Gauge is Such Fun!

Many thanks for looking and all best wishes.

Tickety-tonk

John

When I first glanced at that second picture, it reminded me of the toilet on the second floor of the three story terraced house in Stockton-on-Tees I lived in back in 1972....

Nuff said!!!

Quote from: Bealman on Today at 10:01:22 AMWhen I first glanced at that second picture, it reminded me of the toilet on the second floor of the three story terraced house in Stockton-on-Tees I lived in back in 1972....

Nuff said!!!

Then I shall be forever grateful that I didn't find myself on the first floor of said dwelling hoose in SuperbStockton!

All the best, George.

John

Quote from: Train Waiting on Today at 09:38:40 AMAn Old Boiler

Occasional Special No. 3. Part C


Hello Chums

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





You can see the heads of the stays securing the outer firebox's frontplate 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 frontplate of the outer firebox to the wrapper plate [the 'side plate', if you like].

Right-o, lets have a butcher's hook at the part of the frontplate we cannot see in the picturingham:-





Sorry about the gravel! This is the frontplate of the outer firebox, with its bottom part cut off. This is rivetted to the boiler shell and the outer firebox's wrapper plate as mentioned ante - the smallest diameter holes, arranged in circular patterns, are for the rivets. The big hole is for the regulator rod, passing from the regulator handle on the faceplate to the regulator valve in the dome.

You can see the holes for the tubes - the top row of nine matches the top row in the inner firebox, seen in a previous picturingham. This is the boiler from a saturated engine, if it was fitted with a superheater there would also be larger diameter holes for the flues.

Hopefully the picturinghams give you an idea of how the inner firebox fits inside the outer firebox.

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...


'N' Gauge is Such Fun!

Many thanks for looking and all best wishes.

Tickety-tonk

John

Sorry John, but that is the smokebox tube plate the large hole is indeed from the dome, but will lead to a spliiter casting to from which the main steam pipes will lead down to the cylinder block. the nine holes just below it are where the longitudinal stays go. the ring of holes around the edge are where it will be riveted to the boiler and the outer set of holes will attach it to the smokebox. the detritus covering part of the plate has obscured some of the rivet holes.

regards,

Alex

Thank you, chaps. That's very helpful. I thought all the smokebox and tubeplate parts were elsewhere in another pile. I thought wrong!

The outer firebox frontplate (or throatplate as Chris kindly mentioned) must have been moved away.

Thanks again.

John