Interesting! I'm glad he escaped without injury! Dr. D, I can't thank you enough for sharing these stories about your days with the PM 1225, I love comming across them in the forum. They are truly captivating and inspireing for someone who dreams of restoring a steam locomotive like me!
Doing the hammer thing is still done on boilers. I inspect them for insurance purposes and on a rare occasion when broken staybolts are suspected, tap with the hammer and listen for the "ping" or the "thunk" Haven't had to do it years, though. I've seen in both England and Germany on excursions where the local fire department sends a water truck. In Florence, Italy in 2004 the water columns and water tower were still there and they were in several other stations in Italy. I suppose for excursion purposes as there was a 2-6-2 sitting outside the station that obviously wasn't a derelict.
Railroad steam locomotive maintaince and repair had a couple of other odd practices beside the use of the garden hose.
Inspection of the firebox for leaking stay bolts was often done while the engine was hot and with steam. At the end of the run the fire would be dropped and ashes shaken out then planks thrown onto the firebox grates. A workman in asbestos suit would climb into the hot firebox and mark any leaking staybolts with chalk.
It was also common for boiler inspections to be done when cold and drained by removing the steam dome access and a small man would enter the boiler from the top near the dry pipe and climb around inside for inspection.
Working of PM 1225 back in the 1980's we were using a small crane to install one of the locmotive pumps on the front of the locomotive. A local railroad diesel engineer was helping us and he was standing on the locomotive in such a way as to guide the pump into position on its attaching bracket. For some reason the part shifted and fell against the locomotive. Lucky for him, he had moved to another position because he could have been injured. He wasn't happy about that. Steam locomotives were human labor intensive machines and were repaired by many hand tools and assorted hammers and large wrenches mostly hand turned by men. It was a proud workman who at retirement could hold up all ten fingers and have the sight of both eyes. There was no such thing as OHSA and the government was not involved in safety practices in the workplace as it is today.
I always amazed me how they often tested for weak and broken parts on a steam locomotive with the use of a thin handled "testing hammer." The inspector would go over the locomotive tapping the various parts with this hammer listening to the sound of the hammer ringing.
Can't remember the last time my automotive mechanic took out his hammer and started tapping stuff on my car engine!
As a former volunteer working on Pere Marquette engine 1225, years ago, when we hydro tested the boiler we had to hook up to the city water and fill the boiler with some 11,000 gallons. Like filling a swimming pool it took a while. Often the City of Owosso, MI would donate the water. Occasionally in steam locomotive excursion service you will see the local fire department fill an engine tank. I guess I really got to appreciate what a trackside railroad water tank or station plug could deliver.
Dr. D
Well, simpler than I expected... I guess I shouldn't be close minded to there being ohter openings on the boiler.
Attach an oversized garden hose to it and open the tap.
They could also use steam from the roundhouse boiler or an adjacent locomotive to run a steam pump or injector.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Steam pressure is used to force water into the boiler, but how is it filled when it is sitting cold?
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