A Firefighter’s Steamer

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It was during this time I noticed issues with some of the flues. Some just didn’t feel right as I worked the flue brush in and out of them. I made an air pressure tool and found a number of the flues had holes. It seemed only right that I was going to get some hands-on experience at replacing flues as well. I figured modern boilers had flues, so a look in the Yellow Pages turned up a local shop that said they would take a look. When the repairman showed up he was all smiles, and said compared to swimming pool boilers and the like, this job looked like fun. With that kind of attitude, he was hired.

We had to measure and special order the correct flue tubing. This took a week or so and during that time I removed the old tubes. Since I didn’t have a tubing cutter, I carefully used a die grinder and removed the bead. I then slid the tubes out. Having some of them removed sure made it a lot easier to get to the remaining scale inside the boiler, so it was back to vacuuming.

Once the tubing arrived the repairman returned and in no time the new tubes were fixed in place. It was about then when the parts from D&H arrived and I was ready to begin the real heart of the restoration.

Rebuild

With so many of the parts coming back rebuilt by Corky, it would be easy to think that by installing them the job would be complete. Unfortunately, these parts were only a fraction of the total project. Some parts were simply missing, like the handles to the smokebox door. Others such as the step frames were broken and beyond repair. It was through Emanuel King at the Cattail Foundry that replacements were sourced. He cast perfect replicas for most of the small iron parts I needed, but there were other problems.

Fifty years of sitting outside had a predictable effect on bearings and axle shafts, so all of the rotating parts had to be removed and cleaned. When you consider that some of the parts aren’t supposed to come apart easily, such as the flywheel to crankshaft, trying to make them come apart was an exasperating experience. The parts are big and unwieldy. Too much force or heat would damage them irreparably. I spent hours and weeks trying to get them apart, sometimes measuring a day’s work in minute amounts of movement. But patience and perseverance prevailed, and eventually the rear wheels were off the axle, the countershaft and pinions gears were removed, the giant differential gear was on the floor, the flywheel and clutch assembly were removed, and the intermediate gear was set aside.

Removing the parts was only half the battle. Seeing all those parts and making them fit was sort of the low point in the restoration process. But it was winter and with plenty of long nights I reworked the pieces in my own shop. Over the next couple of months all the rebuilt parts were reinstalled.

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