Charlie Williams was an old ICC inspector who helped us with SP 3420 in El Paso. He retired about 1984 so he inspected 3420’s return to operation. In Discussions with him he said that he liked to see a locomotive hydro done with a hand pump. If you could get all of the air out of the boiler and maintain pressure with a hand pump that showed that the boiler was truly tight. High capacity or high pressure pumps can easily damage a boiler where a tight boiler and a hand pump with an observant pumper can be both very impressive and avoid unnecessarily high pressures. Remember water does not compress well so it does not take too much water to create a much higher pressure. A couple of hydros have gone wrong due to over pressurization.

Robby

Kelly,

We have two consolidated pop valves that the puller gagging method works just fine for obviously. However, I just want to clearify (forgive me if I sound a little crude here) that the threaded rod on the puller does actually insert into the hole in the top of the adjustment screw on the safety. It's a little hard to distinguish from your photo.

Thanks,
Brian

Also as a little side note I'd like to thank all who responded, your suggestions have been very helpful.

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To all that added to this thread, THANKS. I have been part of a local Museum for over 10 years. I have never learned as much about railroading there as I have at this web site. Todays lesson was great.