This may be of some help to those of you that would like to see what your staybolts look like between the sheets. I went to Radio Shack and purchased a security camera. It was on sale for $70. It is in a 2"x2"x1.25" plastic case with 60 feet of wire which plugs into a VCR. I bored a hole in the front of the case and installed a penlight bulb which connects to a double wire that I taped to the TV wire and hooked to a battery. I could then get into the boiler and let the camera slide down between the rows of staybolts. We used a small TV to watch what the camera was seeing. The Camera has sound so we could count down the rows and tell the location of any bolt that we didn't like or thought we wanted to change. It is all recorded on tape so we can go back and look at it and locate the bolts later. It will come in handy for other tasks where you can't get your head in to see.

JCG

johncgra@locl.net

I believe something similar to this already exists in the plumbing industry. Its called a bore scope, and they use it to view the interior of piping. This would seem to be very useful in viewing the inside of boilers or any other hard to see spot.

Brian Hebert


Conway Scenic Railroad
btamper@hotmail.com