I'm emailing from New Zealand. We operate a heritage railway in NZ, and have a selection of locomotives, 2 built in the UK, 2 in the USA,
and 2 in New Zealand.

Our club website is at : http://btc.powerlink.co.nz/index.htm

We have a 1923 Peckett Locomotive, No. 1630. We are looking for some operating experience with this type of locomotive, specifically,
copper fireboxes, with steel stays, and brass tubes.

We have found a firebox crown stay that has corroded severely. The stay has corroded where it passes through the copper firebox. The
crown stays are bolts, which screw into a girder in the steam space. We have received advise from a chemist who suggests that corrosion
around this area is not unexpected, given the proximity to the dissimilar metal interface, and the fact that the bolts are in tension.

Given the design (bolts into a girder) we are now wondering if the bolts are designed to be removed and inspected periodically, and
replaced when they show signs of corrosion.

Does anyone have experience with this, or seen similar occurences of galvanic corrosion.

If you have anyone with this type of experience, or could point me in the right direction, I would be very grateful.

Thanks for your help with this.



chris.mann@xtra.co.nz

Chris;

Hey, I have been on your railway! I went looking for heislers, and found yours out of service (along with trucks of another?)

I would suggest that you get in touch with british locomotive people, as (as far as I know) no North American locomotives had copper fireboxes.

Email off-line, and I'll put you in touch with a neighbour who goes to work on the Bluebell Railway in England. Chances are, he'd know who to contact.

John Stewart
Ottawa, Canada.
john.stewart@crc.ca

> Does anyone have experience with this, or
> seen similar occurences of galvanic
> corrosion.



john.stewart@crc.ca

While I don't know of any locomotives built like this in the US, a similar one has operated in the States on and off for decades now. The New Jersey Museum of Transportation (NOT the same as the New Jersey State Transportation Museum, as yet to be built) has operated a locomotive which I believe is of similar design. Its an old Irish engine, a 4-4-0 named the "Lady Edith" which was constructed sometime in the 1880's and operates on three foot gauge track. This is about as far as my knowledge extends.

The museum operates the "Pine Creek Railroad", a 3/4 mile loop arrangement, it is located in Farmingdale, NJ and operates on the grounds of Allaire State Park. I was able to find the following address,

www.juno.com/crawsat/pinecreekrr.html

Contacting them might prove useful.

Dave Crosby

pine creek rr
bing@epix.net

I believe this is a common design for industrial German boilers, such as Henschels and O&Ks.

ni_kd@telerama.com