I visited Harrison Street on Saturday morning to see how the work on 261 is progressing. Much has been done, and much more remains to be done. Here's what's been done (since September 15th):

1. The exhaust system components have all been removed and set aside to allow removal of the tubes and flues.
2. Superheaters have been removed, numbered and stored.
3. Superheater header has been removed.
4. All but about 30 tubes are out of the locomotive.

The tender has been cleaned out. Below is a view one seldom sees, of the automatic stoker's auger

Yesterday, while I was there, they were in the process of removing the fireman's side handrail and stanchions. Electrical wiring for the Mars light, and the markers runs inside the handrail, so the wiring was first removed. In the second image below, Brent is disconnecting wiring to permit removal of the handrail. In the first image, Jon is on top of the boiler working on jacket removal. You can see the empty stanchion where the handrail has been removed.

200 2.25" boiler tubes in good condition are available. Well documented, used only two years. PM me if you have an interest.

Just curious, has anyone ever thought of cutting up excess stuff like this (the things nobody wants for use) and selling on trips? I'd imagine for example, a key chain made from a flue tube off a specific engine....

dumb question, if they only have two years use, why remove them?

thanks

Well, because some of the flues could not be relied on to stay tight for another two years until inspection time. Therefor, to make as sure as possible that nothing would go wrong, they were replaced.

And for the question on selling unusable locomotive parts, I have suggested this many times, but to a deaf ear. Nobody is interested, it seems.
Old staybolt caps, staybolt stubs, broken grate fingers, even burned out headlamp bulbs. Good souvenirs.

They did this with London & North Eastern Ry 4472 Flying Scotsman's tubes the last time they re-tubed her, back when she was in private-nonprofit-corporation hands, fashioning nice mounted keepsakes perhaps 8" long on wooden stands for display, priced at something like $100 apiece. Well, come on, it WAS from "the world's most famous steam locomotive," after all!!

The group that restored PRR 1361 in 1986-1987 cast a numbered, limited-edition group of belt buckles replicating the "1361" keystone number plate and the Altoona builders plate, made from brass from worn journal brasses. As I recall, they didn't sell all that well, even at a modest (for 1987 fundraising) $35 each or $60 a set. I still own the unnumbered prototype for the keystone one, and a numbered builders plate one.

I must confess that I'm looking over yet another railroadiana auction catalogue tonight, and after over 25 years of attending such auctions, it becomes hard to be anything short of a jaded cynic about such memorabilia. A staybolt from NKP 765 makes a nice conversation piece, but it's not the number plate or builders plate, or the nameplate in the case of a British loco!

I wonder if I still have that staybolt/rivet head from one of the steamers I worked on floating around in my junk boxes....... and by now, I have to wonder just what loco it came OFF of!!!!! (I'm thinking PRR 60 or W&W 98, but who knows by now, it could have been CP 2839, or 1361, or.......)

We have a bunch of flues and tubes from 2926 if anyone wants to buy... We can make key chains. :-)

Just for clarification, The flues that were replaced two years ago physically would have been good for several more years, but because the 15 year inspection was due, thay all had to come out so that the interior of the boiler could be inspected. These tubes could have new ends welded onto them and be reused, but the extra work is not worth the hassle. The diameter is pretty standard, so they could have the torched ends cut off and be reused in a shorter boiler. (These flues were just about 21' long when installed, so there would be a good 20' of usable flue left.)

We tried in the early years to sell old staybolt caps and short lengths of old flues, but there really wasn't a big enough market to justify the extra work, and in some ways it was counterproductive in that some people who bought those didn't buy any of the other items on sale that they normally would have purchased.

If anybody had or has a shorter boiler too retube, it is a good option too consider. It was common practice years ago. I saw the flues that came out of CN&W 1385 this last time. Flues still had varnish on them, they got tossed out for scrap. If I had a small 0-4-0 that needed tubes I sure would consider it.

Back in the late 60s or early 70s I helped a guy swage and install a used flue for the AO Smith crane at MC rr museum. I was in high school and thought this was pretty cool stuff. Still do. Back about the same time, I used too go to the old concrete EJ&E roundhouse in Waukegan, Ill, one of the guys who knocked around the yard told me about how he would weld new ends on old flues. Said it was real boring work, but they paid him too do it, so he did.

Shame too see these go too scrap, can't be too many miles on these flues.

Cheers, John.

We have found that there isn't much of a market for stuff taken off your restoration as keepsakes. We do very well with our china, silver and food products but most people can use them - we have quite a few people eating meals off of Erie or Lackawanna plates, drinking EL coffee and tea in their coffee cups.

We have been successful in naming sleeping car rooms, and dining car windows in exchange for a donation. A small brass plaque is not obtrusive and in fact new people ask what our next naming program will be.

[quote="Alexander D. Mitchell IV A staybolt from NKP 765 makes a nice conversation piece, but it's not the number plate or builders plate, or the nameplate in the case of a British loco!
quote]

Fewer of us can even recognise, let alone converse about this kind of junk, as time goes on.........and those of us that can already have our own collections of rusty iron. Let's find opportunities to market things with mass appeal.

dave

Do you have the original material certifications for those flues? Not much point explaining to your friendly boiler inspector where the "mystery flues" came from (especially for applications outside of the FRA bounded railroad universe).

If you have the certs, you might want to let the steam traction community know about the flues as well.

Michael Seitz
Missoula MT

As Mike Bailey alluded to, all the documentation is there. Anyone who has a serious interest in these tubes can have all this information. It only takes a phone call to get started.
Mark D.