We've built whole new locomotives since the '50s, not to mention boilers......

and we tend to forget how common replacing a firebox was when there were thousands of them out there wearing themselves out. It was much more difficult then even though more common. Our modern fabrication and metal forming techniques far surpass heat it, beat it and rivet it together.

dave

I daresay that most railroad shops (not the short lines but the many Class One roads) in the 20s-30s-40s were not "heatin' & beatin" for major firebox replacement/repair, but were using flangers and usually had a batch of sheets made up for stock by class of locomotive.

That heat & beat technique has become more prevalent now in that many places do not have a flanger (or the very important dies for same) and it is comparatively easy to make one or two sheets this way. Most places nowadays have only one loco of a given type, so each sheet/patch/repair section is a "one-off".

There seemed to be a lot of steam locomotives parked in the 80s-90s due to the need for extensive firebox work or even total replacement. That's expensive and not too commonplace these days. Our CPR 1246 is one of them-- set aside by Steamtown in 1986 for just that reason.

The firebox of another surviving B&M steam locomotive (2-6-0 #1455) is also in tough shape; it seemed that at the end of steam, B&M simply patched over problens to get another month or another quarter out of an engine. What difference did it make? They were going to cut the things up for scrap in a few months anyway, right?

Howard P.

Mr. Crosby,

The staybolt spacing as designed was/is just fine. The issue regarding staybolts that you are recalling has to do with the use of large alco sleeves for crown stays and the resulting deficiency in the chain strength calculation for the roof sheet resulting from the size of the holes and a liner that does not engineer out. All has ben engineered.... Problemed design corrected!

Cheers, Jason

That's it, the crown stays. It's been a couple years since it was explained to me. Tell Trevor to keep those pictures coming!