1967 to 2023 seems suspicious that nobody fired it at least once?
It appears from the out side that it would only take one firing to garner at least one newspaper story.

Has anyone actually looked in it?

Isn’t there at least a chance that some body did something we we aren’t used to seeing? Bracing, or bars or some other long abandoned practice? The seems down the side could have been there just to weld the two halfs together after the welded something in side?


So I’ve seen some strange things done in the smaller live steam world.
And while the designs aren’t approved by an engineer, they are on prints that are being built all over the country. Many popular live steam plans make me more than a little nauseous that there is no failure tracking etc. and these things live on.

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Saga of Benson Mountain Debacle - LINK

The boiler shown was built for the Lahaina RR by Benson Mountain. I had 22 ASME Code violations on my list when I told the RR GM that there are only so many bullets you need to put in a dead horse. The Asst. Dir. of Inspections for the National Board verified my 22 and added 17 more. The ASME directed the AIA Kemper Ins. to locate all Code certified components manufactured by Benson Mountain and verify Code compliance, bring the vessels into compliance or remove the Code stamp. Eight vessels out of 26 had the stamps ground off. Several were on private property and the NB was not allowed access.




See the similarities between this and the GABCO boiler?
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I recently picked up for near nothing a questionable code boiler (I knew it was questionable), complete with the "traveler sheet" which shows all the signatures at various points in the construction of the boiler and the data report which I received from the NB and which is signed by a National Board authorized inspector.

In looking at the boiler the firebox measurements of height and width are reversed creating a boiler with very limited water flow around the crown sheet. What good is a NB "authorized inspector" and the NB data report if something so obvious was not caught by those who built it, by those who checked it out during construction, and then signed off on it in the end? The report shows clearly what the height and width should be - did the inspector even look at it? What good is any of this?

In the end, the boiler will be scrapped.

J.R. May

Mr. May,
Could you post the MDR and a few photos of your boiler? The National Board and ASME take non-compliance very seriously.