Tubes out and first internal inspection

Has been done by Dave Dick and Jack and no doubt many others in the crew.

Dave reports that the inside of the barrel looks very good, with no erosion of the braces, plate and rivet heads evident. The knuckle of the rear tube sheet has some old welded repairs on it, which will need to be checked out and repaired if necessary. The Baldwin Expansion Stays on the crown appear to be in very good condition, as is what is available to see of the side stays......but there's old red mud scale on the internal surfaces, so some cleaning needs to be done before the condition of the firebox in particular can be proven. The front tube sheet has a small eroded area in the usual place, bottom on the smokebox side.....but the ultrasound measurement in the eroded area shows plenty of remaining metal, enough to provide some margin if we left it alone, but it's a very sensible plan to make some pad welded repairs to it to bring it back to like-new spec while the boiler is torn down for long life in the future. The drypipe has some grooving where the U Bolt held the throttle body on, more measurements and calculations need to be performed here.

The current plan from the guys on site is to remove the boiler from the frame and transport it to a boiler repair shop. This will leave the frame and running gear very easily accessable for tramming and overhaul.

Very good news - we know the bottom of the side sheets and door and rear tube sheets have had the usual patching over the decades done, so while we can anticipate a likelihood of some repair probable to the stayed surfaces, the heavy parts of the boiler appear to be in very good condition indeed. I'd prefer to see us invest in any firebox repairs that seem likely to be needed in the forseable future now, so it won't have to be done later when the boiler is back in the frame and many of the side stays in inaccessable position behind the frames.

Dave