View allAll Photos Tagged firebox
Coming and going shots of Union Pacific 3985 with a customer special on the Falls City Sub. Issues within the firebox resulted in the pin being pulled on 3985 at Falls City and she was towed back to Cheyenne for evaluation and repairs.
12-6-1992
The Firebox of No 4 Doll taken at 7am this morning having cleaned the boiler tubes and then cleaned the grate. We then steamed her up for 5 round trips of Santa Specials on the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway. The days starts and ends on shed in the dark with some daylight in between!
Nearly finished the first A4 now and I’m really pleased with how it’s going. I’ve solved a lot of the problems with gaps around the firebox and have found a good solution to covering the top of the rear driving wheel set. Do excuse the poor quality sticker on the cab, I’m trying some different sticker papers to print the numbers for the cab and BR crests on the tender. I may also print out an image of the speed record plaque SNG carries on its side as I think it’s an important detail on the engine.
It’s been a wee while but I eventually got out to make a photo. This was my second attempt at an early start this week the first time on Tuesday I just got to the coast and turned around again. This morning with a bit brightness I got my self down into a little cove at high tide and tried to work a composition. With only a tiny bit of shoreline to play with and a heavy swell pushing waves into the cove I got a good soaking with the sea breaching my wellies and soaking my trousers. Many of my photos were much the same as I’ve taken time and time again but I feel this one is a bit different.
Earlier Sunday morning and engine prep is well underway at 09.06. I had used one of the barrows to take away the huge pile of clinker that came out of BR Standard 2 2-6-0 78019's firebox before lighting up.
Grab shot as JS 8167 backed its empty train.
A JS isn't exactly pretty, and the Sandaoling mine was't bothered about external appearance, but these were purposeful machines that did their job effectively. In fact, I prefer their looks to the SY 2-8-2.
The boiler looks long and thin but a lot of it is firebox. Note the pony truck wheels are smaller than those of the trailing truck. And that profusion of fittings and pipes; George Jackson Churchward (and his successors) would have been horrified.
Xinjiang province, China.
The fireman of JS 8190 thins a can of oil by warming it on a few coals from the firebox. The ambient temperature would be in the region of -20 which reduces the ability of the oil to flow freely. Heating it will increase the viscosity and allow the oil wells of the JS to be topped up during the early morning crew change at Dongbolizhan depot in NW China.
After 4 years and 3 major rebuilds. The Duchess is cosmetically finished (apart from a dab of brass paint on the walchetts). A letter to Santa this Christmas for a PFX brick should have it up and running with sounds/lights and smoke billowing. I will try and get a better pictures at weekend as this doesn't do it justice (plus straighten bricks and stickers).
I know this will not be to everyones taste and I know this has stickers as shape and 3d parts but I enjoy designing them.
LEGO highlights:-
Front buffer - transition from 7 to 8 studs plus hook chain protector.
Firebox sloping
Trailing truck.
Occasionally when scanning my archive photographs from the 1970/80s I get a big surprise. For the vast majority of my collection I can remember at least the day in question and for most I can remember actually taking the photograph. If you had asked me a few days ago if I had ever seen the Great Northern Railway Stirling Single No.1 outside of York Museum I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles I had not. However here is prove that I have and not only have I seen it outside of York Museum but had actually photographed it. Similarly if you had asked me if it had visited the Great Central Railway at Loughborough I would have said “no way”, however here it is in the shed yard at Loughborough, 31st May 1982.
Locomotive History
Great Northern Railway 4-2-2 No 1 was designed by Patrick Stirling and built at Doncaster Works in 1870. The locomotive formed the prototype for a series of similar engines and a further fifty two locomotives were built at Doncaster Works in three batches between 1870 and 1895. Each batch showed slight detail differences and improvements as Stirling gradually perfected the design. Some later improvements were applied retrospectively to the earlier engines, for example a larger firebox. The class was designed for high speed express duties between York and London. With the arrival of the Ivatt Atlantics from 1898 onwards, the class began to be displaced from the most prestigious express services and withdrawals of the 1870 series began in 1899 with No.1 being condemned in 1907. The last examples of the class were in use on secondary services until 1916.
Canon AT1, Kodachrome 64
One year after the previous upload and the coaches had all been painted into Spoornet livery. Class 26 no 3450 leaving the Orange River service stop on 13 December 1991 with the southbound Orange Express to Cape Town.
That weak exhaust meant her single stage gas producer firebox was working perfectly. The gases above the firebed are combusted by the induction of air through holes in the sides of the firebox walls. Smoke is a result of unburnt coal being ejected out of the chimney.
Northern Cape, South Africa
My sister Jan and I took advantage of the chance to photograph the Mayflower on her excursion from Southend On Sea Essex to Winchester Hampshire this morning.
Unfortunately the weather turned dull overcast with misty rain, but that did not put off a lot of railway and photography enthusiasts scattered all along her route.
About Steam Locomotive Mayflower:-
Built for the London & North Eastern Railway 61306 Mayflower is one of two surviving B1 Class locomotives.
The B1's were designed as mixed traffic locomotives capable of hauling express passenger trains as well as freight traffic. As powerful, go anywhere engines, the B1's worked across most of the UK rail network from East Anglia to Scotland.
Mayflower was built in 1948 by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow but was delivered post-nationalisation and acquired the number 61306 by British Railways. She was first allocated to Hull Botanic Gardens Depot followed by a spell at Hull Dairycotes Depot before being finally transferred to Low Moor Depot, Bradford. She was the last B1 in service, her final trip was hauling the 'Yorkshire Pullman' from Leeds in September 1967.
Mayflower was immediately purchased for preservation and was initially based at Steamtown in Carnforth. She was acquired by the Boden family in 1978 and has always been kept in 'exhibition' condition. Under new ownership Mayflower will be operating on the main line for the first time in over twenty years. She carries the early British Railways apple green livery as she was originally given when delivered in 1948.
Mayflower has two cylinders, 6 driving wheels, a firebox grate area of 30 square feet and can operate at 75mph.
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Here's another shot from the beautiful interior of the Lake McDonald Lodge at Glacier National Park. I posted one taken on the second floor of the lodge's open great room, from right behind the moose head seen in the middle, bottom of today's image a few weeks ago - check it out when you're done with today's post!
The lodge has three floors, each of which has an open railing overlooking the fireplace and hanging lanterns in the center of the great room. With its real timber construction, the lodge's floors are massive, yet still give a satisfying creak when walked upon. Near the top of the space, the smoke from the fire was a wonderful perfume, befitting the rustic space. I snapped away this pic as one of the folks who ran the place put an enormous log on the fire - you can't see it from this picture but the hearth and its firebox are big enough to walk right into and stand inside.
Simon & Al were on British Railways Standard pacific 70013 Oliver Cromwell at platform 1 waiting to go back on shed after their afternoon turn. It's 10 past 6 in the evening so dark at this time of year. When they get on shed Simon has the disposal to look forward to. Cleaning the fire in that huge firebox with the heavy fire-irons is not for the faint-hearted.
Life on the footplate of a UK steam train was a blend of exhilaration, challenge, and camaraderie. From the moment the fire was lit in the belly of the locomotive, the driver embarked on a journey both physical and mental.
The rhythmic chugging of the engine, the billowing clouds of steam, and the ceaseless click-clack of the tracks became the soundtrack of their days.
From bustling cities to serene countryside. The scorching heat from the firebox and the constant vigilance required to ensure safety demanded resilience and skill.
Life on the footplate was more than a profession; it was a way of life, defined by a passion for the rails and a determination to keep the wheels turning.
West Somerset Railway, Bishops Lydeard Station, Station Rd, Bishops Lydeard, Somerset, England.
Inside the cab of Western Maryland 1309. Heart of the beast with a little window inside.
However, after riding in the cab of this engine, returning to it feels like coming home. A warm welcoming feeling that just isn't from the firebox itself, which also did help escape the January winter cold, but a familiar place as the memories came back of my enjoyable roundtrip back in the summer of 2025.
I'm happy that the WMSR continues to offer cab rides on 1309, it is an amazing experience. There is no lunch service or bathroom access compared to the coaches, its dirty, loud, hot, and bumpy and all the while the best damn experience on the whole train. You're placed in the operation room of a bygone era that now is secluded to small specific regions of the US and various other tourist railroads scattered around the world. To see this engine where it once was at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore was amazing to my young mind, seeing what once was a powerful giant, but to ride in the cab of this machine is purely amazing!
If you, the humble reader, are offered, by the crew, into the cab or even to ride along, do not hesitate. Climb up into that cab!
*This image was taken on private property with permission from the crew! Please do not trespass!*
On the outbound journey the guard had extracted fifty rupees with the promise of a chicken, it would be given to a chef and cooked for lunch on arrival here at Rainager. I expected to see a live chicken somewhere along the way but never even saw a dead one, not in the care of the guard anyway. Eventually a couple of skinny wings arrived on a banana leaf with some rice.
How long we were here for I cannot remember though it can not have been too long or I most certainly would, for as can be seen there is not much here to hold the attention. It is a curious place for the railway to end, a small village with the station set in fields to the south of it. The locomotive ran round the train on arrival, watered again and brewed up. People turned up for scraps of half burnt coals from the raked out ashpan, maybe the chance of some hot water from the boiler and the activity at the station attracted the attention of the younger males from the village. The condition of the locomotives boiler did not lend itself to have much spare hot water to offer, though the converse was true with the fire, the boilers condition and that of the firebox required the fire to be raked through often.
The train was booked to leave at 15:35 so most of the return journey would be undertaken in the dark and I had already decided I could not bear to sit with the guard all the way back to Bankura. So, I went up to the loco and was soon invited up onto the footplate where the alcoholic predicament of the guard was revealed.
North British build CC pacific no.676, a veteran export of 1907, waits to return to Bankura at the Rainager terminus on the afternoon of the 10th of December 1992.
Designed by Richard Maunsell for the Southern Railway in 1930, the "V Class" - better known as the "Schools Class" as all locomotives were named after English public schools - was intended to meet a need for an intermediate passenger locomotive for routes needed power, but couldn't handle large express engines. Essentially a cut-down "Lord Nelson" class, Maunsell used the round-topped firebox from the "King Arthur" class, which had the useful side-effect of making the "Schools" narrow enough for routes such as Tonbridge to Hastings with a restricted loading gauge.
926 ‘Repton’ was completed at Eastleigh in May 1934. After a spell at Bournemouth it operated from Fratton (Portsmouth) depot until the Waterloo-Portsmouth route was electrified in July 1937. It was then one of ten ‘Schools’ locomotives transferred to Bournemouth as replacements for ‘King Arthurs’ on the London expresses.
Source: www.nymr.co.uk/southern-railways-schools-4-4-0-no-30926-r...
BR Standards 75014 and 70000 ‘Britannia’ captured climbing Dainton Bank with 'The Mayflower' tour returning from Plymouth to Paddington (via the B&H) on 29 April, 1995. Looks like 75014’s fireman is hard at it, with the firebox door open and creating a lovely glow!
Nevada Northern fireman Mike shovels coal into the firebox of #93 on her first passenger run since completion of the federally mandated 1472 inspection and rebuild.
5305 was built by Armstrong Whitworth at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1936. It spent most of its career based in North-West England. After nationalisation in 1948, British Railways renumbered it as 45305.
45305 survived to the last month of steam on British Railways 1n August 1968 and was planned to be used on the Fifteen Guinea Special (1T57) which ran on 11 August 1968 but on the night before the trip it was failed with a collapsed firebox brick arch and had to be replaced by engine 45110.
45305 was sold to scrap merchants Albert Drapers and Sons Ltd. of Hull.
45305 became the last locomotive on the scrap line of Drapers of Hull, who broke up 742 former BR locomotives and the owner decided to preserve the locomotive.
preservedbritishsteamlocomotives.com/45305-lms-5305-br-45...
I love things that glow in the home office, so I recently bought myself a little Mood Beam called 'Chipper' from Firebox. He lights up my desk rather nicely.
The Duke of Gloucester steam train chugs through Sydney Warf, Bath, United Kingdom, enveloped in a cloud of billowing steam. The train's majestic presence contrasts beautifully with the surrounding nature, creating a timeless and nostalgic scene that transports viewers to a bygone era of travel and adventure. The lush greenery and historic architecture provide a stunning backdrop for this vintage mode of transportation, evoking a sense of wanderlust and exploration.
Xikeng departures were the best place at Sandaoling for exhaust, most crews filled the firebox before departing the loading area so you got a bit of texture in the clag rather than just piles of white. 8081 getting going on 12 January 2011.
Sandaoling coal mine
Xinjiang, China
The Union Pacific "Big Boy" is a type of simple articulated 4-8-8-4 steam locomotive manufactured by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) between 1941 and 1944 and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad in revenue service until 1962.
The 25 Big Boy locomotives were built to haul freight over the Wasatch mountains between Ogden, Utah and Green River, Wyoming. In the late 1940s, they were reassigned to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where they hauled freight over Sherman Hill to Laramie, Wyoming. They were the only locomotives to use a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement: four-wheel leading truck for stability entering curves, two sets of eight driving wheels and a four-wheel trailing truck to support the large firebox.
Our two 'Standard 2s', by coincidence consectutively numbered, sit on shed at the end of the day. On the left is the tender of '8F' No 48305.
The Saturday, the first day of the GCR's 'Last Hurrah' mini-gala, was No 78019's first day in passenger traffic after an overhaul which included the fitting of a 'Kylchap' blastpipe/chimney petticoat arrangement - which gives the loco a hoarse, high-pitched rasp at the chimney; it's very distinctive. Plus it has a chime whistle: sounds a bit like an 'A4' coming. :-)
While in my charge the loco performed faultlessly and she was very economical on coal and water once Dan, my fireman, had broken up the big slab of clinker at the back of the firebox.
'Last Hurrah' mini-gala, Great Central Railway.
This was going to be my first posting from Sandaoling, but since Mr W Gold beat me to it with an almost identical shot, I'll post this last in the hope you've all long forgotten...
A JS led coal train storms out of the open cast pit, sporadically putting on a most dramatic and unexpected spectacle. Presumably as a shovelful of bad, dusty coal goes into the firebox and straight up the funnel.
16 Feb 2017, Sandaoling, China, handheld at a third of a second.
The small steamship in the centre of the photo is the “SS Sir Walter Scott” which has provided pleasure cruises and a ferry service on Loch Katrine in the Trossachs Area of Scotland for more than a century, it is the only surviving screw steamer in regular passenger service in Scotland. It is named after the writer Sir Walter Scott, who set his 1810 poem Lady of the Lake, and the novel Rob Roy around Loch Katrine. The “SS Sir Walter Scott “weighs 115 tons, is 110 feet (34 m) long and has a 19 feet (5.8 m) beam. It is powered by its original three-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine and has two locomotive-type boilers which until the end of 2007 were fired by solid fuel fed into the firebox by a stoker.
Loch Katrine itself is a freshwater loch and is 13 km (8.1 mi) long and 1 km(0.62 mi) wide at the widest point and runs the length of Strath Gartney. It is a popular destination for tourists and day visitors from Glasgow and nearby towns
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I have opened the firebox door of Dolbadarn steam locomotive and you can see the fire in the middle of the Welsh Dragon.
Back in the spring off 95 the Llangollen Railway were using 60103 " Flying Scotsman" for Footplate Experience trains. The A3 was in the last months of her boiler ticket with the foundation ring around the firebox failing failing shortly after this period. The early and late trains gave the chance to capture some low sunlight and working only 40 minutes away I regularly went across to the Dee Valley to fill my boots, usually being the only photter around. This shot shows 60103 crossing Dee Bridge with the 17:15 train to Glyndrfdwy in some lovely low early spring sunshine.
Mamiya 645. FujiRDP.
Great Western Railway King 4-6-0 6023 King Edward II is being prepped on shed at Loughborough for the Swithland Steam Gala.
The engine came to Loughborough for contract firebox repairs but nearly 4 years later and 6023 is still not back out on the main line. However, according to their website www.6023.co.uk/news/news.htm
the loco should be almost there after extensive modifications to the blastpipe & chimney
How can a machine breathe? How can it speak? How can a machine be... Alive?
Steam Locomotives always seem to defy these questions. They all have a unique voice, and a beating heart within their fireboxes. The heart seen here is producing steam for the Laona and Northern's Four Spot. The little 2-6-2 runs excursions to Camp 5 weekly every summer.
611 finally beginning to show signs of life. the coal is igniting but not completely caught in the whole firebox yet and the compressed air draft seems to be working..
An activity not often seen by the general public is dropping the firebox. At the end of the day train crews are seen involved in putting the firebox coals out on the floor.
The time exposure has created this magical effects the embers fly in the breeze.
Resita 0-8-0 number 764-421 is seen outside the depot being prepped to be put in the shed alongside sister loco number 764-469