Boiler Overhauls & Rules

Engines get a boiler certificate for 10 years when they are stripped down for overhaul. Once they have that 10 year certificate they have an annual test and inspection that gets them a ticket to run for the next 12 months. Actually its not quite that restrictive, the annual ticket runs for 14 months allowing us to plan for more than one engine being inspected on the same day. What you can't do is add up 14 month tickets to get more than 10 years on the main certificate. This continues until the 10 year ticket expires. The boiler has to be stripped for inspection and overhauled to get another 10 year certificate.

The 10 year overhaul involves stripping the boiler down so that it can be inspected inside and out. With most engines, Blanche included, this means stripping the engine so that the boiler can be removed from the engine.

Blanche's Last 10 Years

12 years ago Blanche was out of traffic awaiting an overhaul with her 100th Birthday fast approaching. With no prospect of an overhaul at the hands of the paid staff a volunteer group was formed to do the overhaul and get the engine running for the Hunslet 100 gala in May 1993. That group assumed the identity of RicketRescue and to this day they have looked after Blanche as well as taking on a number of other tasks. {RicketRescue? Click here for an explanation.}

Blanche made it to her birthday with just days to spare and has continued to run each season until now. In that time there have been some problems and some good times: -

Good times

Double Heading with Linda on their Birthday

5 days in steam working round the clock on both the night and day shifts for the endurance record.

11,000 virtually trouble free miles in her last season

Not so good times

Boiler Troubles. For the last ten years the writing has been on the wall for the boiler. First she kept suffering from leaking tubes. This was cured by welding them in but it really indicated that the inner firebox was approaching the end of its days. Next it started to leak around the washout ports on the throatplate. This resulted in her missing much of one season whilst a large patch was welded in. Then we had a dome securing stud fail which resulted in them all being replaced. Latest boiler trouble was a crack in the superheater flues which spread into the tubeplate whilst she was at the Welsh Highland Railway. She returned to Boston Lodge for repair and as a volunteer project this took eighteen weeks to do.

What she was really telling us was that her boiler was either going to need extensive work or a new one.