Home

Steam narrow boat President

Steaming Up" Issue 1 ( Winter 2002 )

Welcome to this, the first issue our newsletter. Those of you who were present at our recent AGM will recall that it was suggested that FoP should produce a newsletter between issues of "195". The aim of this being to keep members better informed, particularly during this exciting period of restoration work. This is not designed to replace "195" but as a supplement to include the news section of "195" and diary dates. It will also be issued on a regular basis over the next few exciting months.

Simon Nuttall

Progress update

If you attended the AGM then some of this will be old news to you. But I will bring the story right up to date.

About 30 members assembled at Ian Kemp’s Dadford’s shed on Saturday 10^th November. It was fortunately dry, which gave us all a chance to thoroughly inspect the work carried out to date. At this time the hull steelwork had almost been completed, a major delaying factor had been the production of the rubbing strake. There was no stock of the correct profile strake anywhere in the country.

Thus we were forced to have 3 tons produced at Dudley Port rolling mill. The downside of which being that we only needed half a ton. Thus FoP is now the proud holder of the nations supply of correct profile rubbing strakes for an F.M.C. boat. Seriously it is hoped that the rest of the stock will be sold to other restorations. Indeed Ian Kemp has already requested some. The mill had been planning to produce the rollings in August, but it was late October before we received the stock. Without this it was impossible to start the riveting.

Since the AGM the riveting has been completed and the entire hull shot blasted. The exterior has been coated with a two coat epoxy finish and the interior with two coats of primer.

The hull bottoms have been attended to. At the AGM Ian Kemp reported that he had been told of a possible supply of elm for the bottoms. At that time he refused to be committed as to whether he would use it. However, members will be pleased to know that it was of a very good quality. Ian has replaced the rear 35 feet of the hull and will inspect and repair any weak sections on the front section.

The next stage of the project is to produce a new boatman’s cabin. This is to be designed to include all that is currently known about FMC cabins. The only aspect of the cabin that has yet to be decided is that of the door into the engine room. The old cabin had a full size door, it had been thought that in the interests of cleanliness the door would be replaced by hatch of some sort. But, this has been questioned from the point of view of tunnel safety. In particular if the boat was stuck in say Harecastle tunnel the engineman would be unable to escape from the engine room. This issue is currently being looked into.

Incidentally Pete Boyce has kindly refurbished the mast with a new oak inner section. He has also had a new spring made for the loobey, which it may be recalled had a tendency to be flipped over and was difficult to return to it’s correct position.

 

Steam plant report

Running in parallel with the work on the hull is a lot of work on the steam plant. It should be remembered that we are undertaking a restoration almost as full as that carried out in 1976. We have employed Derek from the museum to fully measure all components on the engine. This will allow us to quantify the way the engine is wearing over the next few years. Currently the ancillary parts of the engine are being prepared. A flywheel has been obtained from Preston steam and is being machined to fit. It smooth faced to ensure that there are no projections to catch clothing on.

Our existing barring wheel is also being machined to fit the new engine. This has two advantages, firstly it is cheap than buying or casting a new one. Secondly it will then allow us to connect to the existing shafting and avoid further cost.

The work on the boiler has been finished. This has included finally resolving the fusible plug debacle. Many of you will remember the multiple failures of the plug. For new members, the fusible plug is a safety device within the boiler designed to stop it exploding when the water level falls below the top of the water tubes. If it is exposed to the steam a lead section in the plug will melt causing the boiler contents to empty onto the fire. As someone who was around when one went I can assure you it is not pleasant. Anyway, back to the problem. The original design was flawed in that it allowed scale to gather in the socket holding the plug. In turn this caused the overheating of the plug and it’s failure. This problem was them exacerbated by the failure of the socket threads and then an incorrect repair by a local engineering firm.

A slight re-design of the smoke box doors has been carried out to allow us to fully remove all soot when winterising the boiler. In essence two removable panels have been cut into the lower edges. In addition the firebox doorplate assembly has been redesigned. The smoke box doors and hinges have been repaired to ensure a better fit and avoid the air gaps which could make lighting up a trial.

Finally the boiler firebars are being replaced. Most enginemen will have noticed that they were burnt and this had led to the gap between them closing up. The idea of firebars burning may seem odd to non-engineman. The problem is that if the fire is run with a very thin fire then the bars become very hot allowing the metal to be degregated. This is to a large extent unavoidable because of the conditions and un-even steam load placed on the boiler. Unfortunately the original patterns have been mislaid. But, fortunately the Severn Valley Railway has produced the pattern free of charge and is now casting us a new set. A further revision will be made in that the firebar gap will be increased from ½" to ¾" to aid draughting following the change to condensing operation. This change means that the engine no-longer exhausts into the funnel, which provided a measure of forced draught to the boiler. The new system involves the exhaust being sent to a surface condenser in order to generate a vacuum. Potentially this could make the boiler difficult to steam due to the lack of pull on the fire. The additional air gap between the bars should therefore provide additional draughting.

Fundraising

The total cost of the project, including the new engine is estimated at £45,000. The committee and particularly David Powell is working very hard to raise this sum. At present we are approximately 20,000 short. However a number of applications for funding are still pending. We are still very much in need of contributions from members. If you have already promised to support us over the next few years then please do not forget to send your contribution to David Powell. If you contributed on a one off basis last year then please carefully consider making an additional donation.