A4 60027 Merlin's Boiler question

Thanks for that info. At least I can now narrow the date down a bit.

 

I can add the following from SNGLPT archives:


BOILER No. 27971
Onto Eng No. 60017 26/10/60 to 1/3/62 (WL 1yr 5mths), onto Eng 60019 27/4/62 and stayed with the engine until 1965 when it was purchased by Alan Pegler as a spare. It was fitted to A3 No. 4472 (60103) in 1978 and is still with the engine at time of writing (July 2005). I believe this makes 4 uses (60017, 60019 and 4472 - twice).

 

Also details of final boiler on 60026:

BOILER No. 29327

Onto Eng No. 60005 14/5/57 to 23/10/58 (WL 1yr 5mths), OOU 3mths, onto Eng No.60026 16/1/59 to 10/9/60 (WL 1yr 8mths), OOU 2mths, onto Eng No. 60034 2/11/60 to 12/4/62 (WL 1yr 5mths), OOU 4mths , onto Eng No. 60026 1/8/62 to 21/12/65 (WL 3yrs 4mths). Boiler withdrawn with Engine at this date. Total WL 7yrs 10mths, Total OOU 9mths, Total Life Span 8yrs 7mths. 4 Uses.

Interesting that boilers stayed on locos no more than 2 or 3 years compared to the 10 we allow today.

 

If the spare boiler is 27971, then that tends to prove it was not from 60041.

60019 had a boiler change in March 1965, when it's current boiler was fitted.

 

Thats maybe because in 'steam days' they had a fire in them most of the time rather than just the odd day here and there in preservation.

 

Do we have a history of the boiler that ended up on 60027 at withdrawal date?

I wonder if when Doncaster closed to steam, any spare pacific boilers in good condition were transferred to Darlington and subsequently to maybe Cowlairs, thus resulting in the picture of a boiler passing south through Preston en route to ????.......Crewe, scrapyards at Ince, Great Bridge or even South Wales.

The photographs author obviously made enquiries to come up with 60027 as the origin of the boiler.

 

If one of the preserved locos had a boiler swap, is it possible that the boiler passing Preston is one of the old ones en route to a scrapyard?

 

photo now in new location still no confirmed info on working

http://railway-photography.smugmug....comotives/Gresley-A4/6002760034/60027-Merlin/

 

The link in the previous post #28 is ok.

 

How so?

 

You visit them often then?

 

Link works for me.

Looking on Flickr there's a very forlorn picture of 60026 with 71000 at Crewe, looks post wheel swap looking at the state of them... Definitely doesn't look like it's had a boiler swap.

60008 and 22 can be eliminated, already preserved... Leaves only 60009/ 10 and 60019..., but 60009 / 19 were still operational.

So if 60007 didn't have a swap, did 60010 ?

Given A3s were finished, A4's weren't going to get any major repairs there can't have been that many A4 boilers still hanging around in Summer 1966 ?, this boiler doesn't look to be in the best condition, so I'd guess it's not sold to industry for re-use.. maybe it was being shipped to Crewe to provide spares for 60007 that weren't available on 60026 ?

I have seen another picture of this train working, taken from Preston on the opposite side of the train, with the smokebox face on.. so it must have been a working people knew about (or 2 lucky photographers on the spot)