How do you clean out the smokebox on a Garratt?

The title says it all really. Its a question that's been burning away at me for a while now so I thought where better to ask than nat pres? With the coal fired Garratts on the WHR, how are the smokeboxes cleaned out? The front tank is so close to the box that there just can't be enough room to shovel out as you would a "conventional" loco, and self cleaning boxes are nowhere near 100% efficient. Any answers?

Cheers,
Andy

 

The tank is recessed allowing the door to swing all the way open, how much room do you want! There is a hatch as well that can be opened if the tank is empty and you can be bothered to undo the 4 million bolts that keep it water tight. This gives you space to rod the tubes through if absolutely necessary.

Tim

 

Perhaps some form of 'bendy' yet heat-resistant carbon fibre rods could be made up (I'm thinking of a similar material to that used in modern tent-poles) so that tubes might be rodded without having to undo said 4 million bolts?

 

Thanks for the reply! I assumed it was probably something blindingly obvious that i'd missed, so thanks for clearing that up!

 

No need to unbolt the water tank hatch, a standard set of drain rods does the job, you just need to remember not to unscrew the end!! There's plenty of room between the smokebox and front tank.

The smokeboxes are pretty much self cleaning, after cleaning the spark arrestor mesh in the morning there's normally only a small bucket of ash to remove using a hand shovel.

Martin - WHR Fireman