Bruce Babcock kindly notified me of the state boiler inspections for the traction engines there are going to be running at the Champaign County fairgrounds this weekend (6/19-6/22). I attended because I wanted to understand the process a bit better and as always ... seeing is believing. There were 4 inspectors from the state. They were very nice and very professional. These guys were not out to keep antique boilers out of operation, but were very understanding that most of our engines do not have the type of paperwork that they expect from commercial boiler owners. We really need to do our part by having the engines ready for inspection.
There were 4 engines being inspected:
1917 CASE 50HP, owned by Mike Johnson, Marengo, Ohio.
1920 Huber 16-48, owned by John Yowler, South Charleston, Ohio.
1924 Baker 21-75, owned by Jim Stacey, Wilmington, Ohio.
1916 Baker 18HP, owned by Bob Coe and Tim Hutchens, Washington Court House, Ohio.
Bruce has informally published an Unofficial Guide to Ohio's Historical Boiler Law on the Iron Acres web site: http://www.ironacres.com/ohioboiler/ This guide includes a copy of the check list that is being used by the state inspectors when examining a boiler and is titled Historical Boiler Inspection Work Sheet. The guide also has a Historical Boiler Pre-Inspection Criteria that details how the inspection will be done. In the case of the Urbana inspections, none of the owners had either of these items prior to the inspection. This definitely slowed the process down.
My personal observations are:
Please have your boiler heating surface already calculated. Bruce's guide tells how to do it, if you don't have any specification from the manufacturer. (If you have a state boiler id number and ASME S stamp, be ready to point it out.)
Make sure that you have a modern safety with an intact seal set for the specified working pressure that you plan to operate at. (This was a problem for at least one of the engines in the Urbana inspection.)
Make sure that you have a new ASME certified fusible plug. Ideally, the plug should be shown to the inspector and the water side tin should have an ASME stamp on it.
If you have any welds or other repairs, be ready to point them out to the inspectors. This first inspection is a baseline. All existing repairs will be grand fathered in as long as they pass reasonable inspection and the hydro test. (The inspector can also ultrasound a boiler if they have doubts about the thickness of the metal!) Any repairs there are not documented at this initial inspection, but found at the next inspection must have documentation to support the repair. If you have any questions about this, I would call the state inspectors office for clarification. This is really important!!! After this first inspection, all boiler repairs MUST have acceptable documentation of any welding and repair materials.
Check and replace any fitting (valves, pipes, elbows, etc.) that carry high pressure steam and are not rated for the pressure that you are planning on carrying. This is the item that really caught my eye. The Huber had a valve for the injector that had to be replaced. It was in an awkward spot between the dome and the stack. Luckily, Bruce had a a valve on his Prony brake that he offered to John to get the engine to the point where the inspector would allow the hydro. John still had to cut out the old valve and get some pipe to put the replacement in.
Have plugs for the safety (and whistle if necessary) and fix leaks so that the hydro test will hold pressure. By the time I had to leave, only the 21-75 Baker owned by Jim Stacey had passed the hydro. The main valve on the steam line at the top of the dome was leaking even though it was a brand new valve!!! The pressure had to be held for 10 minutes. This meant that someone had to keep pumping the keep the pressure up.
Which brings up an other point ... have a working pump and necessary hoses and couplers ready to go. The hose on the first pump sprang a leak when the pump was moved. This forced a quick trip to a local farm implement dealer to get a new length of hose made up.
The pressure gauge is suppose to be tested to verify it's accuracy. John McDowell brought his dead-weight tester and was able to test and recalibrate the gauges on these engines. By the time I left, John had tested the gauges for the Case 50 and the 21-75 Baker, and both had to be adjusted slightly.
The following are pictures of some of the testing. See my captions for more info. If, for any reason, you want a high resolution copy of any of these photo. Let me know and I can e-mail them to you. (I got a new digital camera for Father's day and it worked great!)
The plug on the right is the old plug from Jim Stacy's 21-75 Baker. The plug on the left is a new plug that Bruce Babcock brought up as a replacement.
This is what your $150 bucks buys you ... the inspector WILL crawl into your firebox and ping your stays with a hammer. He also checked for welds and repairs. Clearly, you should clean the firebox as much as possible before they have to crawl in/out of there. The inspectors were a very nice crew. They have a lot of extra work this summer getting all of the engines inspected before shows. Be nice to them ... coffee, etc. and near by restrooms are a nice gesture.
They will inspect the boiler through all hand holes. They used mirrors to look around. One of the mirrors was mounted on a very long pole to allow them to see the back side of the rear tube sheet from the top.
These are the boiler runes from the Huber. If you click on the picture, it will take you to a very high resolution version. Can you spot the S stamp?
I think the gentleman in the hat holding the hose is Jim Stacy. He is trying to hold back the leak in the hose so that they can get the boiler up to pressure for the hydro ... it did not work!
John McDowell brought his dead-weight gauge tester. The round plates on the tail gate were the weights he used. He put weights for 150 pounds on the cylinder just to the right of the gauge that he is testing. He then pumped the pressure up till the weights lifted to the proper height.
In this case, the CASE gauge was reading ~160lb with 150lb of pressure.
John removed the cover and adjusted the needle to read 150. The gauge on the Baker 21-75 was reading ~147lb for 150lb of pressure.
I do want to thank all of those present for answering my questions and letting me watch the process. I have a better idea of what I need to do to get my engine ready for inspection. I highly recommend that you download the unofficial guide that Bruce has put together and read the pre-inspection criteria and inspection check list. It will greatly speed up your inspection and will make your day much better when they don't have to ask you to swap a valve out at the last minute!