I heard from someone that they are trying to restore the Emma to operational condition... can anyone confirm or deny this?

Yes OERM is seriously looking into this. Still want to hear how they are going to get around the lap seam boiler issue with the CA state inspectors.

from my understandings of the steam rules you can still operate a lap seam boiler just under 115psi

If I am correct is that why for a while Strasburg operated Pennsy Steamers #7002 and #1223 in the 80's which both I believed to have Lap Boilers until they were deemed unsafe to operate because of the Boiler?

Both 1223 and 7002 had received class shoppings before being placed in the Pennsy's museum collection in Northumberland. The collection later became the nucleus of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. I'm not positive of all the details at this time (it's been a while) but the Museum and the adjoining Strasburg RR came to an agreement that allowed the two locomotives to brought back to operation. Due to the condition in which they were retired it was a comparatively easy process (compared to recent restorations that are currently in their shop)to bring them back to life. They got a lot of running time out them before it was time to either give them class overhauls or retire them permanently. The Museum, not wanting to compromise the historic fabric of the locomotives (both were essentially running on shoppings given them back in the late 1940's) opted to have them returned and put on display. They could have been shopped, but would now have to meet current standards that could alter their apperance, among other things.

If you go digging for information, the big problem is that before about 1905 they just punched the rivet holes to size and assembled the boiler, then they forced the holes into alignment with an alignment drift that put a lot of additional stress in odd directions - and the stress risers around the holes turned into cracks that went from rivet hole to rivet hole. Get cracks going between two or three holes in a row, and the whole thing can un-zip with disastrous results...

The Railroads had a few boiler failures (and I'll bet a bunch of close calls...) and figured out that punched holes were a really bad idea, and went to undersized punching and then reamed and dressed the holes to size (and to align properly) before riveting to clean up the disrupted area, or they drilled the rivet holes to size.

And the experts I've found discussing this figure that if any of of the earlier boilers that were going to crack and un-zip have already done it by now - if it survived this far, chances are it's good. BUT that's not something I'm going to bet any money on.

Another problem was gouging the parent metal when they did the calking with a power chisel to dress the gap - they figured that one out too, and insisted on calking chisels with angles and profiles controlled so they couldn't gouge.

They should be able to do Cobalt X-rays of the seams and see cracks developing from the inside out, but that's a huge job just getting the cobalt source into position to do the x-ray test.

From what I can tell, a lap-seam riveted boiler in good shape should be fine to use - but the trick is in finding proper inspection methods that will prove it to the satisfaction of the FRA boiler inspectors, and more important to your liability insurance company - if they aren't happy you don't fire.

It's a whole lot easier to get the inspectors to sign off on a recently built full-penetration welded boiler with an ASME Stamp and all the supporting paperwork on hand. And known pedigrees for the steel and other components, and soft plugs in all the right places, and hollow staybolts so you know when one has let go because the tattletale hole just put out the fire, and cleanouts and blowdowns in all the right places to keep mud from building up, and...

--<< Bruce >>--

Any new updated news on the status of of the restoration of the Emma Nevada?