A riveting story

The boiler from H.K. Porter No. 46 locomotive, under restoration at the Allaire Village (NJ) Transportation Museum. Photograph taken probably fall 2004.
Location
Allaire State Park, NJ
Equipment Used
Cambo 4x5 monorail; Schneider APO-Symmar 210mm f/5.6
Exposure
unk
Film & Developer
TMAX100 machine developed D-76
Paper & Developer
unk (contact print by service bureau)
Lens Filter
None
tony lockerbie commented about there being a picture in the rivets of HiHoSilver's fantastic photo of a bridge in Portland, OR, to which another photo was uploaded of the riveted infrastructure. bsdunek observed how the rivets are installed, which recalled this photo I had taken one day of the restoration of the boiler of an old locomotive. On this day, the certified boilermaker (and that is no joking matter under these pressures appox 200psi) was over at the furnace to the right (out of the photo) testing his technique for the first time inserting rivets of this size. Just as bsdunek said, these rivets are pounded into place. In the case of this boiler, a steel cupped tool shaping the head the head of a rivet is put in place. The preformed side of the rivet is immovably supported with a similar shaped fixture The boilermaker then literally pounds with one blow of the sledge on the cup over the pin of the orange hot rivet from the other side. It better be right with one blow - or it will be hours drilling it out and trying again. Then, the boiler must be rotated in place to install the next rivet. And this is how the industrial revolution was built - one rivet at a time.
 
Michael, that's terrific. It looked small for a full sized boiler, I was guessing it was a 1/2 scale project. The Brits have some magnificent guys that repro the old steamers (working repro - that carries people riding on the top of the cars). Their magazine used to be 'Model Engineer'. 'Alot of highly skilled old machinists & engineers. There's a group in Costa Mesa, CA that has a multi-acre park for their rail toys. They used to give free rides to the public one Sunday/mo. 'Would love to go back & shoot the gear, roundhouse & at least one shot of them carrying passengers. 'Not unlike the machinists that make scale (working/running) models of classic cars, engines, etc.
 
It is a full locomotive, not one of the giants. The Pine Creek Railroad has narrow gauge, as that was what was running through this part of NJ back in the day. I don't know if this fits on that NG track that has running equipment here. I think this was a "Light" utilitarian or small load engine for moving material such as ore from one place to another fairly close locale. Mostly why I posted this was that bsdunek's description of the installation of rivets leads to fascinating and bewildering thought process of the magnitude of some things we take for granted. The number 200 doesn't really sound massive, but put psi behind it in context of fairly big boiler that has riveted together parts and it has the potential for becoming an explosively big deal. And bridges - we over them and through tunnels bored through mountains or laid underwater, all the time, 10s of thousands of vehicles a day every day without a thought. And at the end of the day, in the general gallery, I feel that images conveying understanding, having a story and provoking thought about the world we live in, natural or man made, are as important as the images produced for the art, display and beauty qualities that are equal in importance and purpose. APUG members bring these and many other types of photography (e.g. journalistic, documentary) to the gallery and it is all really cool and much of it exceptional in quality. This photo was probably taken with about my first box of non-polaroid 4x5 negative film. I could scarcely handle the camera with 6 degrees of freedom in the two standards. This is not a particularly good photograph on any level, technical, composition or primary focal point of thought that was captured. It does not work without a description.
 
Neato -- besides being an interesting photo showing things we don't often see, it's always heartening to see these gems of the past being restored instead of melted down to make Toyotas! A new tourist rail operation not far from me (http://www.pbase.com/dw_thomas/colebrookdalerr) has acquired an HK Porter 0-6-0 that was a design built by the hundreds to a US Army spec during WWII; two other firms besides Porter made them also. Purportedly its internals are in fairly good shape, but the exterior sheet metal jacketing is really hurting from a long time sitting outdoors unloved. So maybe it won't need to get stripped to the level you've caught here. Yours Truly had a summer job in a large generating station circa 1960 and has had some first hand acquaintance with boilers inside and out!
 
Wow DWT, what a Neato documentary shoot you put up on that railroad. Yes it is just great to see these giants of industry being found and brought in and put back to rights. Likewise, to capture the story on film as YOP did Cole Brokedale RR helps keep the importance of these restorations invaluable. I need to add Porter to my keywords. Many thanks for sharing your work. I do have a negative of the boilermaker (Jim) firing a rivet for the first of his test "shots". It was so poor a photo I will not likely ever try to print or even scan.
 
Thanks! A re-visit for that page was inspired by stopping out there on Argus Day, back on -- uh -- Argust 15th -- when I shot some Panatomic-X (that expired in 1988) with my Argus C-3, acquired new at the end of 1957(!) http://www.pbase.com/dw_thomas/argust15th2015 There are links to some of the railroad's stuff on that page. The folks behind it seem to have really ignited a spark. The line runs ten miles or so loosely paralleling a creek that had a concentration of late 1700s iron making activity. The line now sort of tunnels through the woods over a wild assortment of bridges. Great camera fodder!
 

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