When Iron gets Acne

Again, really nice - that ORHC must have been a "target rich environment" - you could hang a very nice show with your work from there. Love it when you get in close, makes you think about what it is. Tones on the metal are just "eye candy" and the tube being bent gives a little motion to a static background - keep 'em coming!!

rmann, thank you! 'Makes me want to load up & go again.

What is that??

ONF, its the part of a steam locomotive immediately forward of the Engineer's controls. I thought the length of the long, cylindrical part of the engine was firebox (coal, wood, diesel), but its just this fat tub in front of the Eng. Its actually 2 pressure vessels - one inside the other. The inner one is the firebox. The outer one is water to be brought first to a boil - to create heavy wet steam. The tubes that run the length of the body are not just steam, but steam and firebox exhaust. The firebox exhaust tubes convert the heavy steam to a more dry, higher pressure gas that is directed to the pressure cylinders that push the familiar external crank arms attached to the drive wheels. The knobs on the vessel shown here -are an ingenious sort of rivent that attaches the inner firebox to the outer boiler tank. Since they expand at different rates, the inner firebox has to have some movement between it and the outer water/boiler tank. These knobs cover those strange floating rivets. Note the welding bead around the base of each knob - every one having to be welded (hundreds & hundreds of welds).

More on anatomy of a steam loco. Camera was positioned where the first diagram has the words 'firebrick arch' positioned.
https://straction.wordpress.com/how-the-steam-engine-of-the-locomotive-works/