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Saturday May 19, 2007 Greg Hayden photos and captions. Above left our Museum Director Rod Groenewold speaks with our Hartford Steam Boiler Insurance Company Boiler and Machinery Inspector Bill Rozokat. In business since 1866, I believe Hartford is the oldest, still in business, Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company? Behind them up on the hill you can see our HEAVY DUTY 1930 Boulder Dam model Euclid and some of our other Big Boys Toys   Below Bills business card.

Above left: I HAD to do some business Saturday morning, so I did not get here until 10:30. By then our Steam Team and Hartford Inspector had put in a full day. Exemplified by Jake Williams' (left) dirty hands. Rod Groenewold center and Bill Rozokat right. Bill and I have a similar steam background, except he got his training courtesy of 22 years in the US Navy. Above right: Bill Rozokat standing in front of our 1912 Museum Owned 60HP -- 45 KW -- CASE S/N 27462 steam traction engine. Flashlight in hand he had just inspected the boilers front tube sheet, inside the smoke box -- for leakage. What you cannot see, without looking at the steam pressure gauge -- below left -- is that there is a 100# Hydro-Static test being performed on this tractor. Below right: Case Hydro-Test.

My, Greg Hayden, first career was US Merchant Marine. Six years unlicensed engine department ratings: Wiper, Fireman/Watertender, Oiler; OJT - On The Job Training. March 1966 I sat before a US Coast Guard Marine Inspector to write my Original Third Assistant Marine Engineers license. I sailed the next ten years as a Marine Engineer, until I swallowed an anchor and came ashore. Issue 9 of my USCG "Chief Engineer of Steam Vessels of Any Horsepower" license expires June 27, 2011 and hangs framed on my home office wall. I have hydro'd a lot of boilers. Already Saturday the reason we do this made itself evident on our 1902 Advance 16 HP -- 12 KW, S/N 6744. Right, # 540, in the above left picture. Above right and below left. That capped pipe you see weeping water is the culprit. Our Advance is now sidelined, it needs to go to Boschan Boiler & Restorations in Carson, CA to be repaired and certified, before we can fire it again. This likely will not happen before our 3rd and 4th June weekends Spring Show. Ya believe that? A mere 105 years old and it springs a leak? At a 100# Hydro pressure. Below right, when I arrived our Steam Team was Hydro-ing our three eighths scale model 60hp Case.

Regardless of size all boilers are Hydro'd the same way. Open the air cock on the top of the boiler to let air out. Fill with water until it runs out of the air cock in a solid stream free of entrained air. Shut the air cock. Pressurize the boiler with a high pressure pump. We use that hand pump pictured. Below right: Because the Safety Valve would lift -- automatically open -- at it's set pressure, it is removed from the boiler and where it was located, temporarily, capped, or plugged. Our Traction engine Safety Valves are set to pop as follows: Museum owned Advance 100 psi, Museum owned Case 100 psi, Museum owned Russell 80 psi, Museum owned three eighths scale model 60hp Case 100psi, Deans Minni 150 psi, Scotts Russell 150 psi. The rate of release for each engine is in lbs per hour and is based on the Heating surface for each engine. For our hand fired boilers it is 5 lb of steam per hour for each square foot of heating surface or the valve that most closely matches that.

A pipe fitting on top was leaking -- below left picture -- quickly taken care of by Byron Whitehead. More difficult was a leaking screwed pipe fitting in the same difficult to reach area of the smoke box as on our Advance. Everyone looked at it, but it was Steam Team Boss Dean Alling who fixed it. Above right and below pictures. Note above right picture, that is our Full Size Case 60 Safety Valve lying on the rear of our three eighths scale model 60hp CASE.

Above right and below: Lunch. Above right Nick Rose eating a donut back to camera. Steam Team Honcho Dean Alling behind Nick. Jake Williams orange shirt. Behind Jake in blue, Scott Higgins Jake's german shepherd Dakota.
Below left white tee shirt, red cap is Steam Team Boss Dean Allings brother John. In his work life John is a Heavy Equipment Operator. UAL Boeing 767's. Johns dog is a mixed breed named Elroy.

Above left, the woman to the right who is sitting down facing the camera is Sharon Haenig, Senior Client Manager for Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company. She was out in the field to observe the way a field inspector deals with clients. Bill invited her to come along on this inspection because of its unusual nature and it is always very interesting. Besides it shows off the engines somewhat. Sharon was really impressed with the whole set up and plans on attending an upcoming show. Above right and below left: In some of the pictures above you can see our Star self propelled steam drill rig in the background. Here are two pictures of it. We are not sure of the age of this machine, but this design was built 1890-1915. Below right Dean Alling crawls into his 1920, 20HP, Minneapolis fire box.

Dean was replacing his fire box grates. He was having a problem getting one in place, so he crawled in, above left, and Dean's brother John, above right, helped with a steel rod hooked onto the back end of the grate. Dean got it in place. Below left sooty Dean crawls out. Below right: Dean said "I kept seeing flashes while I was in there." (I took ten flash pictures while Dean and John were doing this.) Scott or John told Dean that it was lightning.