Boiler Preparations at Englefield

In preparation for the end of year steam up at Englefield a small team led up by Fred Copper set to cleaning out the massive Cornish boiler which provides the steam for the two steam engines at the saw mill. Soot needed cleaning out from the air chambers and outer boiler skin also limescale needed scraping out of the internals of the boiler, below are some shots of the progress.

Me going into the one of the air chambers.


Yes that's me squeezed into the sooty air chamber, the outer of the boiler is on my right.


Me coming out!


Should have worn gloves....nah


I'm not quite as mucky as Fred! I think he thought it was a compettion to see who could look most like a chimney sweep.


Ben, those overalls were white!


Fred's daughter Pippa, she's not having a kip she's cleaning out the fire grate.


Inspecting the ash pan.


Yep that is me upside down scraping inside the boiler, normally this would be full of water and steam.


Inside again.


Can you guess which one of these people haven't been in the boiler?