I was cleaning my Consolidation when yesterday when I got a good look at the back head of the boiler. It wasn’t pretty. Most of the paint was gone, replaced with rust. That means it’s time to clean her up. The boiler wrapper in the cab was in pretty rough shape also. Because I have a Briggs Boiler, and there are no water legs around the fire box, it gets really hot back there. The paint was a real mess. I’m not ready to pull the boiler and paint the whole boiler wrapper and it goes pretty much unseen. So I committed a sin, I took a brush to the boiler wrapper inside the cab area. Better to keep the rust out, than have a major problem. I can replace the whole wrapper after the next running season. Here are a few pics.

Inside the cab before she came out of the shop. June 23, 2010

A look inside the cab yesterday. February 9, 2016

A closeup of the back head

A quick layer of Rust-Oleum

And here is a look inside the fire box. I’ll have to clean up the fire cement.

A view inside the fire box.