So I got to thinking about boilers . . .

jordon412

33 Year Old Railfan
. . . And I thought "If you were restoring a steam locomotive and had to replace the boiler for some reason, what would do with the old boiler instead of scrapping it or using it as parts?"
First off, I'd remove all the internals, leaving only the shell of the boiler.
And here's a few things I thought of:
Make it into the world's largest Barbecue smoker
Use it as the water heater for the house (so I'd never run out of hot water when I take a shower)
Cut it up into small, round swimming pools
That's all I can think of.
Anyone else have any ideas?
 
It's probably not worth keeping anyway so that would be a waste of time. When a boiler is replaced, the insides are so corroded and clogged with calcium and iron, or other minerals that it's not worth keeping anymore.

Your best bet is to scrap the old one and make as much money as you can on the parts. The copper tubing is worth quite a bit these days.
 
Big time bump!

I'm bumping this thread because one of the YouTube channels I subscribed to post a video along the lines of this thread. Expect to see some more 'K-37 Kitchen' videos. The one I'm looking forward to is smoking ribs in the smokebox, which the owner of the YouTube channel, Mark 'Hyce' Huber, the great-grandson of the founder of Huber Manfacturing Company, Edward Huber, has said he plans on doing in a livestream.

 
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From various UK sources, it was quite common for steam locomotive crews to cook bacon & eggs on a shovel.
it did need coordination between the crew - an ill-judged throttle opening could suck the breakfast into the furnace…

I’m assuming the K-37 is a wood burner - otherwise everything will be coated with coal dust/ash?
 
Once the boiler needs replaced, water heating will be out of the equation. You don’t have to cook the food inside the boiler, depending on the engine and food. The crews of the Bear Harbor put breakfast in foil and put it on top.
 
From various UK sources, it was quite common for steam locomotive crews to cook bacon & eggs on a shovel.
it did need coordination between the crew - an ill-judged throttle opening could suck the breakfast into the furnace…

I’m assuming the K-37 is a wood burner - otherwise everything will be coated with coal dust/ash?

The K-37 is a coal burner. He in fact did two pizzas, as this was done while getting the K-37 ready for a day's running of pulling passengers around the Colorado Railroad Museum's trackage. One pizza was done while they were feeding wood into the firebox, and another pizza was after they switched over to coal. Let's just say that one pizza turned out okay, the other didn't.
 
Time to smoke some pork in the smokebox!

The time has finally arrived! It's time to see how to smoke some ribs in the smokebox of a steam locomotive. They started out on wood, then converted to coal.

 
Brings to mind how pancakes, or flapjacks are also known as hoe cakes. Now the batter may not be exactly the same, but the name comes from how they were cooked; using a hoe blade as a makeshift griddle.
 
Me too first time I heard it, so I did some research. In some places and certainly in yhe past, it meant a food.

Just like once upon a time hired muscle, or a goon, would be called a bimbo.
 
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