Building: Boiler House
Machine Power: coal
HAER Map Key: A/B
Date Built: 1911
Manufacturer: Babcock and Wilcox Company
Model: unknown
Serail Number: 7295

This coal powered Babcock and Wilcox water tube double boiler provides the shops complex with steam. Water tube boilers differ from fire tube boilers on steam locomotives in that the water is contained in the tubes and circulated through the fire filled interior of the boiler. Water tube boilers contain the fire (heated vapor) in the tubes and pass it through a water filled boiler. Water tube boilers are more compact and supply more short term power when needed, but fire tube boilers are easier to maintain and operate and are more efficient for constant power operations.

The steam from these boilers primarily powered the main shop Steam Engine, but also operatee the Steam Hammer, Air Compressor, Water Pump, Sump Pump, and Electrical Generator, and provided heat to the complex and station. The coal for the unit was provided from a storage bin opposite the boilers and was hand stoked.

The boiler was installed in 1911 when the Boiler House was expanded. Although no photos of the previous boiler have surfaced, it was clearly smaller and required only a single stack and a smaller building. The expansion of the shops with the additions onto the Car Shop and construction of the Boiler Shop around the same time likely motivated the railroad to upgrade to this larger unit. The structure of the boiler is mortared brick on all sides with two large acess doors at the front and two at the back that provide access to the flue headers. Two smaller furnace doors for stoking and two pair of ash doors are at the lower front. Two drums are located laterally on the rear of the top connected into the main steam line that runs the perimiter of the Boiler House. It is equipped with two sight glasses, two steam gauges and at least one injector. On either side are three small access doors that provide access to parts of the boilers that are inaccessable from the furnace doors. There are two series of small dusting doors on either side which are used to clean the heating surfaces (flues).

The boiler has not been fired since the spring of 1956 after providing heat to the station after the closing of the railroad. After the closing a separate coal boiler had to be installed in the station to maintain heat there. The remainder of the buildings have been unheated since then and none of the steam powered equipment have run. In the late 1990's roof leakage heavily damaged brickwork on the east and south side of the boilers and moderately damaged the west and north brickwork.

FEBT restoration crews performed repairs on the boilers in beginning in July 2003. This primarily consisted of replacing the deteriorated bricks in the east side of the boiler structure. Most of the lower three feet of the southeast corner was completely rebuilt with replacement bricks.

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