Joined!

These pictures show one of the major milestones for the "new" County boiler - the barrel and the firebox have been riveted together. Next up will be completion of the internal components of the barrel and attaching the various mounting and strengthening plates.

Also shown is the completed patch on the rear corner of the outer firebox wrapper. This is common on corners where the bending stresses are high and the firebox flexes, and corrosion can also occur where there are apertures into the boiler, in this case some of the washout plugs.