October 2021

Whilst Kerne was not in attendance at this year’s Leigh Arms Steam Party, several of the crew did managed to put in an appearance together with a representative vessel, in the form of the Mate’s fine 1931 Narrow Boat ‘Alder’, which Paul himself, assisted by the writer, ventured from the Trent & Mersey Canal down the Anderton Boat lift onto the Weaver Navigation, before mooring adjacent to the pub at what is normally Kerne’s berth for the event. Back aboard Kerne, the welding of the new bunker and boiler casing platework continued, and in preparation for steaming, the High Pressure Piston Valve and the Low Pressure Slide Valve, both of which had received attention were restored to their rightful positions in the main engine. This in itself is a tricky job, as if not replaced exactly as removed, this could throw out the valve timing which could prevent the engine running correctly, or even at all! Once welding work was complete, the paint brushes were out on the new steelwork and also in the Aft Peak tank which had been thoroughly descaled prior to tank paint being applied. As the port side escape ladder rungs to the stokehold had been casualties as the old bunker plates were cut out, these had to be parted from the old plates by drilling out the original rivets before new locating holes for these and the chain hooks for the bunker slides could be drilled with a ‘Mag’ grill and the items re-secured. Re-piping of the various steam and water lines was the next job before we could finally shut the extremely heavy smokebox doors ahead of our first light up. Easier said than done!! What we discovered was that in the four years that the doors had been held open by blocks and tackles, these had become distorted. It took five of us using timber baulks and wedges to get each door closed in turn, but then on 19 October with a full glass of water showing in the boiler, both furnaces were finally lit, and ever-so slowly the boiler was warmed through. For those unfamiliar with Marine Scotch Boilers, they are basically designed to be constantly in steam (other than for maintenance). Unlike locomotive boilers where the fire level is at the very bottom of the boiler/firebox, giving fairly even heat distribution throughout, our fires are approximately 1/3rd the way up from the bottom of the boiler. This means that when lighting up from cold, as heat naturally rises, the water and boiler above the furnaces gets hot, and that below the furnaces remains cold. This is not a great state of affairs as unequal heating and expansion will damage, cause leakage and ultimately shorten the life of the boiler. Our way round this is to have the boiler full of water when lighting up, and as it starts to warm up, we open the blow-down valve at the bottom of the boiler thereby dropping the level and introducing the hot water to the bottom of the boiler, below the furnaces thereby encouraging thermal circulation. This may have to be repeated several times until the boiler temperature is constant top and bottom. If this results in the water level getting too low, we top this up by pumping cold water into the top of the boiler before it comes into steam. After the 1st light-up, and once the boiler had cooled sufficiently, the Chief Engineer had the envious job of crawling up the furnaces to inspect the tubeplates for any weepage before fires were lit again and the boiler brought up to working pressure on 22nd October. After cooling and a further satisfactory inspection it was time to call in the Boiler Inspector for the live steam test. The month ended with hopes high that November would see our fine old vessel back to operational condition!! Unfortunately I have to end this otherwise upbeat report with the very sad news that our colleague, friend and fellow crewmember Ken Perrins passed away on Saturday 16 October after a brave fight against cancer. Ken was a regular volunteer who lived in Chesterfield and in order to beat the rush hour traffic he would leave home at some ungodly hour. Being the first to arrive at the docks, he would unlock the gates and the vessel and would light the cabin stoves before getting stuck in to whatever jobs were ongoing. His actions ensured that when the rest of us turned up all was warm and cosy. He will be sorely missed.