01:19Man cleans firebox with a needle gun
This is a video of me cleaning out a firebox on a 1949 Bórd na Móna (pronounced Board nah Moan-ah) steam locomotive with a needle gun. Pretty dusty work as you can see. It's done by taking the bottom out of the firebox and climbing up underneath the bottom of the locomotive on a ladder then connecting the gun up to an air compressor and pulling the trigger. I'm knocking off large lumps of hardened ash which cleans out the firebox before we take out the boiler tubes (the holes in the front plate in the video). This is volunteer work on the Stradbally Woodland Railway and we do this to keep the engine running well. Also, it was done on a Sunday. It took me 6 hours to clean the whole thing.
11/07/2023
