Starting to Rivet, outside help

"Riveting", as I have stated earlier was the main reason I joined this group.  I had done a limited amount of it at the National Museum of Science and Technology back in the mid-seventies and looked forward to doing some more.  Better yet this was my first chance to use a kerosene fired rivet furnace.

The first rivet oven we used was a small propane one which was used to heat ingots to be made into horseshoes.  It worked very well, so well in fact, that the oven started to warp and melt because of the intense heat created and the length of time we had it operating.  My main concern was that the flame kept disappearing down the manifold.  This manifold was connected by a six foot hose to the propane tank.

The rivet furnace was an artifact the NMST had donated to them from Devco Railway when they closed their shop in Sidney,NS.   One Saturday, my friend Ed Bowkett invited me to help him get the furnace going.   My "help" included drinking coffee and sharing the latest gossip with him.  Ed had the furnace up and running in no time.  Both Ed and I noticed the flame was sputtering quite a bit and concluded the fuel line must be drawing air somewhere.  I took my spanner and tightened one of the two fittings on the fuel line, problem solved.  The furnace now roared like a lion.

The reason Ed wanted  the furnace operational was because the Bytown Railway Society were in the process of rebuilding their ex-Central Vermont tender.  This tender is to be part of BRS' work train and would be coupled next to the crane.

Quite interesting to think that there would be two fairly large riveting jobs going on simultaneously and   within blocks of each other here in Ottawa at the beginning of the 21st century!

Ed Bowkett checking if enough heat is being produced...

...and the answer is yes!