Gary Bensman and his team continued work flanging various sheets for the C&NW 1385’s firebox during the first half of April. Recent tasks included work on the 1385’s throat sheet and backhead.

This drawing of an Omaha Road Class I-1 boiler, a sister engine to the R-1 class #1385, identifies the location of the firebox, throat sheet and boiler barrel.

The backhead forms the rear end of the firebox and is located inside the cab. The fireman shovels coal into the firebox via a small door which will be cut into the backhead.

The already flanged (curved) sheet is the C&NW 1385’s new backhead. The backhead forms the end of the firebox inside the cab. Gary Bensman photo.

The throat sheet serves to connect the round boiler barrel with the firebox’s square-ish lower half. Such a transition requires the throat sheet to be a more complex shape. Where much of the bending of the steel sheets thus far could be accomplished via “cold flanging” by bending on a pneumatically-powered McCabe Flanger at room temperature, the throat sheet’s complex curves require a more hands-on approach. The “hot flanging” or “heat and beat” method involves heating the metal to make it more malleable and then using sledgehammers to pound it into the desired shape. The photo gallery below shows the throat sheet at various stages of progress.