Re: furnace fireman

That brings back a memory or two. I grew up in the 40s and 50s, and we had a stoker fired coal furnace in the basement. It became my job to fill that Iron Fireman brand stoker every evening during the winter. Every now and then a rock or mine spad would get stuck in the auger, which would shear a pin and bring everything to a halt. You could tell when a pin had sheared as the electric motor which powered the stoker would continue to run at a much higher speed, and the overall sound was different than when the machine was actually moving coal. I remember waking up in the middle of the night many times and hearing that thing running, hoping against hope that it hadn't sheared a pin. It was a fairly simple but very dirty job to clear the auger and put in a new shear pin. Sometime in the 50s, probably about the time the D&RGW finished with standard gauge steam power and the Pikeview mine near our place closed, my Dad had the furnace converted to LPG fuel. Much cleaner and less work for me. -- Ed



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2008 05:45AM by Ed Stabler.