Re: Why 1472 hours?

In theory, you do not have to pull all the tubes during a 1472. If you can pull enough around the outside to clean the scale and determine the condition of the boiler, and prove the remaining tubes are still good, you can leave them in place. However this is really not practical for Narrow Gauge engines, because they do have smaller boilers then say, the 844 or 261. So even leaving just the tubes in the center may not give workers good access to clean and inspect the boiler. Plus, in my own opinion, new tubes are the safest course of action. Expensive yes, but at least you know your starting with new good steel.

Its very important to properly clean boilers and use good treatment. Ideally you should get nothing but a soft grey colored mud out of the boilers during washes, with minimal hard scale, the mud is easy to flush out. The cleaner the boiler, the better it steams. I'm pretty sure the 9 would run off a bic lighter at this point.....it gets cleaner every year.