A grant from RailCorp in August 2006 under its rail heritage initiative allowed the Museum to begin work on a new boiler for 3265. The original boiler, a fully-riveted, copper-box construction, had also suffered from its outdoor storage, and areas of the barrel were badly corroded where wet lagging had been lying against the metal. Some years earlier, project manager Ross Goodman had acquired a full set of boiler pressings for a similar-sized, fully welded boiler, and these were donated to the project. Because of the availability of the pressings-normally the most expensive part of a boiler to manufacture-the cost of replacement copper tubes and the work that was needed on the barrel of the original boiler, the Museum chose to construct a completely new, steel boiler and keep the old one as a reference for the future.

Along with the grant came a deadline-we had been aware for a number of years that the existing workshop at Eveleigh (the Large Erecting Shop) was to be handed over to the Redfern Waterloo Authority for redevelopment, and were now given permission to stay in the building until 3265 was finished. Time constraints, along with the fact that the firebox pressings had been manufactured for a fully welded boiler, were factors that influenced the decision to weld the new boiler instead of rivet it.

The team, containing two boiler inspectors and a boiler design engineer, designed a new, welded boiler, and this is currently under construction at a boilermaking firm. While the new boiler is similar in shape to the original, a number of modifications have been made internally to bring it up to current standards-a very valid reason for keeping the original boiler as a reference point for the future.

A foundation bar pattern was made and a bar cast and machined, as was a firehole ring.
The inner and outer fireboxes and the boiler barrel were fabricated, and the barrel was welded onto the outer firebox. These components were then sent out for shot-blasting and priming before the two boxes were finally fitted together and the backhead welded on.

The boiler is currently waiting for the wall stays to be fitted. Once that has been finished, the foundation bar, the front tube plate and the firehole ring will be riveted and the crown stay bolts will be screwed and nutted (as per traditional boilers). The wall stays, brackets, mounting flanges and seams are all to be welded. Flexible wall stays and crown bolts have been forged and machined.

New tubes had already been purchased and imported, and the large flue tubes have been swaged down. New superheater elements have been manufactured and hydrostatically tested, and these should be ready for delivery shortly.

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+ Locomotives
+ Steam power

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