Put a plug in it!
Have you ever bought one of those ‘one size fits all’ plugs? only to go home and find that you have been sold a lie, the plug doesn’t quite do the job.
Well believe it or not, the objects in the photo above are actually plugs, and guaranteed to fit the job they were designed for! Well they are not quite plugs, rather they are patterns for plugs that fit the bottom of the boiler of a 38 locomotive. As you may know, we have a 38 locomotive (3830) and whilst restoring it at the Eveleigh workshop the team salvaged these plug patterns, so that new plugs for the boiler could be cast
Why are they in the workshop?
The Museum was recently contacted by the owner of the 3801 locomotive, which is being restored. Their boiler is currently being remade in Germany, and a ‘one size fits all’ plug will just not do!. They have asked us for these plug patterns to be sent to them so that they can make perfectly fitting plugs for the boiler.
Photography and post by Erika Dicker, Assistant Curator
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