A group I am involved in (non-railroad) recently acquired a boiler. In closer examination of it, I believe it was repurposed from a narrow gauge Davenport tank engine. The boiler number is 1385 and was built April 30, 1909 and rated at 190 lbs. Later is was covered to a gas fired boiler for either steam or hot water service. The boiler has a 34" barrel and 9 ft tubes. The dry pipe and throttle arrangements were removed.

In the ideal, the group would like to use it to drive an Atlas mill engine to run a demonstration sawmill.

So, the questions are: Are Davenport boiler numbers the same as the builders number (which would be an interesting historical bit). The other is if anybody had erecting drawings for a Davenport of this size, with an eye on data for certifying the boiler (if practicable).

I appreciate any and all answers.

Michael Seitz
Missoula, Montana

ASME didn't begin certifying boilers until 1916, so I'm guessing yours doesn't have any cloverleaf or similar nationally recognized stamping.

As I've never been to Montana and am not familiar with your local codes- Depending on your jurisdiction's laws or your insurance carrier's policies, you may be dead in the water without the boiler being certified by ASME or registered with the National Board. That is very much the case in my local area. I'd look into that first and see where you stand.

The State of Montana does have a historic boiler segment in its inspection and operation regimen. This covers traction engines and the one (currently moribound) steam rail operation. ASME certification is not required, but the NBIC is followed.

Knowing what the original boiler design would be valuable in determining calculations. There are a couple of repairs that will need attention and an overall UT to determine fitness for duty. Knowing what locomotive this might have come from would be icing on the cake, in terms of provenance anyway.

Michael Seitz
Missoula, Montana

Davenport #1385 was a good sized 0-6-0 built in May 1913. This rules out that boiler.

Thanks for that John T. I'll try to post pictures, it could be I'm looking at something else entirely.

Michael Seitz
Missoula, Montana

The Montana Dept. of Labor and Industry is the jurisdiction that will permit your boiler for operation. Check out the information HERE and HERE. IIRC, Montana has permitted a number of tractor boilers so the Davenport boiler shouldn't raise too many eyebrows. I'd start with the jurisdiction and see what they need to issue a permit.

I hold a Montana Historic Steam Engineers license from the state. Until I can take a look at the internals of the boiler and do some cursory UT surveying, I won't know if it's worth the bother of contacting the local inspector. There are not many steam engineers in the area, so it's a small community. Until I have thickness numbers, any further course of action is premature.

Knowing what went into the original build is useful for determining if any wastage has rendered the boiler restorable, or "shot". Anybody else out there work with a Davenport boiler?

Michael Seitz
Missoula, Montana

Davenport drawings are held in two places, a private collection in California, and in a Canadian Museum (Canadian Museum of History?) as part of the Canadian Locomotive collection. Access to either is a slow process but both are preserving drawings which otherwise would be lost…

Finding (any) drawings of your boiler will require identifying it…

I was able to acquire some Davenport erecting drawings on eBay a few years back, so there are other holdings out there.

This little 0-6-0 is the closest I have to your boiler, with a 34" barrel and 8' 1.75" tubes, so I would imagine it was something similar.

I hope this helps.

-Philip Marshall

The last riveted boiler built by Davenport-Bessler is on the Cedar Point & Lake Erie Mogul "Albert". It's currently out of service and on display in the park. It's a replacement for the original one.