During the warm summer months we took the opportunity to tidy up Baldwin steam locomotive boilers from Wb 292 and Wb 299. Ron Jones and Hugh McCracken cleaned down the steel work, applied two coats of steel primer and a finishing coat of black enamel.
The two boilers were built in New Zealand Railways workshops in the mid-1920s to blueprint y7508, replacing the life-expired original Baldwin boilers dating from 1898. The NZR boilers ran at a higher boiler pressure - 200psi - than the originals, which were rated at a lower 170psi. The 'new' boilers were of similar design to a number other NZR tank locomotives, including Wf, Wg and Ww classes, with many common components and design principles.