Barrack’s Steam Museum return Heilan Laddie to the road, here are a few words and pictures by Sam Barrack
Heilan Laddie’s 1st year out after full boiler restoration
On the second day of the Deveronside road run in May 2011 Foden steam wagon “Heilan Laddie” engine number 11444 suffered a leaking boiler stay, unfortunately, because it was behind the main gearshaft it was impossible to a repair on site so Heilan Laddie was taken home for a full inspection. It was a major task to remove the gears to gain access which meant that Heilan Laddie would miss all the rallies that summer.
By early autumn a decision had to be taken either to repair the leaking stay or completely remove the boiler from the chassis and do a full boiler restoration. After much deliberation and the opportunity to have the boiler fully repaired to as new condition. The latter option was taken. Guy Debes of Israel Newton and Sons of Derby was given the contract to do the boiler work.
The boiler which had been removed from the chassis was totally stripped down with all the motion work removed apart from the cylinder block, loaded on to a trailer and taken to Derby by the end of the year for work to begin in January 2012.
The complete boiler was renewed apart from the original barrel, once completed a full hydraulic test was done before collecting it in May 2012. The 2012 rally season meant that not much work was done until September when the task of putting everything back together begun. It was March 2013 when most of the main components had been replaced and the first time that Heilan Laddie had run for a long time. This only meant a couple of laps around the yard at Kingswells but proved that everything was working well. There were quite a few other parts that needed repairs so by the time that everything was completed another year had passed.
In spring 2014 Heilan Laddie was fully complete and ready for her 1st outing to Castle Fraser in June, she steamed there and back effortlessly and performed very well, Heilan Laddie also attended the Banchory Vintage Club event at Crathes again under her own steam. So pleased with the way she had been running it was decided that she would take part in the Dundee to Dunkeld road run in September, a distance of about 75 miles. Once again Heilan Laddie performed excellently and pleased everyone who had spent so much time and effort on her over the past few years.
