Steam & Excursion > Boiler makers & welders

The thread below re UP 3985 and the retirement of an individual brings to mind a question: What sort of special blessing and / or license(es) are needed before a welder is qualified to work on a steam engine boiler? Would this be something addressed by the FRA or the railroad concerned or some special TS/SCI/ESI/FRD/CRYPTO government inspection agency for locomotive boilers?

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA

FRA is silent on the issue.

There is no boilermaker/welder licensing.

It's up to the railroad or locomotive owner to prove the competence of the welder. Often as not, this is done via AWS certification.

A certified "High Pressure Vessel" welder, i.e. nuclear, used to be on the UP Steam Crew (Scott Turley). He quit during the winter of 2010/2011, after Steve Lee retired, and went back to the Power Plant industry. The former Roundhouse Foreman, Ron Tabke, now on medical leave, was a true UP Boilermaker by craft, and was one of the very best Boilermaker/Welders I have ever met.

I was under the impression one needed an "R" stamp (the ASME certification for pressure vessel alteration) to weld on the shell or any unstayed surface. But I know there is no provision in the FRA regs for any certification to weld or alter stayed surfaces...that's up to the railroad. Of course, any alterations to stayed or unstayed areas must be documented on a form 19, with supporting stress calculations.

That be my understanding as well, and since a boiler maker with current "R" stamp
paperwork can pull down $150K-200K easily (if he doesn't mind the locale) it's a
little tough to find qualified people walking down most streets.

rehunn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> it's a
> little tough to find qualified people walking down most streets.
I can agree with this statement as I work in a large machine shop with all manual machines and since most everything is cnc theses days the new guys out of school won't even think about it unless they can push a button and watch. The programmers actually have an understanding of manual machines.
As for the welding etc on pressure vessel's the above statments are correct and with each company,railroad, or employer they are responsible for certifying the person and welding equipment that they are capable of performing certain welds to a maximum thickness and for a certain pressure rating.
If xyz company certify's me to weld on their pipeline and then I have to go to wtg company then they have to test me and certify me. Interesting topic anyway. I enjoy the reading here as many others have good info on such subjects! Thanks

Posted from BlackBerry