Best Of

@wwrenchh Im in the Detroit area if you are looking for someone to go over your system and need help.

My best answer to your question is "NO". (40+ years in the field). I did however one time see an H B Smith 4500 steam boiler lift off it's base, 3"-4" inches when a helper tried to drain that flooded off line and cold boiler. There were 2 other boilers that were carrying the steam load at that time. I would like to say that I remained calm but no, I did not. There was no boiler damage, just a lot of steam hammer.

I have seen quite a few melted cast iron sectional and steel fire tub boilers, and been in the room when 2 units in different boiler plants exploded due to fuel problems. One was an Erie City 20,000 lb/hr high pressure steam water tube boiler and the other was a small cast iron boiler. It is an experience that you never forget.

Before Weil McLain started to archive their discontinued boilers online, (back to the 1960s) there was a series of coal fired boilers that were marketed as oil fired boilers after 1946.  You could still purchase the model 57 or 67 boilers as hand fired boilers with the big front doors for the coal shovel to fit into the fire box.  But the demand for oil heat was increasing in the late 1940 and through the 1950s. Many manufacturers were not able to retool to make oil fired boilers so they made some modifications so the existing designs were fuel oil compatible.  Here is an example of such a boiler with the addition of a vestibule to cover the oil burner and the fire and cleanout doors to give the appearance of a modern 1950’s appliance.     

This Weil McLain No.57 boiler was clearly a dry base boiler made to be placed on a base that formed the ash pit for the hand fired models. I would place the manufacturer date between 1940 and 1954. Your barge mounted boiler sections are from the same era and were most likely the next size larger (Perhaps the No. 67)

Interesting analogy, have you done any testing ? Maybe she did not do anything too crazy with it.