In the years prior to nuclear propulsion, naval vessels burned fuel oil to fire boilers which produced steam to drive the propulsion shafts (propellers) that powered the ships through the water.  Boiler feed water needed to be preheated prior to entering the boiler for maintaining peak efficiency of the boiler to produce the superheated steam to rotate the shafts. 

A portion of the superheated steam was siphoned off to preheat the incoming water to the boiler to just short of “flash” temperature, around 210 degrees.  The preheater was a separate stand-alone vessel where the superheated steam was injected into the water in the vessel through a series of pipes and nozzles that came out of the steam receiving pressure chamber at the top of the heater main body. Water was constantly fed into the vessel, heated, and flowed out of the vessel and into the boilers.

These feedwater heaters were a mainstay piece of equipment for the Navy and could be found being transported from the manufacturer to various naval shipyards on both coasts of the United States.  Foster Wheeler Corporation was a main producer of boilers and boiler systems.  They were founded in 1927 and were a major supplier of steam generation and management equipment through their demise in 2014.  Their equipment would have been shipped by rail from the early onset of their corporate life through the 1970s and possibly later, depending on which steam powered ships may still have been in active service.  Originally located in New York City, the company relocated their manufacturing plant to Livingston, New Jersey in the very early 1960s and remained there through 1987 when they relocated to Clinton, New Jersey.

Classonemodelworks.com has recreated a highly detailed version of the Foster Wheeler feedwater heater in HO Scale.  The ultra-fine detail is evident all over the model.  Based on prototype photographs, this model has all of the visible fine details from the bottom rings of the vessel to the super-fine Steam chamber end clamps, and to the motor detail on the blower housing. This model will look spectacular on one of our depressed center flatcars.

The kit comes fully painted and ready to be mounted.  It includes the super-detailed heater, two bottom wood supports, two feet for the bottom of the frame, an A-frame style support for underneath the steam pressure chamber, two tie down wires, and two shipping crates for supporting equipment.  Also included in this kit is a framed Foster Wheeler Corporation sign created from actual company artwork as seen in photographs of a shipment of this unit.  We recommend that you procure some 1mm pinstriping tape to represent the metal strapping used to mount the crate and tie down the steam chamber.  Tape is not included in the kit.