HSB numbers

Need help I am woorking on a 75 horse case with a HSB stamp on the boiler is there any info available with the Hsb stamp and numbers like metal used in construction or design of boiler

My Small Case boiler # 33593 has the HSB stamp along with the Ohio standard and the cloverleaf (ASME). According to my Boiler inspector the HSB stamp only means the boiler was approved by the Hartford Steam Boiler Insurance and Indemnity Co. The Ohio Standard is what became the ASME code. I believe the Case 75 never had a ASME boiler but it was aproved in Canada and for agriculture use in the US. Maybe some of the Case guys can tell you more...

From those (inspectors, and others) I have talked to, an ASME stamp was not formally required until 1918. Those boilers built before this may or may not be stamped at all.

Since ours was, by rumour, a 1918 (The last one built before the bankrupcy-see story), we power brushed EVERYWHERE on the boiler that could have been conceivably stamped, and found...nothing.

Our conjecture is that, especially since this particular engine seems to have been built from left-over parts, the boiler was the last of a lot ordered in 1917 or perhaps earlier. The state paperwork adds a further muddle, as some of it reads 1911!


25HP 20th Century TE

My Case boiler was built in 1916. It bears the Ohio Standard stamp #1598 The ASME cloverleaf S stamp #375 and the HSBI&ICo stamp #1757. My 24 Minnie was built in 1920 and there are numbers but no cloverleaf or insurance no's ect. This is obviously a ASME boiler (double riveted butt strap). The rumors I hear are if a boiler was going to a state where they did not require a stamp they weren't stamped as it cost a fee for every one stamped. Wheather this is true or not I simply don't know. I do know it is hard to find engines that are stamped with the ASME stamp. Also all ASME boilers have a number stamped on every sheet, My Case bears this out....


My Junk Page

Perhaps '18 was the cut off for PA engines.

I still scratch my head over the red tape involved with "foreign" boilers (ie out of state, although bringing in a Canadian engine is worse). I talked to a fellow who had to have his engine inspected with a hydro 3 times in one month.

They frown on out of state engines here too. It is in our code that they don't have to allow out of state boilers that are not ASME code. And if they don't like the looks of a boiler they will scratch around for the clover leaf probably knowing they will find none so their off the hook and won't have to let it in. There is a big difference in inspector districts also. Here I have to hydro every other year but in other districts some boilers haven't been hydro'd for at least 15 years. Maybe after Medina some things will change who knows....

If there is a rub with many boiler codes, it is with the inspectors themselves.

I've dealt with about every kind of inspector, from officious little pr&$ks that go out of their way, even to the point of inventings things, and purposely misreading the rules, just to try to trip you up, to the ones who don't care, and are just going through the motions. Both extremes are bad for the hobby.

There was a comment made by someone on one of the Narrow Gauge boards after Medina that agricultural steam guys wouldn't accept a fair and honest evaluation of their boilers. Unfortunately, IMO a "fair and honest appraisal" is a far second to red tape, arbitrary judgements, and/or CYA all too often.

No, Medina should not have happened. But some of the suggestions for reforms that I've heard, even from people within the hobby, sound an awful lot like a judge suspending YOUR license just because some moron across town got in a wreck recklessly driving the same brand of car. (OK, I'll get off my soapbox now)