Thank you Rich, Kelly, Hot and others for this conservation. Sorry if I'm slow here... so the tubes are between the outer firebox wrapper and the side sheets, right? So it sounds like they would be subject to the same sort of corrosion as the staybolts, but then to remove them would require replacement of the side sheets.
It sounds like WMSR has the option to just leave the tubes and not deal with the piping, nozzles (which are also likely to be subject to wear and corrosion) as well as installation and any rot replacement of the outer pipes and the cones. It would be neat if they had them in place, but I can understand if they leave them off. And it's their locomotive to do as they please!
Bob
