What's this?

Just by the driver's right foot, until now, there has always been a little pipe poking up through Sentinel 7109's cab floor. It's near the levers in the photo below.

Above the cab floor, bottom right hand corner

From below, it bends off towards the lower part of the boiler.

Below the cab floor, left of centre

It's lurked for a very long time, possibly since 7109 was first built in 1927. The trouble is, I've never been able to work out what it was used for and hence what it should be used for. So I've removed it. (If in doubt, chuck it out!).

In all its glory!

My only inkling is that it might have been part of the injector pipework fitted from new but removed after about a year of service. An earlier article described the saga of 7109's injector.

Well, I don't know if this is the case so I'm open to all (sensible) suggestions.