hi, i am not a train enthusiast, but my daughter has an assignment for school. has anyone heard of a story about a train that was steam cleaned and then totally sealed up. after a while because of the moisture and no air movement, the train apparently collapsed. she is supposed to find a picture of the train and i have googled everything i can think of, but don’t know where else to look. i would appreciate any info from anyone that thinks they can help. thanks alot!!! candi
Haven’t heard about that one–it sounds mighty improbable to me.
It was a tank car…steam cleaned, then sealed before the tempature equlized with the outside ambient air…the steam condensed, then pulled a vacume and collapsed the tank, flat as a pancake…I will look, but I am pretty sure I have a photo of it.
Let me check.
Ed
I think it was a tank car, Carl. I’ve seen the shot, but I’m not sure where to find it. It had to do with an internal vacuum turning a tank car into a pancake.
I remember it being posted here not too long ago.
http://www.delta.edu/slime/cancrush.html
Can find my photo, but here is a link to the event, and a pretty good explaination of why, including a photo…
Hope this helps your daughter…sometime science can have some pretty funny results…can you imagine what that had to sound like when it went?
Ed
Forgive me–I wasn’t thinking of a tank car interior. I remember something similar, possibly collapsed due to a failure to vent the tank when unloading. Again, the use of the word “train” when talking about a car threw me.
you guys ROCK!!! that is exactly what we were looking for!! thank you sooooo much for your help! if we have anymore questions about trains we will definitely ask you first! thanks again!!! candi
I wonder if anything like this ever happened to a steam engine? I am just curious as I was not alive during the time period so maybe this was something that was well known to avoid, you know cold climate, forgetting to keep the fire lit…Maybe?
Dave
Doubt it. A steam engine wouldn’t get all sealed off from the outside world like the aforementioned tank car!
The Newcomen Steam engine, the predecessor to the Watt engine, is one of the most interesting pieces of technology developed during the 1700’s. This engine along with Watt’s are called “atmospheric engines” because the steam was under only slight pressure. The real driving force of these engines was a vacuum created when steam is condensed back into water.
The diagram at right explains the principle of operation of a Newcomen engine. In this drawing of a primitive engine (1712), the boiler sits directly below the cylinder. Steam is first admitted from the boiler to the cylinder. When the piston reaches the top, water is sprayed into the cylinder to cool the steam and hence form a vacuum. The piston is sucked down into the cylinder by the weight of the air on top of it and the cycle is started again.
The Newcomen engine is indeed a neat design. I’ve often wondered, though, just how efficient it is. It seems like there would be a lot of wasted energy in this design. Then again, considering it was the first steam engine put into practical use, and dates to the 18th century, who am I to be critical?
I believe that event was brought to the world courtsey of one of the ‘world leaders’ in safety…DuPont! Someone didn’t get the instructional package on venting.