Recently I saw a news photograph of a large 4-8-4 ,mtn. type. Probably blt.40s Dont remember name of RR. Photo showed boiler upside down on the track. Looked like a yard track. It appeared that when the crown sheet failed the explosion went down through the grates, lifting the boiler off the running gear
and flipping it in a summersalt over the pilot. Engine crew falaity.
Does anyone have any details of this disastrous accident. I know very well that this type of accident is,or was ,very rare in the mid 20th century.
The only failure I am familiar with is the one that happened to the Gettysburg Railroad’s light steam engine during a passenger tour. And a few other engines retired because the crownsheet faild required inspections.
Do you have any more informatioin to offer about that engine?
…Can not add any info to above mentioned explosions…They are violent…! I witnessed the end results of an explosion on the B&O branch near Listie, Pa. back about 1943 and the only thing that was remaining of the engine was the cast frame members and cylinders and wheels and rods, etc…The boiler was not near the engine and no sign of the cab of course…if I remember correctly, the wheels were still on the rails. This location is between Somerset and Johnstown, Pa…near Somerset on the {now CSX}, S&C branch.
The Great Northern Railway lost the S-2 class 4-8-4 # 2581 to a major crown
sheet failure on January 9, 1947. Investigation showed that the water glasses
were obstructed by scale and dirt, therefore giving false readings. The incident
occurred near Crary, North Dakota. The locomotive was powering the first
section of the Empire Builder. The force of the boiler explosion hurled the
entire boiler 407 feet through the air, then it struck and bounced, coming to
rest 709 feet from the point of the explosion. The locomotive’s running gear,
the tender and the first four cars of the train were derailed. The smokebox
remained attached to the frame, as did the front end throttle and the super-
heater pipes. The locomotive frame was broken behind the rear drivers.
The cab and other appliances were found 66 feet to the rear of the point
of explosion-opposite the direction the boiler flew. The locomotive’s
engineer, fireman and a supervising Roadmaster were all killed.
The power of a boiler explosion is extreme. The boiler is a pressure
vessel. The water remains in the liquid state under the heat applied
only because of the pressure (225 psi in this case). When a boiler
ruptures suddenly, the water instantly expands to 1,600 times its
volume-thus causing the explosion.
I saw a demonstration of what happens when the safety valve sticks closed on
a household 50 gallon hot water heater. It shot up 300 feet like a rocket. They said
it simply blasts a hole in the roof when it launches.
That is why steam locomotives also have trycocks and the water glass has a blow down valve. All of which are supposed to be checked periodically.
dd
A few years back TRAINS ran a feature called “Big Bang No Theory” that detailed steam locomotive boiler explosions.
You could look for it in the back issues catalog.
It was reprinted a couple of years later in the Bulletin (magazine) of the National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors.
Old Timer
Did railroads prefer to keep engines out making revenue instead of doing water gauge checks and necessary maintaince of any associated saftey equiptment?
That may be a rather basic question but Im thinking these fatalities and injuries along with property damage points to one thing. Lack of water. Lose the water lose the engine and possibly the crew.
You think that will be one of the commandments of steam railroading, thou shalt have water in thine boiler for thee to do the trip safely.
What is the problem?
Thank you guys for your input. I should have paid more attention but, of course,the caption was way shy of the details. The photo caught my eye because I am a 4th generation PRR railroader. 90 yrs of age. and I have an operating certificate for 1-1/2 in. scale live steam locomotives. At our club runs we check our water level very carefully and often. Sitting on the tender with a coal fired boiler at 100# between your knees is quite an incentive to pay attention… No I didn`t build it. An old friend from Sharpsville, PA built two, an American {a real beauty but hard to run}, and a B&O consolidation which is a real joy to operate. We both come from RR families and are registered Electrical Engineers {Ret.}, OH &PA.
Dunkle
…Many of us do have much interest in seeing working steam engines…Especially to see and hear them work in areas with grades involved. They put out quite a sound under a loaded condition. But…as main line stream passes farther and farther behind us and the thousands of professonals that cared and worked them, I wonder if the respect for the extreme danger might have been softened a bit. Somehow the sharp respect for what they are must always be kept in the forefront. They have explosive power and when that power is let out via improper operation consequences will be deadly.
Both trycock checks and water glass blowdowns can easily be done during operation. The biggest issue is with the process becoming so routine that safety shortcuts are sometimes made. We have a rule in our locomotives – no non-operational conversation while operating.
dd
haveing fired on a small steam loco for 4 years… i can say what the water level in the boiler was ALWAYS my main consern… steam presher was second… i always flushed the water sight glass out reguerly to get good readings…and to see if there was any problems with it… but just like all things mechanial… there are the occational catisrophic failers that no one can predict regarless of how well someone dose an inspection of the equimpment… but back in the steam days…the risk of stuff like this was just another occupational hazord of the job… not to much differnt then the risk of today from a crank case over presher explostion…(not to common either but they do happen from time to time)… but a wee bit less catisrophic compaired to a steam boiler explostion…
csx engineer
In the case of the GN locomotive boiler explosion, as with most, the cause was mechanical failure mingled with human error. No one knew the critical gauges upon which the decision to add water in this incident were not operating properly, although they should have been checked as part of routine maintenance. The tubing to the water sight glasses over time became blocked with scale and therefore skewed the readings, showing more water in the boiler than actually existed.
The scale accumulation can be blamed on quality of the water put in the tender. That’s why many railroads constantly monitored water supplies and added chemicals to tender water, to prevent the buildup of scale in the water system (primarily from lime) from the minerals in the water supply. In addition, many later locomotives were equipped with a separate backup audible warning system for low water in the bolier.
Incidents like this boiler explosion made national news because – fortunately – they were pretty rare and thus got well publicized. This particular one has been chronicled with photos in at least three or four of the steam locomotive coffee table books I own. But if you consider there were over 200,000 steam locomotives operated in this country over 175 years and how many trips and road miles they accumulated, I think the safety record of the railroads was pretty good in this respect. The employees deserve an “atta boy” for their dedication.
Remember one of the first locomotive boiler explosions in this country? The fireman on the Best Friend of Charleston in the summer of 1830 got tired of listening to the loud hissing noise made by the boiler’s safety valve, so he used a leather strap to hold it closed. They picked up both him and the engineer with sponges.
For several years following that explosion, trains hauled huge cotton bales on a flat car between the locomotive and passenger coaches to provide a “feel-safe” buffer between riders and the boiler.
I recall a story where an engineer got tired of the pop valve always going off so he tied it down.
You can predict the rest.
Poppa_Zit…Any chance the B&O explosion I related to above is listed in one of your coffee table books…It was war time and the data as I remember it is listed above.
Could be. But all books have been packed in anticipation of moving in a couple months, so it’ll be a while.
Some of the water evaporates-- enough to cause an impressive explosion. But most (maybe three-quarters?) of the water remains liquid and gets spread around the landscape by the fraction that did evaporate.
I don’t think so. I flunked physics [:D], but I believe I remember the principles. At that pressure and temperature (that’s the key) when suddenly released en masse when the huge crown shield catastrophically melts/fails, the entire contents violently turns to a gas (1600 times volume of the liquid) resulting in an explosion. Water boils (turns to gas) at 212 degrees farenheit at the atmospheric pressure of sea level, and under pressure, it remains a liquid. Someone more knowledgable can tell us what the water temperature would be at 225 psi. But it’s not 212, but much, much higher.
At 225 psi water temp would be around 398 deg F.
So what if the boiler pressure were, say, 15 psi? Water temperature would be about 250 F. In a boiler explosion, would all the 250-degree water evaporate? So a boiler explosion at 15 psi would look just the same as an explosion at 300 psi?
Poppa_Zit, you are correct. At the combination of preesure and temperature
involved with an operating steam locomotive boiler, when a rupture occurs,
ALL the water instantly flashes into steam-because of the sudden pressure
drop. I, too am not quite certain of the real temperatures involved, but it seems
to me I read somewhere that a modern locomotive boiler can be in the 360-
degree range, with the pressurized water remaining liquid other than at the top.
One other thing-I reread my reference sheet on the Crary, N.D. incident, and
contrary to my earlier post, it appears that there was no evident blockage
of the boiler water glasses, or gage cocks, low water alarm or the injectors
according to the documented pre-departure inspection just prior to this
run. It appears that not even the ICC really determined a true cause for
this incident. The summary of the ICC investigation reads, on the cause
of the accident thus: “It is found that this accident was caused by over-
heating of the crown sheet due to low water.” Usually, if the railroad, or
any of its employees or practices are found to be at all questionable, the
ICC is very quick to note this. In this case, they did not do so.