It was back in 1977 or 1978 I was a kid helping a neighbor operate his 24-75 Port Huron traction engine, this traction engine had received it's yearly State of Ohio boiler inspection several months prior to us operating it.
Without warning after having operated it for approx 1 hr we observed steam and water escaping from the bottom of the boiler just behind the front cleanout at the bottom front of the boiler. We discovered that the boiler had began to leak at that point. We immediatley started the injector to keep the water level up in boiler we doused the fire in the firebox. Once we had doused the fire in the firebox we evacuated to a safe distance to allow it to bleed off pressure and begin to cool.
Once it had cooled off and quit discharging steam we did further inspection and discovered that in the area of the mudring just behind the front cleanout that the boiler thickness had gotten dangerously thin. The owner had a NDT (Non-Destructive Testing) company come in and do a thickness test on the rest of the boiler. The NDT company discovered several more thin spots in the boiler wall thickness. The owner had the boiler sent out for repairs, but we never fired it up again after that incident.
Considering that was 33 years ago I would be overly cautious about being around a steam traction engine unless I was sure that a complete thickness testing had been completed and that the wall thickness was within a safe range.
Another issue is the fact that there is no formal training in the safe operations and maintenance of these pieces of equipment. In my opinion it is only a matter of time before there is another incident along the lines of the boiler explosion invoiving the 110 hp Case undermount steam traction engine at the Medina County Fair resulting in 5 deaths.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.