yes thank you Dr.D. i didn't realize C & O rebuilt their 2-6-6-6 no. 1642. it blew in 1953. are you talking about another one exploding?
Thanks, really clears things up!
You have only half the story, the ICC accident report is available on the internet. The following is from my memory having read the very lengthy report.
Basically the locomotive was in serious disrepair before the accident and it is a wonder it didn't blow earlier. Extremely poor maintainance practice was the fault. The family that owned and ran the locomotive was caught up in their bad investment in the railroad, they were tired of operating the steam train but it was the draw that sold the tickets. Further they were unable to afford mechanics to maintain it, or to properly maintain it themselves.
The boiler water glass was almost entirely plugged and not reliably functional. This critical safety device needs to cleaned regularly so that it would read the water level over the crown sheet properly. Second the engineers boiler water lifting injector was not properly repaired so that it would not feed the boiler. The only way to keep water over the crown sheet was with the feed water pump the fireman controlled. When the engine was working the railroad grade it was a crapshoot if it would make the grade before running low on boiler water as the feed water heater would not feed unless level. When the feed water pump went intermitant in its function they were riding with Casey Jones to glory!
When boiler explosions have happened such as the NYC 5450 Hudson that blew pulling the 20th Century Limited at Canastota NY on September 7, 1943 eastbound at 4 AM. The boiler went off the engine down the track about 1/4 mile. Another famous explosion was a C&O Allegheny 2-6-6-4 that failed under power durring WWII - that boiler also went down the railroad about a half mile ahead of the train. Both locomotives were returned to service both engine crews were killed.
Thanks to the Canadian design of soft plugs that failed gradually and released the pressure slowly the engine crew of Gettysburg would have been killed instead of disfigured. The engineer was seriously burned by the high pressure high temperature steam released through the firebox door and grates. The engine is repairable.
Most experienced steam crews feared "low water in the glass" as death itself. Those that didn't die outright lingered in agony. It was a temptation to run low water as the steam locomotive was much more powerful when the firebox crown sheet heated the thin water furiously.
Alvin Staufer in his book Thoroughbreads records a New York Central engine crew doing just this. "From Raymond K. Smith, Lansing, Michgan. 'I had the pleasure of firing one of these engines in a branch line passenger run in 1955 on trains 351 and 352. Our engine was J3 Hudson NYC 5429. It was a pure delight to fire this engine. While we had rather light trains, seven to eight coaches there were places that we could test the true performance of the engine. One such place was Owosso, Michigan where southbound trains climb a steady grade for about three miles out of town. We planned to test the time from stand still to 60 mph using a standard stopwatch.
I allowed the water to "just show" in the glass and prepared a hand fire while doing station work.
When we recieved the highball, the engineer, H. Brazee, started the watch and opened the throttle. The engine slipped once but otherwise worked at full power. In exactly 90 seconds the speed recorder crossed 60 mph, the track speed. It was interesting to note that on an NYC L4 Mohawk in good running condition with the same train required 2 minutes to obtain the same speed.
Later, with steam power retired, we tried this with a single General Motors GP-7 diesel passenger engine. Unfortunately we never completed the test as the engine never reached 60 mph until we passed the next town!'" (p.395)
Word to the wise! Watch the water glass and live!
Dr. D
Many newer steam locomotives had a plug in the top of the firebox, made of softer, lower melting temp metal than the firebox steel itself. As long as the plug is covered by water it will not melt. Let the crown sheet go dry, the plug melts and in effect makes a "controlled" boiler explosion, directing the blast into the firebox and extiguishing the fire. This prevents the crown sheet itself from collapsing and making a catastrophic failure causing certain death to the crew in the cab. Water under pressure is hard to boil. When a boiler gets a weak spot above the water level and lets steam escape, the water in the boiler is no longer under pressure and all the water instantly becomes steam. That is what blows the boiler up.
Try this experiment. Get 2 balloons and inflate them. Put a pin in the side of one. BANG! The balloon explodes. On the second balloon puncture the balloon at the stem. The air slowly leaks out and the balloon simply deflates without exploding. That is exactly what that plug does in a firebox.
S. Connor All I've ever heard was boiler explosion... What really happened? And why?
All I've ever heard was boiler explosion... What really happened? And why?
As I understand it the crown sheet was designed to be the first part to fail, as a sort of safety-valve. The downrushing steam and water is supposed to douse the fire. Unfortunately, in this case the firebox door happened to be open, badly injuring at least one of the crew. I'm sure others on this forum can offer more detail on this. (Or correct me.)
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"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
The crown sheet failed as CPR intended for it to fail under such circumstances, preventing loss of life and minimizing the damage done to the locomotive and its boiler. It's reasonably repairable, he has said. She just hasn't ever been a priority.
When I've seen Jerry Jacobson talk about this engine in print, it sure didn't sound like it was bought just as a spare parts source. Instead, the impression that it's a potential project down the road is given.
i doubt it will ever run again like you guys said. i never saw a picture or knew how bad the damage was. it would have to be a mess i assume.
Anything is repairable if you throw enough money into the project. I expect that enough portions of the boiler would have to be replaced to make designing and fabricating a new boiler a better long term approach. That is not cheap, so if he has other locomotives (including a classmate) that can be restored to operation at considerably lower cost, don't hold your breath.
Ex-Gettysburg Railroad, ex-Canadian Pacific 1278 is now part of Jerry Joe Jacobsons "Age of Steam" collection in Ohio,and to my knowledge there's no plans to restore it to operation. It's to be a parts donor to keep Jerry's other Canadian Pacific 4-6-2 alive.
Things could change but you'd have to check with the "Age of Steam" folks to really find out.
anyone know what going on with this engine? is it repairable or forever sidelined after its boiler mishap? thanks
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