DISASTER!!! on 15F steam locomotive courtesy of fusible plug

[@adriannettlefold9084]

We had one of our locomotives have the same thing happen. I believe it was a new style plug with a bigger orifice for the lead. It fused on it's first run.. luckily no one was injured nor the boiler damaged. Great videos by the way.

[@rudolfhough6226]

Giving more area for lead to pick-up heat is wrongthink in my opinion

[@rudolfhough6226]

A fuseable plug has to be properly cleaned by wire brush and a correct dia tap used to clean the threads inside the plug. Then using salammoniac it must be tinned at the correct temp and can then be filled with lead and the date stamped on it. If it is incorrectly done the lead will not adhere to the copper plug and the water pressure will force it out. That would be the fitter,s fault and that can be seen by examining the dead firebed .If a hole is blown in the firebed then only a jet of water can do that and the glass must have been full. However , steam on a hot fire will not blow a hole in the firebed and that means no water over the plug with possible leaky stays or worse .If no damage then my guess is an ill prepared plug by the fitter. All plugs must ALWAYS be checked by each crewmember for possible dripping of water when coming on duty and reported in the logbook of each engine.

[@hotboxxxexxxpress1509]

Did the injectors fail? What caused the low water level in the boiler? I hope the damage isn't extensive enough for a firebox replacement.

[@earthfirechannel]

The only damage was the ''melted' fusible plug that was later repaired as per the end part of the video. We never established, for sure, what caused the "disaster". It could have been 1) the fireman's negligence, 2) old fusible plug or 3) faulty fusible plug.