BOILER EXPLOSIONS - What can cause them? | Railroad 101 ft. ThatSteamGuy

[@andrewadams3894]

Another flexible staybolt type consists of a hollow drilled tapered crown stay with a ball nut (KN nut) threaded onto the outside end. The outside end is closed off with a tapered plug. These are most commonly found at the front end of the combustion chamber. As several rows of these are found on PM 1225, I would expect them on all the AMC berkshires. These replaced earlier expansion stay type that essentially hinged in the middle. I've seen illustrations of these in Locomotive Cyclopedia's. Yet another source of boiler explosions is boiler water chemistry that promotes "Caustic Embrittlement". This involves high concentrations of boiler salts in the various crevices of riveted boiler seams creating intergranular weakness in the affected steel. There is a test apparatus to determine if feed water is embrittling and a water treatment (NaNO3) to deal with it, but this wasn't discovered until after WWII. This condition does not affect welded boilers so research on the problem ended with dieselization.

[@Hyce777]

Fascinating. I had not heard of that yet, but it makes sense. Thank you for sharing!

[@andrewhatton1606]

​@@Hyce777 I hope you come to the opening I'm buy a ticket it's a beautiful ride.

[@jankington216]

You definitely don't wanna skimp on the ball nuts when there's a tapered cone inside

[@richardprice5978]

was a fan( 12 to 21~ years old ) of weldment's but as a junior millwright/meatpacker( plant started up in ~1950's~ and last-upgraded around ~1999~ i started in 2009~ )/maintenance-department i learned from the ( some old enough that navy ran oiler's/boiled like BB62, cannot remember if some were ww2 veterans but nam was there as well as one that remembered union-p running oilers and how-to ect )older male's/coworker's weld's can fatigue-out( plate's don't have this problem as much as it allows some growths-ect, ice breakers also sometimes still/modern-2025-up use riveting and or hybrid construction for similarly reasons as boiler's ) and or hydrate-enberitlment/start-micro-rusting( look as SS welding and or how heating burning out the nickel/other content and or destroy's the passive-ion layers )-ect ect so riveting and or composites-manufacturing over-rap techniques are better but generally more expensive/time consuming ect and yes maintenance needs cannot be lax'd aka rusting( told one plant i was at storing there boilers outside uncovered and water doors open wasn't a good choice as it shorten the lifecycle and or on 1st-start-up someone could be injured/killed ect ) is a bad idea inside or outside

[@1TruNub]

What's up hyce, this is guys

[@joecompton8142]

do we have five?

[@lynx8779]

I mean, correct

[@BrokenIET]

Someones used the discord soundboard

[@someNewYorkCentralfan]

​@@joecompton8142Now you have 5

[@1TruNub]

@@BrokenIET Guilty as charged.

[@shimesu443]

Okay, Hyce and Jason on camera at the same time are a class act. We need more of them together. Who's with me? And "Don't tell Dickens I said this" Them's fightin' words, friend! 🤣 Hyce: Operator error. Me: Canadian Pacific 1278 Hyce: Water measure devices Me: Canadian Pacific 1278 Hyce: Water inputting devices Me: Canadian Pacific 1278 Hyce: Get below the crown sheet Me: Canadian Pacific 1278 Can you tell this poor engine's fate still angers me to this day? We are so lucky that the explosion was contained to the firebox. If the entire boiler had blown out, I think we've have a lot worse than the 1472 inspection to deal with.

[@erksteen6723]

Yes absolutely, I'd love to see more railroad 101s with both of them. It's an absolute treat to watch you to! 😁

[@BMMEC6000]

Was there an issue with the injector? I know there was a problem with the feed water pump

[@shimesu443]

@@BMMEC6000 The injector was leaking, I believe, so they turned it off when going uphill, so she wouldn't slip on wet rails. They then forgot to turn it back on.

[@BMMEC6000]

@@shimesu443 That was the feed water heater/pump. Same difference

[@harrybob12190]

I was right there with you, thinking about CP 1278.

[@jacebeleren9290]

"If your grid looks like a poorly planned city..." Now I'm gonna blame steam explosions on steel molecules pulling an Atlanta

[@tnexus13]

Planned cities, what is this dark magic? I'm in the UK, where a good chunk of roads follow routes hundreds of not thousands of years old.

[@bene5431]

Another bad one is Orlando, FL. I'm astonished how many places I found where a visit between backyard-to-backyard neighbors involves a 5 min car trip. Longest I've found in 10 minutes on Google Maps is 12 minutes

[@AlmostAllegedly]

Glad you touched on the material science side of things! Up till 30s and 40s, manufacturers were kinda driving blind when it came to detecting defects.

[@ZuluFoxtrotBEAR]

Hey, that's my choo choo! Can't wait for 152 to come back into service at the KY Railway Museum so I can crew her.

[@steveboguslawski114]

Regarding the C&O #1642 explosion: A photograph of the aftermath appears in the book C&O Power. The boiler landed upside down in front of the frame/wheels, flipped 180 degrees (firebox farthest away). I don't know where Jason got his information, but the boiler did not fly 3000 feet. However there have been instances in other historic explosions where pieces/parts flew large distances.

[@RCfarmboy4x4]

I was about to comment the same thing I've also been to that site in metal detected there may have been small miscellaneous parts that flew hundreds of feet but 3,000 ft across the river I find very far-fetched.

[@heathnielsen4449]

15:49 I just love this. We need this as a shirt design to!!!! Funny as hell and will piss off pennsy fans!

[@AndrewFRC135]

8:01 - Yes, trying to turn into a circle is indeed BAD... I should really go to the gym more often. 🤣

[@jamesgroccia644]

It's still good bc it fits in the square hole

[@ShadowDragon8685]

"All others ... Are _deluxe."_ Murdered with words! Hahahahahaah!

[@patricksheary2219]

Hi Mark, guest Professor Jason’s explanations about choo choo kabooms was excellent! I learned so much. Types of stay bolts and how to examine them for flaws was marvelous. So liked the info about the fire tubes and the ways to affix them in place. I really enjoyed these details about construction and design such a fantastic nerd out episode! Many thanks to Jason for sharing with us his expertise. The work going on there looks fabulous, most impressive. And of course thanks to you Professor Mark for another beautiful 101 video. Cheers to you guys!

[@garysprandel1817]

The look on Hyce's face at the mention of the bulging boiler.

[@heathnielsen4449]

In the Railroader comments section I mentioned that the game needed actual engine explosion. GLAD HE IS ASKING THIS QUESTION!!!!! Great Minds think alike!!!!!

[@Pamudder]

re: PRR staybolts on a L&N locomotive: if I had to offer a wild-ass guess, it would be that the engine was built, or staybolts had to be replaced, sometime during WWII, and they were dealing with wartime material shortages. At the critical time, PRR staybolts were available when standard flexible staybolts were not.

[@simonburling3762]

Seems like a reasonable assumption to me.

[@andrewadams3894]

A reasonable possibility. Another might be the head style coming off patent and the shop trying to save money. A patent search on staybolts might support or disprove the hypothesis.

[@thegamingtako9779]

An idea crossed my mind, would you ever consider doing a collab with SmarterEveeyday, he loves a good laminar flow and he has a slowmo camera and I feel like he would be interested in some whistle science amongst other things!

[@Hyce777]

I'd love that.

[@trulyinfamous]

Heck yeah, slo-mo schlerien imaging for steam whistles would be a cool video.

[@Orangewood76]

This is all so fascinating to me. I never realised how soft, flexible, and malleable steel really is until I went to work for a fastener manufacturer.

[@bigcstrainsthings6149]

Just recently I showed a good friend of mine the film The Brave Locomotive and he was very impressed by the film. I'll love to see one day of Hyce reacting to this animated film because I really think it's one of the best train films, it's very fun to watch

[@FelrinKirla]

Jason perfectly matches your level of nerd. You two are great together! So enlightening and funny

[@dukeofgibbon4043]

The ASME boiler code defines a pressure vessel as a contained explosion and the job of everyone involved is to keep it contained.

[@brianentwistle145]

Great video! You and Jason definitely have a good dynamic together. Hopefully you two can collaborate again in the future.

[@Rayinn-lw3ej]

Very interesting. I've been following steam since I was a child in 50's and 60's. The metallurgy has changed so much since the 1930's. I am a mechanical engineer and much of my career has involved steel (and other metals!!) that didn't really want to do what we thought it should. My work at a nuclear plant has been about strength at temperatures above 500 F and the materials that are needed to keep things together. John White's book on early American locomotive design covers the changes from copper boilers to wrought iron boilers to steel boilers and the impact on safety, reliability, and cost.

[@rgsrrofnc]

Call the Big Hook by Sam Dougherty has several stories of the D&RGW locomotive explosions. A really good read!

[@MainlyHuman]

Speaking of explosions, would you do an episode on priming and all the fun stuff that can happen when you get liquid water in the steam circuit?

[@thatoldme1234]

As a student in mechanical engineering (Here in austria we have a type of school called HTL, which is equivalent in age group to a high school, just 5 years instead of 4 and your essentially doing a quick and dirty version of engineering up to bachelor level. (eqivalent but not eqal to NQR6 for anyone that wants to look this up, probably no one to be fair) Which is why practical examples are sparse), I really apritiate these more technical videos, as its al lot of "So thats how that works/ what that ment" in one package. As well as when you talk about the more technical side of things while playing Railroader or Derail Valley (RO with kAN was good on that front too) Thank you and keep up that good work.

[@SteamfanScott]

Catching up on the videos after a month of fun weekend train things, and as say, this series is so interesting and an excellent learning experience for us fans. Again, more of this please and thanks to Hyce and Jason and all the crew for these wonderful presentations.

[@Chasedtuna9]

15:20 it has the square hole... >.> also would have loved to hear Hyce's fit after the "deluxe" comment at 15:35

[@TX-biker]

Excellent discussion on WHY boilers explode. I always just ASSumed it was low water. As always - there’s more to the story, and it’s not that simple

[@kilianortmann9979]

Meiningen as a steam engine maintenance and production site is pretty cool, because they never shut down operations, steam never ended for them. They are located in former East Germany, wich operated scheduled steam until 1988, after the reunification they got enough influx of heritage locos from east and west to keep going.

[@the_retag]

Also its run be government owned deutsche bahn. Unfortunately making it expensive and long time to deliver

[@ivovanzon164]

​​@@the_retagthey also have a huge waiting list, as they are the only one in all of Europe who can handle the largest sized drivers and some other important parts. If you need a tyre swap on your Br01, there is only one location that can do the job as they have the original equipment. And Hyce should try to get himself a guided tour there (and maybe at MaLoWa Bahnwerkstatt too)

[@the_retag]

@@ivovanzon164 yeah, i hop hsb get their own new workshop running smoothly soon, takes pressure off of Meiningen and increases availability in harz, while saving transport cost

[@ericocypriani2308]

10:00 **THUD** 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@cadence4527]

Learned a new historical fact about my home county. I have never heard that story before about the cab forward blowing up, but I can tell you about the time the yard went kaboom when a cut of cars loaded with bombs bound for the military went kaboom.

[@Ti_Daley]

25:10 - I'm not sure if that was an intentional name flub, but the new build pacific is Tornado, pronounced the same as the speedy wind condition

[@thedominionmaster]

Who needs school, when you have Professor Hyce either teaching us or taking us on his field trips.

[@QuorkQTar]

Reading up on the last boiler explosion in Germany, the 1977 accident of Bitterfeld (then GDR) I learned that German steam locomotives apparently have fusible plugs made of a lead alloy. When they melt, they release a relatively controlled stream of water/vapour from the boiler into the firebox, both extinguishing the fire and warning of the issue by having a peculiar sound. In the Bitterfeld incident however it turned out that the fusible plugs all had been sintered/vitrified (? professional lingo, my English is limited in that regard) with slag/combustion residue to such a degree that they all failed to open up. Which shouldn't have happened either, especially since the engine had just returned from it 8 year inspection (the biggest regular inspection for powered railway vehicles over here. Every 8 years or X kilometres [I don't remember the value - not of relevance to me as the train driver since I don't know the mileage anyways, that's materiel dispatch's job], in the case of steam engines I wouldn't be surprised of specific limits like pressure cycles or hours under pressure). Do you have such fusible plugs over in the US as well? When you get on the expansion vs. softening thing: In the Bitterfeld incident the softening was cited as the deciding factor. Through metallurgic analysis (changes in the microscopic crystal structure Hyce described so graphicly - loved the analogy!) they could determine the crown sheets had reached a max temperature of 740 degrees (1,360 F apparently), which meant their yield strength sank from 510 N/mm² to less than 88 N/mm² (74k psi to less than 13k psi). (Source: Wikipedia without cross-checking primary sources) 25:20 - Oh I have to be nit-picky at this spot. "Meiningen" is not a company, it's a city - and the "Werk Meiningen", the "Meiningen shop" if you will, are a locomotive shop of us in DB. Western Europe's last big maintenance shop for steam locomotives (and, as in this case, producer of boilers, parts and even whole locomotives) is a shop within the German Federal Railway, my employer and thus 100 % federally owned. 😀 27:15 - Either there was a hiccup on my browser's site or you forgot to add the video link to Jason's video about beating tubes. So that tube beating thing means DV uses the "wrong" boiler explosion? Also, I'm finally back up to date with your videos :D What a marathon it has been (and I sadly had to leave out most of the gaming stuff). Aaand I got to be like number 1,000 on this video :D

[@Hyce777]

27:15 - the link is in the description, it's on Facebook. And yes... the DV explosion is kinda the wrong style. But, I understand why they did it. I am glad you've caught up! Fusible plugs... some engines have them here, none of the ones I've ever worked on have them. As far as the verbiage in english... I don't know if there's a good proper word for that! Sintering is close, but I'm not sure it applies in this case or not.

[@dkbmaestrorules]

According to the (German) Wikipedia article on the Bitterfeld explosion, it was literally just scale that clogged the fusible plugs - the water in Berlin (where the engine was based) is fairly hard, but it's a complete mystery as to how it was able to build up so much scale in the few days since it had come out of the shops. The crew really shouldn't have been running the loco in the first place though imo - the only reason they got that loco was because the engine they had worked on the outward journey had also sustained damage due to low water and had to be taken out of traffic...

[@QuorkQTar]

@@dkbmaestrorules I rechecked and you are absolutely correct. I somehow managed to misread the paragraph and thought the problem was on the firebox side, not the boiler side of the plugs. Thanks for correcting!

[@QuorkQTar]

(I probably got off track because of the term "sintering" used there. I've never seen it in the context of limestone etc. deposits from water)

[@dkbmaestrorules]

​@@QuorkQTaryeah I'm not a native German speaker but "sintered" strikes me as an odd choice of word...the perils of Wikipedia, I guess.

[@jmcosmos]

In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance , Robert Pirsig notes apropos tightening motorcycle bolts that steel *IS* elastic and plastic; it's only that the elasticity is at such a level of force and pressure that people *FORGET.*

[@ZORRO_HELI]

This man would be awesome on the 3/4 show!!!

[@michaelstrains4014]

Jason reminds me of my old high school engineering instructor. He knows how to present things in a way that makes learning interesting while still keeping it fun.

[@cmw184]

Reading local historical records, a lot of the boiler explosions happened from low water. Very common reason

[@swanseamale47]

British railway inspectorate have some fascinating report back the the early years of the railroads here. Stories of the barrels be so corroded the "breathed" under the lagging. Reports of boiler repairs being done by a sleeve and hoops like a barrel, and lots of failures. One, perhaps was a cleaner on early at the yard found an aging with steam up waiting for the crew. Her safety valve was blowing off. Annoyed by the noise he screwed it down. He survived the later explosion, but lost an ear....sort of justice?

[@cr10001]

Described (along with many other failures) in L T C Rolt's 'Red For danger', IIRC. But these were, allegedly, nothing compared with what used to happen on Mississippi stern-wheelers...

[@swanseamale47]

@cr10001 That's a great book, I have it. Lots of detail.

[@cedarvalleyrail8419]

The blooper reel is always the warning shot to a banger

[@KnapfordMaster98]

tractive effort calculations and whatever yawn Jason: it got booty I love this man. He’s like the fun teacher that’s actually the smartest person you’ll ever meet.

[@Transit_Biker]

A family member of mine used to work at an industrial boilermaker. That is, boilers that would be installed into factories etc. The most nerve-wracking times were when they had to do a pressure test. They had a zero fault policy - meaning no broken or deformed stays were acceptable. This was back in the 1950's, and they were still figuring out the chemistry for the steel in the stays even then. If one let go, the whole neighborhood could hear it. I don't know of any failures of any of these boilers produced while they worked there, but I can imagine it would be quite energetic with many of them running pressures similar to a steam locomotive.

[@GreenGj-]

YAY! Pipe bomb episode!

[@NJPurling]

Firebox Crown-Sheet collapse. Happened with several US Army 2-8-0- when in service in England. The gauge glasses were giving a false reading due to a valve not being fully open. One accident happened in a tunnel. You can imagine the effect on the footplate crew in the confined space.

[@AlexandarHullRichter]

There's a valve that can block the gauge glass from working? That sounds like a bad idea.

[@NJPurling]

@@AlexandarHullRichter The actual valve wheel in the cab was connected to the valve on the steam manifold via a universal joint. There was a problem with the valve spindle being bent in one instance that could make it seem as though the steam valve was apparently fully open when it was not. This led to the water gauge giving a false indication. A difference of anywhere up to 12 inches. It was possible for the front of the firebox crown to be dry while the gauge showed a good level of water. If the injector was then put on the effect of water washing onto the overheated steel firebox was disastrous.

[@Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

All these things are good arguments for water-tube boilers -- much smaller cylindrical tubes and vessels containing the pressure, and a lot less water to flash into steam if something does break. These tended to be popular in power plants, ships, and even steam road vehicles for this reason, but for some reason, they never made it past the experimental stage on railroads.

[@Knsgf]

And for a good reason. Distilled water, which is required for safe operation of water-tube boilers, isn't cheap if you vent steam outside after every stroke, and very few locomotives were fitted with condensers to recycle the water.

[@Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

@@Knsgf Formation of scale is also bad in fire-tube boiler safety -- why would it be worse in water-tube boilers?

[@Knsgf]

@@Lucius_Chiaraviglio What's easier: cleaning the scale from the interior of one big tube or numerous tiny ones? And this is not the only disadvantage of a water-tube on a locomotive. These boilers do not like being subjected to vibration and shocks which are inevitable in railroad service. There are a few articles on Douglas Self's site about experimental high-pressure and Brotan locomotives, which used water-tube boilers. Most of them turned out to be unsuccessful.

[@Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

@@Knsgf Cleaning the interiors of numerous tiny tubes sounds easier than cleaning the scale from the exteriors of numerous tiny tubes.

[@jacobrzeszewski6527]

I worked at an iron foundry for several years and the idea of ANYTHING let alone a locomotive using cast iron as a pressure vessel is terrifying. Even with modern alloys and quality pig iron and nodule testing we still had to dye test a lot of castings prior to being used in hydraulic systems. These weren't thin castings either, and there was a very non zero number of castings with porosity that would have made a verry impromptu fluid cutting jet if installed. 😅

[@cr10001]

I missed the reference to cast iron, if there was one. Though doubtless many very early locos used cast iron components. What was referred to (in the video) was wrought iron, which was a far more ductile and hence considerably safer material than cast iron.

[@kellys.6047]

Great video! I went to a steam tractor show in Georgetown Ohio back when I was a kid. Now that I’m old enough to realize things can go wrong. I’m not so sure I would go any more. ❤️🚂🚂🚂❤️🎃❣️😃

[@heathnielsen4449]

17:30 Work on Steam they said. History is fun they said. We get to run it they said. DO THEY NOT REALIZE HOW MUCH THE RIALROAD KILLED THESE THINGS!!!!!

[@Shadowtiger2564]

Not to mention how just over the maintenance they where.. some of ehat I've seen on 576.. it's like the shops hated them

[@louisvillenashville152]

Hey I was one of the guys that ran Jeddo coal 85 that weekend while you were in the cab. Thanks for showing me how to run 85!

[@robertgarrett5009]

The "Tornado" (as in twister) has a spare boiler, there are three in total, shared with the "Prince of Wales"

[@walterbeech]

really enjoyed this!

[@Dan.IdahoNorthernRy]

Another problem with steel during the process is it crystallizing in spots, rails and bolts are at the top of the list of current problems for modern railroad repairs, which can only be found using ultrasonic testing

[@brenthinshaw8391]

What we need: -Old ass locomotive boiler/firebox that will never be restored and run on the mainline -SloMo guys

[@Hyce777]

That is a stretch goal for the channel honestly, lol!

[@YourLocalHistorian]

This is my favorite locomotive of all time being shown the L&N 152

[@erikcourtney1834]

Wow, they actually made boilers out of wrought iron? I believe it no doubt but…. Wow. It’s a beautiful material but yeah, that’s about it. Structural high tensile strength it definitely does not have. But it’s a joy working with.

[@callsignapollo_]

Before bessemer steel, pretty much everything was wrought iron, including bridges and boilers. Even with safety factors, its honestly amazing there werent more disasters with the stuff

[@cr10001]

@@callsignapollo_ A heck of a lot safer than cast iron, though

[@ChargerusPrime]

GIVE US MORE JASON ASAP!!!!!! God this is such great info.

[@JrFlexing909]

This and the last video with "ThatSteamGuy" was pretty informative. really give a lot of info how boilers work. Glad you shown and interview with ThatSteamGuy., need more.

[@anthonycook5238]

10:36 , are we talking about the Gettysburg locomotive ?

[@angryrailfan5711]

I heard the Allegheny story about 7 years ago at the b&o railroad museum and to this day it’s the craziest railroad stories I’ve heard.

[@jankrusat2150]

Concerning the installation of boiler tubes through the bulkheads: In East Germany they actually experimented with using small explosive chares to expand, seal and set the boiler tubes into the bulkheads.

[@oldhifi8820]

Another great one! Keep them coming.

[@BullittOutdoors]

Not sure why Hyce has felt the need to overly emphasize “Choo-Choo” lately but defensively seems to be a distraction of sorts

[@bluescrew3124]

Encyclopedia Billtannica 😂 perfect!

[@dethfan06]

Asked for more nerdy goodness and got more! MOAR! Maybe the guest on a 3/4 episode?

[@DaCaveDweller]

Great video! Doing all the research I can before making the boiler for my stationary sawmill engine and this is great info!

[@dremein]

More nerdy fun! More nerdy Fun! Please. Please give us more nerdy fun!

[@larrylawson5172]

I just watched a video from the "Best Railway in the World" - Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways, Jon Whalley, Chief Engineer, explain rolling tubes on the narrow, narrow gauge railroad engines (2 foot). The boiler tubes were so small that they were using a 3 roller design rather than the 5 roller. Very interesting. I finally am beginning to understand the process of rolling the tubes. Hyce, you have added a lot more information. Thanks

[@wrlrdqueek]

It's kind of fun that the operating number that used to just be an internal thing assigned by the railroad, is now a universal identifier for all the remaining locomotives in the steam community.

[@wolffang-vz2ty]

7:05 why is a fan strapped to front of the choo choo guts?

[@Hyce777]

So people can work inside and not have much boiler bits enter their lungs.

[@wolffang-vz2ty]

@@Hyce777 oh ok, makes sense

[@jpaulkepler4638]

Good video. L&RP ran a series of articles "Boilers, the heart of the matter" that , I believe, came about because of the Gettysburg incident. ( I really miss that publication). As always, I appreciate your content and look forward to your next post.

[@edwinsinclair9853]

So much fun to stand next to the firebox of a locomotive under steam and hear it snap and pop from heat expansion. Makes you think, can I run fast enough?

[@ChristopherFerry-z5y]

5:32 Well Dickens hasn’t blown up the big boy yet

[@heathnielsen4449]

14:10 that is funny. The White Drippy Saddness needs to be a shirt design.

[@trulyinfamous]

White drippy stuff is often a result of male sadness while alone. You might say it comes out all at once.

[@paddleboatman3767]

Thanks. I will feel so much safer firing the portable Marshall boiler and engine built in 1900 on the south Australian paddle boat the PS Marion. It's a riveted type out of the good old type steel you talk of. Keep up the good work.

[@visekual6248]

I'm amazed that there was a concern for safety at that time, maybe I'm wrong but for me until the beginning of the 20th century, dying was part of the job description.

[@300poundbassman]

Someone took chalk and drawed all over your choo choo. Well doñe. The new guy is great also. Love learning🌹🚂❤️🚂🥴🥴🥴🚂🚂🚂

[@NicholasAdkisson1025]

lol Pennsy is standard and all other railroads are Deluxe. Do we have a Special Edition railroad that might be the RGS or D&RGW.

[@CadenKarow]

I don't care if I was watching another video I see notification from hyce I CLICK

[@mattdotsonrailfanproductio266]

When the world needed him most, he uploaded 😎

[@BandanRRChannel]

15:42 I laughed waaaaaay too hard at that line. Does anyone happen to have pictures of that shay with the boiler bulge?

[@Hyce777]

Nick sent me some, it's hard to tell since they repainted the firebox. DM or ping me and I can forward them your way.

[@jamesgroccia644]

"All others, are deluxe!" *491 blowdown noises*

[@the_retag]

The bitterfeld explosion did a decent boiler launch

[@GeorgeZ213]

We had a train explosion in Wenatchee WA. In the early to mid '70s. Not a boiler, but explosive cargo. Windows blew out over 3 miles away. Train parts flew almost 2 miles. Crater in the ground 30 ft deep. Buildings within 200 ft no longer existed.

[@failranch9542]

Great video. You got a little confused on the H8 Allegheny that exploded in June, 1953 though. The boiler landed about 300 feet in front of the engine initially and then bounced back. It did not land across the river. Seemingly it was entirely the crew’s fault. The operating rules for low water alarm were to start both the injector and cold water feed pump. If either failed to start, dump the fire. 2 witnesses reported the engine steaming past with the low water alarm sounding. They didn’t make it much further.

[@fsodn]

6:20. Could you tell us what "when that water leaves the glass" means? It means the water level is too low, I get that. What happens? Why does the boiler explode then? What's the chain of events and why does it happen that way? I'm a bit lost here, and you just went on to the next thing. Do you cover this in another epsiode? If so, a link please? I love this detailed explanation, but even if you've covered it elsewhere please fill in for those of us who work with non-physical systems so we have a general idea. Thanks.

[@Hyce777]

If the water gets below the crown sheet, which by law is 3" below the glass -minimum-, it no longer cools the crown sheet. That's what causes the softening and expansion we refer to in this video. If it's below the glass, it may not be below the crown sheet, but there's not a way to be sure. That's playing with danger.

[@failranch9542]

The “crown sheet” is basically the top of the firebox. The firebox will be roughly at atmospheric pressure. When the water level drops too low the uncooled crown sheet will become compromised. On the other side of the crown sheet is the actual pressure vessel which may be upwards of 200 psi and contain a lot of liquid and some steam. As soon as the sheet is compromised, all that water in the pressure vessel flashes to steam as its pressure suddenly drops to roughly atmospheric or to whatever pressure the firebox was at. This flash to steam means that the boiler, for all intents and purposes, becomes a rocket with its nozzle being the firebox. This is the reason that the boiler typically somersaults through the air like was seen on C&O #1642 mentioned in the video. On the other hand, if the compromise occurs on the other end of the boiler, as with the beads on the ends of the fire tubes as they discussed, the result is that the smoke box will get blown off. All that water under great pressure flashes to steam as the smoke box is at atmospheric pressure. @Hyce777 please correct me if I’m wrong. This illustrates it very well: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqTdpmtmg69naZosi=3ZaGRJeC4067lW7J

[@SmellyTommy]

There were multiple crown sheet failures of the S160's in UK service due to crews being unfamiliar with the style of water gauges they had and not operating the valves properly, causing a false high reading. Also worth mentioning that the boiler being a structual part of the locomotive was less of a thing in UK/European practice.

[@stevemellin5806]

Good information.

[@robertedwards3147]

Just setting up for boiler test right now

[@hornetscales8274]

Two books come to mind that I once owned: Elementary Steam Power Engineering (circa 1940's) and Strength of Materials Data. Back then, it was the "rocket science".

[@Kevin-go2dw]

More so in the early days, boiler plates thinning due to rust would allow boilers to explode. Having worked on Baldwin designed narrow gauge engines, I have seen leaky stays, and leaky fire boxes. When a stream of liquid, even a trickle is coming out of a spot it should not, it's time for repairs. The inside of the firebox should be dry, not wet.

[@Triplex5014]

All this thermodynamic knowledge explained in this video. Bosnia: Hold my series 33 steam locomotive.

[@mason-wr1we]

Love the series great vedos

[@quintrankid8045]

Watching this made me wonder if there were any FEA boiler simulations available online and the closest thing I found was some page for a ship called Consuta. I search for fea locomotive boiler simulation and that's what came up. Some nice animations on the FEA page. Made me wonder what they did with the ash or what happened if they needed to dump the fire on old wooden steam ships. The boiler on those pages doesn't look like any of the marine boilers I've seen illustrated, but more like a locomotive boiler. That search also came up with the Wikipedia page for the AT&SF's jointed boiler design. Why ask why? Thanks for this video. I learned about a couple of new failure modes today.

[@xitheris1758]

Choo choo wanna be a rocket? Bad choo choo! ☝️

[@timothyhays1817]

Those of you who want to learn more check into your state to see if they have boiler inspector classes for steam traction engines.

[@stevew270]

The original 40 CSA "light" Challengers were numbered 3900-3939, when the Jabelmann "heavy" Challengers arrived the CSA's were re-numbered 3800-3839. When the later Challengers 3975-3984 were converted to burn oil they were re-numbered 3708-3717. I think I got that right, feel free to correct.

[@kellys.6047]

🚂❤❤

[@Motherslug-q7l]

The day American Tourist Railroading almost Stopped Forever June 16, 1995. Most people even Rail-Fans don't even know that the Gettysburg Tourist Steam Railroad located in Pennsylvania near the town of Gardner's had a very complex summer that year when their Canadian Pacific 4-6-2 No.1278 ran out of water and the side of their Steam Engine sheet metal rippled sending pieces all over when she popped blasting all their steam outside the side of their engine all while when pulling a live excursion. The C&O Railroad had 4 Allegheny 2-6-6-6 Engines Explode all because of running out of water, when these Engine blow up eyewitnesses have said on record that you could hear them 13miles away when they Exploded given, they all blow-up in the Smokey Mountains of West Virgina coal mountains echo traveled. Fun Fact for you: The Gettysburg Steam Train incident is the Reason why (all-American) Tourist railroads do a Shakedown's before Running their equipment for the day. 6:21 Railroads don't have Flat Track or use Flat Track, what's Flat Track 🤔 I never heard of it!?!

[@ryano.5149]

It wasn't the boiler failure that sprayed the passenger consist with steam. It was the leaking feedwater pump. Either way, they should have dropped the fire in that engine LOOOOOOOONG before that incident. That poor locomotive was practically crying out for help! Anyway, per the NTSB report: "According to testimony, a check valve (a one-way valve) between the feed-water heater pump (feed pump)2 and the boiler had been leaking all day, even though the valve had recently been repaired. On a previous trip that day, when locomotive 1278 was running backward next to a double-tiered, open-air observation passenger car, the spray from the leaking check valve necessitated clearing the first half of the car. Consequently, according to the first fireman,3 when the train left Wolf Pit the feed pump was shut off."

[@steveboguslawski114]

Only one 2-6-6-6 exploded, I believe that somehow you (or your source) are including explosions of other locomotives the C&O owned. I don't have the details for all, but there was a class T-1 2-10-4 (#3020 on 5/12/1948) and possibly a pair of 2-8-2 explosions. The T-1 blew out the smokebox and superheater header/tubes and was rebuilt. Mikado #2314 exploded while being leased to the NIckel Plate Road during WW2. I have incomplete details about the 2-8-2 explosions and it is possible I am counting one incident as two because I found them in different sources, but I cannot find the other reference anywhere now.

[@zachman1394]

This is pretty interesting

[@piotrjanik93]

Finally, biblically accurate boiler explosions.

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

"Dang, look at that boiler!" _~EnforcerMatt_

[@mikeninneman6575]

While doing the 1,472-Day on our steam locomotive, we were required to have telltale holes on both ends as it was interpreted that the verbiage in the CFR "drilled from the end of the staybolt" indicated that both ends be drilled. This was required by not only our inspector, but the head Steam locomotive MP&E inspector himself. I am told that this was required because the current boiler was considered "new" construction, built post-Gettysburg. Our rigid stays were not that way when they were installed when the boiler was built, so we had to drill about 538 staybolts to meet the requirement, or change them all. Steam locomotive operation and maintenance is not for the faint-hearted. On a side note, generally staybolts will break near the outer sheet, as that's the colder side of the firebox, this in the case that the boiler expanded or contracted too quickly but like Hyce and Jason said here there are many things that could cause problems with your boiler.

[@Hyce777]

Yikes. You're very correct, not for the faint of heart. Center that drill well... Lol! Makes sense to me. I'd agree with your MP&E inspector.