Re: Idiots in the news

Mik,
Your post title may be more accurate than you intended, as it may also turn out to have applied to the owners of the tractor that blew up.
You might want to read the ntsb report on the Gettysburg accident. What is really scary about that event is the fact that the train crew all thought that they were doing a good job and that they thought they knew what they were doing. In fact, they were clueless and had been trained by people who also didn't know what they were doing. Here is a list of the mistakes, as I remember them.
1.) Boiler washes were not performed every 30 days.
2.) Boiler washes, when they were done, were done without the proper nozzles and by only pulling 4 of the washout and inspection plugs, thus guaranteeing that the washout would not be successful.
3.) The try cocks were never removed and cleaned, which they should have been at each wash out. The bottom one was 100% blocked.
4.) The water glass spindles had never been removed and cleaned, which they should have been at each wash out. They were in fact 85% obstructed when inspected after the accident, and were undoubtedly completely blocked at the time of the accident.
5.) The injector had the wrong valve disk and was inoperative.
6.) The crew added water to the boiler using a feed water pump, but they shut it off during a hard, upgrade climb, in order to save steam.
7.) The gauges that indicated whether the pump was producing water pressure had been removed. The crew relied on hearing the pump cycle as an indication that water was going into the boiler.
8.) The check valve leaked badly and in fact would have allowed the pump to cycle on account of leakage only.
9.) The generator was not working.
10.) Therefore, there were no gauge glass lights, nor were there any cab lights during an evening run. The crew did not have flashlights!
11.) Only one employee of the railroad was able to demonstrate how to properly blow down a water glass when they were tested after the accident.
12.) The railroad did not treat the boiler feed water, nor did they do chemical analysis.
The crew all thought they were doing a good job and had learned through OJT! I wonder if the new owners of the steam tractor were equally well trained?
Finally, the tractor was operating in a public venue. The public has a reasonable expectation that they will not be exposed to exploding steel when they go to a county fair. I am not sure that self regulation is adequate under these conditions. I have no problem with self regulation if you keep your tractor at home.