Re: Rotaries Question

Here's a link a a survivor of a boiler explosion...
[steamlocomotive.info]

She was of sufficiently modern design (and also probably relating to the circumstances) that it didn't tear her off her frame like the C&O Allegheny which sent parts flying for more than a mile.

If you drop the fire when the water level is too low, you've just ruined the crown sheet. If you panic and try to correct it by hitting the injector, you're going to cause the crown sheet to fail from the rapid cooling of certain parts as well as for a massive amount of water to be turned into steam in a hurry. The rate at which the water is added will determine whether the explosion can be handled by the safety valves, clear off the frame, or somewhere in between.

That CP 4-6-2 I've linked to is what caused the new 15-yr FRA regulations to go into effect. Of course, the new regulations have nothing to do with the incident which inspired them AND they caused a bunch of perfectly good locomotives to be parked (such as C&O 2716 which had 2 weekends of use on her boiler).

Michael