Some people seem to be taking my posts personally. I don't question anyone's sincerity, but whining about the rules that one might not fully agree with doesn't accomplish much.
Yeah, many of us DO know how to properly blow down a water glass (BTW, no one has yet posted the full, proper way to do it!), and most of us know not to rely on try cocks.
The main point on try cocks is that if they are as reliable and as fool-proof as some here seem to think, then the ICC, FRA, NBIC, ASME and everyone else would have long ago mandated the installation of two sets of try cocks and maybe the elmination of water glasses in favor of try cocks.
On the experience thing: The guy at the Gettysburg had a lot of experience, yet he never tumbled to the fact that the water glass wasn't doing what it should have been doing. Anyone want to get up on the podium and say that this guy is the ONLY one fooling around with steam locomotives today that would fall into that trap? Certainly not I.
I don't see any requirement in the FRA rules to "send in a sample." If you have no documentation of what your boiler is made out of, then you do have to have an analysis done to determine the carbon content of the steel. That's also necessary to know if contemplating welded repairs. It's not a big deal; most testing labs can determine the carbon content by analyzing a few shavings or filings; you don't have to cut out a big hunk of boiler course and ship it in. Like many other things in the rules, misunderstandings and misinterpretations (as well as anger at being told what to do) are causing a lot of unnecessary angst for a few people.
Some steam people are like teen agers. I know what I'm doing; it CAN'T happen to me; I'm an expert, it's the guy down the road who is an idiot, and the only guy dumber than him is the government inspector.
Has everyone forgotten that dozens (if not hundreds) of boiler explosions and near-explosions happened during 120 years of steam locomotive operation on the railroads? And that virtually every one of these occurred in spite of the decades of experience the engine crews and shop forces had? Granted, they also happened in spite of the rules and regs in place at the time, just as more will happen in our time in spite of new rules and regs and the experience level of those involved.
It's easy to quantify how many did happen (except for the near-misses, which were hushed up by those involved), but impossible to tell how many were prevented by the same attributes of experience and regs. The same applies today, IMO.
