Well, no, it wasn't..........

Sorry Nathan,
but what you got ahold of was mainly information from Pennsylvania inspector John Peyton. There were a total of THREE separate investigations. The state of Ohio (which gave us the forunner of the ASME standards for boiler construction), Peyton's, and another source that escapes my memory. All but Peytons cite the cause as being a low water crown sheet failure. The fusible plug didn't melt out because it was two years older than baseball, and all of the soft metal had turned to oxide.
The crownsheet WAS wasted, but the CAUSE was LOW WATER.
Peyton has advocated pouring concrete in ALL rivited boilers over 50 years old, and has also stated that locomotive style, firebox boilers are a design that is inherently unsafe. He has had a hard o** for any and all historic boilers for 30 years.
Are there traction engine idiots? Well, not as many as Mr. Knox would have you believe.
I have two, one operable and one undergoing a slow restoration. My operable engine is inspected by the state, and since I run it just a few times a year, it costs me nearly 100 bucks a throw just in amortized inspection fees. I have a significant investment in the machine itself. While I might worry about stuff that hasn't been inspected or something just drug in from the woods, that just isn't happening anymore.
The expense of running a traction engine keeps the casual and the careless away; most of those guys are out putting imron gloss paint jobs on some old John Deere they have found, a steamer is too much work and expense.
Most all of those new to the steam hobby go to a comprehensive steam school done by the Pawnee Steam show folk. The training there is more comprehensive than many comperable RR programs.
And, yes I have restored steam locomotives to the new regs, WT Carter #4.
Never forget that the Gettysburg explosion happened less that 24hr after an FRA inspection.
You know, some of us in the steam RR community act like the kind of folks that would throw their weakest kid to the wolves trying to save their own neck. If we can positively impact safe repair and operation of traction engines and the like, we should, but I don't think it does anybody any good to make blanket statements about "all" or "most" engine owners don't know what they're doing.
I'd bet that the average traction engine owner has sunk more of his own money and effort in steam preservation than any one here except maybe Dan Markoff.
If your interest is in any type of stayed firebox boiler, you had better stick together.
"First they came for the communists, then they came for the Jews, and then.................they came for me, and there was no one left to help me."
Rev JJ, former member of the Texas Board of Labor and Standards Historic Boiler Task Force Commitee