Re: How do you ruin a crown sheet?

Kelly Anderson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It wouldn’t be wise to bet your life on a
> fusible plug. The following is a segment from a
> report about the traction engine that exploded in
> Medina, OH:

I was there when that tractor blew up--across the street (and out of sight due to a building), but close enough. The guys running it tried to drive it to the fairground, ran out of water, and attempted to make it. The result speaks for itself. The cops were on-scene immediately because apparently the tractor was tearing up the road and the cops were following the source of damage and happened to arrive just as the boiler let go. Since the guys driving the tractor were killed (as well, unfortunately, as someone else who merely had the bad luck to be nearby) it's impossible to know whether they were counting on the plugs to blow out and save them if their boiler water got too low but it is a certainty that they did not properly respect their machine. That incident was wholly avoidable.

I believe the Gettysburg 4-6-2 failed due to a combination of lying water glass and pump that wasn't pumping. I read somewhere that this engine's boiler used a firebox designed specifically to fail in a non-catastrophic manner and it basically did its job.