Steam Engine Explosion

[rbargeron]

The crash-and-burn thread got me wondering if there are any steam enthusiasts among us. Does anyone know any more details about what exactly happened in the Ohio incident 2 weeks ago? I heard one comment that the water level got low - but why exactly does that make an explosion more likely? Does it suddenly make more steam than the relief valve can get rid of? Thanks in advance for any light on this.

Oops - should have checked first - there's a thread over in Safety about this - I must have been tuned out for a few days - Mike Bayliss clearly explains crown sheet failure as the likely cause. <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by rbargeron on 08/10/01 10:11 AM (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[JonLeonard]

I have followed small scale steam engines for years, the small 1 1/2" scale railroad equipment that you, and 20 of your friends, can ride on. There are alot of articles in Live Steam and Modeltech magazines about boiler safety. Basically, they warn you to never leave the engine unattended, and to constantly monitor the water level in the boiler, the amount of water remaining in the reserve tank (definately dont want to run out when you need it), the check value (dont want it to be stuck closed) and the injectors (automatically adds more water to the boiler when it gets low, but the engine must be moving as they are mechanical)

Sounds like from the description of what happened several of these "rules" were violated. I guess the operators had gotten off the machine to talk to police, and when the machine is stopped its injectors are not working. Appearently, as they were talking, noone was checking the sight glass, which tells them how much water is in the boiler. Its also possible that the reserve water tank ran dry??

In either case, any water entering, or sloshing around in, the too low boiler would touch the dry, very hot firebox and "flash", basically change to steam and raise the pressure VERY quickly. If the check valve failed to open, or there was too much steam for it to vent, then the boiler would fail (read in EXPLODE here). /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

PS: Im really no expert on these things personally, I have just read 50-100 of the previously mentioned articles.

 

[MDNick]

My folks live only about an hour from Medina. There were over 50 people injured, including 2 kids of my cousin's ex-husband, they spent a week in Akron Children's Hospital. Dad is an equipment enthusiast so he has followed what happened. Following is an excerpt from an email he sent me.

All sorts of stories about what happened, but the consensus is that the machine was low on water, overheated the existing steam, and the various pressure relief mechanisms didn't function. There's supposed to be a fusible plug (pipe plug drilled out then filled with babbit) on the bottom of the boiler over the firebox. In extreme heat situations the babbit is supposed to melt, dumping the remaining water on the fire and also relieving the pressure buildup. According to a friend of my Dad's that plug had been replaced with a solid pipe plug.
Additional rumor has it that the Medina PD had stopped the owner to jaw at him about damage to Route 18 done by the machine. Supposedly the owner told the cop that he was low on water, let's talk after I get it parked and the fire pulled, but the cop insisted on keeping the machine where it was while he wrote up a ticket.

As has been said here over in safety, and from what my dad said, it was one absolute hell of a mess.

Farmer kid usetabe, Farmer Wannabe

 

[skent]

Prior neighbor of mine had three of them he used to run in parades. But he had a Gasoline powered Farmall with a BIG air compressor running off the Farmalls PTO. The Farmall/compressor (being driven 30 feet in front of the steam engine) was used to run the steam tractor via a 40 foot long 1" high pressure air hose. From what I saw, It gave the crowd the sound and sights of a steam engine, without the smoke or steam.

Steve