The description is pretty garbled, but it sounds more like a flash-back on an oil burner than a boiler incident. Any of our members across the pond know more?

Unless this was similar to the incident at Gettysburg, it is unlikely a full blown boiler explosion, most don't live to break a leg from a genuine catastrophic failure.

The report also says this:



Could it have been a fusible plug going? That would explain why the loco appears intact in the photos, the injuries were relatively minor (compared to a typical boiler explosion) while also relating to low water and the mention of the fire blowing into the cab.

Sounds like they had the fire door open when the incident occurred. My thought is that they knew about the low water incident and were taking a look inside at the crown sheet to see if the plugs had failed when one possibly did, somehow pushing the flame path out the door...?

Either way, the photo in the article is no indicator of what the locomotive looked like during or after the incident. It clearly shows in the photo its still under steam, and is even being pulled in reverse at the time (red lights on the front give that away). The locomotive also appears to be a kriegslokomotive, which would imply a steel firebox.

Unless this is indeed a more serious boiler failure, I am willing to bet that nothing severe will come of this incident. A published study into why there was such low water would sure prove to be interesting though!

You guys are putting a lot of faith in a press release. My rating of public press releases runs somewhere in the negative number range.

http://nieuws.vtm.be/binnenland/188942- ... rein-eeklo
Here is a link to a video report from the VTM News about the incident. The locomotive that was effected is show in it.

Still news, don't know what they are talking about, even though I have no idea what they are saying.

I certainly couldn't understand the words but in looking at the video it looks like there is water dripping out of the front of the locomotive and possibly indication of steam having blown around the the door to the smokebox. Could this indicate a flue or super heater tube may have blown instead of a "boiler explosion".

According to Google Translate this is what the text at the above link approximately states:

During Stoomcentrum, a festival for steam trains, there has been an explosion in a steam locomotive near East Flanders Eeklo. It consists of two serious injuries. The cause is still not known. The emergency services are currently on the spot.

an explosion in the steam room in the locomotive took place. Then a safety mechanism came into effect, which could curb the fire. Still, four people were injured. Two of them were discharged with minor injuries to the AZ Alma in Eeklo, two others had to be transferred with heavy burns to the emergency department of the University Hospital in Ghent.

This year it is 50 years since the last steam train driving through Belgium and is now commemorated with this festival. Between Eeklo and Maldegem would carry passengers once the steam train. In that operation is in one of the steam trains gone wrong at the level of the village Balgerhoeke. There is another steam train from Maldegem jerked off to get stranded passengers to their destination yet.

Newswire covers the incident, details still to be determined: http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/20 ... ew-injured

Two things to keep in mind.
1) They simply said "explosion", and did not use the term "boiler explosion". It could just as easily have been a flashback from the fire or some other issue.
2) As others have mentioned, the accuracy of a typical newspaper article ranges from fair to non-existent.

That said, I still think this sounds like something involving a fusible plug.

Sounds very much like a blown flue.

A fusible plug 'going' is not likely to cause a blowback of that magnitude unless the whole plug blows out of the crownsheet as happened in the U.K.with similar results some 30 yrs ago. I'm inclined to agree with Linn that it is much more likely that a smoke tube or superheater flue collapsed. Currently the loco (an ex DB '64' not an ex DR '52' as shown in the news clip) is cordoned off pending official investigation. I hope the crew make a full and speedy recovery.
Ray.

Has anyone heard from softwerkslex?

Is this the same engine?
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=39308

I hope he wasn't involved.

softwerkslex is in Denmark, this steamer is in Belgium, and one of the guys working on the Denmark engine commented above. Like you, I did think of the similarities between the two situations.