It is currently Sat Nov 02, 2024 9:33 pm

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 42 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3  Next
Author Message
 Post subject: A bad day for SP #18
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:10 pm 

Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 7:24 am
Posts: 544
Location: Canada
Narrow Gauge SP 4-6-0 #18 on loan to the Durango and Silverton blew a cylinder head, ...she’ll be out for a while.


Attachments:
137DA65A-652E-48AA-BCC0-4C7F9DBD9FEE.jpeg
137DA65A-652E-48AA-BCC0-4C7F9DBD9FEE.jpeg [ 277.43 KiB | Viewed 13103 times ]


Last edited by Finderskeepers on Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: A bad day for SP #18
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:14 pm 

Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 7:24 am
Posts: 544
Location: Canada
Another view


Attachments:
5C55C524-9B0E-4915-9342-CD92D020F558.jpeg
5C55C524-9B0E-4915-9342-CD92D020F558.jpeg [ 179.62 KiB | Viewed 13086 times ]
Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: A bad day for SP #18
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:39 pm 
User avatar

Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2018 7:08 pm
Posts: 326
Location: Alberta, Canada
My goodness! I hope no one was hurt.

Any idea as to what happened, or is it too early to say?

_________________
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: A bad day for SP #18
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 9:31 pm 

Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:25 pm
Posts: 491
That's unfortunate. Looks like a nice clean break in the casting. No clear sign of a prior crack/flaw.

Looks like a hydraulic failure, someone forgot to open the cylinder cocks, or the cocks were plugged ?

Good luck, Kevin


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: A bad day for SP #18
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 10:02 pm 

Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 10:49 am
Posts: 768
NYCRRson wrote:
That's unfortunate. Looks like a nice clean break in the casting. No clear sign of a prior crack/flaw.

Looks like a hydraulic failure, someone forgot to open the cylinder cocks, or the cocks were plugged ?

Good luck, Kevin


I'm thinking if it had been water in the cylinders it would have blown the entire head off. I'm thinking something else let go and the piston overtraveled into the cylinder head.


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: A bad day for SP #18
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 10:11 pm 

Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 7:24 am
Posts: 544
Location: Canada
https://durangoherald.com/articles/2716 ... of-durango


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: A bad day for SP #18
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 10:16 pm 

Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:29 am
Posts: 319
Looks like the piston came loose and hit the head....very similar to the damage incurred on the hiesler that was running in Arizona in '09...rod end came off, piston hit the head, blew the cover off and shattered the head....
If you look close, there's probably cracks radiating from the center hole....


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: A bad day for SP #18
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 10:22 pm 

Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 7:24 am
Posts: 544
Location: Canada
Whatever happened, it does not look as simple as someone forgot to open the cylinder cocks. Looks like the piston itself shattered as well as the head...appears something worked loose allowing the piston to contact the cylinder head.


Attachments:
08D3F9B6-E588-4A96-ACF1-FE1EA68ECD74.jpeg
08D3F9B6-E588-4A96-ACF1-FE1EA68ECD74.jpeg [ 221.05 KiB | Viewed 12794 times ]
Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: A bad day for SP #18
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 11:30 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 7:19 am
Posts: 6439
Location: southeastern USA
Well, if it had to happen it happened at a railroad with a shop more than capable of dealing with this kind of relatively simple repair. I'm sure the D&S will have her back in service soon after they get the castings from the foundry.

_________________
“God, the beautiful racket of it all: the sighing and hissing, the rattle and clack of the cars over the rails. These were the sounds that made America the greatest country on earth." Jonathan Evison


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: A bad day for SP #18
PostPosted: Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:53 am 

Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 11:27 am
Posts: 137
That's not something you see everyday even in the steam era. However in today's world it is a WOW event.


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: A bad day for SP #18
PostPosted: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:25 pm 

Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2013 1:16 pm
Posts: 213
The piston fragments show that they struck each other as the thing disintegrated, and that tells me that the cylinder bore got gouged and roughed up by those big chunks as they hammered the cylinder head.

I see a boring machine in that engines future.


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: A bad day for SP #18
PostPosted: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:55 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 8:51 pm
Posts: 2049
Location: Southern California
This thread on the NGDF contains a number of images showing the damage, etc.:

SP 18 run, piston failure, and rescue 4-9-19

_________________
Brian Norden


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: A bad day for SP #18
PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:22 am 

Joined: Mon Jul 02, 2018 8:04 pm
Posts: 314
I was riding this train during the break down. Official cause was a broken lubricator.


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: A bad day for SP #18
PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2019 3:41 pm 

Joined: Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm
Posts: 2906
Tom F wrote:
I was riding this train during the break down. Official cause was a broken lubricator.


Surprised they've nailed it down so fast. However, I suppose the lack of lubrication could have caused the piston to bind up, which caused it to slide on the piston rod or do something that effectively made the piston rod longer than it should be by moving some adjustment point. That could in turn cause it to strike the cylinder heard. So it's seems plausible that's what happened.


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: A bad day for SP #18
PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2019 4:35 pm 

Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2013 3:55 pm
Posts: 96
Per Jeff Taylor post on NGDF...

"Here is the inside scoop. It is believed that a partial ring failure caught a port and destroyed the piston. The piston fragments then punched a hole in the cylinder head."

More information can be found at their forum.


Offline
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 42 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3  Next

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]


 Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 61 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: