The topic of modern regulatory requirements for park trains was raised by myself on another post, and later I thought to mention this.Some years ago I had a cab tour of the Swedish engine at Unity, Maine. This engine had an enclosed, cold weather cab, and an unusual control. A cable running the width of the ceiling was connected to a spring loaded stop valve on the manifold. In the event of an emergency, pulling the cable stopped all steam supplies in the cab. This appeared to be original equipment.Do you recall the death in the enclosed cab of the 2-8-2T in the northwest a decade ago? Would a master safety valve like this have saved that person's life?

As I recall the individual unscrewed a try cock or some other part from the backhead of the locomotive with steam up. This allowed boiler steam to blast the unscrewed article into the person and steam to shoot all over the place. What you are referring to only would shut off the accessory steam after it has left the boiler.

The way I heard this was that it was a backseated valve on the turret that was unscrewed opening the live steam to the cab space. The person who unscrewed the valve reached up on top and tried to turn the valve. Not knowing it was backseated and already open he thought it was jambed. He then used a wrench to open the valve and since it was on top he could not see that the bonnet was turning since the valve was already open. The entire stem came out and end of story, end of one life.

Technology can't replace a comprehensive understanding and knowledge of operating standards and practices. Any suggestion that hardware alterations can magically make incompetent operators safe is founded on blind faith in technology against all empirica reality. To put it another way, if somebody doesn't know how to maintain one water glass in good order, why should they do better with two to keep track of? dave

The person who is being spoken of was named Curt Ferris-who by the way was an accomplished railroad historian, ardent restorationist... and a good guy to boot.For some unexplained reason, our Master called him away from us-way, way too soon. Such are the mysteries of...life. DPK

AMEN! Nothing is fool or mistake proof. If someone chooses to be careless or neglectful, all the regs in the world are useless.As a side observation, the State of Texas has passed a law that TOTALLY exempts any horse owner, or any one who uses a horse for any purpose, from all liability if anyone is killed or injured as a result of the said horse. All equine facilities have this notice, for large riding clubs to the little lady that brings ponies to birthday parties.A horse is a totally unpredictable (my wife has five of these self propelled poop makers) and ofter very dangerous thing, much more so in point of fact than a boiler. A boiler is predictable, if it in serviceable shape, and you keep water in it, it will not explode. If the appliences that are attached to it are maintained, and operated in a concientious manner, you will not get hurt.Horses can and will run away, trample, and destroy themselves, people and things without apparent provocation, and there are likely hundreds injured and several folks killed annually as a result of an encounter with a horse, yet the horse lobby has it here that they have no exposure.Any one want to give odds on getting steam engines or historic rail attractions in general such an exemption?

Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool!

As a member of the only US railroad museum to regularly use horses as locomotives I feel an overwhelming need to chime in…Historically there was a body of knowledge known as “Horse Sense.” It included such common sense ideas as don’t walk behind a horse, especially a mare. This knowledge was basic to a 19th century life, particularly on a farm. To be said to be lacking “horse sense” was an insult suggesting that one didn’t know his backside from an outhouse.Today most people lack “horse sense” thinking of a horse as some kind of big puppy dog instead of the large animal that they are, and don’t understand that as a prey animal horses judge all things by whether or not they are likely to eat a horse (and if in doubt they assume that the object, be it a toy balloon or a paper bag likely to eat them) Their response is to run, irrespective of anybody in the way, or anything like a wagon or a length of rail that they may be pulling. This gets scary when such a person is in charge of a horse.I have seen the mechanical equivalent of horse sense shown (or lacking) by many of the operators of steam locos or tractors. Those with “the” knowledge respect steam and understand the consequences of losing control. Those who don’t get excited about whistles and such, but ignore leaky stay bolts and boiler washes.By the way, our insurance company is more concerned about the horse side of our operation than they are about the railroad side.

All of these various points of view seem to work best when someone else is the injured party. What does one say to the mother of the three year old killed by a kick to the head in an unexpected encounter with a horse? The legal liability exclusions in various states are politically popular, but they also remove incentives for feasible safety improvements.For example, there are documented cases of deaths due to spooked horses pulling carriages/wagons. These are inherent risks in animal drayage, but are we really helpless to prevent injury? The brakes on a typical 100 year old carriage are not very strong, perhaps not even present on all four wheels. Is better braking called for? How about some means to separate the horse from the carriage in an emergency, while moving?On the steam side, traditional skills and experience are obviously important safety elements, but who has these skills today? A few, perhaps, in full time daily operations such as in Colorado or Pennsylvania. Consider the Union Pacific steam crew. They operate the largest engines in the country, for large public crowds, and under great media attention. Their risk exposure is extraordinary, but how many hours per year of actual steam operating time do they experience? How do they develop the traditional safety sense? I expect they can not, well intentioned as they are. Procedures and safety appliances must be changed to reflect, not only modern increased expectations of personal safety, but the change in crew skills.Crewmen of old operated steam 60 hours a week, every week, for years. They also had a structured environment encompassing hundreds of other crewmen operating similar equipment and a supervisory structure to collect and distribute safety notices. No matter how skilled in welding or machine repair, a contemporary steam operator experiencing perhaps a seasonal 20 hours per week is not going to achieve the same powers of observation and safety. Modern technology can improve this skills gap.

Well, then, none of us should be allowed to run steam then, because none of us are running 2-10-2's in daily freight service. And, there should be no such thing as a pilots liscence for anyone that isn't flying an Airforce fighter or a 747 for American Airlines.I knew some of the last "steam"men, a bunch of old guy's off the MOP and ESPEE, and I am here to tell you that except for the fact God protects the ignorant and the innocent, it is a wonder any railroad was able to run, and in many cases experience also led to a jaded, careless attitude, and many, many bad things were avoided by the poor green guy's on the crew. I had an old boiler maker brag/confess "Hell, boy, we had to stay drunk to get the work done."Most engineers were on the railroad to draw a good check, and drawing that check was why they were there, not becoming the finesse kings of the high iron. A good analogy is how many truck drivers utilize the safest practices, despite their experience, knowledge and power of observation.As far as tricks to get over the road better, hasten switching, train handling, ect, they old guys have many of us beat, but not in the safety department. If you have seen some of the welding that I have seen on engines, used by mainline railroads, used in daily, hard service that looked like bubblegum smeared on by a kids elbow.Yes, maybe back when a lot of tourist railroads were a bunch of "Hey gang, lets fire up old number 11 and haul a train" maybe there werent the sharpest tacks in the box.But there some sharp steam operators out there, and some sharp rebuilders, and most are better than the "real guys."And no amount of regulation can take the place of a conscientious operator.