Recently, I was told of a tourist railroad operation where the engine crew dumped 12 days' worth of boiler water treatment in the tender tank all at once.

As we can imagine, they didn't make back to the station and had to dump the fire where they stalled, with a boiler full of foam.

This posting was prompted by the thread on youngsters volunteering in the hobby.
Knowledge combined with wisdom and caution makes for a good railroader.
A know-it-all, lazy or careless attitude, in young or old, causes trouble.

There are a thousand aspects to this, it makes no difference, professional or hobbyist, these are not toys.

Although some of us use them as such.

The laws of physics, chemistry, economics and art of human nature still apply.

End of rant. Now returning to our regular program ;-)

Some people have no business with a train set, let alone a full size locomotive. There are still a few lunatics out there who have failed to learn the lessons of Gettysberg or have conveinently ignored them.

I operated large industrial boilers my entire working life and soon learned that their stability could go south in a hurry.

First thing we used to do when a boiler got up to header pressure (800 lbs.) and out on the line was to open the continuous blowdown valve on the steam drum wide and then set the micrometer valve downstream at the flash tank. This ensured that the alkalinity levels would stay within limits and allow the water level to control and steam to be dry and clean.

One of our 4 crews forgot this step one day and then turned over the boiler soon after to the oncoming crew at shift change time. It wasn't long before they started having real problems controlling the level in the drum. Got so bad that it was starting to swing the whole house along with the feedwater header and vessels on the roof that supplied suction to the pumps. The head operator who was running the place told one of his crew to go upstairs and check that the continuous blowdown was open. Even after it was discovered and set normal, it took 40-50 minutes of blowing down the waterwalls to reduce the solids and alkalinity in the feedwater where it would finally control again. There was heck to pay for that lapse and it never happened again, but that upset could have gotten worse and caused a lot of damage.

Same ideas apply for fire tube boilers too.

How on earth did we ever manage to get nuclear reactors working... in submarines, no less.

Of course, they run those on demineralized water with select additives (notably borax because it is "liquid control rods".) Hypothetically, if you had an unlimited supply of demineralized water... would it make sense to use it (with additives of your choice) in a steam locomotive?

That is the reason I got out of the Navy. We were getting all these inner city kids down in the fire room that had never worked a day in their life, You would give them a direct order to do something important in the fire room & they would tell you to get bent or worse. We were running 1275 Psi steam at 1000* superheat. A small mistake could have killed us all. Now they hardly have any conventional steam powered ships left in service. They even combined the Boiler Tech rate with Machinest Mates. Sad day for sure.

Dave Huffman

Robert,
As a Navy Nuke Machinist's Mate, submarine qualified, I have first-hand information on how the program works;

1. Have a well defined body of technical knowledge.

2. Train everyone on understanding this knowledge.

3. Have a well defined, not to be deviated from, operating instruction.

4. Train everyone on understanding and performing, following these instructions.
a. Screen and cull personnel for reliabilty under routine and difficult conditions.
b. Conduct thorough academic training and testing.
c. Conduct thorough operational training, qualifications and casualty training and
drills.

5. Be open to changes in materials for construction, lubrication and water treatment.
Thoroughly test and evaluate these innovations in operating pilot plants
and full size testing and training plants, prior to introduction to the fleet.
a. Train personnel on the changes prior to and repeatedly during incorporation.
b. Continue to evaluate, as with all material and operational factors.

6. Conduct frequent refresher training, drills and evaluations on knowledge factors
qualifications, casualty responses.

7. Personnel involved in casualties and incidents write their own incident reports and
recommentations for submission and review up the chain of command.

8. Conduct reviews and training on incidents and ' lessons learned '.

9. Maintain written records of training, testing and evaluations. See 4 a. above.

10. Did I mention Knowledge, Materials, Procedures, Training and Evaluations ?
Stop, Think, Act, Review...

ps. Bob, Borate is used in reactor primary coolant, not secondary side steam cycle water. ;-)