The thread below about the 2nd sight glass has me thinking about the whole subject of boiler explosions.<p>When you see a chemical plant blow up somewhere 1,000 miles away on cable news they are interviewing people about what happened. Sure sonething happened to make the place blow up but the true root cause of the explosion is somewhere in history five years back. The same applies to the failure of the locomotive at Gettysburg.<p>First you have the care part. The rules set by the FRA past and present, if followed properly, are going to keep most out of trouble.<p>Next is the training part. Here is where the trouble starts. Does the guy (or girl) pulling the waterglass apart know what to look for? Are the fittings plugged up? Why? If they are cleaned do they plug up again? Maybe there is a water treatment problem below the surface?<p>Now we are fired up and ready to roll. Does the fireman blow out each connection with the other closed? Do they both blow good and strong? Next does the fireman give several quick blasts on the waterglass blowdown to bounce the water? How quickly does it bounce back into the glass? If it does not return quickly into the glass and have a little bounce to it the locomotive should stay at the shop and not be attached to that train load of first graders.<p>Who trains these people? What makes them able to train others? Does the manager have procedures in place to make sure everyone gets trained? Do the manager care? If the manager cares and everyone gets trained most incidents can be avoided, most people who go off to work plan of going home at the end of the day. This applies to weekend railroaders too.<p>Remember that a root cause often is found only after asking a lot of questions. It is often not one single bad thing but a series of events that have happened over years. These factors lead up to and are the cause of most industrial incidents including steam locomotive boilers blowing up. <br>

the FRA has an excellent training video that can serve as a quick refresher on the aspects of daily care and maintenance; it's part of our fireman trainig program at NCTM and was used for the april safety meeting to remind everyone; i made sure to take it home before spending this past weekend doing the shoveling and running the injector;<p>and, yes, i did bounce the water glass early and often!<p><br>



Wrinnbo@aol.com

Jim,<p>What's the video called? Can anyone request a copy of it? I know that the local FAA office has free safety videos available for loan to persons holding valid pilot certificates. Does the FRA have a similar program, and do you have to hold some sort of engineer's license or certification to request it? Thanks for the any info.<br>



rmminton@yahoo.com

The video is titled "Steam Locomtive Daily Inspection" and was done by the US DOT 5/16/97. It should be available by contacting your local FRA Inspector. It was my understanding that the video was sent to anyone who has filed cab cards on steam locomotves within the last 5 years. If you have not done this the FRA might want to do a visit to determine your status either insular or non-insular. <br>



minterjr@mindspring.com

the video was produced at the valley railroad and is extremely well done with lots of attention to the proper cleaning and blowing down of the water glasses; randy has given you the name of it; i suggest showing it early and often! <br>



Wrinnbo@aol.com