241P17 Severe Accident

If it was a tube that failed, then the crew would only of gotten 50% of the total damage, the other 50% would of travelled towards the smokebox?

 

Not necessarily, depending on how the tube failed. If (for example) it collapsed at the firebox tubeplate then presumably the presence of the remainder of the tube through the boiler to the smokebox tubeplate would prevent the distribution being such completely even proportions. I've never been in the situation though, and it is one of those that I genuinely hope I don't ever have to deal with.

This is not meant as speculation, before anyone picks me up on it; simply an illustration to answer the point above.

 

http://www.creusot-infos.com/article.php?sid=30075&thold=0

This report has an interview with the (injured) driver. It does indeed seem it was a burst pipe.

 

How sad, especially for the poor driver who is likely to be in hospital for some time. He said that he thought that a pipe had broken, but the cause will no doubt become clear in due course. We can only hope that he recovers well before too long.

It seems that the word for pipe can also mean tube, so even reading the reports it isn't entirely clear as to what happened. We shall have to wait for further information to be released by the locomotive owners.

 

I was once on a South African GMAM class Garratt with five others plus the loco crew. And we weren't cramped by any means. I'm sure that there would have been room for a couple more.

So, as there was no support coach, having ten crew and volunteers on a 241P footplate for what was basically a light engine movement may not have been excessive.

 

Hope it works, link to English translation.
http://translate.google.com/transla...eusot-infos.com/article.php?sid=30075&thold=0

Just checked, link does work.

 

Would a gauge glass failure create the sort of effect suffered in this accident?

 

Wouldn't have thought so John, and also it looks like she has Klinger style gauges rather than the flimsy plain glass tube we tend to use in the uk, it's highly unlikely a Klinger gauge would have burst as they use thick prismatic glass and are in a very solid fully encompassing metal body

 

Yes, that makes sense now; casting my mind back to 231 K22 when we had her at Steamtown - cheers Nigel.

 

Such lazy grammar, not 'gotten' it's received....not 'of' it's have. Remember....have, have,have.

 

You beat me to it! Gotten is a particularly horrible Americanisation, ugh!

 

Careful there, someone might accuse you of leaving out a full stop.

 

One might argue that the word "Americanisation" is more "horrible" than gotten. Gotten is an archaic form in England but was once commonly used. Using "of" is wrong but compared to the illiterate rubbish that is often posted to NP, this is inconsequential.

 

:focus:

The driver said explicitly that the failure was not from the boiler but "almost certainly" from a steam pipe (tuyau) that broke. A boiler tube is normally called a "Tube bouilleur", so I think it wasn't that.

 

Out of interest could someone link me a picture of a Klinger boiler gauge?

 

A diagram here.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...rps_Training,_Mechanical_Transport,_1911).jpg
Bit more here.
http://www.shastidenergy.co.uk/productDetail.asp?PID=15677&categoryID=2405

 

Klinger boiler gauge are mainly made from bronze. Only the front is glass. About 1 cm thick. You see the difference between water and steam through the different ways they reflect which gives you a clean demarkation between the two.

If a Klinger glass breaks (which they rarely do!!!) it is almost every time just a couple of cracks in the glass which still stays in place so there is only leakage and no blowing. Nine out of ten the glasses are already replaced before they are to thin. By then the triangular grooves has worn out so you need to replace the glass long before breakage.

 

Some official comment of the incident is here: http://www.lafrancevuedurail.fr/unecto/communique_241p17.htm

 

Google's translation of it here:
http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...urail.fr/unecto/communique_241p17.htm&act=url

Richard

 

If you cast your minds back to the Blue Peter incident at Dinting when superheater tubes blew - but luckily no-one was in the cab - this may be a similar incident.