The Hindenberg Of Rail

the other big difference from steam to diesel was the convenience of startup, steam engines must start fire like 5 hours before they can move, oldest diesel like 30 min before, its a huge difference in operational change

Fun fact: Boiler explosions were very common early on and especially on ships. Boiler manufacturers would eventually stamp a warning on the plates of the firebox stating that the manufacturer was not responsible for any death or injury from the use of the boiler. This is where the term "boiler plate warning" comes from.

Working with stills and having one pop I can tell you a small one was catastrophic with medium pressure. the shed was just gone. I cannot imagine a steam locomotive going.

"Why is there smoke coming out of your engine, Seymour?" "Oooh that isn't smoke, that's steam, steam from the steam engine. Mmm steam engine!"

Railway shunter for V/Line in Victoria, Australia for 23 years. As part of the Bicentennial celebrations in 1988, Britain shipped over The Flying Scotsman steam loco to run around the country with our carriages. As the new(ish) guy, I was "volunteered" to attach it to the set of cars for the Melbourne-Sydney run. I thought it was kinda cool, to work with such a famous beast for a change. Afterwards, I realised why they shoved me at it. Dirty, dirty bugger of a thing it was. 😂 I was covered head to toe in soot.

The biggest reason steam was put to pasture is that steam is very, very labor intensive to maintain and takes a lot of hours to keep running properly and safely. It is much simpler and cheaper to run diesels and multiple locomotives can be ganged together and operated by 1 crew. Diesel also does not need a huge infrastructure to resupply water and fuel. When the UP takes their steam on tour it takes a big staff to service it in many planned stops.

Steam boilers in river boats and ships were also all to common.

"A wave of Nopes as far as the eye could see" 😂

It's amazing a steam train could reach over 88 miles per hour while pushing a Delorean back to the future, great Scott!! xD

My grandfather, born in 1879, lost all the fingers on one hand and had his lungs scalded in a steam engine explosion. Even years later he was not able to get life insurance because of these injuries. He died at 87 years old, peacefully in his bed, outliving all his doctors and the insurance company. With

You brought up BetaMax so im going to chime in. People always talk about how Porn was on VHS and thats what killed Betamax, but it really wasn't, Sony wouldn't license Betamax out, all Betamax players and tapes were Sony they did the same thing with minidisk. VHS meanwhile was owned by JVC, they licensed it out to dozens of companies to produce tapes and players, so they were WAY cheaper, like half the cost, and the tapes were easier to buy and rent. The nail in the coffin though was a Standard VHS tape ran 2 hours they even had 3 hour ones a Betamax tape was 60 minutes, meaning even for short romcoms, you had to change the Betamax tape to watch a movie, which got around as annoying they took more space to shelve so video rental stores didn't carry BetaMax, so people didnt buy the players.

Cold water going into a hot partially dry boiler definitely has an effect. . . Thermal shock and mechanical stresses. . . A picture is worth a thousand words.

The water heater in you home is a marvel of engineering, these too used to devastate homes and neighborhoods until all of the safety features were invented. Mythbusters have a classic video of one intentionally set to fail, and wow did it ever. I think they call them BLEVE's I cannot imagine a steam locomotive going off, it's like understanding the size of the universe

Another interesting topic would be the short-lived revival of interest in steam cars in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a way to reduce smog. The EPA funded multiple studies and prototypes, but government interest waned when the first gas crisis shifted the focus to fuel efficiency.

So basically the Chillicothe accident happened the same way as the Sultana?

Hey Joe, I'm a boiler operator. One thing you touched on that makes steam boilers so dangerous is that the water super heats under pressure like you said. But if there's a sudden pressure drop, like a small rupture in the pressure vessel, the ENTIRE volume of water instantly flashes to steam at a volumetric ratio of 1600:1. You read that right. 1 liter of superheated water will instantly flash into 1600 liters of steam. Big bada boom.

I travelled from France to England on a steamboat. Nothing exploded, no bad things happened. But I did get to be stoker / oiler on a freaking STEAMBOAT for a couple of days :)

Joined! I don't recall how I found your channel but what a treat. Keep doing this, Joe!

I hear "Next Gen Steam Engine" and my mind immediately jumps to nuclear options xD

Some notes from my memory banks: I read that back in the mid-late 19th century, about the time Mark Twain was bopping about on them, they would race steamboats on the rivers with reckless abandon. The engines would be pushed well past their operational limits and explosions were quite common apparently, killing many on board. I also remember reading about a steam powered car someone built and was reported on in Popular Mechanics. I'd be interested to know what became of it.