fire hazard

[thudf1]

 

[pware]

A common sight towards the end of summer here in the steam era was blackened ground on both sides of the track . The long grasses that grew alongside the tracks during the spring rains were dead and tinder dry by the middle of summer. The sparks from a passing steam loco would easily set numerous grass fires. This has, thankfully, disappeared with the passing of the steam era but I have been on the odd heritage steam trip that had to divert to a different route during high summer because the local fire authorities deemed it too dangerous to allow a known "fire bug" to pass through their region.

I have also been on other trips where the steam train was followed a few minutes later by a fire fighting road truck with rail guidance wheels.

 

[Piere]

Wow! That's incredible. I never knew that was a thing.

It looks spectacular in the low light.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Piere.

 

[Forester1]

Pretty neat to see. Thanks for sharing that with us. Hence the spark arrestors that a lot of steam locomotives were forced to implement.

 

[JCitron]

I remember seeing stretches of burned grass along the ROW when I was growing up. Now I know why. Steam had disappeared a few years before I was born, but still into the mid-1960s there were still stretches that were badly scorched by the steam locomotives with blackened trees and black earth.

 

[jordon412]

Union Pacific challenger #3985 was restored by UP as a coal-burner, but it produced cinders that caused trackside fires that resulted in UP converting it to oil.