low water alarm for steam locomotives

[UP5521]

I been doing some thinking and I noticed there seems to be nothing in a cab of any small steam locomotive like a low water alerm and all you had was a injector to help fill the boiler with water and I need to know how come some of the steam locomotives that originate from the USA have problems maintaining pressure and keeping water in there so that the crew does not get killed and or burned with scalding hot steam, because I have been reading from a source that this has happened numerous times before and from what I was reading that said a piece of a locomotive boiler hit a house but why the absence of a low water alarm for small steam locomotives that would help save not only the crew but everyone's lives in the process?

 

[Klinger]

Well, for one, no power. Part of both the fireman's and engineers job was to check the water glasses constantly, which is why most locomotives have two water glasses.

there is no need for an alarm under normal operating conditions. When some one does not do their job properly is when accidents happen. Most boiler explosions occur when the water level drops below the firebox crown sheet. Meaning the top of the firebox has no water on it. So the fire (heat rises) heats the crown sheet, and when water is added to the boiler, the red hot crown sheet instantly turns the water to steam, too quickly for the safety valves to release. pressure builds, and the steam finds a weak spot.

 

[pommie]

In the top of the firebox there are lead plugs, just tapered holes in the steel of the boiler filled with lead, while these plugs are covered with water they do not melt but when the water drops below the plugs they melt very quickly, allowing the steam in the boiler into the firebox putting out the fire, end of danger, start of a lot of explaining by the driver and fireman :hehe:

Cheers David