What Happened to the Crew of This Train? | Last Moments

this chilling picture was taken in 1943 it depicts the aftermath of a catastrophic event that befell steam locomotive in ohio usa what happens to this engine and if the train looks like that what happened to the crew to explain this mysterious picture we first have to understand the basics of how a steam engine works an engine like this uses fire to heat water in a boiler producing highly pressurized steam that is used to drive the wheels the crew ignite and maintain a fire in the firebox this is done by burning solid fuel like wood or coal the heat and smoke from the firebox pass through an array of pipes as they make their way to the smoke box and out the smoke stack the pipes they pass through are surrounded by water this is the boiler as the heat passes through the pipes it heats the surrounding water in the boiler and turns some of it to steam this steam is under a lot of pressure and needs somewhere to go it passes through the steam dome on its way down to pistons that power the wheels in some designs the steam must first pass through a super heater on its way out of the steam dome a superheater reintroduces the steam to the flowing heat turning the saturated wet steam into superheated dry steam increasing its thermal energy and decreasing the likelihood it will condense in the engine what cannot be understated is the extreme values at play here the incredible heat and pressure put a lot of strain and stress on the components of a steam engine to the point where many parts require periodic replacement to make sure they're always up to the task these extreme values ensure that should any of these parts fail the resulting release of energy could be immensely destructive and that brings us back to this picture the locomotive here is a chesapeake and ohio t1 class numbered 3020. in may 1943 residents outside chillicothe ohio were shook by a monstrous roar coming from the railway upon inspection the noise appeared to have come from a train sitting idly on the tracks the engine was hideously deformed and steaming debris less scattered all around the three crew men in the cab were badly scalded all three would die of their injuries the boiler had exploded forcing the superheater tubes out through the front of the locomotive explaining the image you see here what is not clear is what caused the boiler to explode it's been suggested that the train had been traveling up an incline at the time of the incident slowing the train to a near stall the crew not wanting to stall on the hill may have opted for less water in the boiler as less water is easier to heat and thus convert into more steam adding water at this point would have cooled the engine resulting in less steam and less pressure potentially resulting in a stall water is an essential component of the steam engine though and it's used for more than just the creation of steam as the firebox heats the water so too does the water cool the firebox a lack of water brings a lack of temperature moderation under which the metal sheets of the firebox begin to overheat the metal will turn red hot and begin to melt keep in mind this machine is housing a volume of high pressure steam strong enough to pull many tons of train if part of that housing begins to fail the steam will make its way out explosively the brake man fireman and engineer were blasted with super heated steam scalding them to death some reports have the blinded breakman explaining that he had begged the other two crew members to put water in the boiler just before succumbing to his injuries these old locomotives did not have the benefit of automated systems checks like we do today the crew was solely responsible for monitoring and maintaining the balance between temperature and pressure in boiler explosions like this insufficient water was commonly the cause although such explosions were rare and so 80 years on this picture is still strangely unnerving even if you don't know what you're looking at this image tells you that something went terribly terribly wrong what makes this picture truly horrifying is the fact that when you look into it you learn that being involved in this incident would have been far worse than even the terrifying picture indicates the image suggests the relief of an instant death though we know that is not how the crew spent their last moments [Music] you

Channel: Qxir

Views: 5,750,028

Keywords: C&O T-1 3020, explained, boiler, explosion, failure, chillicothe, ohio, train, locomotive, steam, engine, crash, irish, creepy, tubes, pipes, piping

Id: O0TxKH6eYQw

Length: 5min 28sec (328 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 01 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Itchy-Worldliness903]

damn