A steam locomotive explosion was narrowly averted in Yorkshire https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/her...-during-yorkshire-dales-rail-tour-3766308?amp
I see this the other day. Apparently they let the tanks run dangerously low. Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure things like this is the reason why most of these services have a diesel behind them.
Had they not done this it would have resembled the 1995 Gettysburg Steam locomotive explosion where the Firemen and the Train Engineer (US Terminology for a UK Train Driver DB Germany SBB Rhb Switzerland lokführer) got seriously burned due to a crown sheet failure taken from NTSB Report. Worst case scenario is the 1977 Rapid Transit Bitterfeld Steam locomotive explosion. The story about this is in German Language ARD ZDF MDR Leipzig Riesa Dessau Dresden Chemnitz Videos of what could have happened to this SR Merchant Class had they not done the correct plan which would be the 1995 Gettysburg steam explosion or 1977 Bitterfeld steam explosion Train TV Germany Bitterfeld 1977
Clickbait and ill informed reporting. If the loco ran out of water they would simply drop the fire. Or the worst that might happen is the fusible plug over the firebox melted which would douse the fire with steam. Either way you would not get a boiler explosion. That would only happen if the safety valves were jammed and pressure was allowed to build unchecked in the boiler, but no professionally maintained and driven steam loco in the UK is going to get anywhere close to that situation.
From what I can find that was the crown of the firebox collapsing, rather than the boiler itself blowing up like a balloon. So a serious occurrence yes but not quite as dramatic as might seem. A thread on this forum: Blowbacks & dropped fusible plugs etc. | National Preservation (national-preservation.com) discusses at some length and surprised to read the fusible plug going doesn't always douse the fire. However the situation reported in the OP was still managed. The crew knew they were getting short of water and if it had not been possible to get the tender replenished, they would have dropped the fire.
For a moment 35018 looked like it could have ended up like it's classmate at the NRM in York- sectioned with half it's boiler missing! In all seriousness I'm glad it wasn't as dangerous as the article made it out to be. Thankfully we have quite a few Merchant Navies in preservation, so if the worst came to the worst and irreparable damage occurred then at least we'd still have plenty of other members of the class enjoy. It's not like V2 no. 4771 Green Arrow which hasn't run in over a decade due to a crack in the cylinder casting which would be too costly to repair, which is a terrible shame as it's the only V2 in preservation.
