Here's some REAL horsepower
 

A good demonstration on how horsepower & torque used to measured

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWv5_QjLqcs

These old steamers need to experienced, if you ever get a chance. Awesome pieces of machinery.

Those old steamers are great. Thanks for the link.

However - I’m surprised they let the crowd sit that close, after the Medina, OH tractor explosion in ’01.

(Killed 5 and injured I think about 50 others. I think it was a faulty $20.00 O/P relief valve. Awesome machines. But you gotta keep an eye on them.)

steam engines are cool.. just dangerous

whats its 1/4 mile time?

3 hours?

Yeah, ya clock them with a sundial;)

When I was involved with the hobby, I saw less and less steamers at the shows, due to the accidents. There was another bad blow up back east sometime around '95 or so. I heard they didn't have the right lead saftey plug in the bottom of the boiler, and were taking it up a ramp. BOOM!! Washington state made very strict inspection requirements about the mid-90's. Most of what did show up at a meet, wouldn't fire them up.

That's belted to a gin-yoo-wine BRAKE dyno too...not some pussy-foot, eddy current, electronically controlled, wannabe dyno. I'll just bet you that belt would *****-slap you upside the head if it parted ways at 3k ft/lbs of load.

A plug probably wouldn't have helped that situation. Uncover the crownsheet and it goes boom faster than a fusible plug could let the pressure off.

The Southern Railway locos that ran over Saluda grade had extra long water glasses so that the firemen could be assured of keeping the crownsheet covered when cresting the summit.

Oh really? Gads, I thought that was exactly what they were meant to be for. I suppose under the worst of conditions, you're right though. Water hitting a red hot crown sheet would be like lighting off a box of dynomite.

Actually, it's the lack of water on the crownsheet that allows the metal to quickly overheat and deform, allowing the firebox staybolts to pull loose and thus explosively vent the boiler. Even at a relatively low 125-150psi, there's more than enough energy in the steam to propel 50,000 lbs of prime mover end over end.

Ohio boiler explosion.

Thanks for the link. Way more involved than I ever knew.
Quite a list of sub-standard work that was done on that tractor. I hope other steam owners learned from that accident. These old tractors are too marvelous machines to have to relagate to static just displays.

The USS Shreveport (LPD-12) had the mainsteam stop valve fail when underway and it filled the engineroom with superheated steam and killed most of the guys. I think that was 1970 or 1971.