Steam Locomotive Maintenance

[Ace-Garageguy]

One of the main reasons diesels replaced steam as railroad motive power was the constant labor cost of keeping the steam engines running properly.

This British film from the 1950s is one of the best I've seen to go into detail about the regular work required to maintain the boiler, firebox, and smokebox...and this is only a small part of the loving attention that was routinely lavished on these beasts.

 

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by Ace-Garageguy

[Brian Austin]

Someone built a large-scale loco as a cutaway model, showing the firebox and boiler.

According to the chatter in the comments section, this was largely scratchbuilt.

https://largescalecentral.com/t/locomotive-cutaway-model/77015

 

 

[Oldcarfan27]

And this is what happened when they weren't maintained. 

KaBooom!!!

A boiler that can't boil, makes for a very bad day!