Dramatic Photos

Off the rails ...

Unknown private author.

Railway locomotive and train destroyed by French or Belgian Resistance, 1944. This may have started as a simple derailment. However, steam engines are, always, potentially dangerous machines; driving one safely was a skill. In particular, drivers had to be able to control the pressure in the boiler system, keeping it high enough to produce drive, but lower than the pressure tolerance allowed for the engine. Normally, if pressure rose too high, a lead plug in the boiler acting as a crude safety valve would melt and blow out, releasing the pressure (a dismissal offence for drivers on most railways, btw). However, the lead plug mechanism was not infallible and, if the driver was prevented, say, by injury or death, the boiler could overheat out of control, causing a catastrophic boiler explosion, as here. The "flared" effect at the front of the engine is caused by the bursting and spreading of the internal piping that distributes the heating water within the boiler - a bit like central heating radiators, in a way. Best regards, JR.