Locomotive Boiler Explosion - Smithville, TX
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 30° 00.399 W 097° 09.646
14R E 677392 N 3320946
Explosion was on February 8, 1911. A MK&T locomotive boiler exploded.
Waymark Code: WM139EH
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/18/2020
Views: 2
Texas Escapes reprint from Power Magazine"On February 8, a switch engine was brought from the shop after being thoroughly overhauled. While steaming up preparatory to run to another town, the boiler let go in one of the most disastrous explosions ever known.
The wreck was so complete that it could not be ascertained at just which point the rupture first occurred. The whole firebox end of the engine was blown to pieces and the cab to splinters. A portion of the roof sheet of the firebox was hurled a distance of three blocks, landing on the street, while smaller pieces flew twice as far. This portion is shown in Fig. 5. One large piece crashed through the roof of a business house several blocks away. At some places the rivets were sheared completely while at others the sheets, 1/2 inch thick, were torn like paper.
When the explosion came, the tender was thrown back into the turntable pit and the front part of the boiler was shoved a distance of about 100 feet, with the drivers plowing in the ground. The rear pair of drivers were shoved completely off their axle, as shown in Fig. 2, and were dragged along by the connecting rods while the axle was bent to the arc of a circle. These wheels are pressed on their axle under a pressure of 90 tons.
Four men lost their lives and twelve were injured. Two men in the cab and one on top of the boiler were blown to atoms, being identified only by hands, feet and bits of clothing.
It is the general opinion that the cause of the explosion was a defective steam gage. The man on the engine was setting the pop valve and it is thought that the gage stuck when the pressure reached 155 pounds, as the gage stood at that point when found."