Strange boiler/water gauge issue - one off?

[HarmanMotor]

Back into DV after a week or so hiatus and first off I must say thank you to the devs for the ongoing updates; in addition to all the update improvements, performance has been improved noticeably on my system too. No more 'loading screen' delays when I move around the DV world.

Anyway, today I noticed something strange with the steam locomotive boiler on my run back from City SW to the Steel Mill. Initially as I left City SW, I was using the steam dump for several moments (the effect is pretty cool) and I wanted to avoid the over-pressure valve from constantly popping-off.

My boiler pressure came back to around 15 bar and so I closed the steam dump and continued my merry way East. A few moments later I noted that I needed to add some water so on went the water injector...

As happens way too frequently (thanks to my terrible memory...), I had my water injector left on too long and I thought I had an overfilled boiler as the gauge was 'full'. Unfortunately pretty routine for me...so I attempted to drain off some excess water but after draining for some time, the water gauge still 'appeared' full. I kept draining for a while, still no movement downwards on the gauge.

I panicked and thought I had an empty boiler after all, because my pressure gradually started dropping and the water gauge is quite deceptive in whether it has water or not when it's either completely full or empty. However after running the injector for a while, still no movement on the gauge.

I checked the tender and there was still about a 1/3 water left.

In the end I had to make an emergency stop at Oil Well Central as my boiler pressure was now around 3 bar and not climbing, and adding water or draining water seemed to have no effect on the water gauge and boiler pressure was not rising even with a healthy fire.

Anyone had this happen before? I put it down to some bug that possibly got triggered when overfilling the boiler past a certain point.

Devs, by way of disclosure I am currently running the 'AlphaSteamerMod' from the Mod Nexus so if you think this may be a contributor, please ignore my post; I just thought it might be a point of discussion for those who may have experienced a similar issue.

Cheers

[WafflesButterAndSyrup]

Yeah, I’ve had that issue once or twice. I haven’t found any way to fix it, I just grab a different steamer. Glad you made it to a place where you could do a loco change

[Altfuture]

Hi, I'm not sure if the mod had caused this issue, but presuming it didn't all I can think of is that something had previously opened the water drain valve (maybe a shovel nudge?) and that despite injector being opened, it drained out.

Alternatively, it's worth noting that when the boiler is full, it will take some time for the draining water to become visible on the water meter - this is because it only shows the level between 75-85% of the boiler capacity (actual physical water level of the entire boiler).

Glad to hear that the performance improvements are noticeable!

[Phoenix]

Originally posted by Altfuture:

Alternatively, it's worth noting that when the boiler is full, it will take some time for the draining water to become visible on the water meter - this is because it only shows the level between 75-85% of the boiler capacity (actual physical water level of the entire boiler).

I think this is really what happened. It confused me too a couple of times because the meter showed full and I tried draining for maybe 6-10 seconds and didn't see a change, so I assumed there was something else going on. However I tried the water dump again and left it on for 15 seconds or something like that, and the meter did start to go down.

[Altfuture]

This was a 1 year old thread :) But yes, that's likely what happened. In the meantime we've added the % values to the steamer manual illustration of the water meter to make it more clear.

In the future if the water level drops under 75% and the firebox is at high temperature, its top surface, the so called crown sheet, will be able to melt and cause the boiler to explode.

[GiganticGuyverII]

Hello I know the thread is old but in case anyone else experiences this problem I want to let them know the solution as this was exactly what I was experience to much frustration. The problem simply that your boiler/water glass is empty. I kept thinking the glass was full because of the reflection and somewhat clear/light blue look to the glass. Go ahead and find a fresh loco with partial water in the glass and dump the water and you will see a familiar sight lol. Also if we could get a water purging visual effect under the loco when we dump it may help others in the future cause the purge sound is hard to hear at times.

[Little_Richie]

Even a little orange float ball in the sight glass would work wonders. I'm hoping this will be part of the steam engine improvements update