S282 explodes on route IMW to MF

[Weißbrot]

Water was fine, pressure was fine, fire temp was below 1k, speed was under 40kmh, it just exploded without any reason now 3 times, i pulled allways a over 600-700t train, am i doing anything wrong?

[Napalm51]

If it exploded most likely you ran out of water, if you aren't playing in realistic mode you can "cheat" using F4 and check the actual water level in the boiler and how much you have in the tender

[Mama Cel]

Probably.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Honestly, I don't know really. As far as the "typical" reasons, a lot of people seem to not be aware that the water level does change when you are on a gradient, so if you are going uphill, all your water has moved towards the rear of the boiler (towards the cabin) and will look artificially higher than it actually is. The opposite will be true going downhill. So you do need to take that into account, I'm sure.

But if that doesn't help with your problem, not sure what else. Could you provide more information on what exactly happens and where? Are you going up or downhill? Is it always at the exact same spot? What are you doing when it explodes? Are you able to run it ok in other places under the same circumstances (like the same load, for the same amount of time, etc.) without it exploding? Are there any warning signs before it explodes (pressure spikes or ominous sounds or anything) or does it look like everything is perfectly fine when it suddenly explodes out of nowhere?

Also, maybe try running it with the manual control hud on, so you can actually see the numbers it is giving for temp, pressure, boiler water level and such. It might be easier to see if there is a problem then.

[Weißbrot]

Not sure cause i am not done with testing but maybe it was caused by overfilling my boiler with water, i noticed that when you build pressure the water level is rising, i always raised the water level manually with the injector so maybe thats the problem, i am preparing right now everything to examine the problem, on the other runns i had no problems with the S282 but i have to admit i had only 3 diffrent runns with it on Simulator Update.

[Mama Cel]

True! The water level does go up as it heats up. I remember Hyce mentioning that specifically in his video, that real steam engines actually do that too. It isn't filling it exactly, it's just expanding with heat, but if you filled it with the injector all the way up, then heat it up, the water has no room to expand, so that could definitely lead to an explosion.

[Weißbrot]

Well i saw on the F4 controlls that when i ran up that hill i had a water shortage caused by the level of elevation so it exploded because i used so much water that when i arrived the switch or the passenger stations of MF i was completely run out of water and this caused the explosion, thx for your comments :)

[Japimon]

Going downhill and all the water goes to front of the boiler, exposing the crown could be a fatal error. So remaining the water level at "almost full" just before downhill could be the key..
If remaining visually full in downhill could be the other reason

[Legata Flavia]

S282 on realistic difficulty is basically suicide unless I drive on flat terrain. When the locomotive hits gradient it starts to show nonsense on water level and even that nonsense is jumping up and down. Tried to pull train from Harbor Military Base to Military Base with ammo, nuclear stuff and derailed due of boiler explosion...

[pugdogg55]

I just blew up the steamer as well shortly after leaving harbor. Pulling a heavy load and was struggling to maintain speed going up the hill. The water level is weird to read. It's like it would slosh in the boiler so the level would read up and down. At one point I couldn't tell if the water level was full or empty. I dumped some to discover it was full. While trudging through a tunnel I just exploded out of nowhere while checking the water level. I don't know if it was too full or too empty at the time of detonation.

[Pops]

Originally posted by Germania:

S282 on realistic difficulty is basically suicide unless I drive on flat terrain. When the locomotive hits gradient it starts to show nonsense on water level and even that nonsense is jumping up and down. Tried to pull train from Harbor Military Base to Military Base with ammo, nuclear stuff and derailed due of boiler explosion...

What was the weight? I tried with I think 800t out of HB East.. Possibly if your ran through SM first and refilled water but would have been bone dry on MB arrival.

I do think the game is simulating the level in various parts of the boiler. So if your running low uphill and switch to a down hill it exposes the back of the boiler and goes boom. I was running FF to SM was around 1/4 when I crested the hill and blew up shortly after the junction heading to the mines. Tried again and made sure the water was topped offed.

Rule of thumb bounce off the top when uphill and bouncing off the bottom downhill some where in the middle for flat.

I don't know about locos but ship boilers when they overfill they don't go boom they just damage the equipment down stream cause water instead of steam would be sent. So I believe the same is true of locos. Which would mean you cause serious damage to the cylinders more than you would if you forgot to open the cylinder dumps(Correct word is censored ...) after a cool down. Also that hiss you hear when your running high on steam pressure should prevent booms from over pressurization(Including water). That is the intend feature of the device that makes that noise on a train.

Hopefully in the future Alt Future will simulate fire plugs which is a device that should prevent boom by putting out the flame on low water. I saw mentioned somewhere they intend to do this eventually