21.09.2009, 07:49
This particular footage is unconvincing. There is a big difference between venting some steam after taking out the release valve and a catastrophic rupturing of the boiler. There are a number of vulnerable components that can be hit without penetrating the boiler and it is likely that a train with that degree of damage shown in the film could keep running for several kilometres.
However, I will concede that there exists at least one piece of footage showing a catastrophic failure of a locomotive's boiler while under attack by a hispano armed aircraft. I'd submit that the gun camera footage shown isn't typical. Rather, the surviving footage has been chosen for its analytic or dramatic properties. It isn't an unbiased sample.
Critical damage to the water injector or the crew could leave an unmaintained locomotive to explode several minutes after attack, but an immediate massive explosion would be very rare.
In February 1944, 122 Wing (Tempest) claimed 484 locomotives. I suspect that the majority of these were taken out by bombs and rockets, with just a couple undergoing dramatic explosions after being placed under cannon fire.
P-47 pilots regularly strafed the cabs of locomotives to try and kill the crew and thus send the train out of control (as they couldn't penetrate the boilers). Added to this historical evidence is a quick examination of how any locomotive is engineered.
However, I will concede that there exists at least one piece of footage showing a catastrophic failure of a locomotive's boiler while under attack by a hispano armed aircraft. I'd submit that the gun camera footage shown isn't typical. Rather, the surviving footage has been chosen for its analytic or dramatic properties. It isn't an unbiased sample.
Critical damage to the water injector or the crew could leave an unmaintained locomotive to explode several minutes after attack, but an immediate massive explosion would be very rare.
In February 1944, 122 Wing (Tempest) claimed 484 locomotives. I suspect that the majority of these were taken out by bombs and rockets, with just a couple undergoing dramatic explosions after being placed under cannon fire.
P-47 pilots regularly strafed the cabs of locomotives to try and kill the crew and thus send the train out of control (as they couldn't penetrate the boilers). Added to this historical evidence is a quick examination of how any locomotive is engineered.