Clear!!! The Fireman on the running board shouts his warning before lifting the blow-down valve on Great Western #90, enveloping the engine in a cloud of mist. Unlike most preserved steamers, the locomotives on the Strasburg Railroad have their firebox blow-downs pointed straight down. Although this avoids the potentially dangerous horizontal steam jet that many steam enthusiasts are used to seeing, wide-open blow-downs like the one you see here must be restricted to specially prepared locations, where some sort of deflector is installed to prevent the vertical steam jet from cleaning the ballast right out from underneath the track. The track where you see GW 90 doing her "steam show" has a large section of boiler plate placed between the rails specifically to prevent that possibility. Never the less, when you hear the Fireman call "Clear!!", it's a darn good idea to stand well away from the locomotive. Stuff has been known to fly!
Images of surviving Great Western Railway locomotives, painted in the liveries of their original owner, operating on photo charters on tourist railways today.
