Water in the Glass, a railroad poem in memoriam
for Engineer Harry C. Podas (d. 01/20/1930) …
but the results are the same.
Listen to me fireman
You who would be engineers
There are things you best had learn
That will save your wife some tears
Locomotive straining on the grade
Climbing hills up to the pass
Fireman, while you’re heaving coal
Be sure there’s water in the glass
The crown sheet needs its water
Or the fire will make it dross
Then its seams will rend asunder
And the boiler it will toss
A mighty steam explosion
Will flash into the sky
The engine it will destroy
And the crew will surely die
More than one brave crew
Now lies beneath the grass
For they forgot to make certain
There was water in the glass
Yet, if the truth be told
faulty design also can kill
Men who run the engines
Know their blood may spill
The tank might be safely full
The injectors running clean
The valves in correct position
Water in the Glass be seen
Yet if steam backs the water
And the glass tells them a lie
The faithful crew will never know
That they are fated soon to die
The crown sheet soon will fail
Fire and steam will fill the cab
Fractured iron will twist and fly
Frail bodies it will stab
If they are not killed outright
Through tortured lips will pass
The plaintive cry of dying men
“There was water in the glass”
So brave railroad men remember
Pulling freight or varnish class
The locomotive is a death machine
Without water in the glass
Double check your engine
If death you wish to cheat
Be sure there’s water in the Glass
And it covers the crown sheet
Inspired by the article:
A Study of Steam Locomotive Boiler Explosions on the Milwaukee Road
By Ralph S. Podas NRHS Bulletin Summer 2005
end: Water in the Glass