I take it I'm the only Vort with first-hand experience with these old beasts. My grandfather was a brakeman on the Union Pacific railroad when I was a little boy. Back then, while all the passenger trains were diesel-electric, a lot of the freight haulers were still steam. Old Gramps would take me down to the yard and have one of his engineer friends let me ride in one of the steam locomotives once in while. I can't tell you how much fun that was.
There is no steam where Buster Keaton appears to light his cigarette. That's the smoke box, the least hot part of the boiler where the exhaust from the coal fire goes. I'm sure the cigarette was already lit. I know from trying, if you touch the side of a steam locomotive, it's about as hot as clothing iron. You can wet your finger and make it go kssst. After this long nostalgic preamble, the answer to your question is no. ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ On Sunday, January 2nd, 2022 at 11:55 PM, H LV <hveeder...@gmail.com> wrote: > In this short clip Buster Keaton lights a cigarette by pressing it against > the boiler of a steam locomotive. > Would the surface of the boiler get hot enough to do that? > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AIyB_-HYcs > > Harry
