What's up with the trains

[ATAG_Snapper]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

If your bullets hit in the firebox area of the boiler and the crown sheet ruptured then indeed the loco could be blown off the tracks by the almost instant conversion of all the water into live steam and then exhausted into the cab of the loco.

Not real good for the crew though...

True enough. I guess you could call that a "primary" explosion if caused by cannon/machine gun fire. I still maintain the weight of the projectiles themselves, even at a velocity of, say, 2,000+ ft/sec wouldn't be enough in themselves to topple or derail a locomotive. Unless the aircraft ran into it as well! LOL

But to the OP's post, if perforating the locomotive's boiler results in a catastrophic explosion.........then it SHOULD be launched off the rails in a huge plume of steam! I stand corrected on that.