Steam engines tended to be overbuilt by today's standards. The only way to contain the high-pressure steam was to build something with plenty of overhead capacity. Boilers tended to be 1/2 to 9/16 of an inch thick steel. So most small arms fire isn't going to hole it.
However holing the boiler isn't the only way to destroy it. Lack of water could cause the metal to overheat.,Destroying the controls permitting the boiler to overpressure, etc. Letting time-travelling mad scientists use their own version of presto-logs. The cabin would give partial cover, they tended to be lighter-gauge metal. But weight savings wasn't that important: Locomotive 1642, 2-6-6-6 type, carrier's classification H-8 Alleghany, was built by the Lima Locomotive Works Inc., at Lima, Ohio, in December 1944. The four cylinders wore 22-1/2 x 33 inches the diameter of driving wheels 67 Inches with new tire's weight in working order 771,300 pounds, weight on driving wheels 507,900 pounds, and tractive effort 110,200 pounds. The working steam pressure of the boiler was 260 pounds per square inch. So that would have been one of the last generation of steamers, built at the start of WWII. ======================================================== -Coyt "The Internet, billions of electrons with nothing better to do." _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
