Only half of steam engines in a line are working

[drachma]

I have a row of boilers each with 4 steam engines. I know I should be able to have more than that but I am having this issue where only the first 2 steam engines on each boiler works... SOMETIMES.

When I get very unlucky, multiple mining stations turn on at the same time and it increases the power draw beyond capacity, but then HALF the steam engines shut off as shown below. At other times my power draw is only about 1/3, and all of the steam engines are working.

I know the simple solution is to add more boilers, but I want to understand what is going on here. I tried adding a 2nd offshore pump and running another water pipe in parallel, but that didn't change the behavior.

thanks!

Check out the screenshot

[Klonan]

Each boiler can only support 2 steam engines at max output

[drachma]

Oh jeez I had my ratios backwards in my memory. Sorry it's been a while since I played.
LOL spent a good while trying to debug this