Thanks Sylvan, that's a great catch! When I had the guys redo the boiler, they replaced the pressuretrol, and put that on a syphon tube, but not the gauge! Better that they the other way around. I bet you though if I tell them, they'll fix it, and maybe I can pair that up with the drain adjustment. I'm thinking a straight through gate valve with a hose adapter might do the trick for me based on your comments. At the end of the day though, we have a contract where they will have to replace that gauge if it fails, so they may just decide to wait and see.
As for the pad, we do have a gravity floor drain close by, and the grade of the floor is appropriate for it to work. I do prefer to drain the boiler by a hose because I don't want the plumbing to receive boiler mud, but in an emergency it's there and I doubt we'd end up with a flood like your picture. However it's good to hear these comments, when it comes time to replace I'll know what to look for.
I did have a close call when the float in the mcdonell douglas failed. It failed in the low position and water filled the steam pipes while we were away. Luckily nothing leaked.
I'm generally pretty happy with the boiler company. They are properly licensed for plumbing and oil burners. I'm way out in suffolk, not near the city. The installation was done before I owned the home, but by the same company I use.
One thing I'm hoping to do is get a cold climate heat pump installed to take some of the load off the boiler, and save me a bit on fuel oil which seems more expensive than running a heatpump by my calculations.