LNER Peppercorn Class A1 60163 Tornado
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
That said, I'm concerned that the reawakening of interest in steam engines/trains especially in the UK may be the result of a hankering for the old days when Britain had an empire and its mechanical engineering output was the envy of the world. Of course, I hope I'm wrong and that interest actually runs deeper than just that.
What ought to be important about this reawakening is that we have the opportunity to awaken an interest in kids about mechanics, engineering and science and do so from a very young age, and in my opinion, there's nothing much better than having them stand on a platform watching a hissing, noisy steam engine.
Steam engines are visually exciting and interesting but they are also the combined embodiment of mechanics and thermodynamics and understanding both of them is the keyway to understanding science.
Despite my electronics background I consider that a thorough understanding of thermodynamics is crucial to understanding the high-tech world irrespective of one's field. And I reckon there's likely no better way of starting kids' education in thermodynamics other than to have them engulfed in steam from a Puffing Billy.
It's just that the technology to do relatively affordable one-off designa nd manufacturing of steam locmotive parts that were formerly made in specialist workshops has only recently been feasible. That, and a combination of running out of original locomotives to restore, and worries that eventually the original locomotives will become too difficult to keep running indefinitely, has lead to a growth in new-build projects. There are now a large number in progress.
OK, I have to take your word for that (I'm in Australia and haven't been to the UK for a few years).
But it's certainly not the impression I get over here with the plethora of UK TV programs on steam, for instance: LNER 4472, Nigel Gresley, 4468/Mallard, vintage and current railways/trips and many, many others.
It's almost impossible to go for a few days without seeing Michael Portillo on the box standing on a station platform, in a train carriage or pretentiously shovelling coal into some antique engine. When he's not on Rob Bell is waxing lyrically about the beauty of everything from 4472 to 60163 Tornado, to lighthouses, to railway viaducts; and in beween him and Portillo there's Chris Tarrant's Extreme Railways, Tim Dunn's The Architecture the Railways Built, not to mention Bill Nighy's The World's Most Scenic Railway Journeys and any number of others. It's never-ending.
So what on earth is going on in the UK if interest in engines/railways is waning?
Mind you, I don't mind these programs at all but there are so many of them that they drive some people I know to whinge 'oh hell, not another *** train program!'
"Passengers were rescued by a steam locomotive after modern rail services were brought to a halt by the snowy conditions in south-east England."
If you'd like to catch a glimpse of one or even book a seat on it, check out the calendar at http://www.railtourinfo.co.uk/tours.html.
For a child, I think a better experience is visiting a larger preserved railway. I liked visiting the locomotive works at Loughborough (Great Central) since age 8 or so I was shorter than the largest wheels of most locomotives. I'm not sure if it's still the case, but back then we could walk close enough to risk getting grease on our clothes. From Google review photos it looks like it.
(From the article, I'm still shorter! They're over 2m in diameter.)
(Cue nostalgia of the heyday of steam, before all these limits where every steam express definitely managed to hit a ton at some point).
The rails made a clikkety click/clakkety clack or a CAtic/CAtac sound and more besides which sometimes enabled you to know where you were by the sound. You could also estimate speed with your eyes shut. [I could go on ...]
Anyway. 125mph is shit for something that runs on rails. There are quite a few examples of 180mph+ railway systems.
Sadly, 125mph was considered the future.
The HST/Intercity 125 was diesel too you know.
Fast forward to today and GWR is a customer and the modern version of the 125 (I forget the Class number - I'm just IT) is still running. I've seen them in bits in Laira (Plymuff) and St Phil's Marsh in Bris'l. The power plant is a bit of a whopper. In the sheds there are dispensers for ear plugs, regularly spaced for quick access. You should try to keep a few in a pocket anyway - ideally all of them! They are quite handy when a technician fires up the motor and decides to run it at max chat.
Back in the day I saw the APT doing trial runs. Nowadays I can take a Pendolino ...
A modern multiple-unit is way stronger and built from things which are designed to bend and then once they exceed maximum load, tear into non-sharp pieces, which means when (not if) something goes badly wrong it's much more survivable for the occupants. At 5mph you aren't too bothered, but older coaches would deconstruct into sharp pieces in even a 50mph collision so the accident ends up more lethal than it would be if you weren't inside a vehicle at all.
Years back a cement mixer truck fell off a bridge onto a moving train. It was a modern design, and so even though obviously such a truck is incredibly heavy it just dented the train and the person directly below the impact inside the train survived (with some injuries). With the older carriages used on a heritage railway it would have demolished the entire carriage and turned everybody inside it into paste, the emergency response would have been recovering remains, not rescuing one guy with head injuries and a bunch of scared but otherwise unharmed passengers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocker_(subculture)
During the 1950s, they were known as "Ton-Up boys" because doing a ton is English slang for driving at a speed of 100 mph (160 km/h) or over.
Also if you're paying 150-300 GBP for these outings you want the experience to last, not just four hours up the ECML at 125mph and then you're done. I kinda feel people miss the point of this as a thing.
ps: extreme train enthusiast speaking here :)
It's one thing to deal with the operational complexity of relatively slow services when they're freight—which provide a clear commercial and economic benefit—but it's another when it's essentially a luxury service (and I'm well aware plenty of the services aren't really luxurious: but they're certainly too expensive for many, which makes them a luxury).
Their acceleration is relatively poor even compared with many freight services, and when running up the northern ends of the WCML/ECML (both of which are two track railways) the challenges of timetabling _any_ slower services during the day are real.
Also when it comes to rail tours such as this there's at most two tours a day operating and they're very seasonal, and maybe running four or five times a year each. So a couple of these trains a day across the whole network isn't exactly impacting the network that much.
Edit: I wonder how to book a ticket, e.g. the 22nd April London to Winchester one?
Found by searching the company name in the final column.
[1] https://news.sky.com/story/amp/more-than-150-heritage-steam-...
When it is being used within heritage railways which provider pleasure for so many - see some of the comments on this thread - I feel an exception should be made.
Much coal is still burnt within industrial processes in the UK, cement producers for example. Because this is much less visible and because they are powerful multi-national companies they do not appear to face the same level of scrutiny.
I understand attitudes of younger generations to me. The tide is turning. People will no longer tolerate "polluting for pleasure" and the days of steam railways are numbered. Grab a trip or sight of Tornado whilst you still can!
A more practical option would be oil firing, which was tried in the days of steam and found to work, but didn't save enough money to be worth the effort in a country that still had an efficient supply chain for coal. It could be done again now and would doubtless work, but wouldn't smell or look quite the same. Better than nothing I suppose and if coal really does become unavailable, that's what heritage operations will have to do.
http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/swisselec/swisse...
Correct. I wondered how long it would take the do-gooders to start moaning about steam engines/heritage railways and coal use. These quasi-religious zealots need to be put in their place as they are doing more harm than good for the environment. Unnecessarily alienating people doesn't help.
Emissions from heritage steam trains is hardly measurable in the grand scheme of things.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35134648 is #21 at time of writing
So not unsurprising that the word has stuck in people's minds and a flurry of interested related articles is posted the next day.
Their next project is to build Britain's most powerful steam locomotive, things are making good progress! Some high level details here: https://www.a1steam.com/prince-of-wales/about-prince-of-wale..., with a bunch more detailed updates on the build here: https://www.a1steam.com/prince-of-wales/about-prince-of-wale.... Started in 2014!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NQ9JG2M - American steam locomotives 1880–1960. The author of drove locomotives, and was the transportation curator at the Smithsonian Museum. He wrote it over 30 years, and you can tell the amount of care and detail he put into with the details and history.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003UYU1PC - How Steam Engines Really Work, provides a modern perspective on the important systems and concepts for steam engines.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072BFJB3Z - The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World. Talks about how precision engineering was critical to the invention and wider use of steam engines.
A good overview of modern steam techniques is here: http://advanced-steam.org/5at/principles-of-modern-steam/, where they focus on dramatically more efficient and clean burning engines. A fascinating rabbit hole to go down :).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_A4_4464_Bittern
It's not just Colorado. When Union Pacific restored 3985, it was initially a coal burner. They lit a lot of grass fires until they converted it to burn oil. (I was uncomfortably close to one of them, and helped put out another one.)
Sixty years ago refurbs would be much of the work going on at any large railway works - taking engines apart, stripping them down to the chassis and reassembling almost a new one in their place. The ingenuity today's preservationists demonstrate in doing this without any of the facilities of a plant is truly a thing to behold.
(Source: some of my family restore steam engines. I once tried to drive one and I was terrible.)
Here's the process.[1] This had to be done every 120,000 miles or so, which is every 1-2 years. On top of that, there's a few hours a day of routine daily maintenance.[2]
I wish they'd do something a bit more streamlined like "Mallard"
See https://prrt1steamlocomotivetrust.org for more info on the new Pennsylvania T1 locomotive that's being built.
Me? I don't care. It's a nice thing and I enjoy seeing it in whatever form it may appear as. Personally I like the tender that has a corridor from the first coach through to the engine plate. That seems quite nice for the driver and fireman to have delivered more than just some eggs and bacon cooked on dirty shovel :)
Need to see it even though the footage is now a bit old. Well …