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.
[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!
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.
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...
(Cue nostalgia of the heyday of steam, before all these limits where every steam express definitely managed to hit a ton at some point).
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.
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.
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.)
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.