• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Hastening The End Of Rail Steam Traction?

A remarkable achievement, given that the loco had sat derelict halfway up a mountain for 20+ years and had been stripped for parts. I think even the wheels had gone.
 
The Golden Age of Steam Railways - 1. Small is Beautiful

Two-part documentary telling the remarkable story of a band of visionaries who rescued some of the little narrow gauge railways that once served Britain's industries. These small railways and the steam engines that ran on them were once the driving force of Britain's mines, quarries, factories and docks. Then, as they disappeared after 1945, volunteers set to work to bring the lines and the steam engines back to life and started a movement which spread throughout the world. Their home movies tell the story of how they helped millions reconnect with a past they thought had gone forever.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Beautiful/

Available until
9:59PM Mon, 24 Dec 2012
 
What a heart-warming programme that was!

These are a few pics I've posted here before of the old rail bridge over North Sluice to North Quay at Hayle:

DSCN0548.jpg


SmallDSCN0549.jpg


DSCN1783.jpg


sleeper2.jpg


And this is how it looks now (quite a change from a muddy work-site to a tidy piece of urban roadway):

DSCN3195.jpg


DSCN3196.jpg


The new (black) railings prevent pedestrians falling into the remains of the old North Sluice underneath the one-time railway bridge. But how many pedestrians wiil know, or care..?
 
rynner2 said:
The Golden Age of Steam Railways - 1. Small is Beautiful

Two-part documentary telling the remarkable story of a band of visionaries who rescued some of the little narrow gauge railways that once served Britain's industries. These small railways and the steam engines that ran on them were once the driving force of Britain's mines, quarries, factories and docks. Then, as they disappeared after 1945, volunteers set to work to bring the lines and the steam engines back to life and started a movement which spread throughout the world. Their home movies tell the story of how they helped millions reconnect with a past they thought had gone forever.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Beautiful/

Available until
9:59PM Mon, 24 Dec 2012
Click to expand...
Fascinating viewing and hearing, with much highly interesting film footage from 50-60-plus years back.

A big tribute is paid to the Talyllyn Railway, the world's first successful rail preservation undertaking, achieved by amateurs. I happened recently to be reading about a venture on the other side of the world which might have gained that title, a few years earlier than the Talyllyn (whose preservation regime commenced 1951); but that "wasn't to be".

The delightful narrow-gauge rail system which used to serve the island of Oahu -- principal island of Hawaii -- was mostly abandoned at the end of 1947, including the withdrawal of all its passenger services: the railway was in bad physical shape and heavily losing money, and thus had to all-but-close. A group of local railway enthusiasts tried to conserve a little of the island's rail scene. The railway company donated to the group, a couple of -- quite luxurious -- passenger carriages; which they started to operate, at somewhat irregular intervals, over some miles of still-active agricultural trackage owned by one of the island's cane sugar companies.

To haul the trains that they ran, the enthusiasts hired for each occasion, a locomotive from the sugar line's loco fleet: steam locos for the first couple of years, and subsequently diesels, after the sugar company finished with steam and went over to diesel power. The group called their operation by the wondrous name of the Hibiscus & Heliconia Short Line Railroad.

Regrettably, the whole thing came to grief when in 1954, the sugar firm abandoned its rail system in favour of road haulage. It appears that the enthusiast group had not sufficient numbers or "clout" -- and one rather suspects, not sufficient zeal -- to recover from this blow and try to transfer their activities to elsewhere on the island. They did not even manage to recover their two carriages and bring them into any kind of safekeeping; the sugar firm ultimately broke up the vehicles for scrap, where they stood. And the laurels for the world's first successful exercise in railway preservation went to Britain, not to Hawaii / USA.
 
Railway buffs will want to watch this:

Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways - Episode 1

From their beginnings as a primitive system of track-ways for coal carts in the early 18th century, railways quickly developed into the driving force behind the industrial revolution and the pivotal technology for modern Britain, and a connected world.

Rapid industrial growth during the early 19th century, coupled with the prospect of vast profits, drove inventors and entrepreneurs to develop steam locomotives, metal tracks and an array of daring tunnels, cuttings and bridges that created a nationwide system of railways in just 30 years.

George Stephenson's Liverpool and Manchester Railway became the model for future inter-city travel for the next century and his fast, reliable locomotive, The Rocket, began a quest for speed that has defined our modern world.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Episode_1/

Available until
9:59PM Tue, 5 Feb 2013

But I was disappointed that there was no mention of Cornwall's part in the industrial revolution (complete with tramways for moving ore, etc), or the fact that the first steam [road) locos were built in Cornwall. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Mu ... locomotion
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Trevithick
His most significant contribution was to the development of the first high pressure steam engine, he also built the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive. On 21 February 1804 the world's first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place as Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil in Wales
Click to expand...
 
More rail and steam stuff on iPlayer. First there's part two of Dan Snow's series:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Episode_2/

And then there's this:

Timeshift - Series 12 - 7. The Joy of (Train) Sets

The Model Railway Story: From Hornby to Triang and beyond, this documentary explores how the British have been in love with model railways for more than a century. What began as an adult obsession with building fully-engineered replicas became the iconic toy of 1950s and 60s childhood. With unique archive and contributions from modellers such as Pete Waterman, this is a celebration of the joys of miniaturisation. Just don't call them toy trains.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... _of_(Train)_Sets/
 
rynner2 said:
Timeshift - Series 12 - 7. The Joy of (Train) Sets

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... _of_(Train)_Sets/
Click to expand...
What a blast from the past that was! Fascinating stuff about modelling, interspersed with many clips of real steam locos, and real-life rail history. The adverts on the (model) stations took me back to my childhood.

Back in the 50s, my schoolfriend Rick and I both had Triang train sets. We felt they were more realistic than Hornby, because they didn't have a third rail for electrical power. (This wasn't mentioned in the documentary.) Every so often we got the sets together to produce a bigger layout, which was great fun.

(Rick didn't have a father, and my father didn't smoke a pipe or take much interest in our trains, so we didn't match the stereotypes portrayed in the Hornby adverts.)
 
rynner2 said:
rynner2 said:
Timeshift - Series 12 - 7. The Joy of (Train) Sets

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... _of_(Train)_Sets/
Click to expand...
What a blast from the past that was! Fascinating stuff about modelling, interspersed with many clips of real steam locos, and real-life rail history. The adverts on the (model) stations took me back to my childhood.

Back in the 50s, my schoolfriend Rick and I both had Triang train sets. We felt they were more realistic than Hornby, because they didn't have a third rail for electrical power. (This wasn't mentioned in the documentary.) Every so often we got the sets together to produce a bigger layout, which was great fun.

(Rick didn't have a father, and my father didn't smoke a pipe or take much interest in our trains, so we didn't match the stereotypes portrayed in the Hornby adverts.)
Click to expand...

Snap ! In the 50s, I was a Triang kid too, likewise finding two rails more realistic than the Hornby three. Later on, Triang unfortunately introduced a new kind of coupling for their locos and rolling stock, which they considered more efficient than its predecessor, but which I found over-large and grotesque and highly improbable-looking -- Hornby's couplings were small and unobtrusive, and would have been preferable for that reason.
 
Agreed. I think the terrible Triang coupling (the tension lock one, which eventually became more or less standard for the UK model industry) was responsible for the 60's collapse in the model railway market. You couldn't shunt, uncoupling a wagon half the time pulled the whole train off the track and they looked hideous. They broke quite easily as well.

They caused me to change from Triang to HD (2-rail by then) but to this day I still haven't managed to eliminate the wretched things from my stock.
 
Cochise said:
Agreed. I think the terrible Triang coupling (the tension lock one, which eventually became more or less standard for the UK model industry) was responsible for the 60's collapse in the model railway market. You couldn't shunt, uncoupling a wagon half the time pulled the whole train off the track and they looked hideous. They broke quite easily as well.

They caused me to change from Triang to HD (2-rail by then) but to this day I still haven't managed to eliminate the wretched things from my stock.
Click to expand...
Re the Triang coupling -- glad I'm plainly by no means the only one. Had I gone further than I did, with the "model" side of the railway hobby; I'd have wanted to go for ultra-realistic: couplings (whether hook-and-chain, or automatic) probably would either have had to be made by me -- for which kind of stuff, I have zero talent -- or somehow custom-ordered. It's as well, likely, that I called it a day with modelling, in my mid-teens.
 
BBC2 have been showing a series at 1900 all this week on aspects of Welsh Railways. Tonights episode was particularly good...some great footage of steam hauled goods on the Crumlin viaduct. Well worth checking out if it's repeated or on i player.
 
Dan Snow's Locomotion ignored Richard Trevithick, the inventor of the high pressure steam engine, but the Genius of Invention makes up for it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Genius of Invention - 2. Speed

We take our ability to travel quickly and safely across the globe for granted. This episode reveals the fascinating chain of events that made such everyday marvels possible, telling the story of the handful of extraordinary inventors and inventions who helped build the modern world by making the miracle of powered transport mundane.

From the Rolls Royce aero-engine factory in Derby, Michael Mosley, Professor Mark Miodownik and Dr Cassie Newland tell the amazing story of three more of the greatest and most transformative inventions of all time, the steam locomotive, the internal combustion engine and the jet engine. Our experts explain how these inventions came about by sparks of inventive genius and steady incremental improvements hammered out in workshops. They separate myth from reality in the lives of the great inventors and celebrate some of the most remarkable stories in British history.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... ion_Speed/

Available until
9:59PM Thu, 21 Feb 2013

Trevithick is covered from about 2 minutes in, to nineteen and a half minutes. (The story then moves on to Stephenson...)
 
Re the Triang coupling -- glad I'm plainly by no means the only one. Had I gone further than I did, with the "model" side of the railway hobby; I'd have wanted to go for ultra-realistic: couplings (whether hook-and-chain, or automatic) probably would either have had to be made by me -- for which kind of stuff, I have zero talent -- or somehow custom-ordered. It's as well, likely, that I called it a day with modelling, in my mid-teens.
Click to expand...

I like Kadee couplings - like a slightly over scale buckeye. The have decent automatic uncoupling facilities. But fitting them to everything would take years. And probably destroy any resale value, sadly, although I don't think my stuff has much anyway - its always been used rather then collected.
 
Steam railmotor back on South Devon line after 100 years

A steam powered train has returned to a Devon railway after more than 100 years.
The Great Western Railway Steam Railmotor was last seen on the Totnes to Ashburton line in 1905, the South Devon Railway (SDR) said.
Dick Wood, from SDR, added it was the "grandfather of all modern trains".

It was introduced in 1903 and ran locally around Plymouth, Exeter, Teignmouth and between Totnes and Ashburton.
Mr Wood said 99 steam railmotors were built between 1903 and 1908.
He said it was "totally unique".
"The reason why they disappeared was because they were victims of their own success," he added.
"They couldn't carry the number of people who wanted to travel on them, so Great Western expanded the principle and put them with a steam locomotive with up to four coaches, with the steam engine in the middle.
"Therefore you could carry nearly 500 people, quickly, efficiently and easily."

The steam railmotor, which has been hired from the Great Western Society, was one of the last to be built in 1908.
It has been hired for the Western Branch Line Gala until 24 February.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-21472043

Video from 2011 is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13574529
 
Self-contained steam railmotors ran and existed during well over a century, on and off (mostly off), in many parts of the world. For various reasons, it seems that they never managed to "do the business" very successfully. It was either, other ways of moving passengers by rail proved more efficient in absolute terms. Or, same-thing-sort-of: as in rynner2's post, they were "victims of their own success" -- attracted more passengers than they could accommodate, which led to the development as described, of the more flexible "push-and-pull train" idea: loco can be anywhere in the train, with a specially-adapted compartment wherever the front of the train is, with controls there for the driver to drive; while the fireman, or "second man" for a non-steam loco, remains on the loco.

I gather that the last regularly-working steam railcars anywhere on earth, ran on the Sri Lankan railways' 2ft. 6in. gauge line out of Colombo. If I have things rightly, these remained in commercial service until about the 1980s: at least one was retained in working order, preserved, after that. I believe that at the present day, though the line concerned is disused, some track remains at the Colombo end, and there is still a steam railcar in working order, which can be chartered for special runs.
 
[Video]
Great Western's 182-year-old royal carriage restored
11 October 2013 Last updated at 21:23 BST

A Victorian railway carriage once used by royalty has been restored in Cornwall.
The saloon car was built for VIPs by the Great Western Railway in Swindon in 1831.
Although the carriage was not part of the royal train, it was used privately by the then Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII.

As John Danks reports, it has taken five years for a skilled craftsmen at the Bodmin and Wenford Steam Railway to restore the carriage to its original splendour.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-24498481
 
Perfect for setting up a railway museum. A shame the rails were removed, though.
 
Re Norham station, Northumberland: totally nerdy stuff of very little interest to anyone other than railway-enthusiast-type nerds -- but, the Tweedmouth -- Sprouston Junction line mentioned, was a (to those thus afflicted) interesting one. In the times before 1923, when the British Isles had a multitude of different private railway companies: things so worked out, that on the whole, English railway companies served England, and Scottish railway companies served Scotland.

A couple of Scottish companies had a considerable amount of track mileage on English soil; but the one and only instance of this in reverse, was the North Eastern Railway's Tweedmouth -- Sprouston Junction line. The entirety of this route ran between Tweedmouth; and St. Boswells, on the (Scottish) North British Railway's Carlisle -- Edinburgh main line. The line from Tweedmouth crossed the Anglo-Scottish border at Carham station, and ran -- still North Eastern Railway-owned -- in Scotland for a little over two miles, through Sprouston station, and then joined end-on with the North British Railway at Sprouston Junction (not a junction of the lines-branching-off kind, just a random spot in the middle of nowhere). No doubt there were all kinds of wheeling-and-dealing between different undertakings, which led to this situation coming to be -- anyway, "thus it was".

The linked-to "Telegraph" item, offers a link to a further item from a contributor called "Old Goat", headed, "Was Lenin a signalman?" Attempts to follow this link, led only to stuff seemingly about completely different matters. One has the impression that Vladimir Ilyich led a colourful life -- and in his revolution-related comings-and-goings, left and entered Russia a couple of times, in the guise of a locomotive footplate crew member. The "signalman" thing, though -- one has to feel, this appears truly Fortean...
 
Anyone wanting to look for conspiracy regarding the end of steam should look to France, where Chapelon's brilliant work was denigrated and his supreme achievement, 242A1 - the most efficient steam loco actually built, I believe, capable of 5000 hp. - was deliberately downplayed then broken up as it so severely weakened the case for electrification.

Give it 20 years of the current energy policies and we may be wanting to dust off the plans. At least in Great Britain, where we still have plenty of coal. Dr, Tuplin some 30 years ago sketched out a Chapelon design adapted to the UK.
 
Steam engine line secures 35-year lease

A steam railway line in Cornwall has secured a new 35-year lease, managers say.
The Bodmin and Wenford Railway Trust, which operates 6.5 miles (10.5km) of former branch line track, had been operating on five-year leases.
The new extended lease had been negotiated with Cornwall Council, trust chairman Keith Searle said.

The trust has six operational engines running on the track more than 200 days a year.
The branch line closed to passengers in January 1967 and then completely in November 1983.

A group of volunteers got together in 1984 to work on reopening the line and trains started running again in 1986.

Mr Searle said the organisation originally had one-year renewable leases from the then North Cornwall District Council because there was "no idea whether we'd be successful or not".
The leases were later increased to five years and are now with Cornwall Council, which took over from the previous authority in 2009.

Mr Searle said: "As we improved and business increased and our spending increased, it became obvious that just a five-year lease was not enough.
"If you want to get grants, you won't get them with that short a lease."

He said he and other trust members were relieved the new lease was in place.
"I think the future is looking good," he said. :D

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-24827526
 
Cochise said:
Anyone wanting to look for conspiracy regarding the end of steam should look to France, where Chapelon's brilliant work was denigrated and his supreme achievement, 242A1 - the most efficient steam loco actually built, I believe, capable of 5000 hp. - was deliberately downplayed then broken up as it so severely weakened the case for electrification.

Give it 20 years of the current energy policies and we may be wanting to dust off the plans. At least in Great Britain, where we still have plenty of coal. Dr, Tuplin some 30 years ago sketched out a Chapelon design adapted to the UK.
Click to expand...
Passionately though I love the steam railway locomotive from an aesthetic point of view; I find I have to fall in with the majority opinion that it does its job not very efficiently, whereby with the overall "way of the world" which we have at present, its almost total superseding and replacement (other than in a recreational / hobby capacity) with more modern motive power everywhere on the planet over the past approx. three-quarters-of-a-century, is no surprise.

The saddest thing for me, is the indecent and wasteful speed and haste with which (often almost newly-built) steam locos were, in various countries, scrapped in favour of their "modern power" alternatives -- quite often, with "dirty work" featuring, as with Chapelon's 242A1 which you cite. It would have been far more sane and less wasteful, to get a good lifetime's work out of these locos -- then let them, and steam traction, go... however, humans being the way they are, factionalism and vested interests show up a great deal, and often result in stuff being done which is -- looked at objectively -- unspeakably feckless, stupid, and insulting to those well-intentioned souls who happened to choose the wrong side.

Concur, that oil running out could ultimately force a renaissance of steam. There comes to mind John Betjeman's poem "Dilton Marsh Halt", about a tiny station in Wiltshire on the Salisbury -- Westbury rail route, which has survived against the odds, still in use for passenger traffic, up to when he wrote his poem two or three decades ago, and still up to the present day. His final stanza:

"And when all the horrible roads are finally done for
And there's no more petrol left in the world to burn --
Here to the Halt from Salisbury and from Bristol
Steam trains will return."
 
rynner2 said:
Steam engine line secures 35-year lease

A steam railway line in Cornwall has secured a new 35-year lease, managers say.
The Bodmin and Wenford Railway Trust, which operates 6.5 miles (10.5km) of former branch line track, had been operating on five-year leases.
The new extended lease had been negotiated with Cornwall Council, trust chairman Keith Searle said.

The trust has six operational engines running on the track more than 200 days a year.
The branch line closed to passengers in January 1967 and then completely in November 1983.

A group of volunteers got together in 1984 to work on reopening the line and trains started running again in 1986.

Mr Searle said the organisation originally had one-year renewable leases from the then North Cornwall District Council because there was "no idea whether we'd be successful or not".
The leases were later increased to five years and are now with Cornwall Council, which took over from the previous authority in 2009.

Mr Searle said: "As we improved and business increased and our spending increased, it became obvious that just a five-year lease was not enough.
"If you want to get grants, you won't get them with that short a lease."

He said he and other trust members were relieved the new lease was in place.
"I think the future is looking good," he said. :D

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-24827526
Click to expand...
Good news, basically. As mentioned in a post which I made on this thread on 31/8/2012 -- at the risk of being told that I'm of the kind who would complain if they were beheaded with a golden axe, I feel that the Bodmin & Wenford outfit -- fine though it is -- is frustratingly "cabined, cribbed and confined".

This line is just part of a one-time small but quite intricate rail network which, in the days when the railways flourished, spanned the distance between Bodmin Road station (now Bodmin Parkway -- a term which I loathe, but anyway) -- on the London -- Penzance main line, and the Atlantic coast at Padstow. A little way west of Bodmin, said network was divided (though through running of trains was standard) between the Great Western Railway to the east, and the London & South Western Railway (later part of the Southern Railway) to the west. Things have so fallen out that effectively, preserved rail reigns on the ex-Great Western sector; whereas the ex-Southern Railway sector has become overwhelmingly, a realm of footpaths / bridlepaths / cycleways. Chiefest among the just-mentioned, the Camel Trail along the former rail formation following the superbly scenic River Camel estuary to the sea at Padstow.

The "Wenford" element in the Bodmin & Wenford preserved line's title, has come to be something in the "wishful thinking" department. The branch from Boscarne Junction west of Bodmin, running north-east to Wenford, lasted in commercial service (for clay traffic) until very late. Has now (if I understand rightly) been made over, per local authority's decision, into another footpath / bridleway / cycleway. I gather that the rail preservationists presented a case for possible coexistence of retaining rail thereon, with their operating trains; and parallel other use; but were turned down flat.

A difficult and contentious situation, in which the various parties involved can and do, advance arguments of various strength or weakness, which will support what they would -- basically gut-wise -- wish to happen. I'd be hugely for the Wenford branch being brought back as a rail route for the B & WR to work, and sod the walkers / cyclists / horse-riders; but I'm extremely biased...
 
"And when all the horrible roads are finally done for
And there's no more petrol left in the world to burn --
Here to the Halt from Salisbury and from Bristol
Steam trains will return."
Click to expand...

On the wider issue, abandoning all the railway rights-of-way will look like utter madness when the oil runs out. Whether the steam loco returns will depend on whether it can be made less messy. They aren't hopelessly inefficient when compared to diesels, and straight electrics depend on an abundance of cheap electricity - largely of course produced by oil or gas. As of course do battery powered cars. Windmills and solar panels are unsuitable for providing electricity in the quantities required.And very expensive if connected to the grid, as opposed to providing power for your own house. Hydrogen powered cars also require lots of electricity to break out the hydrogen in the first place.

In theory steam engines could be wood-burners and carbon neutral, but I suspect in years to come wood for burning will become as scarce a resource as oil. Given it is extremely unlikely that we would use coal for anything other than power stations and (potentially) rail transport, we have enough of it to carry us (in the UK) forward for a couple of centuries, by which time science will have produced things we can't possibly imagine now.

I would hate to lose the personal mobility we now have, but it looks likely that it will become restricted as energy sources dry up - we will then bitterly regret butchering our rail network, which was the next best thing. My late father in law was a referee - in his 30's and 40's - never learned to drive, travelled to all his matches by train and bus - you couldn't do that now.
 
Cochise said:
"And when all the horrible roads are finally done for
And there's no more petrol left in the world to burn --
Here to the Halt from Salisbury and from Bristol
Steam trains will return."
Click to expand...

On the wider issue, abandoning all the railway rights-of-way will look like utter madness when the oil runs out. Whether the steam loco returns will depend on whether it can be made less messy. They aren't hopelessly inefficient when compared to diesels, and straight electrics depend on an abundance of cheap electricity - largely of course produced by oil or gas. As of course do battery powered cars. Windmills and solar panels are unsuitable for providing electricity in the quantities required.And very expensive if connected to the grid, as opposed to providing power for your own house. Hydrogen powered cars also require lots of electricity to break out the hydrogen in the first place.

In theory steam engines could be wood-burners and carbon neutral, but I suspect in years to come wood for burning will become as scarce a resource as oil. Given it is extremely unlikely that we would use coal for anything other than power stations and (potentially) rail transport, we have enough of it to carry us (in the UK) forward for a couple of centuries, by which time science will have produced things we can't possibly imagine now.

I would hate to lose the personal mobility we now have, but it looks likely that it will become restricted as energy sources dry up - we will then bitterly regret butchering our rail network, which was the next best thing. My late father in law was a referee - in his 30's and 40's - never learned to drive, travelled to all his matches by train and bus - you couldn't do that now.
Click to expand...
Thoroughly agree with all you say about the short-sighted foolishness of our having let Britain's railway rights-of-way re closed lines, be largely destroyed. Withdraw rail services -- dismantle the tracks -- but for heaven's sake leave the roadbeds in place, in case of future need ! (As has been mentioned earlier in this thread, I gather that some other countries have behaved rather more wisely in this matter, than our own.)

Unfortunately, it's part of human nature that we tend to be a rash, hasty, heedless species -- our standard operational practice, "do what seems a good idea at the time -- or do what makes money for somebody at the time: if that creates future problems, we'll patch those up as best we can, when they actually become problems".

The hurried and often untimely demise of the steam loco worldwide, is owed I feel, in part to the above mindset; plus, to directions to go in, happening at the time to have been dictated both by commercial (and political??) forces, and by what was perceived as being the cool, switched-on thing to do. If steam locomotives were to have a chance of coming into their own again: much work has been done over the past most-of-a-century, on schemes aimed to make them function more smoothly / efficiently -- one thinks, among other things, of Bulleid's experimental "Leader" type, looking nothing like people's image of the "classic" steam loco.

Agree, wood for burning likely to be problematic in a fuel-poor future. Still, you never completely know... the trans-Angola Benguela Railway was largely steam-worked, until the 1970s: many of its steam locos burnt wood, which was provided for by the railway's setting up along various stretches of its route, huge plantations of quick-growing eucalyptus trees -- giving a sustained fuel supply. This situation came to an end, after (no political axes of any kind being ground here) things in those parts went completely to hell in the mid-'70s. It might, though, just perhaps be replicated (with climate-appropriate tree types) here or elsewhere...
 
I've read a lot about the Leader. It could never have been more than a test-bed without major redesign, although the power bogies seem to have been reasonably successful.

Chapelon and Porta have demonstrated the necessary thermal cycles for a more efficient steam engine, but the actual physical layout would be more contentious, and cleanliness and ease of maintenance would factor in. Wood burning - maybe with pelletised wood - could be a lot cleaner.

Availability would need to be addressed - perhaps some kind of cassette system for ash disposal and obviously water treatment for the boiler. You'd want a loco that could run at least 18 hours in service a day without need to do more than top up coal and water.

Coal burning would presumably use some kind of mechanical stoker, and one assumes that we would, like Bulleid with the Leader, be aiming for one or two general purpose types rather than the plethora of designs that were produced even in BR days. I assume that electronic controls would obviate the need for the fireman to actually be at the firebox end of the boiler, so maybe something like a modernised Beyer-Garratt with cabs at the outer ends would do the job. Or perhaps the Leader with a conventional boiler, Chapelon/Porta steam cycle, and without the rather pointless cladding.

It could be done. Will it? I very much doubt it - another human failing is never looking back to see if abandoned ideas from the past could be developed further. Instead we get energy-wasteful nonsense like maglevs and monorails.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top