First steam train built in Britain for 48 years!

A cutting from todays paper, which doesn't quite fit on screen so here's a link to it too!

BUWAA HAAA HAAA HA!

This is just the beginning!
The second age of steam is upon us!

REJOICE!

The Thunderbolt I believe, or something like that.

That is mighty fine! A Peppercorn A1 4-6-2. That is a fine recreation, and as I understand it, a coal fired one, at that!
In the States, there are very few coal powered locomotives--most burn oil.
Even Jupiter and 119 at Promintory Summit, Utah run on oil.
Well done , UK!

Beautiful! Gad! My relief valve just blew...

A.G.Morgan wrote:BUWAA HAAA HAAA HA!

This is just the beginning!
The second age of steam is upon us!

REJOICE!

Couldn't have put it better myself...

So, who's up for a little jaunt to Leicestershire and the Grand Central Railway?

Could Pop up in between engagements I suppose

Cyril Fotheringay-Phipps wrote:That is mighty fine! A Peppercorn A1 4-6-2. That is a fine recreation, and as I understand it, a coal fired one, at that!
In the States, there are very few coal powered locomotives--most burn oil.
Even Jupiter and 119 at Promintory Summit, Utah run on oil.
Well done , UK!

Oil is a far more efficient fuel for a steam loco, and has a far less corrosive effect on the firebox, and firetubes. One pund of coal has anywhere betwen 8000 and 13000 BTU, whereas a gallon of diesel (or bunker for that matter) has about 140,000 BTU, whcih is about 19,200 BTU per pound of oil, juts to keep the comparison with coal in the same units.
No clinkers or ash, either, and the quality of fire is far more consistant. Easier on the firemans; back, too, and even mechanical coal stokers could jam.. At the end of a coal-fired loco's run, you;d need to drop the fire, shake out the grates, shovel out the ashpan, and remove clinkers (not an easy job at all) from the grates. Then you'd need to open up the smokebox and shovel out a not incosiderbale amount of fly-ash. I'd rather fire an oil-burner anyday.

Cheers
Harold

There was a series on the BBC recently called The golden age of steam, and thier latest episode featured this engine I'm very sorry I didn't know about this sooner! It was an extravoganza of steam engines

Agreed, it is neater and more efficient. But there is something special about the atmosphere when a coal-fired train goes by. There is nothing quite like the smell of coal burning.

If it weren't neater, easier, cleaner and more efficient to burn diesel or bunker oil, we'd still be using coal daily. That is the nature of progress. I am all for steamships and enclosed cockpit monoplanes too. However, there is still a place in the world for topsail schooners and Curtis Jennys.

thats soo cool, shame some bar-steward (Dr Beecham) decided to get rid of all our splendid railways as we "didn't need them" We need more trains, especially steam ones like that :-)

I'd settle for decent passenger rail service here in Canada (what little we have is pitiful).. as far as steam, its nice, but for a railroading perspective, incredibly expensive, and innefficeint, not to mention quite damaging to the rials due to the dymnamic augment inherent in steam powered locos, due to the large amounts of reciprocating mass. You can't get perfect balancing on a steam loco, and the resultant forces from that inballance are hard on the rail surfaces..

Cheers
Harold

Problem is in England the government thinks we have a brilliant public transport system and people don't need to use cars. This is only true in large cities like London or Liverpool. Anywhere else it's a nightmare, but it never used to be, they just closed all the smaller branch lines as they weren't needed because of the new roads, which are now all full.....

In Canada, we have ONE passneger service, VIA, and while it's supposed to be the national passsneger service, its nowhere near national in its reach, or destinations.
VIA used to be a Crown Company, and as such eventually ended up running solely to destiantions served by CN Rail, the other (at that time) Government rail service.
I can remember travelling across the country several times on The Canadian, Canadian Pacific's flagship passenger train, before the passenger business went over to VIA. Montreal to Vancouver, in 4 days, and in style, roomette all the way, dome cars and silver in the dining car..

Cheers
Harold

JingleJoe wrote:There was a series on the BBC recently called The golden age of steam, and thier latest episode featured this engine I'm very sorry I didn't know about this sooner! It was an extravoganza of steam engines

Yeah, I saw this, 'twas brillig. In fact, the whole (series? More let a 'set of programmes') bunch was great