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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by Tulyar15 [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by Murphy Siding One article mentions steam on British rails long after I would have thought it was still used. When was the last use of steam locomotives in regular service in Britain? Thanks [/quote] British Rail got rid of standard gauge steam locos in 1968, but it continued to own and operate the 2' guage Vale of Rheidol in Wales until 1986. Since then the VofR has been in private ownership (much to Futuremodal's disappointment it was sold off lock stock and barrel as a vertically integrated operation to the highest bidder). London Underground continued to use steam locos for works trains on the Metropolitan line until 1971; British Coal, our former state owned coal company had several steam locos in use at mine up till the mid 1980's. The most of these were ones it had bought new in the 1950's but it did also buy some second hand locos from BR. The last of these to remain in use was ex GWR Pannier No. 7754 which was used at Mountain Ash colliery in south Wales up till 1980; it's now preserved on the Llangollen Railway. [/quote] The VofR is in good shape - I was driving into Aberystwyth yesterday and saw the plume of smoke, didn't know they ran this late in the season. The advice on their website about ensuring that you don't miss the last train back from Devil's Bridge is very good - it's about 18 miles or so by road from Aberystwyth and is really out in the middle of nowhere. There used to be a thriving mining operation up there and if you drive a little further into the hills you can see the ruined buildings and spoil heaps near a tiny village named Cwmystwyth. I think they even had a little 2ft gauge mine railway as in one place there are two rusting rails poking out from the tarmac at the edge of the road - presumably the remains of a crossing.
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