The UK seems to be the virtual steam capital in terms of restorations.... they seem to be able to collaborate and organize themselves to raise funds for these projects to an astonishing extent..
Im green with envy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQxcK9YyDoE
"The project is a collaboration between York-based National Railway Museum, the Great Central Railway, Steam Railway Magazine, Bressingham Steam Museum and 5305 Locomotive Association and Loughborough Standard Locomotives Group. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/leicestershire/7383752.stm
Flying Scotsman receives new boiler
"In its career it traveled 2,000,000 miles (3,200,000 km) before being withdrawn from service in 1963."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/north_yorkshire/7886848.stm
Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
There is plenty of steam to be seen in the UK, either on preserved lines or on the main line. The summer programme for one tour operator is here:
http://www.past-timerail.co.uk/index.php/tour-diary.html
And there are other operators as well. This makes it worthwhile to restore toi main line standards. The list of locos certified for main line running is here:
http://www.uksteam.info/tours/locos.htm
The lament of the rail fan; "Good Grief... Im either in the wrong place at the right time or the right place at the wrong time. "
There are several influences at work to explain the steam activity in Britain.
"Loco Spotting" (recording the numbers of each locomotive seen) was a very common hobby for schoolboys. This is in considerable contrast to North America where an interest in railroads is definitely not a mainstream hobby, in fact often considered strange or even bizarre. You have to be able to ignore peer pressure. The natural result is that in the UK there is a far higher percentage of active rail enthusiasts. This may change in the future since on the modern network there are a very limited number of locomotive hauled trains and passenger MU trainsets probably won't have the same appeal.
A very, very important factor is a scrapyard in Barry, Wales. The owner acquired over 200 steam engines at the end of steam, and always kept them last in line for the cutting torch. Slowly funds were raised and eventually most of them were bought back for preservation. This pool of locomotives provides most of the operational ones today. And because so many are still operating, the skills and support industry have remained viable.
The locomotives that found their way to Barry were mostly of Southern, GWR, LMS and BR heritage. As a result multiple examples of those classes still running towards the end of steam have been preserved. Unfortunately he acquired few, if any, from the east coast so most LNER types became extinct with only a handful of single examples. (The exception being the streamlined A4 Pacifics with four preserved in the UK and two more in North America.) That glaring hole in the preservation scene can only be filled by constructing replicas, as has just been done with "Tornado".
Fortunately the British have kept detailed records, so original plans are generally available. They can not be used directly though, since new construction must meet current regulations and standards. I think the red tape was almost the biggest challenge; the regulatory rules had not considered the possibility of a new steam locomotive being constructed. Some of the later locomotives to leave Barry were little more than stripped hulks, so many of the tasks involved in building a brand new locomotive had already been faced and overcome individually by various restoration projects.
Some of the bigger preserved lines I have visited are remarkable in that the historic experience feels authentic. They are run just like a railway, even though staff are generally volunteers. Period restoration includes station buildings and functioning signals. The volunteers act like professional railwaymen, not adults posing with a full sized model railroad, nor are there frills like train robbers. In fact, some lines are actually used for local transportation as well.
If you get a chance to visit, many lines have one or more steam galas each year, and they are well worth trying to fit into an itinerary. Maybe avoid a "Thomas the Tank Engine" weekend, though!
John
Hi all,
yet another locomotive to shortly join the steam rosta in the U.K. is the Royal Scot.
This loco is owned by the Bressingham Steam Museum Trust and is expected to be steaming on heritage lines by the end of March.After prooving runs it will have the appropriate train protection systems fitted to allow it to run on the main line.
The Royal Scot visited Canada in the 1930`s
We hope to have it at Bressingham during August next-as a volunteer at Bressingham,I hope to be able to drive it on our short demonstration line!!
Dick
I saw Royal Scot running on the Llangollen Railway's gala on March 28th last, and very impressive she looked too. I got some excellent video footage of her running.
In the latest issue of "Heritage Railway" there's an article about a firm called Great Northern Steam who are based a mere stones throw from the old carriage works where "Tornado" has just been built. Apparrently, having established a successful business building minature steam locos and 1/3rd scale traction engines, they're now branching out into full size 4' 8.5" gauge steam locos. They're building a North Eastern Railway G5 0-4-4T for a group of local enthusiasts who've so far raised about 80% of the capital needed to construct the loco and they're using their owney money to fund 50% of the construction of a NER V class 4-4-2. So that will be two gaps in preservation plugged.
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