Having worked in the British rail industry for several years try FRA and ICC/STB squared if not cubed. In one study we did Network Rail's track maintenance costs were 4 to 5 times greater than North American costs. So more urbinization, tighter clearances, tighter safety rules, I'll give them double, but 4 to 5 times?
When you say no British interest in pulling everything down perhaps you need to review the Beeching effort.
They are a debating society, talk talk talk, the Nike JUST DO IT, doesn't work. But I'll give credit where credit is due. Once they make up their mind things happen albeit slowly by our standards. Witness HS1, Cross Rail, Themslink etc.
But at the same time witness the installation of the new junction on the DLR at Canning Town, only a couple of turnouts, took a week compared to the installation of the new diamonds and interlocking in Chicargo at Ash Street over a weekend.
But the real joke is Network Rail's creation on a North American consulting division to sell their experience here while the press in the UK questions their ability to manage their own assets.
Just for fun get an e-subscription to Modern Railways and Read Roger Ford's "Informed Sources".
If I remember British groups in their local communities took over abandon branch line railroads and re established them as historic steam operations with passenger service as the focus.
It is almost if British railroads were established around passenger service as a community offering when they were built. When this went away the community was more than happy to have all this abandon railroad property put back to use and preserved and they did it by keeping with the steam trains.
No such British interest as pulling everything down for scrap value then doing this govermental "green" thing by turning it all into hiking trails as in America.
America has this heavy focus on fright railroading because the nation was built by the railroads - they hauled the very structure of building America - and if small branch lines now survive it is because of this heavy haulage mentality as freight only railroads. Owosso, MI, Durango, CO, East Broad Top PA seem exceptions.
Britian is such a small country, and was so well developed as a nation before the age of steam, that it almost acquired a "garden state mentality." And I don't mean New Jersey! Unlike America, Britian seems to feel about its nation that it is a "home" and the nation is more about a "home for its English people" that an industrial setting for "business and industry." American President Johnson called America "The Great Society," I think he was wrong, America is about all about business! - supporting business, and remember President Calvin Coolidge who said, the "business of America is business!
Last time I flew into Heathrow, I was shocked to note that from the air, that I could see the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea and the English Channel. It occured to me that Britian is physically about the size of one American state! Such a small land with such a big impact on the world - and such a long, long, long, history.
I also wonder if the British have to deal with anything so encumbering as American Federal Bureaucracy? Do they have anyting resembling an ICC or an FRA to contend with in railroad operations?
America is a big vast wild nation with the "wilderness" just receding out of sight and immediate experience. Come to think of it Australia and South Africa are kind of wild and wooly like this. England is about etique, maners, society and social stratification! They also have a queen and the people are "subjects" not "citizens." We in America take for granted our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Each American citizen has the civil rights of the English noble class. When you step out of the USA you don't realize what freedoms vanish - especially for women! In a lot of places outside of America a woman cannot properly go, or transact business, without being escorted by a man.
For a thousand years, since the Norman Invasion of England, my own family was of the Scottish noble class. Noble families have legal titles to their family coat of arms and "may bear arms" in England. You can even own a modern army tank and drive it on the public streets in England - as was done recently on TV. The common English "subject" can have but a pocket knife! The entire nation is under video surveillance cameras and the feudal system is really just below the surface. If your not English you don't see it!
Doc
While I love it, I can't help but wonder what could've been had that love also applied to Britain's maritime legacy.
They sadly don't have a strong record there for reasons unclear (You would think a country rich in history and with the storied past on the seas that this one has, that they'd lead the world in this area). At least their attention to preserving their aviation legacy is growing in recent decades after such losses like the de Havilland Hornet going extinct in earlier years at a time when preservation was on the rise elsewhere like America.
And it's not only steam. For a few years, preservation remained almost exclusively focused on Britian's steam era. But starting largely in the 1980s, that attention has only expanded. And they're attracting younger generations into their cause as well, which is key to the long-term viability of these artifacts and is something groups on the other side of the pond often only wish they could do.
I've been doing a LOT of research on restored and operating steam locomotives and passenger coaches in Great Britain. I have to say, I am amazed! The Brits seem to have a dedication to steam trains unlike anything I've ever imagined. According to the many YouTube videos I've watched, there are clearly HUNDREDS of restored, operating steam locos, along with vintage Pullman coaches, and other vintage cars. The locomotives are absolutely beautiful to see in their colorful "liveries" and ornate detail. All you train fans out there owe it to yourselves and check out these Youtube videos! I wish this interest existed in the US! Even the British Government funds a lot of this stuff! Remember, the Limeys invented the steam engine, and they're proud of it! Give 'em a look-see.....impressive!
Mike C.
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