Big blue engine...

[dfarrow]

Having been brought up on '' Thomas The Tank Engine '' TTTE.... we brought the ''Boi '' up the same way , but blowed if I could remember if ' Gordon ' is green or blue . Even when old you can still learn something new every day , 'specially on this forum . Get to see the steamers on Swanage - Corfe Castle every now and then .. wonderful sight .

ATB dave f .

[DaveB]

Henry was the big green engine.. Percy was the little green engine

ATB
DaveB

[dfarrow]

Ian , hope we're going to get you up on this one .. promoting the merits of '' Daisy Diesel '' ......
PS anyone own up to being the '' Fat Controller'' ?

PPS I'll get my coat ..

Rgds Dave f .

[speedbird591]

Ian , hope we're going to get you up on this one .. promoting the merits of '' Daisy Diesel '' ......

What? That woke me up, Dave! Just reading along like you do and suddenly someone mentions my name and asks for an opinion Are you completely mad?

OK, then. I'm never short of an opinion so let's make it controversial

I love seeing steam and like many of us here, I grew up with it. I was never a 'spotter' although my brother was so I used to go along and just breathe in the smoke and smell and savour being in the vicinity of awesome power. Imagine a machine that produces maximum power at all ranges of it's power band. The first release of steam into the piston and the first revolution of the driving wheel as it effortlessly eases 12 fully laden carriages from a standstill into gentle forward motion. I loved the working engines. I liked them filthy and greasy - the Black fives were my favourite or the big goods engines.

The problem nowadays is that you don't see dirty steam engines any more so they don't really look like they did in the 50s and 60s. I don't rush down to the local station to watch and film one coming through like some of my friends - we do get quite a lot of mainline steam through here - but while I was at work they were quite a common sight at some of our stations.

As for Tornado, I'm afraid it leaves me a bit cold. Whilst it's a fantastic engineering project it seems a funny way to spend all those millions of pounds and man hours in building a replica when there are so many historical locomotives which are struggling to keep going. We nearly lost Flying Scotsman for heaven's sake - and that must be the last one to go! There are so many conservation schemes around but all wrapped up in their own individual worlds that they are all just hanging on by their fingernails. It would be nice to see the available money distributed over keeping fewer, more important locomotives alive.

One day last summer at our little station, all four lines were occupied. Tornado was on one, an HS125 express on another and two sprinter units. I made the point to my colleagues that the steam engine was the newest engine there by around 25 years. Crazy, or what?

What the public aren't generally aware of is the disruption caused by mainline steam on a network that can hardly cope with the scheduled traffic. Failures and delays with steam are fairly common and it's only because most controllers and signallers are enthusiasts that they absorb them to the detriment of the travelling public. During the summer the sparks cause an incredible amount of lineside fires in wheatfields which means that the smoke then stops all the following traffic while the fire brigade has to sort it out.

Last month my mate was filming a steam engine passing through a local station. West Country Castle Class, Nunney Castle. As she rattled through through the platform a large lump of coal fell off the tender and hit a passenger waiting on the platform. He has film of him writhing in agony on the ground with a broken leg and he ended up with an ambulance to hospital. Like I say, they're great to watch but they're from a different era with different standards and how much longer they can realistically be allowed on Mainline routes I don't know.

Of course there are plenty of preserved rail lines for them so they won't disappear. Meanwhile enjoy the sights and sounds while they're around. And as I was asked for my input, let me put in a vote for 'Evening Star' as the most beautiful locomotive ever built. BR Standard Class 9F 92220. It was the last steam loco built for British Railways and was earmarked for preservation from the beginning. I think it's at York Railway Museum. Rather than spend all that money on Tornado it would have been marvellous to see a low mileage loco like that given some mainline time at a fraction of the cost.

So there you are, Dave - that's why I don't usually get invited for input! There's too much scary stuff in my brain to risk releasing it!

I hope your leg's healing OK.

Ian

[DaveB]

Well Ian.. I enjoyed that very much.. amusing and informative as per

Not being a steam buff, I didn't realise Tornado was a replica. Must go and dig around to see it's history

ATB
DaveB

[gordon-in-aberdeen]

Oh eck, remind me never to get into an argument with you Ian

Yup Dave, she's not old, but new ish , see http://www.a1steam.com/ for the people who built her.
Took them years because it took that long to gather the funds and all the knowledge needed to make one, and re-learn how to do it too, since all the good people who used to make them are largely gone or finding the memory of how to do it fading fast . A bit debatable as to whether its all worth it I suppose, but not much different to restoring or making "new" spitfires which I believe there's a place down south doing to order at extortionate cost

Still, nice to see something like her now and then

[DaveB]

Hiya Gordon

Yup.. I found that site after reading Ian's post and spent a while reading it's story. I'm not sure how I feel about it now. Not doubting for one minute something like this could be a replica (new build) and finding it was did leave me a little disappointed though the team building it have to be commended. Like you say, it's very much like the phoney Spitfires or more recently.. FW190's.. the latter being built from scratch like Tornado (not sure about the Spit's). At the end of the day.. I suppose aircraft enthusiasts enjoy seeing an FW190 replica rather than none at all and the same obviously applies to Tornado. While neither are for the purist.. they both have their fans

ATB
DaveB

[gordon-in-aberdeen]

Horses for courses Dave

Its the Gresley P2 that they, and another crowd of loco developers are both looking at I'm curious about. Not one but two groups both thinking about building new steam locos at the same time, must be something in the water

I'm not a big steam fan really, but the engineering involved in one is quite something. I agree with what Ian said earlier, the Evening Star was the pinnacle of steam motive power in the UK both in evolution and the fact that she was the last to be built, but the Gresley P2 was probably the most powerful loco ever to run on UK rails in anger and none of them survived the cutters torch. It would be nice to see one of these running again in real life, if only as a reminder of what we once were the best in the world at

Anyway, enough of the pipe dreams, back to reality...