dfarrow wrote: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
