Both my father and grandfather, both of whom had connections to steam locomotives in their life are undoubtedly cheering this story(wherever they are) from the BBC. So am I. Inconveniently, it runs on coal.
Steam train’s snow rescue ‘glory’
Passengers were rescued by a steam locomotive after modern rail services were brought to a halt by the snowy conditions in south-east England.
Trains between Ashford and Dover were suspended on Monday when cold weather disabled the electric rail.
Some commuters at London Victoria faced lengthy delays until Tornado – Britain’s first mainline steam engine in 50 years – offered them a lift.
They were taken home “in style”, said the Darlington-built engine’s owners.
Train services in Kent were hit hard by the freezing conditions at the start of the week.
The weather-related disruption included three days of cancellations for Eurostar services through the Channel Tunnel.
Tornado, a £3m Peppercorn class A1 Pacific based at the National Railway Museum in York, was in the South East for one day, offering “Christmas meal” trips from London to Dover.
…
About 100 people were offered free seats, according to Mark Allatt, chairman of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust – the charity which built Tornado.
…
Mr Allatt, who was on the service at the time, said he only saw a handful of other trains between London and Dover throughout Monday.
…
A spokesman for Southeastern Trains congratulated Mr Allatt on his “moment of glory”.
He said: “I’m sure those passengers were saved from a lengthy wait, all credit to him.”
Read the complete BBC article here
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My father, who died in 1993 at age 90, was a great lover of steam locomotives. His dad had worked for the railroad as a section foreman (actually knew Casey Jones) until killed in an accident. My father always spoke of the great engineering involved in designing and manufacturing the steam giants. Looks like they still work!
JimB
And the ironic thing is that train must be spewing out much more CO2 than the trains that got stuck assuming they’re burning coal or wood to make the steam.
But anything that pumps out plant food then………
Perhaps the stranded passengers can take this up with Hadley. Hadley has this winter as the warmest on record as their prediction.
What a lovely story. I showed this to my young son, whose comment was “He’s green – it must be Henry.” I’ve been amused – or perhaps bemused – by the problems with the Chunnel trains. I guess they never banked on snow, as the design problems with snow intake were encountered and overcome in North America over 50 years ago, and the problems then seen were a result of failure to visualize all weather eventualities on the part of design engineers.
in the “old days” they overcame hardships, now they’re government subsidised.
Didn’t know electricity could freeze. 😉
What a great story. The broader lesson, that not all technologies, like all climate models, actually work under the full range of real world conditions, may be lost on the general public.
Merry Christmas to all, especially fans of steam locomotion.
The picture reminds me of the stock standard alarmist photo of power station cooling towers where the water vapour is annoyingly mistaken for some evil catastrophic carbon molecule.
At least in this picture there would indeed be some good old CO2 pushing that steam about, or vice versa.
You mean a steam train that runs on …….. coal ? 🙂
So Al Gore was right after all! He did say that global warming would mean we’d see more Tornadoes, didn’t he?
The remarkable thing about steam engines is that they seem to blend into and become part of the landscape – whether hurtling through a snowy rural scene or trundling into an urban station. I don’t think that is true of modern machinery although a lot of that could be down to the garish paint schemes that are so popular today.
Proper engineering. My friend Dave Wilson was one of the last tender men on the Southern Railway. He and the driver broke the record for the Penzance-London run with the last steam train before it was withdrawn from service, just to prove the point.
Then he wrote a guide to the preserved steam railways of Britain while we studied together at Leeds in the ’80’s. He sent me a first edition copy with a private joke written in the front cover:
Time and tables ; The essence of Philosophy.
While we studied the history and philosophy of science, we would often ‘sit in’ on spontaneous debates in the Philosophy department foyer. Many of these would revolve around the nature of time, and our understanding of matter. “take this table for example” became a standing joke. 🙂
The head of the University finance department was heard to say to the head of the physics department who had just asked for an expensive piece of experimental equipment;
“Why can’t you be more like the philosophy department? All they ask me for is paper and pens… and waste paper baskets.”
About 15 years ago, I heard a speech by a civil engineer who said that it’s not wise to assume that hi-tech will work during a disaster.
Though I wouldn’t call heavy snow a disaster – he was talking about earthquakes and major flooding etc – I guess that this illustrates the point.
Nice photos of the Tornada
http://www.a1steam.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=53:2008&Itemid=170&layout=default
More popcorn please…. 😀
Yeah, AGW and unhealthy diet…
My father was one of the last coal shoveling firemen on the old steam engines on the Alaska railroad just after WW2. He become an engineer, and weeks later they switched to diesels.
He still has some amazing stories to tell about life in Alaska in the late 40’s. At one time, he was the second youngest engineer in North America.
Jack
So who is going to pay for the necessary upgrades to the railway systems throughout Europe and the US if the global cooling continues to produce more and more snow? Will it come from the global warming taxes?
What a sense of humor the Old Man has!
With kind regards,
Oliver K. Manuel
There’s only white smoke (steam, I presume) shown in the photo, not black. That can’t be right.
This is “wrong” on so many levels it’s great!
If only Dr. Pachauri needed the rescue….
BTW, the cog railway that runs up Mt. Washington in New Hampshire is gaining some new biodiesel locomotives to augment the classic coal fueled steam locomotive. The latter have to stop halfway up to take on extra water. See http://www.thecog.com/cog_technology.php
Wonder how many carbon credits they bought in order to do that. Or is that not the way it’s done?
Peter of Sydney (17:08:50) :
“So who is going to pay for the necessary upgrades to the railway systems throughout Europe and the US if the global cooling continues to produce more and more snow? Will it come from the global warming taxes?”
No need. At least here in the US, were used to lots of snow falling on the rail lines. Don’t expect the cooling to last forever, maybe just a few decades. Everything cycles.
The european high speed lines will need more plow engines running. They will also likely run power through the rails to make them heat up.
Definitely not Thomas according to my 4yr old.
My grandfather was a telegrapher and cabooseman (? title) for the railroad back in those days. He was also the hogmaster. That was the person that worked for both the RR and local farmers to get hogs onto the trains and ship them out of the county. He kept the records as the hogs were loaded as to which hogs belonged to what farmer.
You know, if what you need for a hard-working steam-driven locomotive is a reliable source of heat, but people are worried about the CO2 emissions, you could equip them with a small and simple nuke plant. 😉
Yes Henry was green engine but as I recall had indigestion problems until he was sent bak to Crewe to have his firebox rebuilt.
The UK southern railway third rail system at around 750 V AC was very satisfactory.
To cope with frost under British rail they used to run the ghost trains overnight which flashed and sparked splendidly.
Heavy snow was a problem but they were well equipped to cope with it, they had four diesel snow plough units which cleared the line and they had a fairly efficient plan of putting people on trains which would more or less get them close to their destination. No charge.
And because they did not charge the old rule was always first train forward and sort it out from there.
All I can say is we knew how to deal with this kind of weather back then. Seems AGW hasn’t stopped it either.
Kindest Regards