I guess that everone knows that I will post a pic of a steam locomotive if the sightest opportunity presents itself. Sometimes I do it if a thread is getting heated, there's something about a pic of a steam engine that makes people smile, so it does often defuse a situation.
Here's a bit of history:
Back in the early 60's, it was decided by the British Railways management, that all of it's steam powered units would be replaced by the cheaper, cleaner diesel or electric locos. Over a period of several years, British railways delivered over 20,000 of these steam locomotives to various commercial breakers, so that they could be cut up and melted down for their steel content. These breakers yards also took the outdated rolling stock, the carriages and wagons numbering hundreds of thousands.
In the late 60's, one or two nostalgic, wealthy and somewhat eccentric chaps were bemoaning the end of steam railways, and decided to try to set up a small line, powered by such an engine. The question arose, where would they get one? Hadn't they all been dismantled by now?
A bit of detective work showed that indeed virtually all of the old units had been scrapped years ago, but undaunted, our enthusiasts got busy writing letters, phoning etc, to try to locate just 1 steam locomotive for ther proposed private railway.
One of the breakers yards was in Barry, Wales, and the owner of the yard had years ago accepted about 700 locomotives for scrapping, and many thousands of wagons and carriages. Now this was where our enthusiasts hit the jackpot!
The owner of the breakers yard, being all for an easy life, had decided to commence breaking up the comparatively simple stuff first, and had started on the wagons and carriages. In 10 years, he had hardly touched the steam loco's! Instant nostalgia was now available!
And that really was that. Over the years, 108 volunteer-staffed steam lines have re-opened, after spending millions on restoring the loco's at Barry that were originally destined for destruction. So now, visitors to the UK can taste the era of an age gone by, when these mighty, over engineered beasts roared through the countryside. http://ukhrail.uel.ac.uk/
I hope you found that interesting!
Englishman.
