Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Martin_1962]

strictly a midland man myself but must admit i do have an affection for the old somerset & dorset, wot a luverly line it would be if it were all there now.  

Got two Peter Smith books and two Ivo Peters videos

[LaserLance]

AM a bit of a philistine when it comes to steam trains ,but i did enjoy it , more of a guns ,tanks and plane person meself , must be something to do with being brought up in a army camp till i was 16  

[The Red Baron]

ahh peter & donald, what a great engine duo on the S&D. really enjoyed the programs years ago. Ivo peters, well say no more, for the photography, brilliant.  

[Martin_1962]

ahh peter & donald, what a great engine duo on the S&D. really enjoyed the programs years ago. Ivo peters, well say no more, for the photography, brilliant.  

The books are excellent and the RailScene Videos good, I transferred mine to DVD, pretty good copies too - well I do have around 30 pre recorded railway videos on Beta

[The Red Baron]

AM a bit of a philistine when it comes to steam trains ,but i did enjoy it , more of a guns ,tanks and plane person meself , must be something to do with being brought up in a army camp till i was 16  

my dad & grandad both worked at derby loco works, so you could say its in my blood, i carried the trend on by driving steam road engines. great fun.  

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Some are on iplayer

Some are getting repeated

Why do so many members on this forum like railways?[/quote]

Because Martin the members of this forum appreciate a truly great machine and the mechanical process that makes it convert power efficiently into motion.  

The major steam railway engine classes were the absolute perfect contemporary display of steam technology at its best, as the Omega we believe is such a machine of our age, all beit 1990s design technology.

That's my take on it anyway, quite apart from a large part of nostalga that haunts us steam fans and us Senator / Omega devotees!!

[The Red Baron]

well said lizzie.  

[Olympia5776]

Yeah , I dropped Bobski the Builder on Thursday night for "The last days of Steam " on ITV4 .
Very interesting fact emerged that at peak there was circa 2500 steam locomotives of all types in use up and down the country ,today there are still over 1300 operational in UK.
I laughed at the part where it showed footage of three young teenagers from Southall who successfully bought a soon to be scrapped but still  operational Loco for £650 (+£50 delivery) from BR and proceeded to run it up and down a 100 yard stretch of line in what looked like a private factory. These lads went on to form Didcot preservation railway.
Very entertaining.
Don

[omegaman2]

st rolox

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Yeah , I dropped Bobski the Builder on Thursday night for "The last days of Steam " on ITV4 .
Very interesting fact emerged that at peak there was circa 2500 steam locomotives of all types in use up and down the country ,today there are still over 1300 operational in UK.
I laughed at the part where it showed footage of three young teenagers from Southall who successfully bought a soon to be scrapped but still  operational Loco for £650 (+£50 delivery) from BR and proceeded to run it up and down a 100 yard stretch of line in what looked like a private factory. These lads went on to form Didcot preservation railway.
Very entertaining.
Don

In 1958 Olympia, the year before the last time the trains in the BR timetable was completely steam hauled, there were 16,108 steam locomotives in operation across the country.  As even more were still being built (last was 9F "Evening Star" in 1960) the scrappers, who had always been cutting redundant, obsolete loco's, really started to destroy the BR steam fleet under the 1955 Modernisation Plan.

[Olympia5776]

I stand corrected Lizzie .

Don

[Lizzie_Zoom]

I stand corrected Lizzie .

Don

   

Ok Don, but it is great to know there is yet another oof member who is interested in the great British steam railway of the past and the wonderful progress that the modern railway preservation movement has made

So many great locomotives have been saved by determined passion, much money along with tremendously hard work, sweat and tears which included the rescue of about 213 locomotives out of a peak of about 225 collected together at the famous Barry scrapyard of Dai Woodham (God rest this wonderful man's soul) by 1968.  Although still a fair percentage have still to be restored to working condition, they are still around and every so often another appears like a phoenix rising from the literal ashes of the past.

The next example of this is GWR "Castle" Class 5043 "Earl of Mount Edgcumbe to be soon steamed at Tysley, by 25th October all be in well, after last hauling a train on the 16th December 1963, spending 9 years 2 months at Barry before being purchased for preservation in 1972.  Yet another fine example of pure grit and detirmination to keep great engines alive!  8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)

I wonder if a vast amount of our miggies will still exist in 40 years time due to preservationists? :-? :-?

[Lizzie_Zoom]

And for those who are not famaliar with the "Barry Scene", perhaps being too young to remember it, this is how it appeared in 1968 a few years before even I was able to make a pilgrimage to this 'holly' site with some friends and my ex from the Mid Hants Railway.

[Martin_1962]

I've been to Barry - saw D601 Ark Royal and D6122 both last survivors of their classes and some of the few scrapped at Barry

[Lizzie_Zoom]

I've been to Barry - saw D601 Ark Royal and D6122 both last survivors of their classes and some of the few scrapped at Barry

Yes and they were very regrettably cut up!!

Another one of those missed preservation opportunties, as I believe no "Warship" class diesel now exists?

One of them pulled the "Torbay Express" I travelled on in 1961 after previously it had always been steamed hauled when I had been on it during 1960.