Bob Mannix wrote:
"dennis@home" wrote in message
...

"Andy Champ" wrote in message
. uk...
Jules wrote:
That's the 'new' one, isn't it? I was having this discussion with some
folk a few months ago as to whether
anyone could even build a steam engine any more (albeit stationary
stuff, not locos) simply because a lot of the information from the era
(in
particular the "tricks of the trade" which would have been handed down
by
word-of-mouth) has simply vanished.

I'm not convinced that this loco quite counts as proof - weren't all
sorts
of compromises made in the design and construction both on cost grounds
and to overcome various 'red tape' hurdles? (not that I'm in any way
saying it isn't a spectacular achievement! :-)

You might want to pull down the latest "Top Gear" from iPlayer. The race
was really a bit silly - all three vehicles were limited by speed limits,
not by capabilities - but they matched Tornado, an XK120, and a Vincent
Black Shadow from Kings Cross to Edinburgh...
It was a bit unfair..
it was supposed to be a race as it would have been in the past..
They let the car and bike use the dual carriageways which wouldn't have
been there..
but made the train stop to fill with water which it wouldn't have had to
do in the past.
Also the train would not have had a 75 mph limit on it then.


Cracking sight though. Best bit was the awe on JC's face when the loco
lurched suddenly at 70mph and he said "what the hell was that" and they said
"wheel spin" - instant conversion!


It was pretty graphic way to remind us WHY coal powered steamers were
ditched. Frequent stops for water mandatory, unless you count the water
troughs systems..unreliable and needed very frequent servicing, and a
filthy dirty backbreaking job to stoke them.

I rad somewhere recently that even modern electric trains are ot very
carbon efficient: the trains are, but the amount of track servicing
signalling and so on is a huge overhead of goods materials and people
that need to be shipped around to keep it all going.

It really is an argument for doing away with all local services and
using them as high speed intracontinental links.