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I'm sorry wholbr, but you are wrong. The SPAD had nothing to do with the locomotive and everything to do with WCRC's blazé attitude towards health and safety practices. I respect your opinion, but you just seem ungrateful.
Thankfully yours is a minority opinion and mainline steam will continue many years in to the future, can't wait until we get to see a P2 on the mainline again...![]()
Hi Everybody.
Mention has been made in this thread of the numbers who turned out to see the Flying Scotsman in recent weeks. However, I feel I have to point out that those "viewers" would be dwarfed on any single day by the numbers of commuters who use the British rail network for their everyday travel. Those users pay very high ticket prices again on a daily or seasonal basis for that travel and are the people who really pay for the upkeep of the network and not those who wish to play choo-choos on the mainline on an irregular basis.
Trackside viewers pay nothing towards the railways, while regular travelers pay everything and without them there would be nothing.
Far more people used trains then than they do now, buffet services were provided on most express services, tickets were affordable to normal people, railwaymen took far more pride in the appearance of their equipment AND if there was a problem, a new locomotive could be sourced very easily. It started going downhill in the late 80's and 90's, as more people began using cars and BR hiked up ticket prices, and as for privatisation, it is the biggest disaster to ever hit Britain's railways since Beeching. It's a race to the bottom as far as I'm concerned, now comfortable, well-maintained and plentiful coaching stock has been replaced with cheap, claustrophobic plastic DMUs with seats like church pews. Because of the TOC's obession with profit, many working and lower middle class people have been priced out of using the railways, with ticket prices for trunk routes now frequently in the hundereds. See for yourself- first go on a tacky Class 170 or something like that, and then go to your nearest preserved railway and take a trip in a Mk1 or Mk2 carriage, hauled by a steam or heritage diesel locomotive. I think we can all agree that the preserved train would offer a more comfortable and enjoyable travelling experience, and this is coming from a college student who wasn't even alive during the 1950s and 60s!to days of decline, filth and unreliability that were the days of steam in the 1950s-60s.
Perhaps 'ashamed' was too strong a word but the point still stands. A new steam ban would render the hard work of thousands of people pointless, and hugely damage the morale of the preservation movement as a whole. No Western country has totally banned steam from their mainlines, there are regular excursions in the US, Australia, Germany and Holland. It would be a massive backwards step. Something I haven't mentioned before is that mainline steam inspires young people to get involved in railway preservation. Yes, they can still go and see steam trains running on preserved lines, but seeing them speeding past on the mainline is far more exciting in their eyes. Mainline steam also creates media interest- the BBC's coverage of Flying Scotsman and Top Gear's 'Race to the North' episode, for example. The latter in particular showed young people steam locomotives in a slightly 'cooler' light, rather than as a old man's hobby. Without more young people becoming enthusiasts, the preservation movement will wither and die. Oh and as for:
Far more people used trains then than they do now, buffet services were provided on most express services, tickets were affordable to normal people, railwaymen took far more pride in the appearance of their equipment AND if there was a problem, a new locomotive could be sourced very easily. It started going downhill in the late 80's and 90's, as more people began using cars and BR hiked up ticket prices, and as for privatisation, it is the biggest disaster to ever hit Britain's railways since Beeching. It's a race to the bottom as far as I'm concerned, now comfortable, well-maintained and plentiful coaching stock has been replaced with cheap, claustrophobic plastic DMUs with seats like church pews. Because of the TOC's obession with profit, many working and lower middle class people have been priced out of using the railways, with ticket prices for trunk routes now frequently in the hundereds. See for yourself- first go on a tacky Class 170 or something like that, and then go to your nearest preserved railway and take a trip in a Mk1 or Mk2 carriage, hauled by a steam or heritage diesel locomotive. I think we can all agree that the preserved train would offer a more comfortable and enjoyable travelling experience, and this is coming from a college student who wasn't even alive during the 1950s and 60s!
I think more people would use the railways if we did the opposite of what you suggest, and ban tacky modern MU's and let steam take over their duties instead!
EDIT- here's a photo comparison-which would you rather travel on?
A Class 170, circa 2016:
![]()
Or a Mk1 constructed during the era of 'filth and decline':
![]()
Britain is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and it's railways one of the most overcrowded. Therefore, there is no room for under performing and unsafe heritage consists on the mainline network as that causes further delays (as if there where already not enough) with further ever growing passenger dissatisfaction.
Not so amigacooke. Read this one from Feb this year
http://actionforrail.org/1796-2/
Disgusting.
Can't comment more in France at football
Bill