The Session TRAINSPOTTING
Has been inspired by this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWn4qkfPbd0
Prelog :-
The railways were run down after the Second World War.
1st of January 1948, 4 great railway company’s became British Railways
and everyone thought; modernise. It was going to be the start of a great new era.
A publicly owned transport system.
What the British people got was immense, the locos, the wagons, the track, the stations, and more than a million people worked on the Railways.
The steam engine had been a very successful engine for the British
Electric trains were great but expensive. Diesels were more straightforward but the first diesel trains were not reliable and breakdowns were a common event.
Diesels relied on oil but the British were not overly endowed with oil. Steam however relied on coal and England had a plentiful supply of that. So therefore we should use coal and stick with steam locomotives was the thinking. Further steam was the proven technology everyone knew how it worked and it wasn't expensive to produce the engines. So Britain was not yet ready for the expensive conversion to diesel or electric because steam power was cheap and coal was plentiful.
Britain's decision to stick with steam after World War 2 meant that new locomotives had to be built. BR decided to make a standard lot of engines, trials was set up to cherry pick the best from different engines from big 4 pre nationalised companies
Within 2 years designs had been produced for standard locomotives for the whole of the British railway system.
Over the next decade 999 standard class locomotives as well as more than 1500 non-standard (pre group designs) had been built.
This great variety of locomotives running on the lines gave rise to a cultural phenomenon That celebrated this diversity.
Young boys all over the country started appearing on railway stations in droves to catch a glimpse of the weird and wonderful locos running on Britain’s railways.
The spark that ignited the TRAINSPOTTING revolution was Ian Allen’s ABC guide Southern locomotives which was published in 1942 when he was 15.
It was a list of numbers which doesn't sound very exciting it's not even a great read but the point is that you take it out on the end of the platform and you wait to tick off the engines as they come past and it became very popular amongst teenage boys.
It was the iPod of its generation. TRAINSPOTTING in 1942 was hip. Locomotive diversity was at its peek
As time wore on it wasn't just the railway men whom had enough of the dirty Victorian technology. The general public were starting to tyre of it as well.
Many families only experience of long-distance rail travel was on summer Saturdays in dirty clapped-out coaches with trains running increasingly late and as soon as they had the opportunity to buy a family car, they just never travelled by train again
British railway ceased to be a profitable company as it was being challenged by road transport both from freight and passengers.
After the war it had not been seen as cost effective to leave steam behind as coal was still cheap and plentiful.
Within a few years coal prices were on the rise an oil prices were dropping.
The time had come to make the big switch to diesel (by the middle of the 1950’s). Also steam locos are messy things and it was becoming more and more difficult to get people to work on them.
In 1955 the British Transport Commission announced a modernisation plan. A key element of the plan was the abolition of steam locomotives. It was now felt that diesel locomotives had developed to the point where they were a viable technology. So, by the mid-1950s it was widely recognised within the industry that the future was not with steam. This being despite the fact that nearly 2000 standard and non-standard locomotives had been built. The writing was on the wall for steam power. A vast modernization plan would be carried out to the cost of more than 1500 million pounds.
The sleek new Diesel Giants began to take their place.
Quite often in the late 1950s early 1960s British Railways was faced with the unenviable sight of brand-new diesel locomotives being rescued from breakdowns by the old-fashioned steam locomotives.
However, steam was dirty noisy and impractical while diesel's were clean safe and quiet.
The modernization plan spelt the end of steam locomotives however steam locomotives carried on being built for another 5 years
The last steam engine made by British Rail “Evening Star” was commissioned in 1960 and it was out of service by 1965. Five years of service only!
Get ready to enjoy this period of time by downloading the soon to be released session TRAINSPOTTING.
Has been inspired by this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWn4qkfPbd0
Prelog :-
The railways were run down after the Second World War.
1st of January 1948, 4 great railway company’s became British Railways
and everyone thought; modernise. It was going to be the start of a great new era.
A publicly owned transport system.
What the British people got was immense, the locos, the wagons, the track, the stations, and more than a million people worked on the Railways.
The steam engine had been a very successful engine for the British
Electric trains were great but expensive. Diesels were more straightforward but the first diesel trains were not reliable and breakdowns were a common event.
Diesels relied on oil but the British were not overly endowed with oil. Steam however relied on coal and England had a plentiful supply of that. So therefore we should use coal and stick with steam locomotives was the thinking. Further steam was the proven technology everyone knew how it worked and it wasn't expensive to produce the engines. So Britain was not yet ready for the expensive conversion to diesel or electric because steam power was cheap and coal was plentiful.
Britain's decision to stick with steam after World War 2 meant that new locomotives had to be built. BR decided to make a standard lot of engines, trials was set up to cherry pick the best from different engines from big 4 pre nationalised companies
Within 2 years designs had been produced for standard locomotives for the whole of the British railway system.
Over the next decade 999 standard class locomotives as well as more than 1500 non-standard (pre group designs) had been built.
This great variety of locomotives running on the lines gave rise to a cultural phenomenon That celebrated this diversity.
Young boys all over the country started appearing on railway stations in droves to catch a glimpse of the weird and wonderful locos running on Britain’s railways.
The spark that ignited the TRAINSPOTTING revolution was Ian Allen’s ABC guide Southern locomotives which was published in 1942 when he was 15.
It was a list of numbers which doesn't sound very exciting it's not even a great read but the point is that you take it out on the end of the platform and you wait to tick off the engines as they come past and it became very popular amongst teenage boys.
It was the iPod of its generation. TRAINSPOTTING in 1942 was hip. Locomotive diversity was at its peek
As time wore on it wasn't just the railway men whom had enough of the dirty Victorian technology. The general public were starting to tyre of it as well.
Many families only experience of long-distance rail travel was on summer Saturdays in dirty clapped-out coaches with trains running increasingly late and as soon as they had the opportunity to buy a family car, they just never travelled by train again
British railway ceased to be a profitable company as it was being challenged by road transport both from freight and passengers.
After the war it had not been seen as cost effective to leave steam behind as coal was still cheap and plentiful.
Within a few years coal prices were on the rise an oil prices were dropping.
The time had come to make the big switch to diesel (by the middle of the 1950’s). Also steam locos are messy things and it was becoming more and more difficult to get people to work on them.
In 1955 the British Transport Commission announced a modernisation plan. A key element of the plan was the abolition of steam locomotives. It was now felt that diesel locomotives had developed to the point where they were a viable technology. So, by the mid-1950s it was widely recognised within the industry that the future was not with steam. This being despite the fact that nearly 2000 standard and non-standard locomotives had been built. The writing was on the wall for steam power. A vast modernization plan would be carried out to the cost of more than 1500 million pounds.
The sleek new Diesel Giants began to take their place.
Quite often in the late 1950s early 1960s British Railways was faced with the unenviable sight of brand-new diesel locomotives being rescued from breakdowns by the old-fashioned steam locomotives.
However, steam was dirty noisy and impractical while diesel's were clean safe and quiet.
The modernization plan spelt the end of steam locomotives however steam locomotives carried on being built for another 5 years
The last steam engine made by British Rail “Evening Star” was commissioned in 1960 and it was out of service by 1965. Five years of service only!
Get ready to enjoy this period of time by downloading the soon to be released session TRAINSPOTTING.