Britain Turned Back The Clock Almost 50 Years

[chris n]

One for all the train spotters out there!!

It took them a bit longer and a few more pounds to build then a Robin Hood kit

18 year and a cost of £3 million

 

Steam power rolls into London

[Guest Jabberwocky]

it handles like it is on rails though

[Swan Jnr]

does anyone have any idea why they built it? seems an odd way to spend 3million

[Guest Jabberwocky]

because they could I think. The reasons behind it are all on www.a1steam.com (Or so old man says and he is a spotter)

[Guest erichetherington]

At a quick glance at Jabberwocky's link it mentions modern electronics on the new engine, I would assume this enables it to run at speed rather than the 25mph existing engines are limited to.

[Guest peter2b2002]

there was a show on tv about them, they were train spotters as kids and as you do as youngsters one of them said lets build a train.

peter2b

[Guest john]

Despite being one of the most modern and efficient steam loco designs ever built, all of the 49 original loco's have been scrapped.............ie there are none in preservation.

Hence one good reason why some enthusiasts embarked on building one, and this year it should prove there could still be a place for steam power if built in economical numbers with modern engineering technologies on a par with aerospace, and fuelled in an uptodate manner to generate steam efficiently. (making steam doesn't need to be a messy coal-shovelling technology any more )

 

 

 

Oh dear..............what have I just done .....

[Guest Jabberwocky]

they say it is very efficient, I would like to have a comparison between the original Peppercorn engines and this one and then compare, running cost and emissions to a modern diesel electric

[Guest Ian Marr]

Built in Darlo' just up the road.

 

Been traveling to Easingwold for the last few days, so headed off on Saturday a bit early to catch it's trip to London. Only just did as well .... must have been doing at least a ton ... pulling ten or more carriages ... looked spectacular in the frosty dawn.

 

Never understood train-spotting, but this was impressive.

 

Got some pictures - I'll see if I can reduce file size.

 

Ian

[Guest Ian Marr]

How about this ...

 

[Guest Ian Marr]

or this ...

 

[fry61]

Just the pictures sent shivers down my spine; 3million on this or a Buggati? MY money would go on the locomotive -- mainly because it's going to be USED--for what it was built to do, not stuffed & mounted which is probably the fate(past,present & future) for the Buggati. I LOVE steam!!

[Guest Jabberwocky]

My Dad is a spotter, I can not see the excitement. Maybe that is because I spent most of my childhood stood freezing cold next to a railway in the rail for a steam chain to chunder past and then run to that car and then off to stand at another piece of track

[Andy Cook]

A fantastic achievement of British engineering (apart from the fact the boiler was made in Germany ). Being local my dad and I made a few visits over the years watching it come together. The reason it only cost 3 million is down to the volunteer workforce, if they were being paid the total cost would have been many times that.

 

I doubt any more will be built, Steam powered vehicles of any kind are far more expensive to build, run and maintain than rivals powered by diesel, petrol or electric.

 

Great pics by the way. I am definitely not a train spotter. But I am a steam nut.

 

 

You might find this interesting,

 

http://www.steamcar.co.uk/index.htm

 

 

Another example of British blokes in a shed having a go.