So, why exactly did....................

The 1955 Modernisation Plan stated "Oil is cheap and it comes from countries who are all friends of Britain". Compare that with seeking a fuel source dependent upon the output of a militant NUM. Saudi Arabia did not attend the first meeting of OPEC because the British Agent in that country refused their head of state permission to attend.

 

Don't forget, Fred, that the line to the Brocken was forbidden territory until the wall came down in 1989.

 

Another problem about steam in this country was finding the workforce to maintain them as written about by Bill Harvey and Peter Townend, amongst others. Anyone fancy the job of cleaning out fireboxes and ashpans, not forgetting smokeboxes, mainly in antiquated sheds?

 

No thanks ,especial when the wind was in the wrong direction.

 

or to look at it another way, Britain's railways failed to modernise early enough by fitted hopper ashpans and other labour saving devices and still thought they could pay half what industry would pay an unskilled man for easier work.

 

The end of West German steam was in Oct 77, at Rheine and Emden. According to a Railway World I had, the end of French steam was in March 74 at Sarreguemines. Nevers, Narbonne and Lyons Vennisieux (?) were also last sheds. I think Austrian steam ended in early 76 at Vienna and Linz, except Vordenberg, which was about 1978. Spain may have been 75. Italy as said, didn't seem to have an end date.

 

Although there must have been a large waste of capital, since so many steam locos were far from life expired, I believe it was argued at the time that there was a huge revenue saving by getting rid of steam. This arose from the much shorter diesel preparation & disposal time; simpler and/or less frequent maintenance requirements; and greater locomotive availability. Was this incorrect?

 

I'd be interested to know how to prices of coal and oil fluctuated in the late '40s and early '50s. My understanding has always been that Riddles advocated the construction of the Standards on the basis that coal was an indigenous fuel source, but by 1955 BR was losing so much money that the revenue savings from dieselisation could no longer be ignored. So what changed? Did the price of coal go up, or the price of oil come down? Or both?

Let's not forget, though, that the NER was starting to think about electrification before WWI. Had it not been for the Kaiser and Hitler, I suspect Britain's railways would have abandoned steam traction much earlier. Arguably, the real waste is not that the Standards were scrapped so quickly, but that they were built in the first place. Indeed, but for the First World War we might never even have seen the Gresley Pacifics. And I suspect the railways would probably have survived the onslaught of road competition much better in those circumstances - but I also suspect there would have been far fewer railway enthusiasts in the world!

 

A quick search suggests September 1975 in France - a freight train hauled by 140 C 287.

From http://www.trainsfrancais.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=20035

le dernier train fret tracté vapeur en France circule le 24 septembre 1975 de Troyes à Ste Colombe, tracté par la 140 C 287.

Although Yahoo! Answers suggests 19/10/1975.
https://fr.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100127073416AAb3oyr

 

Or was the cost of labour the more significant factor? For maintenance & preparation as well as for loco crew.

 

You might be interested to know that in 1933 'Windber' Welsh Steam Coal was £1-17s-6d per ton delivered to the Sentinel Waggon Works Ltd in Shrewsbury by rail. By 1950 the price had gone up to £3-17s-6d per ton.

 

My French is rusty but I think the debate revolves around how you define the last steam train. A bit like the post August '68 operations in the UK, what do you count and what doesn't count.

 

While the capital and fuel costs are fairly easy to define, what about the other costs? David Wardale points out that dieselisation allowed large number of loco sheds to be shut along with the reduction in things like ash handling, coal haulage and water supplies.

Also how does the refit costs of steam compare with diesel? A 'Heavy General' on a steam loco is a major operation but how do repair costs including time out of service compare on a diesel?

 

The economics also depend on how you do your accounting.

British-built locos burning British coal vs Diesels using imported oil vs electrics using British coal at the power stations.

Was the balance of trade important?

 

It's far from a simple conundrum but I think the bottom line was steam had become uneconomic and had had it's time, for all sorts of reasons.

 

It is said that the reason for the Norfolk & Western dieselising wasn't the cost advantages but the difficulty in obtaining the parts they needed to build & maintain their steam fleet. Having said that however the N&W C1955 was light years away from British Railways

 

Bonsoir à tous,
le dernier train commercial de la SNCF assuré en traction vapeur a circulé le 28 mars 1974.
Ce jour là, la 141R 73 de Sarreguemines a tracté un train entre Béning et Sarreguemines.
Le Def.
I don't speak your actual French but, this seems to align with the Railway World article.

The 1975 workings were I think on the CFTA, a private line.

A stop at Sarreguemines in July 75, on the way to see DB steam, revealed about 10 dead 141R's and 4 or 5 140C's. Some were in the roundhouse awaiting preservation. The others were near the coal stage, being cut up.

 

so 6 years....negligible really.

 

I wouldn't be so sure - Westminster Council is about to do far worse to the conservation area round Paddington, trashing a historic quarter to erect a hideous and inhuman monument to an architect's ego.



Tom

 

Renzo Piano was one of the duo that designed the Centre Pompidou, along with Richard Rogers. The Cube is 54 storeys shorter than planned!
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/lond...rey-cube-building-in-paddington-a3300856.html

Elsewhere...

Bonsoir à tous,
le dernier train commercial de la SNCF assuré en traction vapeur a circulé le 28 mars 1974.
Ce jour là, la 141R 73 de Sarreguemines a tracté un train entre Béning et Sarreguemines.

"Good evening everybody, the last confirmed steam-hauled SNCF train in commercial service* ran on the 28th March 1974. On that day, 141R 73 from Sarreguemines hauled a train between Béning and Sarreguemines."

*not sure if train commercial means 'in revenue-earning service' or just a passenger train.