The last steam train in March 2020

That opening statement in itself is an extremely sobering thought - Not a nice one at all.

Richard.

 

November 1968. Not too sure of the exact date but I think it was on Friday the 15th. Here she is at Heap Bridge.

 

Not exactly the last steam train at Swanage, as there was driver experience the following day, but the last passenger service to depart from Swanage was the 15:20 on March 14.
80104 seen from a busy Station Road, running round for the final passenger service, and then ready to depart.
Wonder when we see the next passenger service leave the station?

 

Steam was at work in industry during those years, 4472 was out on the main line and some early heritage lines were definitely operational.

Edit : Beaten to it by others.

 

The government has got quietly what it’s wants no more coal burnt on a large size so the coal factory’s will close without them having to make them. All the groups and museums that use government money also close to its just been enough To kill of the groups that can’t go on without grants and them giving them money. We probably open back up soon now that they have killed of all the low money making people everywhere

 

Several things with that statement but I'd like to know how do you 'make coal'?

 

You cut down a forest, bury it in the ground and sit back for a few million years . . .

 

Mines

 

Would be something of an irony if that turned out to be one of the last steam locomotives to run anywhere in the country!

Tom

 

Who's got the negative vibes man now?

 

I think that's being a little over-cynical, given the current situation... I think the Government are well aware of how much money Heritage Railways generate under normal circumstances... I think they have slightly bigger fish to fry at the moment. Let's leave the political side until we're through this mess.

Richard.

 

Ravenglass was running on the 19th March (albeit on a very reduced timetable)

 

Sad to think this was the last mainline steam run until things get back to some sort of normality.

 

Last steaming on the NNR was 92203 on a footplate experience day on the 20th of March.

 

Excellent footage, and I'm sure it will all be possible again, just not for a while...

Richard.

 

We obviously do need to use far less coal, globally. Indeed we are doing so nationally: the UK has just gone a record 18 days without coal generated power.
However this is quite separate from the negligibly small amount of coal used for heritage purposes including railways.
Yes, as coal becomes less used for other things it's likely to get more expensive.
If we're sensible in how we discuss the matter with the powers that be, and keep reminding people of the leisure, educational, and other benefits of steam, we'll get a hearing, and appropriate exceptions if necessary.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

 

steam on BR tracks, post 1968 and pre the lifting of the ban, on its way from Avonmouth to Bristol TM.

http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/File:Hallen_Marsh_Junction23.jpg

 

That's called mining, i.e. digging out what's already there. You no more make coal than you make iron ore or any other mineral deposit.

 

I had a friend from the mine towns and they called the mine the coal factory it was a local way of putting it

 

Oh Dear - I seemed to have messed this thread up a bit by not being specific enough in the title. I intended it to be about the last steam operations before the Covid 19 lockdown. That is the final moves around the heritage railways in March this year. There are other threads for the last steam trains in 1968, at the end of nationalisation in 1988 and the future once this is over. This is just intended to be a snapshot of the events that overtook with great rapidity last month. I have amended the thread title to be more specific.

Peter