Fire Risk

So, getting back to steam (!), would it be a fair bet that the UK as a whole is likely now to change status regarding steam? Is there anywhere that has not now had enough rain to dampen things sufficiently? Even we here in 'Saharan' Surrey have had nearly 20mm spread usefully over the last few days. Another issue now seems to be the 'false autumn' - leaves are tumbling down in our area as the trees are shedding them to conserve water.

 

Hopefully steam with a diesel at least.

Here in mid-Kent we are up to 34 mm since the rains returned early on 17 August, and that includes 10 mm today that started at 08.00 and kept the ground wet or just damp until around 15.30.

But so far as 35028 is concerned, unless I have read things wrong it doesn't start the Kent Belmond trips again until early October. But it does have one down for taking it off the SR late in September.

Bryan

 

So now the rain has come and the issue of fire risk has gone now till next year. Does that mean the problem is forgotten about till next year’s summer dry spells or do the railways start a proactive program of fixing the issue for good?

 

Not stopped raining south of Birmingham all day (Bromsgrove)

 

Not sure the problem has gone away yet. So certainly not forgotten.
As for any program to fix the issue for good, that will all depend on will to do so and more importantly funding. If as I’m sure you are, inferring oil firing, operating costs are currently significant in comparison to coal on any engine let alone a mainline pacific. I believe the oil fired engine at Rheidol is significantly more expensive to operate than a diesel or coal fired steam locomotive…

 

This rain was all forecast a long way off and most of England & Wales, bar a few places, had received some meaningful rain before yesterday. I appreciate it is a repetition of a post of an earlier post but I am amazed that with it being the last week of the school holidays and the main sunmer bank holiday weekend that some railways had not drawn up plans to revert to steam working with social media and press releases about steam being back. Does this indicate that railways have not been as badly hit from running diesel as opposed to steam as they expected?

 

Not necessarily. There is a cautious element to a lot of it, and particularly in hard hit areas. The SVR for example, best of luck with any PR excercise that tries to convince the residents of Stourbridge that a quicker than necessary to return to steam, after the horrors they saw.

Perhaps we could have ran steam this weekend, but why take the risk? Why take the PR downfall if it goes wrong? Also protect the gala, the hugely important revenue stream.