3 ms·

I'm a high-tech electronics person but I still love steam engines (and that's partly historical as my father was a mechanical engineer who worked on building po

I'm a high-tech electronics person but I still love steam engines (and that's partly historical as my father was a mechanical engineer who worked on building power station boilers and I'm old enough to have traveled on steam trains as a kid when they weren't a novelty). That said, I'm concerned that the reawakening of interest in steam engines/trains especially in the UK may be the result of a hankering for the old days when Britain had an empire and its mechanical engineering output was the envy of the world. Of course, I hope I'm wrong and that interest actually runs deeper than just that. What ought to be important about this reawakening is that we have the opportunity to awaken an interest in kids about mechanics, engineering and science and do so from a very young age, and in my opinion, there's nothing much better than having them stand on a platform watching a hissing, noisy steam engine. Steam engines are visually exciting and interesting but they are also the combined embodiment of mechanics and thermodynamics and understanding both of them is the keyway to understanding science. Despite my electronics background I consider that a thorough understanding of thermodynamics is crucial to understanding the high-tech world irrespective of one's field. And I reckon there's likely no better way of starting kids' education in thermodynamics other than to have them engulfed in steam from a Puffing Billy.

jonp888 4y ago
There is no reawakening. Realistically, interest is slowly declining. Britain has had an extensive steam perservation scene for decades. It's just that the technology to do relatively affordable one-off designa nd manufacturing of steam locmotive parts that were formerly made in specialist workshops has only recently been feasible. That, and a combination of running out of original locomotives to restore, and worries that eventually the original locomotives will become too difficult to keep running indefinitely, has lead to a growth in new-build projects. There are now a large number in progress.
- hilbert42 4y ago
  "Realistically, interest is slowly declining." OK, I have to take your word for that (I'm in Australia and haven't been to the UK for a few years). But it's certainly not the impression I get over here with the plethora of UK TV programs on steam, for instance: LNER 4472, Nigel Gresley, 4468/Mallard, vintage and current railways/trips and many, many others. It's almost impossible to go for a few days without seeing Michael Portillo on the box standing on a station platform, in a train carriage or pretentiously shovelling coal into some antique engine. When he's not on Rob Bell is waxing lyrically about the beauty of everything from 4472 to 60163 Tornado, to lighthouses, to railway viaducts; and in beween him and Portillo there's Chris Tarrant's Extreme Railways, Tim Dunn's The Architecture the Railways Built, not to mention Bill Nighy's The World's Most Scenic Railway Journeys and any number of others. It's never-ending. So what on earth is going on in the UK if interest in engines/railways is waning? Mind you, I don't mind these programs at all but there are so many of them that they drive some people I know to whinge 'oh hell, not another *** train program!'

jonp888 4y ago

There is no reawakening. Realistically, interest is slowly declining. Britain has had an extensive steam perservation scene for decades. It's just that the technology to do relatively affordable one-off designa nd manufacturing of steam locmotive parts that were formerly made in specialist workshops has only recently been feasible. That, and a combination of running out of original locomotives to restore, and worries that eventually the original locomotives will become too difficult to keep running indefinitely, has lead to a growth in new-build projects. There are now a large number in progress.

hilbert42 4y ago
"Realistically, interest is slowly declining." OK, I have to take your word for that (I'm in Australia and haven't been to the UK for a few years). But it's certainly not the impression I get over here with the plethora of UK TV programs on steam, for instance: LNER 4472, Nigel Gresley, 4468/Mallard, vintage and current railways/trips and many, many others. It's almost impossible to go for a few days without seeing Michael Portillo on the box standing on a station platform, in a train carriage or pretentiously shovelling coal into some antique engine. When he's not on Rob Bell is waxing lyrically about the beauty of everything from 4472 to 60163 Tornado, to lighthouses, to railway viaducts; and in beween him and Portillo there's Chris Tarrant's Extreme Railways, Tim Dunn's The Architecture the Railways Built, not to mention Bill Nighy's The World's Most Scenic Railway Journeys and any number of others. It's never-ending. So what on earth is going on in the UK if interest in engines/railways is waning? Mind you, I don't mind these programs at all but there are so many of them that they drive some people I know to whinge 'oh hell, not another *** train program!'