Posted by Peter Ceresole on December 02, 2012 at 12:16:57 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: BBC Radio 4 AR broadcast posted by Andy Clayton on November 27, 2012 at 07:25:04:
I don't think AR had the view of steam engines that we do, now they are no longer an everyday phenomenon.
Yes; in his day they were just a power source, and a very poor, awkward and expensive option compared to an IC motor. I had a friend who drove trains for a living, Dave Bowman, who became president of the National Union of Railwaymen. Before the War, he drove the Mallard, and was a regular driver on the Scottish East Coast. We talked about this; he had some lovely stories to tell, but he had no doubts about the superiority of Diesel locos. When they came in, he said, it was like day after night, clean and warm and reliable. And the regular boiler and furnace maintenance needed by steam engines of any kind was a heavy burden on anybody who operated them. Even primitive diesels- some of which needed to be started by screwing a burning paper doped with saltpeter into a 'hot tube'- were infinitely simpler.
Bowman was an extraordinary man, not just good at his job and a committed Communist activist, but immense fun. Standing on the Law in Dundee with him singing 'The Lass of Dundee' was a pretty terrific experience.