Steam-Hauled Commuter train returns to England

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Something a little different for commuters in the south east of England...

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8428097.stm

 

Makes a change from the usual diet of EMUs

[Guest ___]

I'm wondering just how they got her steamed up that fast. I'm not a steam man in particular, but I though it took literally hours, if not a half a day to build up enough steam to enter service, not to mention all the pre-service preparation and inspection time. I assume they foresaw the mainline service going down ahead of time..

[bikkuri bahn]

Kudos to the operators of "Tornado", though a sadly ironic commentary on the reliability of "modern" railways (in the UK) in winter conditions, and more fodder for the comedians.

[Kabutoni]

Hot-damn! That's awesome! Though, I'd rather commute with a modern train on a daily basis.

[westfalen]

I'm wondering just how they got her steamed up that fast. I'm not a steam man in particular, but I though it took literally hours, if not a half a day to build up enough steam to enter service, not to mention all the pre-service preparation and inspection time. I assume they foresaw the mainline service going down ahead of time..

The way I read the article the stranded passengers were given vacant seats on an excursion train.

 

"Its "Cathedrals Express" service, the last mainline journey in its first year of operations, was about to depart when staff heard about the stranded passengers.

 

About 100 people were offered free seats, according to Mark Allatt, chairman of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust - the charity which built Tornado."

[Claude_Dreyfus]

That is indeed the case. The charter was running in any case, and there were some spare seats which were offered to the commuters travelling that way. Would have been worth taking a diversion home just for the haulage!

 

In historical terms, there were still steam-hauled commuter services out of London Victoria until the early 1960s, serving a number of now long-closed secondary lines that radiated out to the more rural parts of southern England. Although none of them were A1 Pacific-hauled 

[Mudkip Orange]

Didn't JR Hokkaido run stream freight until 1975-76?

 

When was the last stream-powered JR passenger train? (non-excursion)

[westfalen]

Didn't JR Hokkaido run stream freight until 1975-76?

 

When was the last stream-powered JR passenger train? (non-excursion)

14th December 1975, Muroran to Iwamizawa with C57-135.

 

Found this article on the end of regular JNR steam.

 

http://homepage3.nifty.com/EF57/lastday/lastday.htm