bellinghman: (Default)
bellinghman ([personal profile] bellinghman) wrote2009-12-23 03:49 pm

Old tech saves the day

As seen here: Passengers rescued by Tornado.

It's rather wonderful in its way that when the electric-driven trains were being disabled by ice and snow, a good old-fashioned A1 Pacific steam loco could carry the stranded passengers to London.

He said: "It was a nice way to finish for Christmas, though I think some of the rescued passengers didn't realise they'd even been travelling on a steam train until they got off."

Hmm. I wonder what they thought the plume flowing back along the train from the front was, then.

(Steam trains are wondrous things, but I wouldn't really want them back in bulk. Electrics can run in almost any weather, as the Swiss can demonstrate, and they don't have to run on hydrocarbons.)

[identity profile] furrfu.livejournal.com 2009-12-23 04:08 pm (UTC)(link)
This might be a good point to mention the fantastic http://nrkbeta.no/2009/12/18/bergensbanen-eng/ - over 20GB of train p0rn. A 7+ hour train journey from Bergen to Oslo, through one of the prettiest landscapes on the planet.

[identity profile] bellinghman.livejournal.com 2009-12-23 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Hot damn. Now that's a wonderful use of BitTorrent.

[identity profile] furrfu.livejournal.com 2009-12-23 04:24 pm (UTC)(link)
I've watched about 90 minutes of it so far. I put it on a second display, thinking to leave it play in the background but it's oddly mesmerising. Such a gorgeous country. It helps that I did part of the journey myself, a few years ago.