bellinghman (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bellinghman) wrote2009-12-23 03:49 pm
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.)
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.)
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And they can become water powered in some areas - TGVs wander through Switzerland almost to the Italian border at Brig. Mind you, once there they tend to be set upon by feral herds of the more agile Pendolinos. (A TGV can outrun a Pendolino in a straight line, but have you ever seen a straight line in Switzerland?)