Hi all,
This was my second attempt at capturing a steam engine on the south coast, and I really hit the jackpot today! Just as I launched my drone and pointed it to the west, the 35028 came cruising by!
Lorenzo
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Great Photo, do they ever run a christmas type with lights etc, if they did that would be so awsome
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Thanks, Paul. Not what I’ve seen, make a good suggestion wouldn’t it and maybe they could call it Southern Polar Express.
I think we just had the polar express in edinburgh, Colin Robinson has posted https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bedSo4b2SpE
and someone has posted on grey arrows of this https://youtu.be/T9kN4Zt_uws
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Thanks for the YT vids, Paul. Really like the bottom one, might even suggest it to the Steam Engine company haha
Lorenzo
Hi Please credit the people who took these, i just shared the link.
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Very nice indeed
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They do on the Alton Watercress steam trains. Happening now.
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The xmas light trains are on preserved ‘heritage’ railways where speeds are limited to 25mph; there are safety reasons for them not running on ‘normal’ railways (which is a shame, because big express locos like Clan Line are allowed to run at up to 90mph on the main lines, and a lit train hurtling through the darkened countryside would look amazing!).
Only a matter of time before ‘normal’ trains carry backlit advertising, though. Incidentally, all those Coca Cola ‘holidays are coming’ trucks in the advert are actually a train dressed up to look like a line of lorries.
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That is an outstanding photo. I love the smoke (or steam) plume. Well done.
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So do I, evidence of a loco being driven and fired properly. The best time to see this is in cooler winter weather, more so if it’s a bit damp. What you’re seeing is technically not steam, which is invisible, but steam condensed into water vapour in cool air. No dark sooty patches, which show up when the fireman puts a round of coal on, so the loco is not working hard, and is well on top of it’s job with a 400-ton or so load. Clan Line is allowed to run at 90mph, but these excursions are usually timed for 75mph, which the loco is probably managing, easily…
A steam loco worked like this is incredibly efficient. There is a control which varies the %age of steam admitted to the cylinders (Clan Line has 3 of these, two outside and one in between the frames) per piston stroke, called the ‘cut off’, and she looks as if she’s running at a high cut-off, 80 or 90% perhaps, so the boiler can produce steam faster than the loco is using it, and as the steam has already been produced in the boiler, the loco is effectively running at no fuel cost and consuming very little water.
Low cut-off and full regulator, used for starting and climbing hills, develops massive amounts of power but would empty the boiler of steam within a mile or so; it is also a very inefficient use of coal!
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Thank you for the great information. I love steam! Here is a video I shot a few years ago of the Union Pacific Big Boy.
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That is one impressive loco! Warm day summer foliage so not much condensed steam visible, but the typical oil-burner exhaust. You can see when the feed jets are operated by the darker smoke!!!
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Thank you for your comment.
Great photo, excellent timing.
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