Fire Risk

Fascinating!
Seems a logical idea.
You'd want to make the top fixing pretty good, if it failed you'd have sparks and hot-oil-covered ball-bearings raining down on you, which might be quite exciting.

I wonder what the downsides are. Obviously maintenance (as stated), but presumably some loss of efficiency as well.

I really hope someone is looking at that right now

 

Incomplete combustion will always occur in practice due to wear/incorrect operation etc in Solid and Non Solid Fuels leading to problems at the Chimney or Stack/Funnel be it smoke or still burning droplets of vapourised/solid fuel. (and also seen on Diesel Engines) Fluidised Bed burners would cut this risk down but I cannot remember any build on offer suitable for the larger turndown ratios and small outputs that a small Railway Boiler requires. They were for Power Station and Large Steam ships.
One risk I have not seen mentioned in converting Locomotives from coal to oil is the risk of blowback and firebox explosions when relighting after flame out. Dirty/worn burners leading to mounds of glowing carbon in the firebox or even pools of oil on the furnace floor was not uncommon. Unless the fireman was very conscientious in his purging and avoided simply trying to flash off to relight he was risking a very bad day at the office.

 

Re-issues with oil firing. With oil-fired main line steam heritage locos still operational in Germany (well I think so) there should still be good experience over there to learn from. Part of the cost and time of evaluating it and seeing if it could be a partial solution in the UK.

Bryan

 

D213 (40013) at the head of The Fellsman today. Of course, it has rained for quite a lot of the morning in Carlisle (and heavily on Monday night).

 

As for when steam will return to the main line and on those heritage railways that have (very sensibly IMHO) stopped using steam, it isn't just fire risk.

If this dry weather keeps going into the Autumn, at what stage will water resources in some parts of the country become such as to see restrictions on its use intensified.

It could be hard to justify using motive power that requires a lot of water when alternative forms of motive power that do not require a lot of water are available.

And I am a 100% steam man through and through.

Bryan

 

Nature has a funny way of balancing itself...

Climate change will bring extremes - warm air and record breaking sea temperatures mean more intense rain storms. That of course can lead to other problems - just ask the Severn Valley..

https://www.netweather.tv/weather-f...l-nino-may-bring-a-wetter-than-average-autumn

 

The justification is mentioned elsewhere in this forum: the drop-off in passenger numbers when diesel replaces steam. Whatever the issues, unless the passengers turn up and buy their tickets, you're running your diesels at a loss, which cannot go on indefinitely. There isn't a simple answer but substituting diesel haulage is far from a complete one and doesn't maintain the status quo.

 

I'm not talking about any form of voluntary action by the heritage sector. I'm talking about what started to happen in 1976. Water being shut off, bottled water being made available (that happened near me in Kent) and also there was talk (only) of having to bring large ship tankers of water down from Scotland. Which could put the heritage sector under pressure, if not legislation, to stop using steam locos if the current situation in the south were to persist.

Bryan

 

There was also a government proposal of using rail tank cars to transport water from the North West to South Central England in 1976 . There were problems, only new vehicles or foodstuff rated tanks could be used, which limited the idea somewhat.
Before anything could be formally proposed, it started raining. I suspect the wagon leasing companies would have ensured that they didn't lose money.

I wish that I had kept the file, or at least a copy of the policy letter. It was in a large bundle committed to the Southern Region archives as "not active for 10 years" in about 1986 or 1987.

Cheers, Neil

 

I do monitor the UK weather radar that also covers the Normandy area in France. That's where the storms that track sort of SW to NE across Kent come from. Nothing happening there at present. The last of those, a fairly mild affair on 27 June. I think I've already posted it here somewhere, but it seems relevant to also post it here; see below. If only to remind us of what a rain system can look like. That helped give SE above average rainfall for June - which I think must be why were are not yet a declared drought area - but SE Water were the first in the country to impose a hose ban this summer! I see the from the latest Met office report, the River Medway is still at normal level - but with a note suggesting (to me at least) that is due to water being released from Bewl Bridge Reservoir for SE Water to 'pick up' downstream.

Bryan

 

No sooner posted the above than activity started over that general area of France, including the Channel Island and this morning S to SSE of Normandy. Just a few light showers made the channel crossing and passed over the SE corner of England. And a larger rain system, but not storms, developed this morning, part of which got half way acoross the channel then decided to move East.

Fingers crossed this soon resorts to the normal pattern I have monitored for some years now, and brings some noticeable rain to at least part of SE England.

Bryan

 

I, too, monitor weather as a hobby. This summer has been startling for the utterly fixed high pressure nearby, which has probably been the longest-established such high I can recall. It shows no signs of shifting, even though some lower pressure might briefly pass through it with the potential to bring some thunderstorms to the south, but it won't be a significant low (probably troughs) so any deep cloud development would be sparse. The continent is so dry, over a vast area, too now that humidity levels keep falling, making it less likely that significant rain can develop. A vicious cycle establishes. September is also often quite settled, at least in the first half, so I fear we may be well into autumn before anything significant appears. We will probably have a 'false autumn' where trees shed their leaves early to conserve water.

Then we have the rapidly-developing 'super El-Nino', the impacts of which on the UK are hotly debated. One thing seems likely, that it will disrupt 'normal' patterns - our coming winter is being touted as much colder than normal, or much wetter, depending on which models are used!

 

Now now for all the talk of the South, the North isn't much better currently. In the North West United Utilities Hasn't imposed anything yet apart from Comms stating please be sensible with water usage. They seem to have a suitable reserve for now (though several reservoirs in the Greater Manchester vicinity are starting to look a bit low or outright empty. Same for the Yorkshire water ones as well that sit on the borders

 

No let up in current weather, according to the BBC Weather team 3 hours ago.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/cvgx1k415v2o

Whereby, apart from today, we head into the 5th drought of the year. I love to see steam working but it's absolutely right that heritage railways run diesel traction. Plus Network Rail keeps the current ban.

What struck me Saturday - when I visited the Bluebell Railway by train from Bath is aside from the fire risk in tinder dry areas, is the optics element if steam loco use continues around the country and water levels at reservoirs is low commensurate with hose pipe bans.

Meanwhile I'm trying to piece together what heritage lines near me in the southern part of the country remain steam. I'm not booked on any main line tours currently, but friends booked on the Castles to Plymouth next month getting nervous now there'll get the VT class 37 or 47.

 

Having just been on holiday in the south west, we visited the Lynton & Barnstaple; and the Launceston Steam Railway, and both were still operating steam.

I didn’t spot any obvious signs of a lineside fire at the L&BR. There were some burnt patches at the LSR, but the formation is quite wide there (ex-double track width standard gauge) and everything looked inside the boundary fence.

We also visited - on. the other side of the country - the Mid Suffolk a couple of weeks ago; they were also running steam. The countryside in Suffolk really looked parched - Cornwall was a bit greener.

Tom

 

I have seen a Facebook post that says the steam ban will be in place until the 8 September 2026 according to Network Rail enviornment regulators.

Is this true?

 

I would be very surprised if we see steam return before September. Even if it were to start raining tomorrow (which it very definitely isn't) it will take some time for fresh vegetation to come through and & start to reduce the fire risk. 8th September sounds quite reasonable to me (for a review).

 

My own view is that the return of steam could be even further away than that, very sadly of course. Not only for when we get enough rain to make the lineside safe. But also the question of the water supply situation and what further restrictions maybe added. I've touched on that issue here already as have a few others.

All of this must put pressure on those organisations running steam; main line and heritage. But as far as I know most have access to diesels that are/can stand in for steam - albeit with potential revenue consequences. But my major concerns are for such as the MNLPS who presumably get no income at all when 35028 is not out on the main line?

Bryan