I am still quite young, but living in South Africa I have had the
privilege
of pretty much growing up with steam locomotives still being used for
daily work.
Steam was phased out here much later than in other countries, only in
the 1970s
did a serious phase-out process begin. However, during the 80's and
90's they will
still to be found everywhere, i.e. our main express passenger train
(the Trans Karoo)
doing the 1400km trip from Johannesburg to Cape Town was, up to the
1990s, pulled behind
two Class 25 4-8-4 engines, amongst the most beautiful, modern, and
large (100ft long) 4-8-4
engines made. What a sight, my grandfather picked me up early in
primary school so we
could go and wait for them to rush past at 110km/h at full power.
One of the reasons why steam lasted so long in South Africa is because
coal has always been
vastly cheaper than oil here, and even though we are an extremely arid
country, the main-line
steam engines used condensing tenders to recycle a large portion of
the steam expelled from the
cylinders.
And, lastly, although we have a pretty large loading gauge (i.e. the
locomotives and rolling
stock can be pretty big), we operate the narrower 3ft 6in gauge of
tracks. In the mountainous
country with smaller radius curves, only the amazing articulated Beyer-
Garatt engines (4-8-2+2-8-4)
had the combination of power, light axle load, and small-radius
turning ability. It would take about
3 diesel engines to do the same work as one GL- or GMAM-class steam
engine. These engines were so significant,
at least two have been sent to overseas museums, in the UK/US).
I so enjoyed having the privilege to see them in action, to ride on
the footplate of them, and to actually
once drive one of them :-) Unfortunately, this was all long before I
owned a camera.
Alas, after the famed 1994 democratic elections and the end of
apartheid, the new government has allowed
all forms of rail transport to fall into complete disrepair and
incompetence, forcing all freight
to be transported by road rather (and causing massive congestion and
the disrepair of our roads).
In less than 10 years a proud, efficient, and above all *interesting*
(because of all the steam traction)
rail system has been completely annihilated. It's very sad - I live
for steam locomotives. I spent my
childhood memorising the technical details of every class of South
African steam engine, and most of the
US/UK engines as well. I always found the the aesthetic and
philosophical differences between the three systems
very very interesting.
No idea what use that knowledge is in this day and age... :-)
Anybode else here a steam engine nut?
Alas, to close off, I agree with you Lawrence - the differences
between steam and Diesel/Electric
traction are highly analogous to the photographic film/digital worlds.
In both, there
are some things the old could do, which the new could not. But in
both, for most uses, the newer medium is much
more efficient. But not as "real" ! :-)
On 10 Feb 2009, at 8:07 PM, Lawrence Woods wrote:
> In my mind, the rapid replacement of Steam locomotives by
> Diesel-Electric in the late 1940's/early 1950's is similar to
> the transition we have made from film to digital.
--
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