The publishing industry, which produced many and varied books detailing each individual locomotive classes proportions, strengths and, most importantly, where they could be located, also saw increased sales.Īs the months counted down towards the end of steam throughout Britain an ever-increasing number of enthusiasts could be witnessed on the scene. Photographic companies benefited enormously with the increased usage by enthusiasts – who were to be seen ‘lemming like’ along the linesides of the routes the steam locomotives could be seen at work over. In addition many ran special trains in connection with the numerous railway closures – often utilising ‘last of class’ steam locomotives. One by one the regions dispensed with steam the WR in March ’66, ER in May ’66, ScR in May ’67, SR in July ’67, NER in October ’67 and finally the LMR in August ’68.Īll the above led to a vast increase in interest in the railway scene – giving birth to numerous organisations which arranged lengthy countrywide coach tours to the ever-dwindling number of motive power depots that held allocations of steam locomotives. If the first plan wasn’t enough to kill off the ‘Iron Horses’ the second certainly did. The objective of the 1955 plan, that of making the nationalised British Railways break even, was, by the early ’60s, deemed to have failed and a certain Doctor Beeching was ‘hired’ in – the result being his 1963 Reshaping of British Railways ‘proposals’. Throughout the late ’50s and early ’60s numerous classes of diesels (some of which failed to outlive steam!) came off the production lines at a rapid rate.
The death knell for Britain’s steam locomotives was sown within the 1955 Modernisation and Re-equipment of British Railways plan which, in addition to widespread rationalisation of the network, envisaged their substitution with diesel and electric powered traction units. The deafening exhaust echoing off of the cuttings and trees, the atmosphere, the heady nectar of grit, smoke and steam emanating from a living machine tackling a stiff gradient can be truly appreciated by travelling in the leading coach.
If one visits any of the many preserved railways throughout Britain all the associated memories of those years can return. Unlike today’s modern traction, which switches off and closes down upon a minor component failing, it usually got you home – even if itself was ailing! Above all she is a living, breathing machine often having a will of her own but if treated with TLC (tender loving care) would produce all that was demanded of her. Monopolising the movement of both passenger and freight traffic throughout the world for over a century it was only advancing technology in the form of electric and diesel powered alternatives that unseated it from its throne. The steam locomotive, a vital cog of the nineteenth century industrial revolution, was undoubtedly one of man’s finest achievements. Travelling by steam train has to be one of the greatest pleasures of life.
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