Sunday, 18 March 2018
I Aten't Dead
The lack of updates doesn't mean anything terrible. I've just had a great deal to do lately. I spent nearly all of Friday and Saturday at the local steam railway's spring gala, for a start. (Well, I say "spring", and on Friday it did feel that way, but it snowed quite a bit yesterday.) I'll be back to posting Pony soon, and I certainly intend to resume episode reviews when the time comes.
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Looking forward to your reviews!
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally, my wife works part-time at a steam railway. They have Shay engines that were designed for the logging industry. They can haul immense loads[1] up steep and winding tracks... at the blistering speed of 17 mph!
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[1] Used to be dead trees... now Korean tourists!
I had to look up Shay engines – they're very much North American things, and I don't believe I've ever seen a geared locomotive in the metal. What fascinating things – and 17 mph seems impressively fast for a steep hill, I have to say.
DeletePreserved steam locomotives on Britain's short heritage lines are limited to 25 mph, but that's a regulatory thing as otherwise the lines would be subject to many of the same rules as the national network. That would not only be prohibitively expensive, but would mean some of the heritage features that draw in the crowds would be compromised as they wouldn't pass 2018-era safety testing.
You can still see steam running at higher speeds, but only on the national network, where (depending on what's running) the limit is usually either 60 or 75mph. Fitting steam specials in between all the regular passenger services is getting harder and harder as those increase, though.
Hmm, that was a bit of a ramble, I'm afraid!
It was an enjoyable ramble. I love old steam trains, and wish I had the chance to see more British ones!
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ReplyDeleteYou been reading Discworld, by any chance?