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Whatever Duncan Campbell was, he was not a railwayman. By the 1980s there were no locomotive sheds capable of servicing steam engines en masse, nor many staff skilled in their maintenence. Also the water columns at platform ends and in goods yards had been removed. The last water troughs were taken up in the 1970s. Likewise the coaling facilities had gone. The idea that locomotives that had not been used for a decade or more could suddenly be used to haul heavy passenger or goods trains is nonsense. As someone who has been involved with heritage standard gauge railways from the 1960s onwards, I have never heard of any of them having contracts to maintain and run SSR locos. Firstly, the number ofengines needed would have run into the thousands to replace the diesels; BR had 18,420 steam locos in 1954. Secondly, almost all preserved lines would be unable to take the typically mainline passenger and goods locos because of their axle loads. And where were the qualified volunteers to work to the standards required from the safety point of view? A shortage of volunteers has always been the cry. That Standard class locos were still being built in the 1950s but then scrapped a decade later indicates no intention of keeping a reserve. There was an official diesel strategic reserve of around 100 withdrawn locos in the 1970s. But that soon went.
Whatever Duncan Campbell was, he was not a railwayman. By the 1980s there were no locomotive sheds capable of servicing steam engines en masse, nor many staff skilled in their maintenence. Also the water columns at platform ends and in goods yards had been removed. The last water troughs were taken up in the 1970s. Likewise the coaling facilities had gone. The idea that locomotives that had not been used for a decade or more could suddenly be used to haul heavy passenger or goods trains is nonsense.
As someone who has been involved with heritage standard gauge railways from the 1960s onwards, I have never heard of any of them having contracts to maintain and run SSR locos. Firstly, the number of
engines needed would have run into the thousands to replace the diesels; BR had 18,420 steam locos in 1954. Secondly, almost all preserved lines would be unable to take the typically mainline passenger and goods locos because of their axle loads. And where were the qualified volunteers to work to the standards required from the safety point of view? A shortage of volunteers has always been the cry. That Standard class locos were still being built in the 1950s but then scrapped a decade later indicates no intention of keeping a reserve. There was an official diesel strategic reserve of around 100 withdrawn locos in the 1970s. But that soon went.
