Two steam beauties at Reading Station 16/09/2023 

It is! Kind of hard to believe she used to look like a spam can! 😮

Absolutely

Not a problem! More videos to come! 😊

I'm so glad 😊

Thank you! Glad you like!

Thank you so much! They'll be more videos this year 😊

Absolutely! ❤

Thank you so much! ❤

Oh, there will be plenty more videos like this during 2024! Just need to wait for the rail tours to start up again! Thank you so much for your support! 😊

She's the favourite of mine, got a tattoo of her one leg 😂 she's beautiful!

I wish I could of seen steam in the 50s ❤

@@RailwayGirl97 it was actually the 60s for me - I'm not that old! So it was the tail end of steam, although I didn't fully appreciate it then. It seemed to happen very suddenly in 67 - one day there were steam engines every where, the next none. Quite a shock - I knew they were on their way out but just assumed it would take 10 years or so. Although, on the Southern Region, local trains had been electric for so long, that steam wasn't that common, even then - just the expresses and some goods trains. Elsewhere in the country there were still a lot of local steam services, so it might have lingered longer there. It was worth seeing though - one of those West Countries at full speed through the local station was terrifying! They made a fantastic noise. If you stand on Reading station when one in the high-speed trains go through it's pretty amazing, but imagine that with all the noise and steam and smoke!

I do prefer the rebuilt locos too; I understand the whole "spam can" design ethos, but just never did it for me. Same with the LMS streamliners; preferred them "raw" 😄

​@@paulhicks6667 I'm planning to see Clan line this year! And yes! Castles are just... 🤤

I'm glad you like it! 😊

You are very welcome!

Thank you! ❤

Instantly subscribing 😊

@@RailwayGirl97 Your welcome. 🙂

No problem 😊

It's at Reading hun, in the title 😀

doh.@@RailwayGirl97

This is Reading Station. The two steam locomotives are 45696 Bahamas and 34046 Braunton ❤

Are you serious? Because I only use a Samsung A51 phone camera! 😮 x

Wow@@RailwayGirl97

Glad you like it! 😊

It is a shame but it's usually to push the steam loco out of the way IF it were to fail so it doesn't disrupt usual mainline trains, but can also "assist" if the steam locomotive is struggling for whatever reason

I'm still learning the names of some things, obvioisly i know what a firebox is but, what do you mean? 😂

The square topped fireboxes are Belpaire type, but on the LINER the fireboxes were round-top. Belpaires have better water circulation, but at the expense of extra internal staying.

Absolutely, I thought that when I saw Bahamas for the first time!

The blower is simply a small pipe from the boiler that goes into the smokebox low down where it is then directed up the chimney. A valve in the cab is used to turn on and control the amount of steam blowing up the chimney. Inside to smokebox the air pressure is reduced causing air to be drawn through the fire making it burn hotter and therefore make more steam. so what you listen for is a constant sound, not a chuff chuff. The blower is on at 1:00 as the locomotive begins to move. At 4:42 on Braunton a chuff chuff sound is heard starting just before the train moves away, this is the exhaust from an air pump going up the chimney. With steam locomotives it is easy to create a vacuum and because of that we fitted vacuum brakes to our trains, but with a diesel it is easier to compress air so we changed over to ait brakes, the problem then was our steam locomotives could not run with the converted and new trains, the solution was to fit an air pump like they had done in other countries many years ago. These make the chuff chuff sound we hear as they pump air into the system to release the brakes.

@@cedarcam thanks for that - very comprehensive.

@@paulhaynes8045 That's OK I saw after my reply you lived in London as a youngster. So did I and just remember the last of the steam there myself. I remember the Golden Arrow passing our train probably hauled by William Shakespeare as I have seen they kept that loco cleaned for that train.

i chose two consequetive days to spend at woking during the summer of 1965 to see the rebuilt bulleids (jarvis) for the first time ever... To say i was thrilled was an understatement..... never forget