Salutes to those scientists and researchers who invented such a gigantic engines and developed the skill to operate it. Thanks for presenting such videos for present generations to nourish and cherish to undergo hard work. 🙏
I'm one of the few people in this day and age that still works as a steam locomotive fitter for a living, pretty much do the exact same stuff these guys in the video, although we use some different methods to do stuff shown in this video. Its a hell of a job to do and I cant imagine the turnaround these guys doing it back then had. its very different in this day and age, there isn't an infinite amount of man power like massive workshops used to have so exams and maintenance takes a lot longer. they used to have separate fitters, machinists, welders, tube sweepers, examiners, barmen, washers and dozens of other roles. Now days you learn to do ALL of it yourself, its a lot more daunting than what it once was
Hey Woody is this a full time job on a working railway or a vintage touristy railway. I'm sure it is daunting, I know the British Railways has a very large workforce but they were obviously needed to achieve those turnaround times.
Just a beautiful video , My father was a driver and my father in law was Boiler Chargeman in the loco shed in South India 🇮🇳 and my cousins were firemen and guards and yardmaster and station master . Cheers from Australia by way of India .
All your ansisters and your elders serve indian railways man and what are you doing in Austreliya?Only telling stories to the childrens of Austrelia...
I uses to do all this as a volunteer on Severn Valley Railway! Raking out the fire, shovelling the smoke box out etc. I used to look like a miner at the end of the day! You could only see me at night when i smiled!
Actually much more complex and elegant than this film shows -- imagine stripping one down to bare and rebuilding it, as required by code ... or the "firewheels" to "re-tire" a driving wheel. They look like one piece, but they're not!
Salutes to the designers of steam locomotives and to the dedicated workers. No whistle of the modern locomotives like old one, shrill tone fill the thrills in the skin.
This was the system back then when I travelled by train, hardly adware so much made the speed and success of our happy train journey! Hats off to those who went through the ordeals.. served us happily, God bless their posteriors
Looking at the amount of downtime and the sheer number of men involved in keeping a steam engine running it's no wonder BR were so keen to go over to diesel locomotives!
My brother always watched the steam trains pull into the station from the bridge nearby. "A magnificent sight to behold, a true majestic beast in all its glory puffing away." My treat later on in life was the visit to the rail museum in York (UK) It was truly memorable. 😀Thanks for giving us an astonishing oversight of what it took to maintain such a beast. #Respect for those who toiled on the railways in its hey day of steam. We Brits invented the railways but sadly this is a reminder that we failed in so many ways to innovate and create whilst so many other countries took rail and transport to such levels that left us trailing behind. You only have to look at Japan and China with their high speed super trains, the infrastructure, the innovation and creativity to realise how much we have lost when we should have been ahead of the game... from the off. Stay safe whoever, wherever you are. 😐👍
You be surprised that China operated past year Y2K on steam trains. They still built steam trains up to 1998. Imagine having steam trains and MagLev operating in china country in the same decade.
@@truthful3777 I actually witnessed the steam trains in both China AND India (the Maharaja's ?) I think the Railway museum (York ) had one of the China steam and carriages trains.. Still got pics somewhere.. 👀
A problem in the U.K. is that we needed short distance trains so having to build special long distance lines really was uneconomical when You can run trains bypassing the local stations at 125 mph+
My god, the man hours needed to turn a steam engine around and back in service. Incredibly. I'm a diesel generation, as a kid seeing first HST at Paddington was incredible 🙂
It's really great to watch such video documentation. Sheer team work era, I wonder even inspection guy was involved himself thoroughly. I understand why it calls good old days.
What a wonderful film, reminds me of the old Walt Disney films about how things work. I don't what it is, maybe because I've made my living with my hands as well, but I can watch stuff like this all day.
I thank You so much for this "vintage" information!! My (now ex) wife´s Grandpa worked in Casilda´s locomotive yard in Santa Fe, Argentina. In those times all railroad material
Fascinating footage, those old steam engines were very labour intensive to maintain and costly to run, but nonetheless they were an interesting historical engineering development.
One thing this video does not really show is how heavy some of this stuff is; the smoke box locking bar alone weighs about 250 to 350 lbs depending on the locomotive.
I had no idea about how many different tasks it took to make a loco runs! Super labor intense! Amazing how they used to do this and nobody even thought about it!
People thought about it a lot -- that's why the lococomotives were designed to facilitate the cleaning processes. It's also why diesel locomotives so quickly replaced steam.
I rode on one of these steam trains in 1959 from Kettering to London . Stayed in London for a few days and took a train back to Kettering . Never did marry that girl .
So many undergraduates student in period of university get married from age 20 to 30, and then after bachelor degree and master degree graduation, they worked in factory. Their age were 30 years old. It's factory internship employee training and apprenticeship.
I totally understand that tapping the stream pipes with a hammer is probably the only real way to check the pipes for rust, but the amount of anxiety watching him do it gave me could probably provide enough energy to run five stream engines alone.
Davil - Yes indeed, very labour intensive, but in those days coal was VERY cheap as a fuel source and there was a need for a lot of jobs in the post-war era. More importantly though, the ash and burn products in the engine were WILDLY carcinogenic plus the dust caused horrendous lung disease for the poor buggers that climbed in and out of the fireboxes! But it was indeed a most wonderful sight to see an engine in full steam. I'm old enough to remember seeing the last of them in the 1960's and travel on them with my parents.
The railroads used to make a gobs of money. They could spend money like water, look at the old railroad stations. When business dried up because of vehicles and airplanes efficiency and cost cutting became very important. Look how many railroad companies have died off in the past 80 years.
@@K-Effect right but, there are advantages of steam that it can use anything combustable and makes more power the harder you push it, though lots of the work in theory could have been trimmed down, if you look at what Argentinian engineer Livio Dante Porta did with steam locos, its fascinating he got lots of the maintenance down, and combustion much more efficient with a gasmaker firebox, and using better pistons with diesel quality sealing, you also have the exhausting system, he made advancements in that as well, please read up on what he had to say if you are interested in steam power, he died in 2003, but he wrote many treatise on steam and thermal dynamics once that was applied it did wonders, and he had several that followed his footsteps, like Davidson Ward though, and many took from the lessons he taught. sure steam is labor intensive but it was one of portas engines that produced the highest power to weight ratio even more then a diesle electric engine, and lots of the down time could be taken out with the things porta talked about, and though in theory they could develop even another generation of steam locos, that used techniques and advancements that had yet to be reached, as even his engines and advancements were only generation 2 at least at the time of his death. but please read up on him, he was a no bull kind of fellow but said by one person I know at the historical railroad I help out at to be just as nice a person as he was good at engineering.
manga12 I heard that the man could have developed steam engines more efficient but still looking like the beautiful traditional steam engines like 73020 .Wish there were engines like that in USA .I’d love to hang out with one like I did several times with Union Pacific 844 who they keep as a pet.A place like Sodor would be paradise for me !!!!
8+ hours from cold to get up enough steam. All you need to know as to why, despite the romance, steam had to die on the railways. 8 hours vs 10 minutes flicking a switch.
this is the other side of your fun and games on your vacation. a lot of hard working people making your vacation happen. i hope you think of this when you recall your vacation times. heaven forbid the amount of hard tedious dirty and oft unsafe work these men had to do just to earn a wage. i would bet not one of them was unhappy to see the end of the coal trains and all that went with it.
I remember my last steam train journey in 1966 or so, from Riverstone to Blacktown and back. Different from today’s stuff, rickety wooden trestle and, black sooty smoke, the lot.
Never mention Asbestos it’s everywhere. Just making a point, no eye protection,ear muffs. No workers comp if you get sick or injured. Terrible dirty working conditions.
was english. Now after so many years I know what this good man did in his maintenance job. The steam locomotives were know as "Caprottis" but their real class was "Pacific" Thank You !again!!
Not sure what you mean. This locomotive is a 4-6-0, not a Pacific (4-6-2) and it doesn't have Caprotti valve gear (a few members of its class were fitted with it, but not this one).
Very informative and gives an idea about the dregery involved . Hats off to these men who ensured the condition of these majesti c engines to the best possible condition.
I had to do this today on an Andrew Berkley Engine. It's quite complex and very dirty! We don't have jet powered machines. We have this long brush on a stick; and you have to remember to turn it clockwise other wise the brush twists off, then somebody has to squeeze into the tiny firebox! Never realised how complex it was until this morning when I arrived.
And that ladies and gentlemen was why diesels engines were brought in. An enormous force of men to every couple of weeks give a steam engine a huge overhaul... Diesels just switch on and start up and occasional servicing.
I wish BR never retired steam for good, seeing mainliners such as the A4, A3, Lord Nelson Class, and others still in revenue service today would be so grand.
Steam turbines get nowhere near 90% thermal efficency. Power plants typically report about 40% efficiency, which are amongst the best performing steam turbines. When people say that a "steam turbine is 90% efficient", they mean that the turbine is achieving 90% of the ideal turbine, which in this case would achieve about 45% thermal efficiency. The 6% efficiency of the steam locomotive is the true thermal efficiency, so you need to compare the 40% of the steam turbine to 6% (which is still bad)
I’m sure working with steam engines was fun .The engines were cute and loved the men back .I met Union Pacific 844 and got to hang out with him several times .Real diesels are inanimate and not like in the Thomas series .but Steam engines are half human .844 is .I would have loved it if there could have been some engines like 73020 in USA .He is so cute in the video .You can tell that he hated flue cleaning and washout . Engine wasn’t smiling when his face showed.He looked unhappy .When face showed later after screens were put back and was closed ,Engine looked like he was glad washout was over .Parts needed for seeing eating and breathing swing to left when smokebox door open remain intact and engine remains conscious .I’ll bet that film they didn’t use showed engine crying during flue cleaning and washout .The rids day high pressure sprays looked quite unpleasant .73020 was young .Born in late 1951 and movie in 1953.; I’ll bet with the movie crew there he behaved as badly as he thought he could get away with ..”I WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW HOW MUCH I HATE X DAYS !!! “Who could blame him. I felt culture shock when I saw what the engine had to go through twice a month . It looked a bit like torture although it was medically necessary and he had to hold still and take it .Once the washout was over ,they would have dried his tears and later given him a treat . Choo choos have mouths and they probably eat people food .After his dinner I think they gave him candy or ice cream .Engines can eat ice cream when not in steam.
@MusicalElitist1 if someone cannot type, they're not a boomer. Geez. Can't believe some people these days. What if english isnt his first language? What if he is just a kid? What if you were in that situation, baby boomer?
Some of these jobs must have been very hazardous. I'm glad the industry is safer today. I'm surprised that mechanical stokers weren't the norm in the 1950's.
Mechanical stokers need finely-crushed coal rather than big lumps, otherwise they seize up. This means that the draught on the fire draws a lot of coals through the boiler and out of the chimney, making mechanically-stoked engines dirtier and less efficient.
@@xr6lad Running a steam engine on oil makes no sense for a country with diesel engine industry. In that period Britain had to import almost all oil and the coal mines were still in operation, so there wasn't an incentive either. It was simply cheaper to build newer more efficient diesel locomotives, than converting them.
Just been talking with the Mayor in the healt center in Gaianes , as a young boy remembers using El tren de Las Inglesas steam , & later in Spain many steam voyages when diesel was coming .Was on a trip on a Deltic for Cromptons years ago , crunch bang no lube in gearbox that was what broke our electric motor shafts , oh the embarrassment towed to Derby by a King class , we got back to Chelmsford by steam ,.the noise in the Deltic correct had earmuffs on plus all ourAmmeters !
Those were fantastic machines but needing so much cleaning and maintenance. And from a purely engineering perspective, they were only about 6% efficient at extracting work out of coal. Diesels we’re just around the corner and needed much less maintenance and about 30%. Efficient so the steam engines were doomed. Somewhat sad but unavoidable.
This engine was still quite new when this was filmed, only a few years old at most. BR built hundreds of new steam engines in the 1950's, but there was no shortage of decent British coal and any oil imported for fuelling diesels would have had to be imported, using scarce foreign currency.
I believe that trains were more fun during choo choo era 73020 is cute .Diesels are boring .I realize why they have to use them but I wish there were still some regular choo choo trains
complex indeed, admiration for these pioneers in the industrial revolution. we have big big probs because of this, but the individuels are great.great stuf to watch n learn.
