[Mike Ashworth]

A lot of it recently has been down to the steam ban imposed by Network Rail so the Steam Locomotive sets fire to the lineside vegetation that Network Rail has let grow ranplantly out of control along the network.

As you are running two engines (Steam and Diesel) then it is going to cost more in labour and fuel, but it is easier to move a steam locomotive by rail than to move it by road, in fact some celebrity engines are not allowed to be road transported for fear of damaging them, and as such can only go to places that are connected to the national rail network.

For all Network Rail certified steam locomotives there is no reason that they can’t run solo whilst traveling to and from work locations and depo’s, infact before the hotter weather all the light steam engine movements where observed with them pasting by solo except for there service coach.

An example of this is the Heritage Steam Locomotive BR 44871 Black 5 as it is seen running light engine as it passing through Accrington Station on a move from the East Lancashire Railway to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, on the 17th of March 2025

It was taking a roundabout route from Bury going via Rochdale, Todmorden, Copy Pit, Burnley, Accrington, at Blackburn it then reverses onto the Blackburn to Hellifield line, where it reverses again and heads down the Leeds to Carlisle line until it reaches the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway.

https://youtu.be/R46cUPn50r8

[clive BRretired]

I would have all sorts of engine out of Bristol! Passenger to Royal mail trains to Temple mead’s all given some welly! I hope S/C smokebox labels not read literally from its cooking instructions? If not cleaned, Then hot embers wont settle harmlessly, They will be expelled in the exhaust steam! I cant believe its that simple? But i don’t remember hurtling through trackside fires? I don’t remember what i had for dinner yesterday but i would remember the fire smoke raging of yesteryear! A fire spark needs dead cut foliage trackside that’s being tended anyway? And many heathland fires start many miles away from any poor old steam engine?

• This reply was modified 3 months, 3 weeks ago by  clive BRretired. Reason: spell

[clive BRretired]

Is it possible to write tongue in cheek? I don’t suggest how heritage suck eggs! They do a good responsible job, But light engine movements would rarely spit sparks to trackside! But years ago and a heavy train, 5 or so mile to our destination, And I would (very rarely) bellow in drivers ear, Ive a bit much fire! (On the shed pits i would have to clean this engines firebox amongst other stuff)! He would wind it up to increase the inlet stroke and reproduce the 4th of July and Guy Fawkes night in one hit! Dampers open and fire door shut for its smokebox to demand air from the firebars! We were going ‘Back to the future’ 40 years before the film come out! Crap grey steam coal of all sizes! Dusty grey and dull, Not like the shiny graded fast ‘burn like paper’ stuff! Sometimes just dust! But late 50s they would compress that dust into fist size lumps we called donkey b******s! The shiny stuff simply burnt like paper! Expensive! On Midland Bristol Barrow road shed a black person would come aboard as you run on to pits to do all the pit work, Me and driver set off for the long walk to Bath road shed to sign off! But you could quite happily move heavy Merchant Navy types on 72A with half its steam pressure, Doors open, dampers shut and light handed on any blower? Light engine movement is simply a long shunt? My hays, If you want a proper fire blast then stand on the footplate of a Z eight drive wheel toasting the tunnel bricks on a St David’s banker!! Nuclear reactor, Eat your heart out! Ive wrote too much again! Reply shouldn’t be this long? But the golf doesn’t start till 8pm? I missed a good Nunney Castle on the Riviera express yesterday as it was deemed a possible fire risk!😕

[Michael Holden]

Hi mark, there has been lots of isolated steam bans in place due to the dry weather, but they can be in light steam with a diesel pilot. Lots of these steam locos were off to different parts of the UK, which weren’t in a steam ban.

Hope this helps