Is a Steam ban 'Inevitable'?

[455driver]

Wider public would not be outraged, but a regular summer train such as the Scarborough Spa Express is a good tourist draw for Scarborough in terms of depositing a large trainload of people into the town for a few hours - in fact it's (a tad ironically) the modern-day equivalent of the old day-tripper trains. I'm sure the Borough Council would be very disappointed if it ceased.

The Scarborough Spa Express (and the dining) trips would probably still run because they are out the way and easy to keep an eye on, they can stick a diseasel in the consist to do most of the work when its a bit dry.

Its the Mainline runners that will be done away with because they are the ones that cost NR more money than they take in in receipts which is not a good business model. Its al well and good saying the public will be outraged but they couldnt care less about the railtours because they dont go on them, okay they might go 'oh look a steam train' when they see one but other than that they really dont care.

Then we have the kettle lovers who think they own the railways because they need to get 'that' shot by climbing up signals, walking off the end of platform ramps, trespassing at foot crossing etc, these are the things which will be the final nail in the coffin and no amount of moaning about it on KettleCorpse.com will change that. All it will take is for one of these idiots to be injured or killed (that plank that nearly got hit by the 170 springs to mind) and them or their relatives to successfully sue NR and it will be game over. Either play by the rules or NR will take their ball home.

 

[Monty]

I doubt steam would be banned outright from NR metals, however what I can see happening with the phased introduction of ERTMS on the network is steam locomotives being restricted from certain routes such as the ECML and WCML. I would of thought NR would give serious consideration to raising speed limits in places when it's all up and running and a loco restricted to 75mph on a line that may or may not be rated for 140mph+ would be a real problem.

 

[Moonshot]

I doubt steam would be banned outright from NR metals, however I can see with the phased introduction of ERTMS on the network I can see steam locomotives being restricted from certain routes such as the ECML and WCML. I would of thought NR would give serious consideration to up speed limits in places when it's all upping and running and a loco restricted to 75mph on a line that may or may not be rated for 140mph+ would be a real problem.

Well spotted Monty......that is indeed a huge factor....

 

[Muzer]

Didn't NR pay an Italian company loads of money to develop an ERTMS solution for steam trains who (reading between the lines) seem to have run off with the money and given up?
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I've seen chunks of coal in the middle of the track from freight trains. At the end of the day, it's a charge rather than a reason for banning.
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Indeed. Central locking is prohibitively expensive ( I believe that's why Hasting's diesels haven't put it on one of their compartment carriages).

That said, I believe the railtour Mk 1's operate without central locking.

They do, BUT they usually have "central locking" in the form of bolts that only the train crew is allowed to open except in emergencies. This would be rather hard for a VEP.