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nixops In reply to WhippetWild [2016-02-04 07:22:41 +0000 UTC]

There are quite a few in the UK oddly enough, and most were actually built in the UK. Sadly though, in South Africa they are becoming an extinct species. 

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WhippetWild In reply to nixops [2016-02-04 11:00:38 +0000 UTC]

oH very true. Over in the UK, I buy Steam Railway magazine, and as well as being mostly British and Irish locomotives (Poor Ireland scrapped most of their steam engines, they only have 13 on the whole island), there is also articles on European, like Portugal and Poland as well as Chinese, and South African steam locomotive reports, and how the SAR is having the locomotives scrapped and many are wanting to be saved but, there being a lack of places to store them.

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nixops In reply to WhippetWild [2016-02-04 18:52:03 +0000 UTC]

I was notified this week of a collection that is being sold for scrap, about 30 machines, it is shocking, but realistically they were wrecks, I saw them a few years ago and they were rotten already, The problem is that the new owners are accountants, not railwaymen, they have no connection to heritage, its all about spreadsheets and new mercs for managers. By the same token if there are no skills to restore them they are going to die anyway, the old guys with the skills are all dieing off, and the skills are not being passed on. Youngsters are not interested in seemingly dirty smelly and smoking machines like that, they prefer the high tech world of the cellphone and computer, and when they do wake up that is the only place where those steam engines will be seen.
 

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