On 2005-10-17, Denny wrote:
Anyway, I'm sure the 'romance of steam' types were happy... I doubt
that the farms and towns getting the dose of coal smoke were quite as
happy with it... I remember being a child at the end of the steam age
and they smelled just like our coal furnace when the draft wasn't set
right... Not pleasant at all, and to have 2 or 3 trains an hour go by
belching black all over the wash on the line must have been hell...

Well, they should use good Welsh steam raising coal then!

I have ten steam trains go by my house each day (the Isle of Man Steam
Railway is a narrow gauge (3ft) line that goes from Port Erin to
Douglas). We don't get black smoke. The smell is actually rather nice,
you smell the hot lubricating oil rather than the combustion products.

They are only little 0-6-0 tank engines though. (However, on the various
steam railways in Britain which have main line steam trains, they've
never belched black smoke that I've seen).

--
Dylan Smith, Port St Mary, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
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