Scott McDonald said:
There are some of us who believe that all of the steam locomotives that are “stuffed and mounted” around the US are actually on “strategic reserve” duty.
Scott
And those aliens stashed away in area 51 will drive them, LOL.
Trying to debate this topic realistically and rationally would only take this thread to a bad place. So I’ll just say, “Fancy that.”
David Maynard said:
Didn’t the British stash away steam locomotives in an old mine? You mean we didn’t do the same?
I can see an EMP destroying all the electronics, well at least those that aren’t shielded to prevent damage from that. That would be almost all the electronic gizmo’s in this country. But I cant see how a pulse like that would destroy copper wire. So generating plants and the power distribution grid would loose all of its control circuitry, but the wires and generators would either still be functional or functional with minimal repair. Its just all the wiz bangs that control them would be crispy briquets. So some electricity could be generated to run a coal mine operation. Many mines and generating plants are located somewhat close to each other. Many more are not. The ones that are close could possibly produce coal to run this steam powered transportation system. But there are way too few steam locomotives in existence, and even fewer that are serviceable, to run the railroads anywhere close to what we would need.
Todd, I would love to see the steam giants roaming the rails again. And its an interesting fantasy. But I cant see how it could even work out.
Answering the first paragraph above ----
After WW1 , a whole load of war surplus locos were dumped down the shaft of a disused mine in the English Midlands . The sentiment that “the war is over” meant that nobody really minded at the time ,
Someone looked at getting them out for their scrap value and found it would not be cost effective .
I remember my Grandfather’s outrage whenever the subject came up ; it upset a lot of other people , too .
I thought that you couldn’t get a loco down a mine shaft until I saw a real mine shaft . They are not the small "hole in the ground " as shown in various movies , they are huge wide circular shafts which would easily allow a loco to be shunted down .
I asked about the locos when on a school trip to the local collieries and the older miners said they dumped all manner of stuff down the old disused shafts . Some future archaeologist will have a puzzle on his hands !!!
Regrettably , steam will never come back unless mechanical engineering is once more a trade to be respected ; the attitude toward getting your hands dirty is an anathema to the youngsters leaving school , computers seem to be the core of ambition . You need good engineers to service and run steam , and we just don’t encourage enough youngsters to go into that or designing them .
My mis-spent youth centred on tinkering with cars , lorries , and narrow gauge trains in the local quarry . The youth of today are only interested in vandalising them .
Mike Brit
ALLEN LANDIS said:
Aman, means. That that, The end. Ect…
Ah , right .
We spell that “amen” over here .
Mike Brit
Mike,
We spell “amen” A-M-E-N over here too. 
Read the book “One Second After” by William R. Forstchen.
…and that is all I have to say about that…
Steve Featherkile said:
David, I think it was to Swedes who banked a bunch of steamers against the day when “The World as We Know It Ended.” With the demise of the USSR, they decided that the world was not going to end and that they no longer needed those banked locomotives, and probably scrapped them.
Yes, it was the Swedes, and I don’t think they scrapped many of them. As they had been kept in ‘working’ order, they were sold to several preserved railways and other entities, including one going to Canada.
“When the cold war ended in 1990, the Swedish government felt that keeping all these steam locomotives were useless. The government then decided to sell off the 200 steam engines in storage.”
I humbly apologize four my profound ignorance. A-M-E-N
ALLEN LANDIS said:
I humbly apologize four my profound ignorance. A-M-E-N
F-O-R not four.
Really Joe? Are you the new spelling police?
I thunk dat wuz Fred’s job.
Jon Radder said:
Really Joe? Are you the new spelling police?
Jon,
Is calling people the spelling police YOUR new job. As Steve told Fred “cool your jets”! Really.
Hey , chaps , I didn’t mean this to get all 'orrible .
I genuinely wondered if there was a different pronunciation round where Allen lives . It does happen you know . In one church I went to once in the USA , the lady next to me said “AhYah” instead of “Amen” .
Actually , she wasn’t a lady , otherwise I wouldn’t have been there .
And did I ever tell you that when visiting a large electronics company dayun sayuth , I asked a secretary if she had any rubbers ?
I meant erasers , and she thought it was funny .
So let’s not get going on speling , some of us have degrees in language and don’t want to get started .
Moike
There are a few around here who get their knickers in a not over way too little. So long as I can follow the context and content of a post I really don’t give a rat’s a$$ whether the punctuation or spelling is ‘spot on’. I graduated school way too long ago, and don’t need any teachers now.