The future of steam

[andysleigh]

What do you all think the future of steam is?

Will the full size stuff die out due to lack of younger members, high coal costs, high maintinence costs etc

will the narow gauge due out due to the same?

will garden railway stuff survive, there certainly seems to be loads of new stuff coming out, its fairly clean, and cheap (ish)

the 00 side of things seem to be dieing, only 4 regulars at GMES..

will model engineering societys end, as most of the members are old and could pass away at any moment....

How do you bring in jnr members?

HOW LONG DOES STEAM HAVE LEFT ALTOGETHER till it becomes a small uncommon hobby.

[Aizoon]

If you'd answered that question ten years ago, the answer would have been doom and gloom. Now, I think the situation's much improved, both ITRW and in the garden.

As this forum shows, there's a lot more young people keen on both versions of the hobby.

The invertebrate in the balm (as P G Wodehouse would say) is the existence of scumbag councils (yes, you, Swale!) who see a steam railway as no more than a site for yuppie housing

[Matt]

I think that the problem is not finding new members for our hobby, it's finding new, more enviromentally friendly fuels for the trains that we use. Sooner or later, coal and gas are going to run out, so we need to start lokking at alternatives.

About swale council, if you look in the current 'Steam Railway', they are now, much to the railway's joy, pro-rail.

[Titan]

Steam locos will be around for some time yet - There always seems to be interest and new people coming on the scene. Its 40 years since the end of steam on BR, if there was no new blood steam would have been dead long ago. Indeed so strong is the movement we're even building new locos!

As for fuel, if it burns a steam loco can run on it. If we run out of things to burn then I think we would be in such a crisis that the lack of a steam engine would be somewhat insignificant, even to the most hardened fanatic!

[John Chapman]

What do you all think the future of steam is?

Will the full size stuff die out due to lack of younger members, high coal costs, high maintinence costs etc

will the narow gauge due out due to the same?

I think the future for steam is very bright. There is a lot more steam about today then there was thirty odd years ago and new projects are surfacing all the time. I remember the predictions back in the seventies and eighties that steam would die out when the generation grew up who had never known steam on British Railways, and that certainly hasn't happened.

will garden railway stuff survive, there certainly seems to be loads of new stuff coming out,  its fairly clean, and cheap (ish)

Again yes, there is more interest now than ever.

the 00 side of things seem to be dieing,  only 4 regulars at GMES.

I don't think so - again there is more 00 about now than ever before and it is vastly better in detail and realism then ever before. Scratch builders and kit builders may be thinner on the ground than they were. I don't think there has ever been a high membership of Model Engineering Societies among 00 modellers.

will model engineering societys end, as most of the members are old and could pass away at any moment....

I can assure most Model engineering society members are not going to pass away at any moment. In my experience they are mainly in their forties, fifties and sixties and certainly not on their last legs

Model engineering is not a cheap hobby and most people get into it later in their life, when they have advanced their careers or paid off their mortgages or when the kids have left home. That is when they when they can afford it.

HOW LONG DOES STEAM HAVE LEFT ALTOGETHER till it becomes a small uncommon hobby.

It will see us out, all of us.

[made-in-england]

everybody can look at a engine or railway and think thats nice and not take a second glance at it but as i have been told time and time again its upto the people in the hobbies to explain and get people more interested. Alot of people think out hobbies are expensive. yes they can be but they need not be with the right skill and time.

[mhlr]

I don't think it will die out for a loooong time. And fuel, nah, as Titan said, if stuff that burns runs out, yes, we won't be bothered about why we can't fuel our engines by then.
If there's only a few regular 00 members left at GMES, well perhaps there's a percific 00 model railway club set up, or most of the member's are into other scales.

[made-in-england]

well my argument with the science teacher was that if Petroll and Desiel run out then we will just use subsitutes such as ethanol for petrol and various natural oils for deseil

[MuzTrem]

I think there are plenty of youngsters out there with an interest in railways - the problem is, they don't dare admit to it becuase those b****** tabloid newspapers have branded our hobby "uncool"

But even if there is a reduction in the number of volunteers availible, I think most local authorities do recognise the contribution railways make to the local economy (witness the response to the SVR floods!) so hopefully they will help to keep the larger lines going.

[SillyBilly]

When people 'mature', then they will take the hobby more realisticaly, but untill then there is not as many 'un-mature' people who are interested in it. I think I'm probably one of the latter.

[laalratty]

I don't think we have too much to worry about on the fuel front, as coal reserves are predicted to last another 250 years (which is a heck of a lot longer than oil), (this does leave a minor concern at the moment for what our live steamers are going to burn, as Butane is taken from crude oil)
As for volunteers, I think there has been a massive resergence in younger volunteers at most preserved railways recently, a few years ago I was one of only 1 or 2 younger volunteers at Ravenglass, now there are several of them. Likewise, the Ffestiniog can easily roster an entire train crew and controller under 30 I belive (correct me if im wrong William ). And as for garden railways, all you have to do is look at the number of younger members on this forum (as SLRmidge keeps on moaning at me "im must be the oldest one on there", which of course he isn't ) but there are more under 25's than over 25's I would of thought

[SillyBilly]

Yep, there is loads of crews at the FfR you can fill the loco roster with volunteers quite easily.

[alan2525]

everybody can look at a engine or railway and think thats nice and not take a second glance at it but as i have been told time and time again its upto the people in the hobbies to explain and get people more interested. Alot of people think out hobbies are expensive. yes they can be but they need not be with the right skill and time.

I think I read a quote about Garden Railways, that you can buy a loco with time or with money. Some creative and ingenious people can seem to make wonderful steam locos with the most basic of equipment. A lathe, tinsnips, old biscuit tins and a handfull of meccanno gears. Others prefer to just buy shiny things off-the-shelf with the sticker on the front "ready to run" it's just different strokes for different folks.

[MuzTrem]

Yep, there is loads of crews at the FfR you can fill the loco roster with volunteers quite easily.

I think it's fair to say, though, that railways like the Ffestiniog and Talyllyn have been more successful than most at attracting volunteers who are not dyed-in-the-wool railway enthusiasts. Certainly no bad thing, it really will help to secure their future. Nevertheless, I think that, although there are a good number of young enthusiasts, there are less now than there were in the steam era. So I think the movement will come to depend more on the support of the general public and volunteers who are not neccessarily enthusiasts. Thus I think we will probably see fewer activites, e.g. photo charters, galas and ambitious one-off railtours, that are aimed specifically at enthusiasts. But the most important thing is that steam itself has a secure future, and I feel it does.

[SillyBilly]

May I also add that in the season I still catch a steam train home from school ..................
Steam here is more than alive.

[ptlrcecil]

I think the preservation movement could be put under threat when Computer controlled machines become the Norm and nobody knows fully how to work a conventional machine (Im talking 50 years ahead here). What happens when those with the knowledge of how to restore a locomotive pop their clogs? Its alright finding perople to restore them put to maintain them at Bo'ness is a huge problem. Thats just Bo'ness though Im not sure what the situation is at other railways.

[MuzTrem]

I agree that that could be a problem. I know some railways are working hard to train up youngsters, but it just seems to be harder to attract young people to that kind of work. And H&S and insurance regulations that won't let anyone under the age of 18 within a mile of the workshop dosen't help either...

[Matt]

That's not true. At the West Lancs, I told them I'd done some metal and wood work at secondary school, and before I knew it they had me making brakets for disposle pipes in the woodwork shop, and doing some restoration work on a wagon.

They even let me do some shunting with one of their diesels, and they let me drive a steam loco!

[MuzTrem]

Well I'm glad to hear some railways appreciate that young people can make a useful contribution. But, though I did exaggerate slightly, I'm afraid not all lines are as enlightened...