Back in the SSR

[ffutures]

For some reason the thing that stuck in my mind most vividly from the programme The Last Days of Steam which I mentioned last week was the Strategic Steam Reserve, the fleet of steam engines that were mothballed and stored underground in case they were needed after a nuclear war.

Walking in to work today, I tried to think of fiction about this idea, but can't remember any, which seems odd considering the possibilities. Unfortunately I've obviously been reading too much fanfic, since the first thing to cross my mind when I considered writing some fiction was a Thomas the Tank Engine / When the Wind Blows crossover, with Thomas trying to keep running while the Fat Controller slowly dies of radiation poisoning... [1]

It's a real shame that according to Wikipedia Britain never actually had a strategic steam reserve - some other countries did, but not the UK, the British SSR is an urban myth. But that really shouldn't stop people writing about it, of course! Paging C. Stross of this parish...

[1] Even more unfortunately, the second thing to cross my mind was Thomas / Hogwarts Express slash - you probably need magic to keep steam trains running after a nuclear holocaust, especially if the humans are dying off, and the Express obviously is magical. I will now try to bleach my brain...

Comments

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Ah, damn, that is a shame, I loved the idea of our having a strategic steam reserve.

I find if fascinating how steam endures, friends of mine took their little boy to a steam train that runs somewhere near Edinburgh, just up and down a length of track, and he absolutely loved it in a way that he'd never enjoyed a train journey before.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

We take a steam train ride around every Christmas from Cumberland to Frostburg in Maryland and my boy never tires of it. Steam trains are alive, with all their huffing and puffing and creaking, even at rest, in ways that just aren't matched by a diesel-electric, which is either on, off, or idling like a car.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I live next to a railway - when I was a kid we used to run down the street chased by the clouds of steam from the shunting engines that used to run by the house. Unfortunately we were running to avoid inhaling a mix of smoke and soot, which rather detracts from the glamour...

We still get an occasional steam engine running by when they run an occasional steam excursion to and from Paddington in the summer months, but they seem to have cleaned their act up considerably.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a great shame they got rid of them. I guess the deisal-electrics are just much more efficient.

[timill]

Well, you could argue that Britain had a steam reserve in the shape of Dai Woodham's scrapyard in Barry...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I think that was shown in the programme. A LOT of bits of metal.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I wonder why the PTB would have stashed steam engines anyway? Surely coal would have been very little less accessible than diesel?

Although the Thomas/Hogwarts Express slash fic would be worth believing in the SSR for...

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

That's rather the problem with the whole scheme, as the Wikipedia article points out. Steam trains require signifigant coaling and water replenishment stations along their routes, all of which were dismantled in Britain when it went diesel/electric.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I think that the countries that kept an SSR had lots of woods, rivers, etc. which makes it a bit more viable.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I think you have to assume that they thought it would be easier to rebuild some steam infrastructure and/or that there might be an oil blockade rather than all-out war. If there had actually been a reserve, of course.

For some reason I'm now wondering if Torchwood hid the SSR, but I really don't want to write Thomas / Captain Jack.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Jones the Steam/Captain Jack? Or would Jones the Steam/Ianto be more culturally satisfying do you think?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Maybe - anything that doesn't involve the Fat Controller!

[inamac.livejournal.com]

Ivor the Engine/Torchwood,surely? And once you factor in dragons the lack of fuel is less of a problem

(As it happens I am currently writing a Harry Potter WWII story involving evacuees and steam trains.)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I would REALLY like to read that!

[inamac.livejournal.com]

It's for a (gen)fest that posts in June. I'll try and remember to put up links when the reveals are up.