a plea for sanity!

This post was inspired by two things - an odd comment on a Facebook group and an even stranger one in a book that was otherwise sound.

The first involved a superb new build of a Lynton and Barnstaple engine and I commented that it was a classic, neat and very modern design but would be better if it was designed as a wood burner or at least a multi fuel engine. The comment was 'why? Surely good steam coal is better?' Well in the past the best steam coal was Welsh, but every Welsh pit has now closed. The point being steam coal now has  to be imported. The second, and much more important point, is that Peak Coal is only a few years away, and we are already seeing huge increases in the amount of coal being used. This can only mean rapidly rising prices and eventual shortages and rationing. And much faster depletion on the other side of the bell curve. Will heritage or even steam worked community lines really get a good share of good coal?

The second odd comment was in a book on the current economic crisis. Until the very end it was an excellent analysis of worldwide economic decline, but the last chapter seemed to have been overtaken by a couple of cornucopians, the weirdest statement being that 'future energy supplies will be more abundant and cheaper'!! This is an amazing thing to see in print, as it derives exclusively from a strange blend of wishful thinking, junk science and conspiracy theory. Of course future energy supplies will be neither - otherwise they would have been exploited decades ago! They will be scarcer and far more expensive, and will get scarcer and costlier.

Perhaps this is just angst. Many people are very scared of what the future holds. I'm not one of them, obviously. But I am a realist.

A realistic approach to energy means that we now need to concentrate EXCLUSIVELY on sustainable energy. Anything that relies on fossil fuels is doomed. So ALL planning for the future has to take this into account, or it is pointless. If ignored there will be further misallocation of resources, and we no longer live in a world where we can indulge ourselves in that way.

Which brings me back to wood. Wood is renewable. Its energy content (by weight, but not by bulk!) is not far off that of good steam coal, and it is higher than the bitumous muck and brown coal that is just about all that is left in the ground. Best of all the UK is an excellent place to grow wood, even taking into account inevitable future climate changes. You can grow a lot of bulk in a small area, because it grows upwards. It can be harvested and cut using just human energy. And it can be grown alongside our railway land, making it very energy-efficient to harvest and store. It is also carbon neutral providing constant replanting is done. Wood will clearly trump coal in the near future, and there will be a rush to convert coal burning steam to wood burning - as well as replacing hopeless diesel locos with wood burners (or electrics of course). But burning wood directly is much more energy efficient than burning wood to generate electricity. It is also far more resilient. We need this sort of future thinking if we are to successfully build a new transport system in the UK. And we should be planting that wood now ...

wood everywhere

An excellent day up at Midford today - so much is happening there! To all those doubters that still think the S&D isn't coming back - switch off now!!

Mick Knox brought his chainsaw up (after a day at Midsomer Norton) and has been busy yesterday and today clearing some of the bank above the platform. Result - a clear bank and LOADS of firewood. If you live around Midford please feel free to take some of the cut logs for your woodburners - a small donation to the New S&D is always appreciated!

We chatted about other possible locations for the Sustainable Engineering Centre.

To those few remaining dinosaurs who think this is still 1969 PLEASE think about actually getting involved with the S&D restoration, rather than trying to stop us doing the work! Most of our biggest supporters and workers are people who, just a few years ago, said this would never happen LLOL!

stone age or steam age?

One of the main criticisms we get at the New S&D is 'When Peak Oil hits the last thing we'll worry about is running trains'.

(Which of course means 'Why bother?')

Hmmm. This is perhaps a valid view IF you think Peak Oil will result in some sort of return to the Stone Age - which of course appeals to novelists and filmmakers. But why? We didn't have oil when the first railway age was upon us - this country was built on coal and steam. Substitute 'coal' for 'wood' and you'll get an insight into my angle on this.

Of course we won't return to the Stone Age, much as some nihilistic types might want us to. The roads and cars and lorries will vanish of course, domestic electricity may become an occasional thing for those of us that still rely on the grid (or its successor(s)), globalization will go and probably most states will break up into smaller ones, diesels will vanish from the railways (so get out and photograph them now!) but there's no reason for us to go back centuries, just a few decades.

So we'll see steam return on railways that aren't electrified, many new railways and tramways will be built and most of us will probably be engaged in a trade and grow most of our own food. But is this so terrible? And don't forget that everything we've learned over the last 300 years will still be there for us.

Eventually once the trauma of Peak Oil is a folk memory I suspect that we'll start progressing again, using solar power. We may even, eventually, get back out into space. Who knows?

The only real certainty is that, for several centuries, we'll all come to rely on our local railway to bring in goods and to get us out and about!

what could possibly stop this?

When I did a trip down the southern end of the line back in February with Mick Knox we met quite a lot of people who were intrigued at what we were doing. Back then, before the formation of the New S&D, we were just looking to see what was left. Everyone we spoke to wanted the railway back, most adding (quite rightly) 'but please NOT steam trains!'

Of course there will be steam on the New S&D, at least at first as heritage operations originating off the line, but as the energy crisis bites harder then wood-burning steam is almost certain to make an appearance, particularly if sections of the route are non-electric or if electricity supply is not 100% reliable. But we need to take small steps, it's not really possible to expound the science and economics behind Peak Oil in a few minutes on a windy hillside! The important thing is to get the railway back!

There's an echo of this from a little anecdote shared today by member Paul Beard, who was taking measurements down at Spetisbury. A local came up, asked what he was doing, and the next thing he said was, "Everyone in the village wants the railway to come back you know".

I suspect it will be like this up and down the line. This will be our big push in 2010, to bring in the locals, the people who will use the trains on a daily basis, into the organisation.

back to the future

This is an advert from the early 20th century - for an electric car. We all know that the internal combustion engine won the battle. Why? Simple - it is far cheaper to use petrol and diesel than electricity.

So why is the electric car about to replace internal combustion? It's nothing to do with global warming, but everything to do with economics. Governments, oil professionals and even some car manufacturers know that the game's up. The trumpeting of a tiny oil find last week in the press, an oil find described as 'giant' yet only big enough to supply the world for eleven DAYS, is a clue as to how bad things are getting. These are desperate times, only delayed slightly by the recession. Oil is once again heading upwards. Forecasts of $200-$500 a barrel are beginning to be made again. At these prices, even the bottom end, all civilian air traffic and most road traffic will vanish.

The average economist claims that as the price of oil rises more exploration will kick in alleviating any shortages. This may be true, but the important thing to bear in mind is that this oil will be more expensive. Peak oil effects will still happen because many drivers will be priced out of the market.


So this last final gasp of personal private transport seems to be heading for - electric cars. This week's Economist (5.9.09 vol 392 number 8647 pp79-81) had an interesting article on this coming transport revolution. The whole article seemed to pivot around whether the cars would be recharged at home, or simply change batteries at service stations. But at no point is it discussed as to where all this extra energy is going to come from, which grated somewhat with an article in the same magazine a few weeks earlier that forecast regular power cuts in the UK from 2013 onwards, because current capacity is being CUT as nuclear power stations are being decommissioned without being replaced. And this is before all the extra demand from electric cars!

Face it, nobody wants electric cars out of choice. They are going to be expensive, have limited range and still use loads of conventional energy in their construction - and will need oil for their tyres and, of course, for all that asphalt in the road services. All it will do is delay the inevitable switch to rail by a few years.

What really needs to happen, in the UK, is for the government to actually admit that road transport has no future. They need to get cross party support for this admission so that no other party benefits in an election from the truth being announced. They then need to selectively close roads, switch all freight to rail, abandon all new road developments and begin to build at least 200-300 miles of new railways EVERY year. Reversing the Beeching cuts will only be the start. They also need to speed up the planning process so that local initiatives can cheaply introduce light rail to link small towns and villages, factories and trading areas, to the main network. Urban trams need to be introduced to ALL cities and towns of 30,000 population and more.

The future is rail, electrically powered from sustainable sources (including nuclear) or steam powered from wood burning. All communities need to have either heavy or light railways, locally owned and operated, feeding into a nationally or internationally owned high speed trans-European rail network which is already beginning to replace doomed air travel.

This is the future into which the New S&D is boldly leading the way - pushing against the biggest open door in history even if sometimes it doesn't seem that way.

Join and/or donate!

the future - I don't think so!

This is the Nissan Leaf. It's being marketed as 'zero-emission'. This is what our leaders seriously think will be the future of transport, along with biofuels, fuel cells, hydrogen and no doubt magic spells.

Let's get this straight. This vehicle is NOT zero-emission. Even a tram or train is not zero-emission. Even a bicycle isn't as it has embedded energy in its construction and maintenance. Nothing, short of walking barefoot, is zero-emission.

Our 'leaders' think we are stupid. We've been sold the semi-myth of global warming as the reason for all this faffing about looking for new 'clean' energy sources. They are TERRIFIED of Peak Oil, the only consolation being that they will not have to worry about the consequences. Even airhead George Bush lives off the grid.

We will almost certainly NEVER find a zero-emission energy source. Anything that helps produce energy or uses energy will have required energy to build it. How much embedded energy went into building this wonderful 'zero-emission' car for example?

And, more to the point, how is it going to run? Well it's 100% electric. So it will need batteries. Batteries need metals to work. Are they mined and transported with NO energy use? And will these batteries never need recharging? No, they'll need recharging very often as the range is just 100 miles! And the electricity needed to recharge them - that's going to be zero-emission is it? No, even if it's fuelled 100% by renewables including nuclear there is still loads of embedded energy in the construction and maintenance process. But of course they will just be topped up via the grid. That means burning coal and oil which produce tons of emissions.

The point is that energy in the future will be constrained. The easy energy has now all been used up. Every decision - economic, political and personal - in the future will have to take into account energy use and availability. Personal transport is unlikely to be anything more than bike, foot or, if you're lucky, horse. To keep freight moving, and people moving further than the range of a bike or horse, we'll need railways. To move perishables quickly we'll need railways. To get people to work or on holiday we'll need railways. To get people around towns and cities we'll need trams. Everything we currently move on our congested and crumbling roads will need to be moved by rail or horse. As cheap energy runs out it'll become harder and harder to seek out alternatives.

The main point is that we can do all we need to do in the future using pre-oil technology. That doesn't mean it has to be dowdy, utilitarian or boring. It can still be ultra-modern. But the principles behind it will be mainly pre-oil. Rail uses a quarter of the fuel to move equivalent loads compared to road transport. It's all to do with friction. It can also have energy delivered by many different modes, from using wires, third rails, conduits, stubs or batteries for electricity, to burning wood or waste for a new generation of steam locomotives. The linear nature of railways will allow plenty of methods of collecting and distributing renewable energy, from solar panels on telegraph poles to windmills at station and loco shed sites. Woodland can be planted alongside railways for future fuel sources.

Roads will die sooner than most of us think. As fuel becomes more and more expensive less and less of us will have the option of personal transport use. We'll be clamouring for public transport. Sustainable public transport. More and more freight will switch to rail, particularly as new lines are opened, taking pressure off the current network. The roads themselves will crumble as oil, a principal component of asphalt, becomes almost impossible to find. Roads may survive in towns, carrying a few underpowered and expensive electric delivery vehicles, but roads between towns will fall into disuse as we all take the train and tram. Their maintenance costs will rocket just as the tax take from a smaller and smaller number of functioning vehicles plummet.

This is the future. Rail will be cool, roads will become like our savaged rail network in the 1960s. For those who doubt that what we are proposing will come about, give this article some serious thought. If we all work towards building a sustainable transport network for the future - cycleways, canals, tramways and railways - then the apocalypse predicted by many (using the old scapegoat 'climate change' as the catalyst) will not happen. The future is, in reality, much brighter than that. The future is a New Somerset and Dorset Railway!

donate - steam centre

Yesterday was really Midsomer Norton's day, so I've waited until today before setting up new donation buttons for specific aspects of the New S&D.

We are now getting new members most days (2 yesterday) so know we are doing something right. Suggestions for development of the New S&D are coming from members as they join. Early on it was suggested that we acquire a site en-route to develop as a steam centre.

It's important to stress what we mean by this. It doesn't mean we're going into the heritage business! It means that we fully appreciate the importance of the S&D as a historic steam route, and that steam traction will play a definite role, and will be an irresistable draw, on the New S&D. We would love to see regular steam operation on part or all of the line, both using classic locomotives and new build wood burners. This would mean a mix of regular scheduled services and all-line specials. The Steam Centre would exist as partly a visitor attraction, with dining and sales facilities on site; and principally as a place where steam locomotive owners can securely base their locomotives on the S&D.

To start the ball rolling I have set up a Paypal button so you can donate specifically for this cause.

more thinking of the future

Last night there was an excellent episode of Railway Walks in which Julia Bradbury ambles along various currently closed sections of railways in the UK.

Yesterday she was walking a twelve mile stretch of the Spey Valley railway. The line seemed wonderfully well preserved, it used to serve a number of distilleries. It made me think about how these distilleries plan to send their products in the future. This line seemed an excellent cndidate for reopening.

A bit of searching on line found this website. So Scotland is again leading the way with modern transport - there is even a prescient quote from an MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament) which goes -

Wish you all the best in campaigning for more rail connections, and for steam to remain as the principal motive power for as long as we have enough of the wonderful old Leviathans in working order. It may well be that wood or other bio fuel could be used in future in new, advanced steam engines.

Green mean steam!!

—Robin Harper MSP, Scottish Green Party

Sound familiar?

the paradox of steam

It's pretty clear that steam power (and the burning of coal and wood) will become much more commonplace as the oil starts to vanish.

Steam was not replaced by diesel for inefficiency reasons, but for financial reasons. When cheap oil was available then it made sense to switch over to it (though perhaps not at the politically-inspired pace we saw in the UK!)

It's pretty certain that as the oil pinch really kicks in then railway companies will increasingly look at steam as an option where electrification is too expensive. How to square this with the need to reduce carbon emissions will be the big problem. There will also need to be huge infrastructure investment as most steam facilities have been, rather hastily, removed. This is where the wood burning option needs to come in. Wood will be sustainable, and infrastructure replacement will be more attractive for this reason. Forests lining our railway will provide almost free fuel, and will fix more carbon dioxide than is generated by our trains. Narrow gauge logging lines (permanent and/or temporary) can bring the logs to the railhead. No doubt coal will also be used during the transition from oil to wood, perhaps taken from pits in Somerset or South Wales to reduce transport costs.

Steam isn't quaint or nostalgic. Our nuclear reactors are just big steam engines.

Steam is certainly the future for the S&D, though smaller sections may be amenable to, for example, flywheel sustainable electric power (ie the Parry People Movers). But for the big heavy freights and through passenger workings, steam will again be king.

coal revival

The following piece is from today's Moneyweek.

Although applying to Wales we may well see that the same economic pressures may lead to some of the Somerset mines reopening - there is still plenty of coal under our feet. So the new S&D may well be hauling coal on to the network in the future.

Another aspect of course is that good steam coal will become even more expensive and that wood burning will become an increasingly attractive option for the steam railways of the future - especially when home grown by the line using it.

It's funny but just a year ago ideas like this were seen as fringe, but now seem to become increasingly part of the mainstream - and are business-led. Economics is a funny old thing - who would have thought a few years ago that economists and businesspeople would become the leading forces for change towards a sustainable society?


It seems that becoming a coal miner may once again become a viable career ambition for the young of Wales. Two mines that have been shut since the mass closures of the 1980s are set to reopen shortly.

The restarting of the Aberpergym and Treforgan mines in South Wales will be funded by the flotation of Energybuild on Aim, which listed yesterday. The mining group is already producing coal from an opencast mine, supplying an RWE-owned power station in the Vale of Glamorgan.

It’s becoming economical again to supply power stations with home-hewed coal, because of a strong surge in coal prices. According to the McCloskey coal consultancy, the price for world coal delivered to the UK was $102 per tonne last month, compared to $74 last July.

Now coal’s always been important. It accounts for a quarter of global energy consumption, compared to nearly 40% for oil. More than half of America’s electricity comes from coal, while a full 80% of China’s does.

But what’s driving the current revival? One factor behind the recent strength in the price has of course been high oil prices - the drive to find cheaper sources of power has been a boon to alternative fuels across the board. And it’s not just about burning coal in power stations. Coal can also be converted into liquid fuel – this technology was used by South Africa under apartheid-era sanctions, but it is now becoming of wider interest. Coal to diesel technology is thought to be cost-competitive at oil prices of around $35 to $40 a barrel. China is pumping $15bn into the industry and aims to replace 10% of its oil imports with coal-liquefied oil by 2013.

There’s also the question of energy security. At the moment, much of our oil comes from parts of the world that are volatile, to put it politely, and in many cases downright hostile. This wouldn’t be a problem if we could somehow replace oil with coal. America has such abundant reserves of the black rock that some have described it as "the Saudi Arabia of coal".

And of course, there’s the huge economic boom in the east, and particularly China, which has driven the price of almost all raw materials higher. Even though China is the world’s biggest coal producer, it is likely to become a net importer within the next couple of years, the government reckons. And India’s government reckons it will be consuming four times as much coal as it does currently by 2031.

Original article by John Stepek at Moneyweek.

fire fire

Okay, so just a few days ago I said the woodstove would be in once the chimney and flue were finished but in fact it's already appeared in its new home in the signalbox! It makes me envious of the signalbox staff - I've just got a boring old gas fire in my pokey windowless office! This will burn wood harvested on site so will be sustainable and free ... a harbinger of the future!

the future's bright, the future's wood ...

Yes! At last the wider movement is beginning to appreciate the value of wood as a fuel source for locomotives in an oil-less and coal-less future. This month's Steam Railway (June 2007) carries a five page article on wood burning, looking at the Kielder Railway and the wider picture. Good news is that some types of wood have almost as high a calorific value as coal, bad news is that locomotives that were built for coal don't take to wood - but that doesn't rule out some sort of reasonably cheap conversion - we did it with leaded to unleaded petrol.

The simple fact is that in a warming world burning coal for what's seen essentially as 'pleasure' will become frowned upon. Coal will also become very expensive as the last mines are emptied at a rapid pace to keep up with the demand for energy generation. Everyone will be looking to wood.

Wood has huge advantages - it can yield a very good harvest in a relatively small area as it grows upwards, it can be grown locally to the railway (very cheap transport costs), it is carbon-neutral provided enough is planted to cover burnt stocks and it can grow very quickly - up to 9 feet a year for eucalyptus.

The downside is that land values will probably rise as more and more is needed for harvested forests - so heritage lines should be building land purchase for forests in their business plans now, not in 20 years time!

wood burning ...

For those doubters who think wood burning is a fantasy, here's a shot of a wood burner on a preserved line in Finland looking every bit as real as a coal burner! And just think how small the fuel bills are - Finland is about 90% forest - no import bills to pay, everything grown locally ...

environmental responsibilities

We've always taken our responsibilities towards the environment seriously at the S&D. From protection of the animals and plants that share our site through to caring for the woodland alongside the station in cooperation with Wildspace, and trying to recycle and use kinder methods of controlling weeds and pests. Soon we'll be growing some of our own catering coach food in the greenhouse (organically of course!) and we've always used free range eggs in the food we sell.

Ten years ago few of course took much of this into account, but the environment - particularly climate change and peak oil - are rapidly taking over as our principle causes for concern over and above the old issues such as unemployment, education and defence. As we run out of oil and the world continues to heat up will the big guns of big brother turn towards the wider railway heritage movement? As we turn from oil to coal for our fossil fuels will heritage railways even be allowed to buy coal? How will we run our diesels and steam engines?

Diesel has no future, very soon the costs of fuelling a diesel loco will make them uneconomic on all lines. Steam will struggle on but soon everyone will be after coal and the price will skyrocket. There is an option of course, and I've touched on it before. Steam engines being simple and sturdy constructions can run on anything that will burn, and the obvious solution is to burn wood. It's renewable (if not over-exploited), can be grown on our doorstep and if planned well costs very little. Growing new trees to replace those burned for fuel keeps the carbon-cycle pretty much neutral.

But another aspect is that we need our passengers to come to us - today many use cars but few if any will have this option in the medium-term. Only lines with a connection to a much expanded rail network will be able to survive and flourish. But they will also need to serve a real transport need - and this should be part of any line's strategy. Most of today's heritage lines would serve a real transport need, whether for freight, passengers or both. Whether a real 'heritage' aspect will survive in this new world remains to be seen, but then today's heritage lines are very different from the enthusiast-targeted 'preserved' lines of the 1950s and 60s. We shouldn't be frightened of change, in fact we should embrace it. Careful planning is the secret, and we engage in plenty of that at the S&D!

21st century trains

This blog is rarely controversial - the only real conflict seems to be between 'nostalgists' and 'modernists'. Nostalgists seem to love steam, uniforms, the good old days and a sort of pointless 'wasn't it better in the olden days' attitude. Modernists seem to love the future, shiny clean things, beeps and flashing lights and an aversion to grime, hard work or humanity. How the hell do we square the circle and keep both sides happy?

The S&D attracts people from both camps and from every in-between shade.

So will the future S&D be 'Slow and Dirty' or 'Sleek and Diminished'?

Progress is an odd thing, it means different things to different people. I actually think the 1950s, when residents of Radstock or MN could travel to Bath, Bournemouth, Frome or Bristol by train, was far more advanced than today, where the roads are horribly congested, full of ignorant and bad drivers, and the railways are currently closed. Where's the 'progress'?

Restoring the S&D can only be progress. It will give at first an alternative to the slow grind of trying to struggle anywhere by car, later it will mean we can still travel when there are genuinely no alternatives.

But what will the trains be like? A few years ago the successors to BR were so ignorant that they produced new trains where the seats didn't even match the window profiles, so passengers if they were unlucky were stuck looking at a blank wall! Today many trains, even outside the peak, are horribly crowded. People need personal space and they need to feel comfortable and safe. The old mark one coaches did this admirably, with the open saloons allowing little personal spaces for groups of 4 to 10, the compartment coaches doing the same for families. Everyone got a window, normally everyone got a seat.

And if travelling is a series of images and atmopheres what better way than to have the sight, sounds and smells of steam lingering to heighten those atmospheres? Diesel (RIP) and electrics will never do it. Steam is both a simple and efficient way of powering vehicles. Our most advanced power-generating equipment (nuclear power) uses steam, there's nothing old fashioned about it. It's dirty, but what's actually wrong with dirt? Who likes sterility anyway? And the best thing about steam is that it can be made fully sustainable - by burning wood rather than coal. On my economics blog I always advise buying gold, land and forests. The future will be built on gold and wood. The simpler an engine is, the less transformations the energy sources have to go through, the less friction and inertia, the more efficient it is. Steam may have started the 21st century in retreat, but it will end it as the victor over all the exotic and unsustainable sources we currently use as if they will last forever.

So perhaps the circle has been squared. Because on the last day of this century I can see the S&D running powerful steam locomotives pulling rakes of mark one (or very similar) coaches. The rails will be full of passengers and freight, the stations will be manned and warm and welcoming and once your train has passed in the night the countryside will be quiet and peaceful again with no intrusions from cars and planes. Surely this image will appeal to both the nostalgists and the modernists - steam supreme in a sustainable and prosperous world?

contrarian views

I must be a glutton for punishment! I'm going to actually claim that the closure of the S&D was the best thing that happened to us. Before the more rabid of you start sending me unpleasant 'comments' just give me a chance to explain!

Had the S&D survived closure it would have been rationalised, the Midford-Bath section would have been replaced by a diversionary route via Limpley Stoke, diesels would now reign supreme, the stations would have been replaced by bus shelters with many closed completely, today's S&D would have resembled the Castle Cary-Dorchester route.

Think about it - how many fans does that line have today? Yet in many ways it resembles the S&D, running through similar countryside. No, it wasn't just the scenery, the heavy expresses, the charm of the branches, the stations with their classic Wessex names and the family atmosphere that brought the S&D its thousands of fans, it was its run-down and closure that gave it a poignancy and regret that lines which survived have never garnered. And it is that that has allowed the S&D to be reborn. Had the line survived, preservation and reopening couldn't have happened - the S&D would now be an integral, characterless part of the network, to be operated in perpetuity. That of course will still happen if we don't preserve enough of the route before the oil runs out. We have a unique window of opportunity.

This is why we are still the Somerset and Dorset Railway Heritage Trust, rather than just the Somerset and Dorset Railway. 'Heritage' allows us to get our foot in the door. For years yet, possibly even a decade or two, it is the heritage aspect that will be paramount. But at the same time we're rebuilding a railway, and that railway is growing almost on a weekly basis. Membership is steadily rising, more and more working members are now coming to Midsomer Norton every week. The buzz locally now is that we're serious about getting back to Radstock. Radstock is such a key location, because once we are there reopening to Bath will look more and more like an inevitability rather than a dream. And all the time we'll be pressing southwards towards Shepton and Templecombe.

Also there is now far more interest in sustainability, with new steam design entering the agenda. Steam will survive once the oil runs out, the technology is simple (although it is also of course used in nuclear generation), there is still plenty of coal, though as a finite resource even coal will run out eventually, wood is totally sustainable and it won't be long before 'sustainable, steam and wood' enter the agenda collectively.

The post-oil world may be a dangerous place, but it doesn't have to be. Preparation is the key, getting ahead of the pack the secret. We're planting those seeds in several ways. Firstly by carefully restoring a real transport link, secondly by looking at genuine replacements for oil, thirdly by investing strategically now - in forestry, trackbed, new technology etc.

So the closure of the S&D, tragic though it was, has allowed us to do what we're doing now. We're not dancing on its grave, far from it, we're digging it up and resurrecting it, warts and all. And that is the best tribute this unique and wonderful line could have. Bringing Back Our Trains is only part of it!

signalbox completion heating up!

We're getting closer to recreating this scene as each day passes - though it's unlikely the signalbox nameplate will ever be in chocolate and cream again!

As well as the exterior works the inside is starting to shape up as well. Today we took delivery of a wood-burning stove to keep the box warm. It'll use wood cut on the site, so will be free to run! Hopefully this principle will gradually extend to the locos as well!

wood you believe it?

From vilification to vindication - wood burning steam is not solely an idea from my (apparently) drug-addled mind, but is now being considered by yet another start-up line. The Kielder Railway is intending to use waste wood from Kielder Forest to power its steam locomotive.

Of course when I manage to tear myself away from my beloved wholesale quantities of crack cocaine this makes perfect economic sense, particularly in an oil-less future. The price of coal will rocket as demand increases. Coal is finite, wood - when carefully managed - is not only infinite but can be carbon-neutral.

And yes, I am keeping my eye on fusion, which will of course be the ultimate key to a solar economy, but there is only a 50% chance it will work, and it will still be high-tech in a low-tech world. You'll never get a locomotive-sized fusion reactor, let alone a car-sized one, and who would seriously want to see catenary over Midford Viaduct in any case? It's rather missing the point ...

The lovely irony of course is that nuclear fusion will be yet another form of steam power, as it will be steam generated by fusion that will drive the turbines ...

working steam and the future

It's funny to think that if we really want to record the past we should be pointing our cameras at diesels, not steam locomotives. Whilst diesel fuel prices relentlessly rise as oil runs out leading to the eventual disappearance of the diesel locomotive (as well as the car) steam will have no problem securing fuel - coal initially but as coal prices rise due to increasing demand then wood will become more and more the fuel of choice, not only for heritage railways but for the non-electrified Network lines.

Wood is an ideal fuel - it is sustainable and if well-managed very productive, both in its growing and burning stages.

There's likely to be a huge increase in the number of wood-burning steam locomotives built in the future, a move we're likely to see first in the developing world (particularly India and China), then increasingly in the US and Europe.

Certainly the S&D should be looking to secure additional land at the side of its route as we expand, to allow us to grow our own fuel for the future. There is little likelihood of a 21st century S&D being electrified, so steam will be the only realistic option.

Rumblings that a good marketing description for the route, once we have a few miles of track, would be 'Britain's first WORKING steam railway of the 21st century' are likely to become louder as we press ahead. Steam won't be just for the tourists and enthusiasts, but a practical and economic way of running the line as we begin to turn into a transport service.