Thanks man - come and check out one of these places sometime, you'd be very welcome. There's 200 miles of railways like this so there's plenty to choose from! (May I suggest the Severn Valley Railway in Shropshire?)

Can we stop being politically correct and show all these pictures of women driving locomotives. They should not be doing this kind of work.

LocoScrapper I prefer political correctness to your sexism any day. I'm surprised that you left out how pretty she is.

jonka1 By making any mention of her looks, you are the one who is being sexist.

LocoScrapper You completely miss my point. It's your sexism I'm referring to. Seems like your hole is getting deeper.

I know you are referring to my mention of it but by implication you already think she is pretty yourself, and are attaching some importance to it. For example, if you did not think she was pretty, you would have no reason to be surprised that I left it out. But you were in fact surprised. Therefore you have shot yourself in the foot with your remark.

What comes out of the chimney is a mixture of exhausted steam/water vapour from the cylinders (the puffs), and an amount of smoke/air from the fire in the firebox. The "puff" is caused by the exhaust valve in a cylinder releasing the steam at either end of its stroke, and the part you can see is water vapour, as steam is invisible. A steam locomotive will usually have two or three cylinders, and each will exhaust steam when it reaches either end of the stroke. The ferocity of the puff will vary based on how hard the locomotive is working, with the loudest being produced when the driver has the "reverser" fully forward/back (which means steam is allowed into each cylinder for a longer portion of its stroke, and hence is higher in pressure when it is released at the end of the stroke), and has the throttle (or "regulator") fully open. It is important for the exhaust steam to be piped into the smokebox (the black bit with the door at the front) and up the chimney (rather than just exhausting into the air from where the cylinders are) because this is one way in which the draught is pulled on the fire to make it hotter and to suck air through it; The other is a system of deliberate jets of steam (called the "blower"), which is used to induce a similar draught on the fire when the locomotive is not moving (or is not working hard enough for the exhaust beats to do this effectively). If there is no draught from either source, the fire will be starved of air, and if there is a lot of coal burning in the firebox, this will cause the smoke to turn sooty and black (indicating incomplete combustion of the coal). A good fire will produce a light grey smoke in between the puffs of water vapour.

@@C.I... wow!!! You have done excellently with the explanations of the dynamics of the steam engine sound as I requested. Well done

A lady who likes trains? And doesn't mind throwing wood? (That... was a brilliantly unexpected pun.) Son - you're married, get outta my way! (How goes the layout?)

Nobody cares.

Logjam5 - you did or you could not have left a message. It is IMPOSSIBLE to leave a message about something you do not care about. So we know you are not only a troll, but a stupid/ignorant troll, as well. Don't bother replying to this - I will not read it. Bu bye.

Mitchell DeVillers yes it was!

The Railway Channel- Thanks

Yes. Reminds me of Juliet Hammond Hill in the days of Secret Army (apart from the accent)

I'm kinda thick . I thought you meant the engine! She looks a lot like a buddy's wife here in Med Hat Alberta .

The woman . Not the engine . The engine looks like MY ex .

yes

yes me

She is the perfect girlfriend! Sadly, not mine.

An angel with a dirty face...

I wouldn't want a girlfriend like that. She'd be out doing stuff, and get no housework done. Who is going to make the sandwiches and clean the kitchen if she is doing other stuff women should not be doing.

@@michaeljane6141 No, the girlfriend is there primarily to do the housework and attend to all things in the kitchen eg Making sandwiches and serving cold beers.

Desde Sucre Bolivia mucha capacidad de una mujer para conducir y realizar trabajo de hombre muchas felicidades a las mujeres que desempeñan en todo trabajo fuerte

Standard gauge is standard gauge - but you've definitely got more loading gauge than us! So, yes, probably, our trains are slimmer. I'm sure someone will put me right if I'm wrong.

Same track gauge (distance between the insides of the rails) but smaller loading gauge (the physical height, width and shape of the actual vehicles)

That's correct. Here in New Zealand our track gauge is only 3'6" which is over 14 inches narrower than UK and USA track, but we run ex-British Rail rolling stock with narrow-gauge bogies without any clearance problems.

You clearly haven't worked with some of the blokes I have worked with - they do less than her for time and half! :-) Haha