Don’t know if it still applies, but in 2000, Sweden was keeping some steam locos, in working order, as a strategic reserve.

They tend to still function in the event of cyber attack or electromagnetic pulse!

Howard

There was a foretaste of the “conspiracy theory” so fashionable now, in the 1960s when British Railways was destroying its steam locomotives as rapidly as it could.

A rumour arose among some railway enthusiasts that the Government held a strategic stock of them hidden in military bases (so not of course in likely targets). It arose thanks to some enthusiasts trawling though disposal records and finding gaps.

One of the railway magazines of the time investigated and soon scotched that rumour: some of “missing” engines had been broken up locally, the rumour-mongers had not seen all the lists, etc.

Besides, I recall the journalist pointing out, there was by now a growing “reserve” in plain sight on the various preserved railways and in museums!

Nigel don’t forget the ones ‘holed up’ in abandoned  tunnels

H

Harry –

Where are these abandoned tunnels still with safe tracks leading into them, then?

(There were a few in Norway and one of the locomotives, German built, is now at Bressingham.)

Robert –

Falls, rotten timbers, structural collapse, anoxic or high CO2 conditions…. all very possible.

Mould spores, quite possible.

Breathing in asbestos fibres – only if something disturbs them enough to put them into the air. If the place is damp enough for mould then hazardous dust is not going to pose much risk.

Breathing in lead though? Hardly!

The ex-Norway, ex-Kreigslokomotiven locomotive at Bressingham Steam Museum. I photographed it last August when attending the miniature steam road-vehicle rally there. Apologies for the poor quality.

Nigel,

Sorry I wasn’t clear I was discussing the “hobby” of exploring disused industrial / military sites generally, not this one specfically. They are not all damp. I agree you have to disturb things to breathe asbestos or lead dust (from paint and industrial processses) but thay do do that. In this video one person disturbed loose packaging in a crate.

On removing the tools it is probable that they were originally left, and maintained, as a reserve. Then the maintence will have dropped off and things fall into decay. In a remote location the cost of removing these heavy, out of date machines in poor condition almost certainly outweighs their value.

Robert.

Hi I agree with Robert about the cost of removing those machines, not worth the value. Years ago in my old maintenance job, the company upgraded the conveyor system that fed a stockpile. The tail end of the stockpile was around 4 meters or so below the surrounding area, this was to accommodate two large feed hoppers and two short feed conveyors, plus two other shorter conveyors for rejects, one of which was on about the same inclined to about the same degree as the stockpile one, so there were electric motors, worm drive reducers, plus a lot of structural steelwork. The stockpile conveyor was shortened to be above the surrounding area level, and the remaining steelwork was trimmed down to a suitable level below the surrounding area, and every thing else was just buried up to bring the whole area up to the same level. The area where all the stuff was buried, was not hard to get too, but the cost of retrieving all the scrap metal etc. would have been far more than the value, and of course the time to do it, would have delayed the upgrade also, even though there was several tons of steel and several meters of heavy armoured copper cable.

Regards Nick.

Please don’t think that you only get mould spores in disused tunnels. Every cake you bake, every breath you take – isn’t that how the song goes? Moulds, or fungi – which includes some which are more appetising, blow spores into every wind. They are well set up to take over the world when the next meteor hits.

Get to know them now – we all need friends when things go wrong.

Cheers, Tim