When did Germany stop using steam trains?

With increased electrification steam was phased out by 1977, and new trains such as the Trans-Europ Express were introduced. After the TGV was introduced in France, DB looked at how to provide West Germany with a high-speed train. The solution was the Intercity-Express (ICE), and new high-speed lines were built.



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The DR's last steam engine (on normal-gauge tracks) was taken out of service on 28 May 1988. Much of the electrified rail network that existed in (present-day) eastern Germany in 1945 had been removed and sent to the Soviet Union as war reparations in the early years of Soviet occupation.

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With increased electrification steam was phased out by 1977, and new trains such as the Trans-Europ Express were introduced. After the TGV was introduced in France, DB looked at how to provide West Germany with a high-speed train. The solution was the Intercity-Express (ICE), and new high-speed lines were built.

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Diesel engines were faster, easier to maintain, and cleaner. And on 12 August 1968, British Railways imposed a ban on all mainline steam traffic – though there were still some heritage services running, and some locomotives were used in industry until the 1980s.

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There are currently over 400 former BR steam locomotives preserved in Britain (not including many additional former industrial examples). Most have been captured in action by Geograph contributors and I have attempted to illustrate this great heritage using their input.

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Puffing Billy is the world's oldest surviving steam locomotive, constructed in 1813–1814 by colliery viewer William Hedley, enginewright Jonathan Forster and blacksmith Timothy Hackworth for Christopher Blackett, the owner of Wylam Colliery near Newcastle upon Tyne, in the United Kingdom.

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The B-class locomotives (second series built in 1909) were being used on railways lines that weren't electrified until the 1960s. The last B-class loco wasn't pulled out of service until 1972. The image shows an SJ B-class steam locomotive (B 1382) in 1937 at Arvika train station.

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West Somerset Railway - The longest Heritage Railway in England.

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The Flying Scotsman is 100 years old It was only when put on show at the British Empire Exhibition in London in 1924 that she was given the number 4427 and named after the route running between London and Edinburgh - The Flying Scotsman. Though she's known for her iconic green colour, that hasn't always been the case.

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But when the price of oil started to fall in the 1960s, and so-called 'dieselisation' began, it marked the beginning of the end for steam. Diesel engines were faster, easier to maintain, and cleaner.

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Flying Scotsman has been described as the world's most famous steam locomotive.

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In Britain the Great Western Railway introduced diesel railcars in the 1930s and the first British mainline diesel locomotive was built by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1947 but, unlike elsewhere in the developed world, the transition away from steam was delayed during the early postwar years.

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