Why don t we use steam locomotives anymore?

Steam locomotives are no longer used to transport passengers or products because electric and diesel locomotives are faster, more efficient, and easier to maintain. The locomotives that are still running are a piece of history dating back to the 1800's that really put into perspective just how far we've come!



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Beginning in the early 1900s, steam locomotives were gradually superseded by electric and diesel locomotives, with railways fully converting to electric and diesel power beginning in the late 1930s.

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Steam engines CAN be more powerful than diesels. Steam engine have been built with 7000–8000 hp. They tend to be very heavy and very complicated with multiple driving axle articulated trucks.

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Diesel engines are much more efficient than steam engines, but the combustion in the steam engine's firebox can be more carefully controlled and, so, possibly produce less of the types of pollution caused by imperfect combustion.

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ton for ton a steam locomotive can and does pull more tons at higher speeds than a diesel locomotive can. The H.P. of a diesel is less effective at faster speeds because more electricity is needed to keep the traction motors spinning at the higher speeds.

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Diesels replaced steam locomotives because that's what they did - they are more efficient because they cost less money to run. This article, written by US locomotive engineer Al Krug in a series of newsgroup posts, tries to explain the power questions that show how diesels are more efficient than steam locomotives.

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Due to the relatively low cost of coal, oil was rarely used on Britain's streamtrains and in most cases only where there was a shortage of coal. In the United States, the first oil burning steam locomotive was in service on the Southern Pacific railroad by 1900.

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China was the last country to manufacture steam-powered trains. Production of large locomotives continued until 1988. Smaller ones were produced into the late 1990s. In all, 10,000 were built.

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Railfan & Railroad stated in 2022 that the only places on earth to see steam locomotives in revenue freight service are small switching operations in China, North Korea and Bosnia, but that these were sporadic at best. Tourist locomotives are still in regular use.

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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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By the late steam era (1930s-1940s) a locomotive used in main line service could run anywhere between 75 to 150 miles before needing to refuel, which typically coincided with a train crew's district/territory.

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This was somewhere around 5,000 pounds of coal per hour. A mechanical substitute for the fireman and shovel had to be found. The tasks that a stoker had to perform were complicated. It had to bring chunks of coal of various sized from the tender through a flexible joint to the engine and into a very hot firebox.

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Despite the advent of electric and diesel locomotives in the mid-20th century, steam locomotives continued to be used and constructed into the 21st century. The regular use of steam locomotives in non-tourist revenue service concluded in 2022.

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The class J-1 and J-3a Hudsons of 1927 had 79 inch drivers. They were fast, powerful, very well proportioned, good looking, and may have been the best known steam locomotive. Honorable Mentions: CMStP&P Class F7.

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A water stop or water station on a railroad is a place where steam trains stop to replenish water. The stopping of the train itself is also referred to as a water stop. The term originates from the times of steam engines when large amounts of water were essential.

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