deltic1989
Established Member
Ive seen mention several times on this forum about a Strategic Steam Reserve (SSR). This prompted me to do a little research on the subject i came across this wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_steam_reserve and other websites where people have claimed to be involved in the maintainence of locos in the SSR. The idea of the SSR as far as i can find out is that in the event of nuclear war EMP would render diesel and electric units useless, ChrisCooper also makes the exellent point in post 12 here http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=45496 that points out that in the event of EMP the signalling would also be rendered inoperable. Now I'm not suggesting that if the SSR ever existed it would still exist today but I can see the point of such a thing the Cold War with the paranoia that the soviet uninon was going to start chucking nukes about (thankfully they diddnt) the government were going to start thinking of a way to transport goods without the need to use electicity and steam would be ideal. But also i think that the preservation movement would have saved enough steam locos to be an SSR in themselves making the need for a secret bunker at Box Tunnel or where ever irellevent. What do you guys think there are too many stories out there about this and "eyewitness" accounts for me to dismiss the idea without asking for opinions first.