Sorry if the title doesn't quite make sense... I've been watching some videos on Youtube of previous years' Foxfield Railway steam galas and noticed that on Foxfield bank, if the weather's good they'll let an Austerity tank run with up to 6 or 7 wagons + a brake van, whereas when the weather is poor they'll reduce that to just 4 + brake van for a single engine. Makes sense as Foxfield bank is steep and you don't want to thrash the engines.
It got me thinking though - what did they do in the days when such sites were operational and business depended on shifting fuel, materials, produce etc around on time. If weather was poor for example, would they just do things the same as normal and try and force the engine to work harder or would they reduce the load/add extra engines?
It got me thinking though - what did they do in the days when such sites were operational and business depended on shifting fuel, materials, produce etc around on time. If weather was poor for example, would they just do things the same as normal and try and force the engine to work harder or would they reduce the load/add extra engines?