I must have a nasty mind: on reading the thread title, my first thoughts were on the lines of -- with Baldrick and Blackadder's exploits often taking place in turbulent periods of history -- one advantage which steam locomotives have over more modern motive power, viz. a secondary use to which they can be put, is the painful disposing of one's captive enemies. Much used, I gather, by both sides in the Russian Civil War, 1917 -- 22. Was relieved to find that such stuff happening to poor Baldrick, is not featuring here !
The general picture is got, that the sheer nastiness and filthiness of steam-loco cleaning was one of the factors in steam traction's decline in the second half of the twentieth century: in the more affluent parts of the world, there were not enough people prepared to earn their living at such a horrible job -- even with the prospect of advancement in time, to footplate duties.