In regards to the subject line, that's always been true, whether it be Strasburg, a state RR museum, the Chessie Steam Special, or even Milwaukee 261's return to steam. But Britain remains a distinctly different case from the USA or Canada. If the US were the size of Britain, we'd be dealing with an area only as big as the Northeastern US. If you were dealing with a loco to be replicated in an area only that size, it'd quickly come down to a face-off between the NYC Hudson and the PRR T1 (or a Reading G3 or B&O Big Six, I'm not biased), and to heck with all the other worthy contenders (ACL R1, CRI&P R67, WP whatever, FEC 4-8-2, etc.).

Yes, the wisest action may well be a mass-produced smaller 2-6-2 like the aforementioned B&HS 250. But frankly, there's already such a replica on the market, and there have been very few takers for the Chinese 2-8-2. Is it that the offered product is not considered a good value, or that there just isn't the market? If someone were to approach me for such a program, I wouldn't even think of starting without cash deposits from at least three interested parties. Who's buying?

Well, Chinese 2-8-2's were available new, but it's been 19 years since they produced one (an SY in Tangshan) and AFAIK they aren't willing to resume any sort of production, unless you're going to fork over millions for them to re-tool. From all indications, the Tangshan-built 2-8-2's were a considerable improvement over similarly sized vintage U.S. steamers (at least in performance), but a modern steamer like I'm thinking of would be at least that big of a leap in performance and reliability over the Tangshan engines.

Rebuilt used Chinese engines are available such as the 2-10-2's Henry Posner has imported, but they definitely wouldn't be in the same reliability or performance class as any kind of new steam.

I'm sure if anyone can figure out a way to sell new steam locomotives for tourist service in the U.S. in the near future it'll be DLM. As someone associated with them once pointed out to me, "You know, nice watches are not the only things we Swiss are known for. We do have some banks here as well." Attractive financing would go a long ways to make new steam financially palatable.

And yet, in tiny Britain they can organize to do this. It is a shame, but I agree that it is almost inconceivable to have it happen, even regionally, here without an angel investor with big bucks to kick it off.

Rob

Maybe small in land size but high
in population per square mile. Higher in
the number of visitors and the
number of people who remember
steam and like it.
Hats off to the brits on this.
...and another thing: many of
their locomotives have taken
many years to bring back to
life and there are other new
or nearly newbuilds in progress
however slow they progress.
They really have a lot going on.

"Tiny Britian" has a railway preservation movement the USA can only dream about.

I recall picking up a magazine about British Steam Railways and reading about the various preserved lines.

Here in the US, when we run 3 or 4 steam locos at once, it's a big deal. We did a special event at MRSR with 5 steam locos in operation, it was a major event, and we've only managed to do it a couple of times (2 or 3) during our 25 years of operation. Not a lot of other lines here in the US have done it at all. Definitely a big deal

However, from what I read, multi engine operation is pretty normal over there, with some lines fielding 2 or 3 locos on the average weekend, and having 4 or 5 steam engines operating happens on a regular basis, or at least that's the impression I got.