What are you /n/iggas' thoughts on fake steam locomotives (i.e. diesels or cab control units rebuilt to passably resemble steam locomotives)? Decent way to honor/raise awareness of the history of steam when building/restoring an actual steam locomotive is impractical or a retarded tourist gimmick?Examples:>Day Out With Thomas replica engines (pic related)>Calico & Odessa Railroad>CP (OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) Huntington clones that Chance Rides mass produces for basically every second-rate amusement park out thereBonus question: Would these ever be remotely feasible for mainline use. Say I wanted to resurrect the 20th Century Limited as a luxury train for rich LARPers and managed to convert/custom build a bunch of streamlined rolling stock but didn't want to spend 30+ years and billions of dollars rebuilding an actual NYC Hudson to pull it. Would rebuilding a diesel to resemble a Hudson be feasible or would there be no hope of it passing an FRA inspection?
>>2055911tourist gimmick look at how many preservation and heritage railways the UK has, you can easily keep, maintain and even build new steam locos with relative easeits just a matter of finding the right people to maintain them with enough dedication, because most-all the efforts are volunteer run
YWNBASL
>>2055911Good enough for Thomas the Tank Engine kid stuff.Sure it'd be nice to have an actual tank engine as Thomas but the upkeep on that would be crazy.
>>2057055They gave a Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal 0-6-0T a Thomas makeover and trailer it around to run at various tourist lines but I’m ok with that as there’s several other BEDT survivors.
>>2057055The do Thomas mock ups on both steam and diesel around these parts but mostly steam.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IncByFavkzA
>>2057024kek
>>2056083Relative is the operative word there. The business model of these fake steam operations isn't really compatible with volunteer staffing, and getting full-time employees who can do it is tough, especially since running real steam involves onerous work, tough hours, and serious risks if somebody fucks up. You really need something that can just start with a key, that requires minimal maintenance, has available spare parts, etc. I hate them as much as anybody does and I wish people could just be happy with diesels that look like diesels but I understand why they need to exist and why they're the only real option for these operations.
