Video: The Lost Art of Manufacturing Steam

A wonderful combination of fascinating and enlightening! The industrial processes which created heavy machinery continue to amaze.

 

Thanks for sharing!

Thank you! Wonderful video. 

 

Dan Weinhold

Great Vidio.

Thank you for posting it.

Tom

Thanks for the video. Having walked around some now vacant steam backshops, this video put men to the machinery for me and makes me more appreciate of the very hard work involved. 

Very cool movie, Bruce....thanks for posting. Given the amount of work in constructing and operating steam locomotives, the switch to diesel-electric locomotion is understandable, although I love steam, and enjoyed the shots of that Princess-class locomotive.

I agree. That being said, I think the concept of craftsmanship went out with steam and all of those wonderful livelihoods went out the window. I cannot help but think of the current situation with employment issues. Efficiency etc is important but I think it has a real cost we are currently paying with those with college degrees working at McDonalds.

I think Mike Rowes efforts toward kids wanting to learn a craft is right on. 

http://www.mikeroweworks.com/home

The more I see of British steam, the more interesting they become. Their current "from the ground up" building of new steam is remarkable. They really see the value in history.

Thanks for sharing a great film. I'll bet they also enjoyed an excellent safety record, even while working around such hazards.

A reminder that the United Kingdom was once a skilled manufacturer of high value products. Now it is heavily a "manufacturer" of financial products.......pieces of paper.   

I'm sure films such as this romanticize a lot of the process, but in watching them, they make me think: "I want to do that!"  Unfortunately, I've grown up in a post-industrial (much less post-steam) society where such jobs are virtually extinct.  My current job as a laborer for a remodeling contractor give me a faint glimpse, but far-from-faint appreciation, of the hard work that literally built the modern era of the western world.

Aaron

I can't get over the lack of PPE!  I also saw many opportunities for getting hands/fingers crushed.

 

Cool video though, and very informative.