I was amazed recently to discover a photograph dated from the 1930s featuring an old steam locomotive barrelling across one of Waikato’s main streets in Hamilton City. While aware to a degree how steam engines played a role in New Zealand’s development, I never imagined an era had existed when motor cars, cyclists and pedestrians made way for a huffing-puffing behemoth on Victoria Street! The photo seems to indicate pedestrians and cyclists nonchalantly navigating this monster- though it must surely have created some hair-raising moments. Steam locomotives weren’t renowned for terrific ‘braking’ abilities.
Murray Smith
Receiving a Hornby Trainset as a child one Christmas, imbedded a nostalgic admiration for these remarkable machines. They’re regarded as being among the most significant inventions of the modern age, helping nations in their development. Progress saw to it that steam locomotives ultimately were supplanted by the arrival of diesel and electric engines as steam locomotives could not match the efficiency of diesel locomotives. But in their day, from early beginnings in the 1830s through to the early 1950s, some extremely large and powerful steam engines were made. By 1850 the fastest train was topping 80 mph (129 km).
Steam locomotive technology was quite basic. Fuel (originally wood or coal, later oil) was fed into the firebox where the resulting hot gas entered boiler tubes known as flues, which heated surrounding water to form steam. That steam being fed into pistons, expanded and drove rods – (horizontal iron/steel shafts attached to the wheels), propelling it forward. The resulting hot gases entered a smoke box, to be funnelled out through the smoke stack of the locomotive.
There were inherent dangers…as mentioned, stopping quickly was a ‘challenge’ plus with boilers exploding and messy derailments, this wasn’t hazard free technology!
The photo reminded me of a fascinating analogy I once heard, taken from an original message on an aged ‘reel to reel’ tape-recording. The speaker was a solid old time Bible preacher by the name of A W Tozer from the 1930s-1960s. He referenced the giant steam locomotives’ early strategic role on the East Coast of the United States. Tozer described these locomotives achieving maximum speed pulling their payload with a ‘full head of steam’; shutting the engine down, would result in them being able to coast on their own momentum for 400 miles!
Amazing as that is, no steam meant eventually grinding to a halt, rendering the locomotive useless.
Tozer illustrated an interesting reality…people, organisations, and leadership be they within businesses, churches or wherever, often coast on past inertia, drifting through the ‘motions’ of life without considering,‘What will keep me going?’ Coasting through life, it’s easy to forget where we derive our ‘life source’ from. A costly oversight. What sustains you ? Without steam, a locomotive was useless. Rivers and lakes need a source…be they springs, rains or melting snow from mountains. What is your ‘spring’? Humanity looks to various things for sustenance and replenishment- yet without JESUS at the centre, our ‘inner well’ inevitably runs dry.
That said, I’ve made Psalm 87:7 my maxim… “Lord, all my springs are in YOU.”
Vintage toys on display. Photo: Milada Vigerova pexels.com
