Pages

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Russian coal


During a recent talk about the West Somerset Railway, we were told that the railway has to buy its coal from Russia, because the quality required isn't available from UK sources. Maybe there are technical reasons such as sulphur content, but is it me, or is there something a tad depressing about this little snippet of information?  

5 comments:

Sam Vega said...

Yes, it is indeed depressing. But I have a solution.

My father-in-law works on one of these heritage railways, and it is hard work. The sort of jobs that are dirty and dangerous and manually taxing, and were originally only done because the alternative was poverty. But nice middle class chaps in late middle age turn up several days a week to bash metal, shovel coal, and sweep platforms; all for the romance of steam and the pleasure of doing something cooperative they can take a pride in.

Couldn't one of the many "uneconomic" seams of coal in our country be opened up to a similar band of industrial hobbyists? Semi-retired accountants and geography teachers hewing coal and pushing trucks while their wives make tea and groom the pit-ponies. An equally satisfying way to spend weekends. And they might find themselves highly employable, once the last computer flickers to darkness and marks the end of our "service" economy...

Chuckles said...

I would hazard a guess that the deeply desired quality is almost certainly called 'cost.'

A K Haart said...

SV - we should also count the trees and listen out for the merry buzz of nocturnal chainsaws.

C - it probably is cost, amazingly enough.

James Higham said...

Country's on the way out, AKH.

A K Haart said...

JH - a year or two back I read that Putin sees demographics as the no 1
Russian problem. Population decline with no prospect of it reversing.