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Is Steam Locomotive a heritage ?
Yes, of course-----------.
It is my great surprise that, in England and Wales, a lot of old and beautiful steam locomotives ( here-in-after called solely "SL" as a steam locomotive ) are still working as a live machine. As a matter of course, they are operated not on commercial bases but under support of many volunteers who love such SLs from the bottom of their heart.
Contrarily we, the Japanese, have to remind ourselves of our miserable SL. In Japan, only a small number of ones selected among the big SLs are preserved statically in a Railway Museum. And almost all of the small sized were neglected and not preserved. Unfortunately some famous and big SLs in Japan have been kept in a deserted box as a living corpse, otherwise a huge number of unknown and tiny ones were scrapped down. We had broken the very precious stones into piece. We should have noticed that even an old machine is a kind of heritage.
It is until circa nineteen fifties that, in Japan, a narrow gauge railway such as KISO Timber Railway had been operated at some local or limited area. At that time I was an enthusiast for a narrow gauge railway. Even now I can not forget any of handsome locomotives and tiny trains. If possible,I would see them again .
Fortunately, in U.K., we can see them run happily as mentioned above. Here, I wish to introduce you a wonderful SL World in England and Wales.
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