When did your country stop using steam locomotives on daily basis?

16 comments

1. I had to look this up, but the last steam locomotive quit service on Januari the 7th, 1958.

   Although they apparently had been phasing them out for decades already and most of the trains were already electrified and diesel (first electric trains in use since 1908 and the first diesels in 1934).

2. 11 August 1968 in ~~the UK~~ Great Britain.

   The final steam-hauled passenger train on the main British railway network was a special excursion service called [“The Fifteen Guinea Special”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteen_Guinea_Special), from Liverpool, via Manchester to Carlisle and return.

   EDIT: GB not UK.

3. The last ones in West Germany Germany in 1977, in East Germany (the “Deutsche Reichsbahn” operated here, which is kind of hilarous; there are reasons they kept that name) in 1988.

   There are still many though who drive as tourist attractions.

4. The last steam locomotive in Italy was decommissioned in 1976. It operated a daily passenger service and some freight services on the Udine-Cervignano route (in Friuli). Since 2008 some steam locomotives are back in service, but only for historical trains.

5. Last regularly scheduled trip was made May 22nd 1971 from Pieksämäki to Kouvola.

6. Apparently until 1963. They were kept as reserves and occasionally did unscheduled trips until 1972 though.

   Then they were kept by the military for the rest of the cold war in case the war turning hot would cause there to be a lack of diesel. After that they pretty much all went to museums/tourist attractions if they hadn’t already.

7. Wasn’t there a submission just the other day about some Polish line using steam engines to this day? Maybe it was just for special occasions?

8. Officially the last steam locomotives were put off duty from the regular trains with the end of the year 1980. They have been used ocasionally few more years though.

9. 1980/1. still remember them from my childhood (not travelling with them, they were only cargo)

10. According to Wikipedia, 1974

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_Class_141R

11. Apparently we still use [this one](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_steam_locomotives_in_Slovenia#/media/File:LBV-04_in_TETOL_Ljubljana.jpg) . It is located in TETOL – Ljubljana CHP Powerplant, and instead of generating steam on its own, it is filed with steam at 18 bar, which is enough for 8 hours of work

12. 1984

    The last class in revenue traffic was 424, it was a legendary locomotive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%81V_Class_424

13. Depends on what line for example the Bergen line stopped having steam trains in 1965 5 years later there were more steam locos in regular service the Flam railway was the first non tram railway that was electrified from the beginning.

14. In Finland, the last scheduled train pulled by steam locomotive was a post train 772, which left from Pieksämäki to Kouvola 22.5.1971 at 8:15

15. I think 1980 for public transport, 1981 as freight train and the last steam quarry railway closed in 1991 (if I remember correctly).

16. British Rail withdrew the last steam locomotives in 1968 (with the exception of the Vale of Rheidol railway in Wales), Northern Ireland phased them out in 1970, the London Underground had ex-GWR tank engines for maintenance trains until 1971 and some industrial lines (mainly coal and steel) used them well into the 1980s with the last industrial steam locomotive being used at Castle Donnington Power Station in Leicestershire as late as 1988.