whart57

All that is true, but I think the point is that moving away from free trade and competition towards a closed imperial market was to encourage conservatism. That's often the case with protectionist policies. The Royal Navy might have needed Krupp steel for armour plating but none of the railway and road bridges being built in the empire did. Why would steel companies invest heavily to supply steel for half a dozen battleships when they were doing quite nicely supplying steel to a captive market. I'm interested in the railways of Thailand, and Thailand - or Siam as it was - is interesting because it is one of a mere handful of Asian and African states that avoided colonisation by Europeans. Siam played Europeans off against each other when modernising the country. The first railway was in fact built by Danes, and it was the Germans who landed the first orders for locomotives and other hardware. (On my layout I can actually use Viesmann DB semaphores for the signals). The British didn't get a look in until a line was built south to link up with the railways in Malaya and orders for British locomotives peaked from 1916-20 after Siam's entry into WW1 on the Allied side. That shut off German competition. After WW1 though no more British railway equipment went to Thailand until the delivery of some Class 158 DMUs in the 1990s. British companies weren't building the right sort of locos, they didn't need to.

British governments did act, they went for something called "imperial preference", basically isolating the then extensive British empire from competition

Played the tune hundreds of times in my brass band playing days, never knew the words though Carrying on: Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; -- Christina Rosetti's words for In the Bleak Midwinter (For the record I prefer the Gustav Holst setting)

Goodbye to Love. - - The Carpenters

The playing of the organ, sweet singing in the choir. The Holly and the Ivy

And he had the face of an angel, and they were afraid -- A Spaceman came travelling

La Gorrille (The Gorrilla). Geotges Brassens We seem to have jumped the rails again. (BTW are homophones OK?)

A Spaceman came travelling. - Chris de Burgh

Where have all the flowers gone? -- Pete Seeger

Bright Eyes -- Art Garfunkel

I wonder if the fact that diesels and electrification were beginning to be seen as threats to the gurus of steam traction had something to do with it. Diesel hauled premier trains were running in Germany, the Netherlands and even Thailand, and south of the Thames the Southern's "tramway" network (as at least one Northern engineer dismissively called it) was seen as more efficient, cleaner and frankly more modern.

And the peal of a bell and that Christmas Tree smell I believe in Father Christmas (Greg Lake)

High Flying Adored --- Rice/Lloyd Webber, Evita

Ten times a second is still only 600 rpm and internal combustion engines do a lot more than that. Of course the difference is that the pistons and valves in an IC engine are a lot smaller, lighter and travel much shorter distances. Still,the argument holds as high speed today is not done by locos with reciprocating engines in them.

The Big Freeze was on BBC4 last night. Plenty of shots of steam engines crashing snowplough into snow drifts

I'm getting addicted to the Song Title Game, so I thought a Christmas variant might be in order to take us over the festive season. Play is similar to the Song Title Game but with a Christmas slant: Enter the title or a line from a Christmas Carol or popular Christmas song using one of the words from the previous entry. To qualify a song must either mention Christmas somewhere in the lyrics or one or more characters from the Nativity. Only it must be the Mary or Joseph, not any Mary or Joseph. To make it a little more challenging you can't use the words "the", "a" or "an", "and" or "of" to make your connection. If things get stuck it is permissible to enter the next line of the carol or song to free things up after an hour or two. As this is only intended to live for a short while repeated entries earn a I'll start with the line everyone is wanting to put in: You scumbag, you maggot, You cheap, lousy Fairytale of New York OK, a bit tricky, so let's really start with the last line of the chorus: And the bells are ringing out for Christmas day Fairytale of New York

Over the Hills and Far Away -- traditional English folksong

Shaddap You Face -- Joe Dolce

Don't Shut Me Down --- ABBA

If British railways had been nationalised in 1923, then there was a distinct possibility that the London suburban lines were then passed to London County Council to add to the tube lines. A bit like creating today's Overground a century earlier. That would however have taken the LSWR's third rail electrification out of the national company. In which case would we have seen something like these emus from 1924 on British rails, perhaps on London to Brighton first.

No, I have no regrets (non, je ne regrette rien) - Edith Piaf

Bits and Pieces --- Dave Clark Five

Master of the House -- Boublil and Schonberg, Les Miserables

Santa Claus is coming to town -- too many to mention

Other musicians are available