Bazzmund
Active Member
The public are not diesel enthusiasts. They may not even be steam enthusiasts. But they visit heritage lines to see the steam traction of yesteryear.
I'm not so sure, when the West Somerset had a diesels to the seaside event it was quite popular. I think philistines with no imagination who think anything before their birth date was steam powered automatically assume that anything old on a railway is steam.
I am personally quite happy that they have managed to survive into preservation. Quite cheap to run and unlike the omnishambles that is the IEP virtually indestructible.