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Climate change

The future use of steam locomotives in the United Kingdom is in doubt because of government policy on climate change. The Heritage Railway Association is working with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Heritage Rail in an effort to continue running steam locomotives on coal.

Many tourist railroads use oil-fired steam locomotives (or have converted their locomotives to run on oil) to reduce their environmental footprint, and because fuel oil can be easier to obtain than coal of the proper type and sizing for locomotives. For example, the Grand Canyon Railway runs its steam locomotives on used vegetable oil.

An organization called the Coalition for Sustainable Rail (CSR) is developing an environmentally friendly coal substitute made from torrefied biomass. In early 2019, they performed a series of tests using Everett Railroad to evaluate the performance of the biofuel, with positive results. The biofuel was found to burn slightly faster and hotter than coal. The goal of the project is primarily to find a sustainable fuel for historic steam locomotives on tourist railroads, but CSR has also suggested that, in the future, steam locomotives powered by torrefied biomass could be an environmentally and economically superior alternative to diesel locomotives. Also, a large vat containing salt may be used without needing to replenishing the medium. Large heating elements would be one method of recharging the system, however, it is possible to pump molten salt as well, removing the cooled salt and replenishing from facilities which contain a much larger vat.