Steampunks needed for a post-apocalyptic world
Do you have interest in steam power? Do you want to help salvage humanity in a post-apocalyptic world? Well then, Russia, Sweden, Great Britain and the United States might have a job for you.
In case of a nuclear attack, or other catastrophic event, all these nations have a hidden strategic reserve of steam engines. Though Great Britain and the United States still won’t admit to their steam reserves, all experts agree that, like Sweden and the former Soviet Union, they too have mothballed an array of steam engines in the event that the fossil fuel powered electric grid is destroyed. This need for steam power would be further magnified as the devastation wrecked by detonating nuclear warheads would render electrical and electronic systems of diesel motors useless, requiring that all supplies be transported by steam locomotives.
In recent years, Sweden and Russia have declassified information about their strategic steam power reserve. And despite their insistence on keeping their steam reserves secret, both Britain and the US have had trouble keeping theirs’ under a lid.
The British Government insists that a Royal strategic steam reserve is a myth. Yet, periodically Royal British Army Engineer battalions are required to take training on how to operate large steam boilers that would be used to power trains and electric power plants, as well as be used to provide steam heat in the winter.
The government of the United States neither admits nor denies such a reserve, but the author of this article, a licensed mechanical engineer, can attest that at times the US government will contact stationary mechanical engineers to gather information on alternative ways to fuel their steam boilers in the event of a national emergency.
So steampunks, be certain, your steam vapor skills are not only valuable today, but in the event of a catastrophe, they will be downright precious.
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Kim Solem is a licensed mechanical engineer who is fascinated by steam power and has been operating a recycled 1887 steam locomotive engine to heat a brownstone building. “Sadly, the old boy developed a crack and is being replaced by a modern steam boiler.”