There are two excellent books entitled “Extreme Steam” [1] and “21st Century Extreme Steam” [2], These books focus on extremely cold conditions of winters in parts of China. However, “Extreme Steam” can refer to parameters in addition to very cold weather. What follows are just your author’s personal experiences. He most sincerely hopes that readers will not take this article as a “didn’t I do well”, - it is meant only as a simple expansion of the theme of “Extreme Steam”. Almost certainly, many readers will have experienced conditions and places well beyond those mentioned below.
Temperature
By contrast to the very cold conditions and heavy freights described in the books mentioned above, a French heritage line - “Train á Vapeur des Cévennes” was visited in August 2003. The train was experienced over two days - riding, then linesiding. The loco was an 0-6-0T, ‘030T 8158’ (SACM 8158/1953). The weather forecast and our car
