Steam

You once wrote about historic steam locomotives around the country that still take passengers on special trips. My husband is a railroad buff, and we are going to Britain and wondered if they have this type of train trip there. Also, can you suggest any day trips from London? Although steam trains officially departed from the British scene 20 years ago, it still is possible to take a ride on one of these delightful old trains, now privately owned. One excursion takes passengers on the Pennine Limited on six Wednesdays during the summer.

Matt Keith and Ajay Baines scored goals in the first period to give the Norfolk Admirals a lead they never relinquished on the way to a 3-2 victory over the Phantoms last night in an AHL game in Norfolk, Va. Baines' second goal of the night, which came 6 minutes, 53 seconds into the third period, extended Norfolk's lead to 3-1. Defenseman Randy Jones scored for the Phantoms with two seconds left in the game. Freddy Meyer's power-play goal enabled the Phantoms to stay close to the Admirals at 2-1. It was the only score of the second period, coming with less than three minutes remaining.

Clouds of steam set fire alarms wailing at City Hall yesterday. The building was evacuated and firefighters rushed to investigate. Fire officials said faulty venting of the building's heating and cooling system allowed steam to escape into the corridors. Workers returned after a 40-minute break.

Steam vents. To most Philadelphians, the words conjure up images of street people huddled in the warming vapors of sidewalk grates, seeking refuge from the cold. For Sally Locksley, the words recall pain. The 32-year-old social worker at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was walking home one afternoon in January when she passed near a steam vent on Market Street, "hoping for a little blast of warmth," she said. Instead, Locksley wound up with second-degree burns on one ankle that kept her painfully hobbled and bandaged for a month.

Two civilian maintenance workers at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard were scalded to death yesterday morning by 350-degree steam as they attempted to open an underground valve at the South Philadelphia facility. The medical examiner's office identified the victims as Charles Carlson, 42, of the 1000 block of Tree Street in South Philadelphia, and Ted Shaw, 28, of the 1900 block of Mayland Road in West Oak Lane. A spokesman for the shipyard said the pair had noticed that steam needed to power machinery was not reaching its destinations throughout the shipyard.

"Once this was the steam locomotive capital of the world," laments Ron Tapke, gesturing toward the sprawling yet largely empty Union Pacific rail yards here. Thirty years ago, before the diesels came, Cheyenne was the staging point for fleets of long-boilered steamers that slogged long freight and passenger trains up the steep mountain grades toward the Continental Divide. The giant articulateds - engines with two sets of drive wheels riding under an enormous boiler - were a U.P. tradition.

Sum 41, the reigning kings of fresh-scrubbed pop punk, offer plenty of ammunition for their detractors. But at Friday's show at the Electric Factory, the Toronto outfit proved it could pull off one hour's worth of loud, spanking rock-and-roll and make the very young, capacity crowd believe it - which in today's pop world is more impressive than it sounds. Sum 41 is four bratty, brazen, and basically good-natured suburbanites who have chosen punk's (and metal's) spectacle as a way of letting off steam.

Taylor Hospital has been granted a zoning variance that permits it to build a gas-fired steam and electricity generating facility next to the hospital on Bartol Avenue. The Ridley Park Zoning Hearing Board voted, 3-0, last week to allow Taylor Hospital to construct the plant 4 feet, 10 inches from the adjacent right of way. The borough zoning code requires a setback of 20 feet. Charles Neely, president of the Borough Council, said he was comfortable with changes in the plant's design and other conditions agreed to by hospital officials.

On his weekly radio show last night, Eagles fullback Kevin Turner explained his presence at a pro wrestling event Monday night at the CoreStates Spectrum by saying he needed to "blow a little steam off" after the Birds' embarrassing loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Turner, who committed four costly penalties in the defeat, said he went with center Steve Everitt and right tackle Barrett Brooks. Early yesterday morning, Everitt was arrested in Mount Laurel and charged with speeding, driving under the influence and possession of drug paraphernalia.

It's easy to get cranky about modern American supermarket vegetables, raised more for beauty than for flavor, weeks out of the soil by the time they are sold, tainted by who knows what assortment of biocides. On the other hand, a recent trip to the Caribbean has convinced me that it's mighty hard to do without them. I ate in Santo Domingo and ate well: the smooth, tart tropical fruits called soursops, fragrant pineapples, deep-flavored bananas unlike any that are sold here. There were crisp-crusted yuca fritters, crunchy casabe bread, and creamy, long-simmered beans.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - 'You must go," insisted my Turkish friend Sule. " Hammans , Turkish bathhouses, are important social gathering places all over the country. They're like your coffeehouses. When I go home to my village in Anatolia I ring up my girlfriends and arrange a meeting at our favorite hamman . My husband and brother do the same. " I hesitated, thinking about what some of my friends had reported. Sue and Mark had slid around on dirty, oily floors when visiting Budapest.

As far as anybody can tell, the women of Long Island found it first, around Thanksgiving. During their Christmas vacations, they carried it by Kindle to Boca and possibly Aruba, and from there, it ripped its way through Jersey and then the nation's e-readers before landing last week at the very top of the New York Times best-seller list for combined print and e-book sales. It's Fifty Shades of Grey , the sexual-bondage romance novel from first-time author E.L. James, a married British TV executive and mother of two, that's been steaming up e-book readers since its digital publication in May and is about to be released as a trilogy in paperback form, with a first run of 750,000 copies.

NEW YORK - The stock market posted substantial gains Thursday as Greece closed in on a deal to restructure its debt and avoid a default. That overshadowed a small increase in unemployment claims last week. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 70.61 points, or 0.55 percent, at 12,907.94. Two days of solid gains have erased about three-quarters of the loss from Tuesday, when the Dow fell 203 points, its biggest loss of the year. The close left the Dow up 97 percent on the eve of the third anniversary of its low point during the Great Recession.

We've heard it for years - a violent culture begets violence. Conventional wisdom says, if you want to understand the not-so-subliminal reasons for incivility, you don't have to look any further than the movies, the music, and the video games - the elements of pop culture we so readily identify with and glorify. Those blasted video games are the worst. Violent video games, more than violent television shows or movies, can increase aggressive thoughts and behaviors because they're interactive.

Selas Fluid Processing Corp., a Blue Bell engineering firm owned by The Linde Group of Germany, announced Thursday it has won a contract to oversee the construction of a large petrochemical operation in Port Arthur, Texas. The project involves the installation of a new furnace at the BASF FINA Petrochemicals L.P. steam cracker plant, which converts fuel into ethylene, one of the basic ingredients of plastic. The new unit will have the flexibility to use competitively priced derivatives of natural gas - ethane and liquefied petroleum gas - in addition to naphtha, a more expensive raw material produced from refining oil. Petrochemical makers across the nation are expanding their ability to use natural gas because of a glut of fuel produced from shale-gas drilling.

A new cookbook from Good Housekeeping is an updated edition that seeks to compete with American Test Kitchen. (The hint is in the title: The Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen Cookbook , Hearst Books.) It covers the basics from homemade chicken noodle soup to chewy oatmeal raisin cookies, but it also offers more current fare, like grilled fish tacos and Pad Thai. Great for beginners, it includes lots of how-to tips for things like storing, planning, shopping, and freezing, as well as primers on grilling, soup-making, baking, etc. This fish recipe is an example of the simple yet tasty recipes you will find.

U.S. stocks fell Tuesday, halting a three-day rally, as United Parcel Service Inc. slumped, economic reports missed estimates, and uncertainty grew over how much progress European leaders were making in debt-crisis talks. UPS, whose deliveries make it a proxy for the economy, lost 2.1 percent as international shipping growth began to cool while U.S. expansion stagnated. 3M Co. sank 6.3 percent after cutting its profit forecast. Netflix Inc. plunged 35 percent as the company projected losses in 2012.

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney seems firmly in command in a Republican presidential field that hasn't figured out how to stop him. Twelve weeks before the first party voting, the GOP establishment is coalescing around the former Massachusetts governor. He has more campaign experience and money and is better organized than anyone else. He showed again this week that he's the best debater in the bunch. And President Obama's campaign is treating him almost as the presumptive nominee - even though Romney still faces challenges in some early voting states.

AT LEAST both teams were unhappy with the strike zone. When the bitching and complaining from both dugouts is roughly equal, it suggests that it wasn't the reason the game turned out the way it did. It's also true, though, that umpires strive not to be noticed. And by that measurement, plate umpire Jerry Meals didn't have a very good evening during Game 2 of the National League Division Series played last night at Citizens Bank Park. Hitters from both teams did little to hide their annoyance when they walked away from the plate after being called out. Pitchers from both teams were frustrated by pitches they believed had been in the zone but were called balls.

Environmental Tectonics Corp, Southampton, said today it was awarded two contracts worth a combined $1.4 million. The contracts consist of an order for steam sterilizers, and an upgrade of a sterilizer made by another manufacturer. In addition to sterilizers, ETC makes aircrew training systems, disaster management systems and environmental testing products.    -Paul Schweizer