h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Jon. I'm looking at the entry "End of the Line for Steam on British Railways: The Dieselisation Programme" to do the final polish on it before it is ready to publish.

I notice that one of the advantages of steam is that it can be as efficient as diesel, while one of the advantages of diesel is that it is more efficient than steam.

So which is it?

Diesel is more efficient than steam in general which was the augument for moving towards diesel used by the industry.

Some of the later advances in steam meant that it would have been possible to build steam engines that were as efficent as diesels of the time, but this was very much the peak of steam engine design against an emerging technology.

So kinda both, but really the 1st one