[...Cycling is, as I know, thirsty work.
...which led me down an interesting avenue. Well, I think it's interesting:
Cycling back to Bristol from Monmouth the other day, I got through 1.5L of water. The journey was around 50km, I weigh 90kg and my bike adds 15kg to this (I was on my mountain bike, for my sins). By my reckoning that gives me a water consumption of 28L/100km/t
I wonder if you can guess where I'm heading?
A decent-sized steam locomotive gets through around 190L/km, and weighs in at around 60t, giving a water consumption of 317L/100km/t
What does this prove? Not much, but if you think cycling is thirsty work you should try being an A1 pacific...
Edit: To make this fairer, and since I added the weight of my bike, perhaps I should have factored in a rake of 10 Mk.1's! That would be about 340t, so 400t for the whole ensemble including loco, giving a consumption of 47.5L/100km/t. Still a bit thirstier than a cyclist, but in the same order of magnitude..!