Nonetheless steam did take hold, IIRC starting in about the 1890s, and Richard's site gives an idea of how much. However, as soon as diesel (initially semi-diesel) engines were available, they started replacing steam ones, because they are so much more energy efficient, cleaner, less demanding of labour, safer, and easier to fuel. Diesel had generally become dominant by the 1920s, although horse towing persisted much later in some places .
Adrian Basically, steam on the narrow canals was limited by the small size of boats - an FMC steamer and butty would need a crew of three (driver, steerer and butty steerer) to carry 40-50 tons. The same size crew could man a goods train carrying say 600 tons, or the tug MAYFLOWER (which still visits the G&S from time to time) which could tow 5 x 200 ton barges. Coasters (and e.g. Weaver barges) up to 250 tons could manage with a single man attending to boiler and engine, though of course they had to have a large enough crew to stand watches. In this size starting the early diesels could be 'interesting' - there's a nice account in 'Steam Coasters' of what happened when one of the early (1920s) Bolinder coasters failed to start several times - when the engine did eventually start the accumulated fuel in the exhaust went off with a bang, removing most of the bridge and funnel. On the narrow canals it's notable that the longest-lasting steamers were the tunnel tugs, which could tow up to 600 tons - a high enough demand to make steam economic until motor-boats made them unnecessary in the 1930s. Tunnel tugs were also large enough to permit using the rather lower boiler pressures which were current before the 1980s. Sean
