Locomotive Boilers for the Twenty-First Century

Locomotive Boilers for the Twenty-First Century

by Alan Haigh

Xpress Publishing, UK, 2010, ISBN 978-1-901056-47-1, 64 pages 297 x 210mm.


Alan Haigh began an apprenticeship in 1954 with Robert Hudson Ltd, a manufacturer of railway rollingstock and mining equipment.  In 1962, following national service in the RAF, he joined the Wakefield boilermaking firm of Spurr, Inman & Co. Ltd.  When Spurr closed in 1971, he transferred to Greens Economisers which later became Senior Greens.

In a design career spanning 38 years, Alan has designed hundreds of boilers of all types and sizes, including marine boilers for cruise liners and warships.

Haigh describes this book as a companion to his 2003 book titled “The Design, Construction and Working of Locomotive Boilers” (reviewed elsewhere in these pages) and is “an attempt to put on record all the information needed to design and build a superior modern locomotive boiler”.

The book’s 64 pages include 18 chapters, plus dozens of drawings and photographs.  Its chapters cover the following topics:
  1. Introduction;
  2. History of locomotive boilers – Bulleid’s legacy: his Leader boiler;
  3. Types of construction;
  4. Options for building new locomotive boilers;
  5. Design Data Required;
  6. Option 1 – using the existing design with minimal changes;
  7. Option 2 – conventional redesign but retaining pressings;
  8. Option 3 – conventional redesign with all-welded joints;
  9. Option 4 – radical redesign with water-wall firebox;
  10. History of boiler designs without stayed fireboxes;
  11. Option 5 – radical redesign based on Brotan-Defner boiler;
  12. Other boiler designs;
  13. Materials, connections and attachments;
  14. Oil firing;
  15. New welded boilers;
  16. Superheaters;
  17. Approval and Certification;
  18. Conclusions.