Author: Chris Newman

This is just to let you know that I’ve spent countless hours over the last 4 months, with the invaluable assistance of ChatGPT, updating the software that supports ASTT’s website.  You won’t see any difference in the appearance of the site (apart from a new slide featuring “Revolution” on the Home page), but the software is now up-to-date with all sorts of security risks eliminated.  I believe that even the PHP (about which there was a recent alarm) has been secured by our hosting service.

One new feature that I’ve introduced is the automatic distribution of News posts as and when I create them, so hopefully you will receive news of this post by an emailed message.  I hope you’ll be happy to receive notifications in this way, but please let me know if you would prefer not to.

One other improvement that I’m planning to implement is to add a similar feature to automatically notify members of ASTT’s facebook group whenever I create a new News post.  I don’t “do” social media, so I have no involvement with the group, but hopefully it might encourage its members to become more involved in ASTT’s activities and perhaps even apply for Associate Membership.

I’m not sure yet whether I’ll use this News Post system for circulating all my messages to the membership in future, but I will probably decide on a case-by-case basis.

This is just to let you know that I’ve spent countless hours over the last 4 months, with the invaluable assistance of ChatGPT, updating the software that supports ASTT’s website.  You won’t see any difference in the appearance of the site (apart from a new slide featuring “Revolution” on the Home page), but the software is now up-to-date with all sorts of security risks eliminated.  I believe that even the PHP (about which there was a recent alarm) has been secured by our hosting service.

One new feature that I’ve introduced is the automatic distribution of News posts as and when I create them, so hopefully you will receive news of this post by an emailed message.  I hope you’ll be happy to receive notifications in this way, but please let me know if you would prefer not to.

One other improvement that I’m planning to implement is to add a similar feature to automatically notify members of ASTT’s facebook group whenever I create a new News post.  I don’t “do” social media, so I have no involvement with the group, but hopefully it might encourage its members to become more involved in ASTT’s activities and perhaps even apply for Associate Membership.

I’m not sure yet whether I’ll use this News Post system for circulating all my messages to the membership in future, but I will probably decide on a case-by-case basis.

L-R:  Eelco de Bode; Xavier Jiménez; Pep Alemany; Martin Johnson; Nigel Barnes (kneeling); Chris Newman; Chris Parmenter; Andrew Hartland; William Powell; Graham Shirley (kneeling); Terry McMenamin; Jamie Keyte; Hendrik Kaptein; John Hind (kneeling); Alex Powell; Paul Middleton (kneeling); Owen Jordan; Bob Gwynne.
Absent: David Pawson, Richard Coleby and Ian Foot (who kindly took the photo).

The twenty members (listed above) attended another successful ASTT conference on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway over the weekend of Oct 3rd-4th.  There were five excellent presentations at the Saturday session that was held in the NYMR’s Pickering Learning Centre, followed by a conference dinner at the Forest & Vale Hotel.  On the Sunday morning, most attendees lined up at the ticket office in Pickering to buy tickets for the 9:30 train to Grosmont, which was hauled by 4079 Pendennis Castle which had been brought up from Didcit for the NYMR’s autumn gala the previous weekend.

In Grosmont loco depot, Paul Middleton (NYMR’s locomotive superintendent – aka “Piglet”) updated his 2025 talk on the installation of oil-firing to Peter Best’s S160 2-8-0 No 2253 “Omaha” which was completed earlier in 2026.  In the afternoon, Paul showed us over the locomotive when he demonstrated, two or three times, the procedure for lighting-up the firing system.

The only disappointment was the return to Pickering on the 14:55 train, which was hauled by a Class 37 diesel!

A list of the presentations and their accompanying PPT files is now available to members on the (separate) Conference page.

The latest (May 2026) edition of Trackside magazine carries an extensive 8-page article on ASTT’s Revolution Project.

A digital copy of the magazine can be downloaded from Trackside’s website at https://tracksidemag.co.uk/ for a price of £4.99 or £3.33 per copy with a digital subscription.  The paper edition costs £5.70 from retailers or £5.00 per edition with an annual subscription.

ASTT’s 2026 AGM

Apologies for not reporting earlier that our 2026 AGM couldn’t be held over the first weekend in March (as usually scheduled).  Instead, it will be held (via Zoom) on Saturday, 25th April at 1:30 pm.

We expect to be able to circulate a meeting notice, agenda and other documents to members before the end of March.

ASTT’s 2026 Conference

Our 2026 conference will be held in Pickering on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway over the weekend of 3^rd – 4^th October.  A notice and call for papers should be circulated before the end of March.

Members are encouraged to reserve the date in their diaries.

On 10th Feb 2026, Alex Powell gave an excellent presentation covering ASTT’s beginnings, where it’s going and what it’s all about, with a focus on the Revolution Project.

His talk was broadcast via Zoom under the auspices of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Late News –  The video recording of Alex’s talk is now available on YouTube HERE.

A PDF copy of his PowerPoint file can be found here.

Martin Young, one of our members, has kindly sent us a copy of an article by Roger Waller titled “Back on Track” that was originally published in the  “New Scientist” magazine in July 1999.

Members of the long-defunct 5AT Supporters Group may remember the article which had a couple of links to it on the old 5AT website.  Those links, and the copy of the article, were lost when the old 5AT website was inadvertently destroyed by our problematic hosting service who accepted no responsibility for its loss and offered no assistance in recovering it.  For those who are not aware, your webmaster did his best to recreate the old website from cached files that he was able to recover, and by posting them on a separate 5AT section of AST’s website.  A link to the recreated 5AT Home page can be found in the (black) top menu of the main website.

Martin’s copy of the article has been uploaded to the website, and a link to it has been recreated on the “Downloadable Papers and Broadcasts relating to Modern Steam” item under “References” in the menu of the 5AT section of ASTT’s website.   Another link to it has been added on the “Emissions” page at https://advanced-steam.org/5at/5at-project/5at-and-the-environment/emissions/.

Members who are not familiar with the 5AT Project and its section on AST’s website, might find articles and other reference material of interest in it.

CJEN – 10 Feb 2026

On February 10th, our Committee Member Alex Powell will be giving a presentation to the IMechE about ASTT and its work.  The talk, titled “Bringing a 21st Century Perspective to Steam Loco Engineering” will be broadcast starting at 7:00 pm via Teams, and will be open to everyone

Further information and a booking link can be found at https://nearyou.imeche.org/near-you/UK/Thameswey/event-detail?id=23803.

The entire ASTT membership is encouraged to attend.

Alstom’s Greatest Gathering event held in Derby over the weekend of 1st to 3rd August 2025 was aptly named.  It was indeed the greatest railway gathering that is likely to be seen in this country for the foreseeable future.  Locomotives, old and new, combined with carriages and multiple units of every description were gathered in and around Altom’s massive works complex.  Several workshops were also filled with displays of every sort, including (in U Shop) a stand occupied by ASTT on which Revolution was proudly on display.

It is pleasing to report that Revolution attracted considerable interest, especially amongst younger visitors, despite it being in a state of incompleteness.  In fact its incomplete state – in particular its lack of a boiler – made it easier to show how its suspension and traction system function, since these will be rendered largely invisible once the boiler is fitted.

Notwithstanding, several new (and novel) features were  on display, such as:

• its novel elastomeric springing and its integrated suspension/traction system invented by Jamie Keyte;
• its modular valve gear, cleverly designed by Richard Coleby, such that it is pre-assembled as a unit before being mounted on the engine, with both left and right side mechanisms being identical;
• cylinders, showing the cavities for steam-jacket heating and tapping points for fitting pressure and temperature sensors.
• valve chests also with tapping points for pressure and temperature sensors and mountings for direct-delivery of lubricant to the liners;
• smokebox with removeable cover to facilitate changing of exhaust systems for performance monitoring;
• a near-complete tender (see below).

ASTT’s stand was manned by several volunteers, including John Hind (our chairman), Jamie Keyte (Revolution’s chief designer), Richard Coleby (who spearheaded the arrangements to secure a space for ASTT), Gwion Clark (who organised the banners for the stand), Alex Powell, Nigel Barnes, Owen Jordan, Mike Stockbridge and Chris Newman.

A new ASTT brochure was produced for the event together with leaflets, both describing ASTT’s aims and activities.  The brochure (titled ASTT’s “2025 Prospectus”) is a 22-page document intended to be handed out to prospective new members, which sets out in more detail ASTT’s background, achievements and plans.  Both the leaflet and the Prospectus are available to download by clicking on the links.

Printed copies of the Prospectus can be purchased via the Books for Sale page on an “at-cost” basis for £2 each plus postage.

ASTT has added “Porta Papers Volume 5” to its book catalogue.  It fills 340 pages, with 21 papers grouped into five categories:

• Modern Steam Concepts;
• Exhaust Systems;
• Compound Locomotives;
• Articulated Locomotives;
• Miscellaneous Topics.

The section on exhaust systems should be of especial interest to readers.  It consists of three papers by Porta and a commentary by ASTT members Martin Johnson and David Fryer.  A summary of these and the other 17 papers in the book can be found at http://advanced-steam.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Porta-Papers-Vol-5-Inrroduction.pdf.

The book is available in soft cover at a cost of £27 excluding postage and packing.  The usual 20% discount on in-house titles is offered to ASTT members.

The Zoom video recording of ASTT’s 2025 AGM, including Jamie Keyte’s update report on the Revolution project is now available to members – see https://advanced-steam.org/astt-2025-agm/.  Please ensure that you’re logged-in before accessing the page.  Also, please be aware that the first 25 minutes of the recording is of pre-meeting chat which will be deleted if/when we can access some video-editing software.

The 9th Annual Conference will be held at the Hopetown Museum (hitherto the “Head of Steam” museum) in Darlington on Saturday and Sunday the 4th and 5th of October 2025.  The conference theme will be “Keeping Steam Locomotives operating into the 21st Century”.

The first conference flyer was distributed to members on 8th August and provides details of the conference venue, the schedule and the entry charges.  In addition, it offers information on hotels, train times from various airports, and about other activities at the museum.

All (members and non-members) are welcome to attend, however there will be space for only 40 attendees, so please register your intention to attend as early as possible by writing to us at asttconference2025@advanced-steam.org.

The conference will form part of the Railway 200 programme and celebrations.