Author: Chris Newman

ASTT member Liang Chenyuan has sent us a link to a video of an experiment carried out on steam locomotives in China recently.

Chenyuan, who only recently joined ASTT, reports that the experiments were undertaken in 2017 by the Chuntian Company on QJ and SY locomotives owned by the Jitong Railway Company, which involved the replacement of steam with high pressure inert gas (presumably CO2).

Gas was piped from a storage cylinder mounted either on the loco tender or in a wagon behind it, and fed directly into the steam chests at a controlled pressure.  The aim was to find a method of powering a steam locomotive without polluting emissions.

A fascinating video of the experiments can be seen at http://www.365yg.com/item/6492567277689373198/.

Chenyuan reports that the experiments were not successful, though he doesn’t know the nature of the problems that were encountered.  It would be interesting to know how cylinder and valve lubrication was affected and/or if special low-temperature lubricants were used.  It would also be interesting to know how the cost of inert gas compares with steam, and how far the locomotives could haul trains using a 5 tonne cylinder of CO2.  Furthermore, it would be interesting to know how the CO2 was prevented from freezing as it expanded into the steamchest.

Chenyuan reports that there is increasing levels interest within China in railways in general, and in steam locomotives in particular, and that he is one of a growing fraternity of enthusiasts.  We hope he will send us more news from China in the future.

The UK’s new General Data Protection Regulations come into force on 25th May 2018 after which date all organizations including societies and trusts such as ASTT that hold data on their members will have to be compliant.

In order to comply with the regulations, ASTT must have written permission from its members – both in the UK and overseas – for it to continue contacting them through the email addresses that it holds for them.

A Data Protection Letter and Data Protection Permission Form were circulated to members on 11th Apr 2018 outlining ASTT’s policies on Data Protection and requesting prompt completion, signing and return of the Permission Forms.

Notes:  In order to comply with the new regulations ASTT is adopting the following policies:

1. ASTT will take responsibility for compliance with the new regulations;
2. ASTT will not employ and external compliance assessor but will self-assess its compliance;
3. ASTT will seek members’ permission to contact them by email.

Members will be aware that ASTT holds limited amounts of data on each of them.  In most cases this is confined to that contained in the Membership Application form originally submitted when joining.  Members may ask to verify the information that the Trust holds about them by writing to the Membership Secretary at info@advanced-steam.org.

Shaun McMahon reports from Argentina that the INTI, the principle science research establishment that Livio Dante Porta was instrumental in setting up, is under threat of complete or partial closure by the Argentine government which has revealed hitherto secret plans to replace it, at least in part, by a private company to concentrate on exports of foodstuffs to the European Union.

260 jobs at INTI have so far been declared redundant which triggered a lock-out by government authorities to the remaining staff at the end of January.  Staff were allowed back in to work in mid-February though some industrial action continued on until early March.  More recently, the entire establishment has been surrounded by the police and military forces and is being monitored by a private security company charged with preventing staff and management voicing their views on the government’s plans and on the implications of corruption surrounding them.

This is of special relevance to ASTT since one of INTI’s high profile programmes is modern steam development, continuing the work begun by Porta.

INTI recently celebrated 60 years since its establishment in December 1957.  Porta was one of the first experts to be engaged by INTI’, working there from September 1960 when he left the Rio Turbio Railway until his retirement in 1982.  During that time he set up and headed the Thermodynamics Department where he wrote many of his technical papers on steam traction.   Shaun McMahon has been working on steam development at INTI since 2009.

ASTT will hold its 2018 Annual General Meeting in the Bury Transport Museum at Bury, Lancs, on Saturday 3rd March.  All members are invited to attend.

It is expected that following the AGM, a general meeting will be held for which members are invited to offer presentations on the topic; “If I was Chief Engineer …..” as outlined on page 7 of Newsletter No 5.  The aim should
be a presentation of 15 minutes max. duration with 5 minutes for Questions and Answers, the idea being to give speakers the chance to stand in the shoes of Gresley, Stanier, Collet, Bulleid, Riddles or any other, and to set down their manifesto as Chief Engineer

An Agenda for the meeting will be distributed to members in advance of the meeting.

Wishing all our members a Happy Christmas
and Best Wishes for 2018

….. and reminding those of you who haven’t yet renewed their membership or set up a Standing Order to renew it, that membership subscriptions fall due on 1^st January. 

We very much hope that you will stay with us and that we will meet up with you at our AGM event in March and/or Conference in September.

Best wishes

ASTT Committee:

• John Hind – Chairman
• Cedric Lodge – Secretary
• Paul Hibberd – Treasurer
• Richard Coleby – Auditor & Committee Member
• David Nicholson – Newsletter Editor
• Mike Horne – Committee Member
• Jamie Keyte – Committee Member
• Chris Newman – Membership Secretary and Webmaster.

ASTT’s 2-day 2017 Autumn Conference ended on Sunday afternoon 1st October.  The event proved even more successful than anticipated and the only regret was that more people weren’t in attendance.  As it was, 33 attended the Saturday session and 31 on the Sunday of whom 25 appear in the photo above.  Amongst them were Wolfgang Fengler from the USA, Hendrik Kaptein from The Netherlands and Xavier Jimenez from Spain, whose welcome presence made this ASTT’s first “International” conference.

Ten excellent papers were presented covering a wide range of topics by speakers ranging in age from 24 y.o. Tom Kay who is completing a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering, to Joseph Cliffe who began his career with the LNER in 1947 and who later worked under Sir William Stanier at Powerjets Ltd.  The ten speakers were (in order of presentation):

1. Geoff Turner and Phil Yates who spoke on “The Clan Project: 21st century manufacturing for a 20th century locomotive”;
2. Adrian Tester who spoke on “The Physiology of the Locomotive Boiler”, the subject of a new book that he is shortly to publish;
3. Tom Kay who spoke on “Austerity 90733 Horn Guide and Frame Re-Design”;
4. William Powell who spoke on “Improving small gauge live steam locomotives”;
5. Colin Green (of Riley & Son) who spoke on “The latest restoration of Flying Scotsman”;
6. Joseph Cliffe who spoke on “Chapelon and the Advanced Steam Locomotive”;
7. Jamie Keyte who spoke on “LNWR George the Fifth – Coupling rod analysis for the modern railway”;
8. Wolf Fengler who spoke on “CSR Biofuels Trials in the USA”;
9. Mike Horne (of ASTT) who spoke on “Update on ASTT’s steam locomotive instrumentation developments”;
10. Owen Jordan who spoke on “A new boiler to meet the challenges of the 21st century”.

In addition to the presentations, visits were made to the workshops facilities of both the East Lancs Railway and of Ian Riley & Son.  It is believed that ASTT’s conference attendees were the first group to be invited to see inside Riley’s new workshop facilities.

A more detailed report on the conference has been added to the Members’ section of this website.  Copies of PPT files and video recordings of presentations are now available to those who attended the conference through a password-protected page.  Members who didn’t attend the conference but would like to see the presentations are invited to make a £10 contribution to help cover the conference fee shortfall.

A compilation of presentation Abstracts and speaker introductions was recently circulated to ASTT members.  It can now be downloaded from this website by clicking here.

Members and others who have indicated their intention of attending the conference are asked to confirm their reservations before their seats are made available to others.   It is important that payments for attendance and for the conference dinner are received before the conference because there may not be room available for people who turn up “on-spec”.  Furthermore there will not be time for handling payments or making up name-tags on the morning of the conference.

ASTT has released its latest update on the Bury Conference to be held over the weekend of 30th Sept – 1st Oct.

The conference will include nine presentations covering on a wide range of subjects relating to steam locomotive engineering.  It will also include visits to the East Lancs Railway workshops and Ian Riley’s workshops, both in Bury.

Attendance will be limited to around 50, and fees (to cover room hire, lunches, refreshments, coach hire, and speakers’ travel expenses) have been set at £40 for two days or £25 for a single day, with £5 discounts offered to ASTT members.  A conference dinner costing £12 per head should be booked separately.

Full details of the conference programme, conference location, public transport, parking, local accommodation, and booking arrangements can be found on the 2017 Autumn Conference page of this website.