The following answer is taken from Wardale’s response to a letter from Angus Eickhoff, published in Steam Railway #276 (see ‘Articles and Letters’ page of this website): “Compound expansion for the 5AT has been considered – and rejected. The arguments for and against compounding are too complex to air here, but I am firmly convinced […]
Letter from J.J.G. Koopmans to Dave Wardale dated 21 July 2005: 21 July 2005© Dear Mr. Wardale, We have exchanged some correspondence in the past. As you may, or may not, remember, I have been busy writing a Ph.D. thesis at the University of Sheffield on the history of steam locomotive front-end development with an […]
A question was asked (by Chris Newman) as to how can it be deduced from Fig 50 (in Wardale’s book The Red Devil and Other Tales from the Age of Steam) that there was scope for an increase in exhaust lap for valves with longer steam lap? The actual wording referred to appears on page […]
Q: Are large (i.e. huge) diameter steam pipes necessary? For example, a smaller steam pipe, provided it has smooth bends, will have less surface area for thermal losses. If the effective delivery of steam to the cylinders is of concern, then can it be solved by having large steam chests or using receivers as on […]
In Oct 2007, John Tasker wrote to ask if steam jacketed cylinder had been considered for the 5AT. He suggests that when a loco is stationary a steam jacket would help reduce thermal losses when starting from cold. Dave Wardale offered the following response: “Cylinder steam jacket. This has been well explained by Porta. It […]
Dave Wardale offered the following responses to questions put to him relating to his Fundamental Design Calculations for the exhaust system [FDC 12]. (See also Wardale’s Notes on FDC 12.) Blower nozzles: I had always imagined that blower steam was simply exhausted up the chimney through the blast pipe when no exhaust steam was available […]