FYI an announcement of the program offered by a British heritage railway professional organization. It is interesting to contrast their offerings to those slated for the Sacramento joint ARM / TRAIN meeting. Can't help but wonder if academic partnerships might not be of some benefit to us as well.

dave

Institute of Railway Studies and Transport History
Universities of Birmingham, Sheffield and York
Developments in Modern Steam Traction for Railways
11 December 2006
A One-day Conference at the National Railway Museum in York
Walker and Alport Rooms
Outline Programme:
09:00 Registration and Coffee
09:30-09:45 Welcome and Introduction by C. Divall
09.45-11:15 Beyond Porta: New Front End Research (J.J.G. Koopmans)
(History of Front-End Research and Latest Developments)
New Build Steam in England: The A1 Project (D. Elliott)
11:15-11:45 Coffee and Tea Break
11:45-13:15 Experience with Modern Steam and new Developments (R. Waller,
DLM)
Modern Steam in England: The Design of the 5AT (D. Wardale)
13:15-14:15 Lunch in the National Railway Museum
14:15-15:15 New Thinking on Fireless Steam Propulsion (H. Valentine)
Water Treatment for Modern Steam Locomotives (M. Bane)
15:15-15:45 Tea and Coffee Break
15:45-17:15 Modern Steam on the Hauenstein in Switzerland (A. Haas)
Alternative Traction for Community Railways (J. Sharpe)
Traction Cost Comparisons for Indonesian Coal Haulage (C. Newman)
17:15-17:30 Closing addresses by P. Salvesen of Northern Rail
Conference Chairs:
Colin Divall (IRS&TH), Robin Saunders (Sheffield) and Felix Schmid (RRUK)
Conference Fees:
£125.00 Standard Conference Fee including Refreshments and Proceedings
£ 90.00 Advance Payment Fee (Deadline 20 October 2006)
£ 50.00 Special Fee (Limited Number of Places, on Application to the IRS&TH)
Sponsoring Organisations:
Institute of Railway Studies & Transport History, National Railway Museum,
Rail Research UK
Further Information:
Martyn Halman, IRS&TH Facilitator
Institute of Railway Studies & Transport History
National Railway Museum
Leeman Road
York
North Yorkshire
YO26 4XJ
P: +44 (0)1904 686 284
E: martyn.halman@nmsi.ac.uk
Marina Boulis
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Sheffield
Mappin Street
Sheffield
South Yorkshire
S1 3JD
P: +44 (0)114 222 7751
E: m.i.boulis@shef.ac.uk
Objectives of the Conference Organisers
The one-day conference on Developments in Modern Steam Traction for Railways
is aimed at showcasing
recent research and technical advances in railway steam traction for
commercial use in specific
applications. Colin Divall and Felix Schmid initiated this event in order to
publicise the completion of
Dr. J.J.G. Koopmans’ ground-breaking research into the front end design of
steam locomotives and to
promote current work on modern steam traction that is taking place in a
number of European
countries and South America. It is hoped that the speakers and audience will
engage in fruitful
debates on the future direction of modern steam traction.
Who Should Attend
‘Developments in Modern Steam Traction’ is targeted at railway engineers and
managers working in
a professional capacity in today’s railway industry and in heritage
operations. The conference is intended
to raise their awareness of current developments in modern steam traction,
the opportunities
and limitations.
The organisers are expecting delegates with realistic views of the potential
of modern steam traction
in tourist markets and interested in optimising its performance while
minimising the environmental
impact of steam railway operations. Heritage railways, in particular, will
find that they have to improve
the environmental footprint of their operations if they are to continue to
succeed in an increasingly
ecologically aware tourist market place.
The Contributions
Colin Divall will introduce the conference and will set the scene for the
conference, adopting the perspective
of the historian of technology.
Jos Koopmans studied at the Universities of Delft and Sheffield and
presented his doctoral thesis 'The
fire burns much better...' at the University of Sheffield in autumn 2005.
His theoretical and practical
studies have led to a substantial extension of the work of Chapelon and
Dante Porta and have resulted
in guidelines for good practice in front end design. Jos will outline the
history of front-end research
from its earliest days at the beginning of the 19th century to the work of
Porta in Argentina. He will
then outline the conclusions from his theoretical studies and will describe
the results of the tests he
undertook with the RTM54 locomotive in Holland.
David Elliott will report on the ongoing construction of the replica A1
locomotive, including the
production of the boiler, and will update the audience on the current
status. He will highlight the
difficult compromise decisions that must be taken when recreating a historic
locomotive that must
satisfy modern standards of safety and environmental performance.
Roger Waller of Dampflokomotiv und Maschinenfabrik of Switzerland will
outline his company’s
experience with building new steam locomotives and a modern steam engine for
the ‘Montreux’ lake
steamer for Lake Geneva. He will also discuss recent projects and plans.
David Wardale will present a technical paper on the design of the 5AT
project, aimed at producing a
modern high performance steam locomotive for mainline tourist and special
trains applications. He
will outline the major technical advances to be incorporated in the design
to satisfy modern safety and
environmental regulations and to achieve sustainable success in commercial
operation.
Harry Valentine will outline the current thinking on the use of stored steam
in traction applications,
with a particular focus on the availability of process steam and industrial
applications. Martyn Bane
will discuss his work on taking forward Porta’s ideas on water treatment for
modern steam traction
and its benefits.
Alfred Haas and John Sharpe will present both a Swiss and a UK view on the
potential role of modern
steam traction in enhancing the attractiveness of community railways and in
revitalising branch lines.
Chris Newman has conducted a major study of the economics of coal traction
for the haulage of coal
in Indonesia, based on a detailed analysis of such operations in China.
Paul Salveson from Northern Rail will provide a closing summary, commenting
on the relevance of
the day’s proceedings for today’s railway industry.
Developments in Modern Steam Traction for Railways
11 December 2006, York, Great Britain
Registration Form
I / we wish to participate in the 1-day conference ‘Developments in Modern
Steam Traction
for Railways’ at the National Railway Museum, York, Great Britain, 11
December 2006.
Please reserve …. places for my organisation.
Name: …………………………………. Title: Mr. / Mrs. / Miss / Dr. / Prof. / Ir.
First Name: ………………………………….
Job Role: ………………………………….
Department: ………………………………….
Organisation: ………………………………….
Address 1: ………………………………….
Address 2: ………………………………….
Address 3: ………………………………….
City: ………………………………….
Post Code: ………………………………….
Country: ………………………………….
Conference Fees:
£125.00 Standard Conference Fee including Refreshments and Proceedings
£ 90.00 Advance Payment Fee (must be received by 20 October 2006)
£ 50.00 Special Fee (Limited Number of Places, on Application to the IRS&TH
only)
I enclose a cheque to the amount of £ …….., made out to ‘The National
Railway Museum’.
Please send the registration form, together with the full remittance, to:
Martyn Halman, IRS&TH Facilitator
Institute of Railway Studies and Transport History
National Railway Museum
Leeman Road
York YO26 4XJ
P: +44 (0)1904 686 284
E: martyn.halman@nmsi.ac.uk
Conference Proceedings
Conference proceedings, including technical papers by the authors, will be
published by IRS&TH
after the conference in paper form and will be dispatched to delegates at
the address given on the
registration form.
Applications for Special Reduced Fee
A number of reduced fee places are reserved for technical staff from
heritage and community railways.
Applications for a supported place must be made in writing to Prof. Colin
Divall, IRH&TS
at the National Railway Museum, e-mail: cd11@york.ac.uk.