I was wondering if anyone had any reccomendations of must have steam books. My intrests lie primarily in the mechanical aspects of how they built/fixed steam locomotives, as well as stationary steam. I don't care as much about the railfaning aspects.

With the advent of the internet it seems like any book one could ever want is available most often for less then $100 with-in a very few days, either thru amazon, or Ebay.

Right now my two major recomendations include the Locomotive Cyclopedia, this is a must have. I got my 1944 copy on ebay for about $100. This summer one of the guys on the steam locomotive project I was voulenteering on, showed me a copy of this book and I knew I had to have it! It is one of the most incredible books of a caliber I never knew existed.

The other book that I have just recieved for the holidays is one for sale by Lindsay books "Laying out for boiler makers and plate fabricators" It can be bought as a brand new reproduction of the 1944 edition for $40 or so and if you are into alot of the technical details of boilers is a great book. I can't help but wonder thou, knowing how to use modern solid modeling computer programs such as ProE, Autocad Inventor, and Solid Works, what those guys who did all the hand layout on 1/8th scale drawings would ever think if you showed them how much easier all their layout work would be if just done on one of these programs. Then the other amazing thing is the details of how they transfered all the drawings onto the huge sheets of steel. Again, I wonder what one of the guys from the past would think about a modern CNC waterjet cutter! Heck if you could have the computer print out a 1foot to 1foot drawing just transfering the lines over to the boiler plates may have saved a ton of time.

Great book I am just getting to the fabrication section now, where they get into how they actually built the boilers themselves.

Does anyone know how the brits did the layout work on their recent locomotive reproduction? Did they draw out the parts by hand or use some sort of solid modeling software package? Then did they enlist the help of a little unprototypical CNC or do it all the old school way?

Could anyone else add any must have books onto my list. Perhaps something on the building of steam locomotives, or other technical publications. I have had great luck buying books from as far back as 1908 online for sometimes as low as $5! The railroading books tend to command a slightly higher price, but I did get a few neat stationary steam books for $5.

Thanks,

Adam

Hello,
A few that could be recommended are:

The ICS series (International Correspondence School)
The Locomotive Up To Date, Mc Shane
Modern Locomotive Construction, Meyer
The Steam Locomotive, Johnson
The Steam Locomotive in America, Bruce

These are a few that will give you a general overview of locomotive work that can be used in conjunction with your "Cyclopedias". Especially look at the Sections in the "Cyclopedias" referencing Shop Work----a great deal to learn there.
Respectfully,
Dave Griner
wasatch-rr-contractors.com

Not entirely OT, I was wondering if there exists in the USA today a shop that can roll steel for a new boiler such as Alco, Baldwin and Lima once did.

The Red Devil and Other Tales From the Age of Steam by David Wardale would be a good one as well.

Hello Fitz,
Indeed, there are many shops that have the capability of rolling plates and forming barrels, along with other components. Our shop can arrange to have this accomplished to Code requirements along with the Strasburg.
An interesting question, thank you for your interest.
Respectfully,
Dave Griner
wasatch-rr-contractors.com

Strasburg Rail Road can build a boiler from scratch as well as turn wheelsets, etc. - check the updates here on The Interchange from Kelly Anderson.

I have "Basic Steam Locomotive Maintenance" by D.C. Buell. Covers firing, valve gear, and getting it home if it breaks down.

An interesting read is U.S. Army Technical Manual TM 55-201, "Operation, Inspection and Maintenance of Steam Locomotives and Locomotive Cranes". My copy is a reproduction issued by Portrayal Press, which I happened to run across in the Strasburg RR book store.

http://www.strasburgrailroadstore.com/product_p/rb0259.htm

Alan Maples

Here's a page from my website with recommendations. In addition to a book list (including many already mentioned here), there are on-line technical papers, the ACE 3000 patent, and other info of interest to steam buffs.

http://www.trainweb.org/tusp/libra.html

Thanks for the book recomendations. I believe that I actually found a few for the wishlist on Strasburg's website.

As for the preparing of sheets of replacement sheets of steel, are they still laid out with the same techniques in my book Laying Out for Boiler Makers, or today do they get waterjetted.

For anyone who has ever done it, one thing that absolutely amazes me, (even as one who is familiar with machining) is how they were able to get such precision with hand scribed marks. One amazing thing that the book calls out is that the drawings in the drafting room, should be made in 1/8th scale as this is the closest scale where one can still make out 1/16"s. To me, that is quite amazing as you are dealing with .008" = .0625", .008" isn't to hard for a machinist to hold, but to see that on a pencil drawing seems to require a lot of skill. How often were mistakes made in these shops. When dealing with rivitted sheets, the two still have to match one another, I haven't gotten too far in the book yet, but how did they do that? Do they drill thru both sheets once the two sheets are erected with a magnetic drill or something or were the holes in both sheets drilled before the sheets would even get rolled to form the barrels?


Adam

Hello Adam,
Having been in this work for over 40 years, some of your questions can be answered as follows:
1. Layout today is mostly accomplished by CAD and sent to one of three types of cutting machines, i.e. oxy-aceteylene, plasma torch, or water jetting. (No layout on the plate necessary, except for establishing center lines or other reference point)
2. Maintaining tolerances with hand developed scribe lines was conducted with soap stones ground to a fine edge and kept that way throughout the laying out process. Today this is seldom done due to the convenience of CAD systems. Some of the men I learned from were very accurate in their work, as errors are many times cumulative and could result in significant changes in final dimensions.
3. Screwups continue to this day-----and will to the end----we're people.
4.Typically plates were drilled prior to rolling, however the holes were undersize, and after assembling the holes were reamed to size and had "barrel bolts" applied to hold things in place until rivets were driven.
At that time every other bolt was removed and a rivet driven until the seam was completed. Required very accurate work, but there was a margin there to work with.
These are rather generalized responses, there was more to it, a complete trade in its own right.
Thank you for your interest,
Respectfully,
Dave Griner
wasatch-rr-contractors.com