I recall Kelly from Strasburg RR who posts here from time to time mentioned that the gods of steam were assembling a new CD of thousands of scanned "historic" steam repair specifications from dozens of class 1 railroads for reference use. Any updates, or when we might expect to see the final product?

The gods of steam along with other diligent mortals have indeed assembled an impressive collection of railroad standards and practices. Unfortunately, since the gods of steam are really only mortals, they are subject to the same impediments as everyone else. In this case we have the NSTTI and the IGSTPOE impediments.

The first is "not sufficient time to index" the collection. This will (hopefully) be addressed over the next few months.

The second is the "I'm gonna sue the pants off everyone" impediment. Because this document is an unedited collection of old standards, there will be any number of references to things that you really don't want to do under any circumstances. Due to the glacial pace of Darwinian selection there is the very real possibility that someone will read this thing and proceed to do something incredibly stupid. Hence this must be dealt with to the satisfaction of the gods of law who seem to be the supreme beings in the food chain.

We do not know how this product will be distributed or financed. The people involved have no budgetary reserve and must function within the restrictions of their own wallets or the largess of their employers but rest assured we very much want to get this in circulation as quickly as possible. Until that time any member of the Engineering Standards Committee or NBIC Subgroup for Steam Locomotives is available to try to answer any technical questions that anyone may have.


linnwm@supernet.com

I'm willing to donate hosting, domain registration, bandwidth and anything else required if you want to put this up as a website.

> The first is "not sufficient time to
> index" the collection. This will
> (hopefully) be addressed over the next few
> months.

A variety of ways exist to index and make this searchable if it were in the form of a website. None are particularly difficult.

> The second is the "I'm gonna sue the
> pants off everyone" impediment. Because
> this document is an unedited collection of
> old standards, there will be any number of
> references to things that you really don't
> want to do under any circumstances. Due to
> the glacial pace of Darwinian selection
> there is the very real possibility that
> someone will read this thing and proceed to
> do something incredibly stupid. Hence this
> must be dealt with to the satisfaction of
> the gods of law who seem to be the supreme
> beings in the food chain.

If you can resolve the legal issues (some spectacularly worded disclaimers might be in order. I will be happy to donate services, time, effort and so forth to get this up on the web. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

> We do not know how this product will be
> distributed or financed. The people involved
> have no budgetary reserve and must function
> within the restrictions of their own wallets
> or the largess of their employers but rest
> assured we very much want to get this in
> circulation as quickly as possible. Until
> that time any member of the Engineering
> Standards Committee or NBIC Subgroup for
> Steam Locomotives is available to try to
> answer any technical questions that anyone
> may have.


http://www.steamlocomotive.info
dougb@sunserver.com

To add one more tidbit to the points Linn made above, in asking for your patience, be aware that the document is presently 5700+ pages and still growing. It is so large that Windows Explorer can't hold it all in one file.

kelly@strasburgrailroad.com

> The gods of steam along with other diligent
> mortals have indeed assembled an impressive
> collection of railroad standards and
> practices. Unfortunately, since the gods of
> steam are really only mortals, they are
> subject to the same impediments as everyone
> else. In this case we have the NSTTI and the
> IGSTPOE impediments.

> The first is "not sufficient time to
> index" the collection. This will
> (hopefully) be addressed over the next few
> months.

> The second is the "I'm gonna sue the
> pants off everyone" impediment. Because
> this document is an unedited collection of
> old standards, there will be any number of
> references to things that you really don't
> want to do under any circumstances. Due to
> the glacial pace of Darwinian selection
> there is the very real possibility that
> someone will read this thing and proceed to
> do something incredibly stupid. Hence this
> must be dealt with to the satisfaction of
> the gods of law who seem to be the supreme
> beings in the food chain.

> We do not know how this product will be
> distributed or financed. The people involved
> have no budgetary reserve and must function
> within the restrictions of their own wallets
> or the largess of their employers but rest
> assured we very much want to get this in
> circulation as quickly as possible. Until
> that time any member of the Engineering
> Standards Committee or NBIC Subgroup for
> Steam Locomotives is available to try to
> answer any technical questions that anyone
> may have.

The phrase "Darwinian selection" is scary.

Is there an American Society of Mechanical Enginers Boiler and Pressure Vessel Committee approval role in certifying the results of this effort?

Is it an intended outcome that ASME incorporate additional mandatory appendices to the ASME Boiler Code to define "new" allowable practices which are not presently part of the Code?

R. Bruce Manwiller, P.E.
Member, ASME

bruceman@stargate.net