I must take this opportunity recommend the Wardale book, and also to recommend the use of a magnifier. I had to read the whole 700 pages through the little flip-up microscope I brought back from the model-engineers' show downriver. I would love to shove a SAR valve body down whatever lamebrain set that book in 7-pt sanserif type. I don't know why railroad publishers have such awful book design.

Whew. I feel better now.

I'd also love to hear what Mr. Rowland thought of Wardale's chapters on the evolution of the various ACE locomotive designs, but I'll understand if I don't. The author had, shall we say, strong opinions on the issue that must be at variance with the managers of that enterprise.

Great stuff anyway, and it makes me wish for hopeful news on the preservation of the Porta streamliner in Argentina.

Regarding the original question, popping the pistons out of C&O 614 is a piece of cake compared with most other super-power engines with tapered fits of the piston rod into the crosshead. The 614 has a lightweight bolt-together crosshead that grips annular grooves on the rod. All other engines require replacement of the wristpin with a hydraulic ram to wedge the taper apart. We were lucky in that the one piece of steam equipment squirreled away and saved by the C&O shopmen at Wyoming was this ram and pump. They gave it to us, and we used it on PM 1225. It operates at about 4 quadzillion lbs. pressure. We had to replace a pipe fitting on it, and the pipe looked like a solid cylinder with a barely-visible hole through it.

Somewhere in my treasures is a copy of Wardales book. I've skimmed it in years past but can't say that I've really read it nor will I ever probably.
My impression of Mr. Wardale was that he was far more concerned about people considering him Dante Portas equal than anything else.
I and the other decision makers on the ACE project decided early on that there was one genius in the field of modern steam loco. design and his name was Dante Porta! Perhaps that will help put Wardales writings in context?
Enough said!
Ross Rowland

32 a barrel eh? Oh boy to have that now! :-)
Almost would be worth 5 dollar a gallon gas
to see some steam development.

As someone who had not one, but TWO copies of Wardale's "The Red Devil" (misplaced the first one, lost the second to a car break-in, and would dearly LOVE to borrow or buy a used copy from someone cheap someday when I have enough time to READ the damned thing all the way), I might want to place some of Rowland's commentary in context:

Wardale's recollections in his book of the American Coal Enterprises efforts of 1984-1985, and particularly the January 1985 614-T runs on the Chessie/C&O, painted their efforts in a considerably unflattering light/shade. I'll leave it to other readers to discuss particulars because I only managed to read the relevant passages once or twice and don't have access to it now, but basically Wardale came away from the ACE experience with quite considerable differences of opinion with Rowland and others, and there was probably more than a little personality clash in effect as well. If I actuall typed out the most specific accusations of the ACE chapter (which I actually did but then deleted), I might be accused of secondhand character assassination or "flaming".

I was left with the feeling that Wardale had vastly different expectations from the 614-T exercise than the reality he got; whether that is because Wardale had some some semi-delusional fantasies (and based on much else in the book, one could also say that, from an engineering standpoint) or ACE made unrealistic or phony promises to Wardale and others is a matter that I would just as soon leave to Rowland and Wardale to settle in a libel suit or some back alley or something.

Just keep that in mind when weighing Rowland's responses. And please, Mr. Rowland, unless we somehow scare up Mr. Wardale to balance your viewpoint, let's not get into any flame war here. Correct me if I have my facts wrong, but I tried to put this up as neutrally as possible.

(Hmmm, Mr. Rowland, if you really don't think you'll ever read that book all the way through, how about I arrange a donation of your copy to the Maryland Rail Heritage Library? <;-) )

As the person soley responsible for setting up and overseeing the ACE 1985 test program I can tell you that its primary mission was to act as an educational platform for the engineering team from the Foster Wheeler Corp. and in that regard it accomplished its mission in spades.
Dante Porta asked that we add Wardale to the team and we did so out of respect for him. His tenure with us was short lived, and his departure was as the result of a decision jointly made by the President of ACE, Bill Benson and Mr. Porta.
What his(Wardales) expectations were of the W.Va. program I have no idea. As I said earlier the ACE team made an early and firm decision that Dante Porta would be the resident genius and that one genius was enough.
The above are the facts. Mr. Wardale is of course entitled to his opinions and if he's that smart maybe he'll be the one to lead the way back to coal as the rr's energy source??
Ross Rowland

Unfortunately, Wardale in his book (and again, working off of memory) backed some of his allegations or impressions with other statements of "facts" that might contradict yours. And unfortunately for both sides, the evidence provided did lend itself to fairly easy "buck-passing"--for example, blaming some of the circumstances on that "coldest month in over 100 years".

Railfan & Railroad Magazine, for example, documented one "test run" where, as I recall, only one data line and the video camera recorder were running, with Porta sitting there watching. This happens to back up one of Wardale's postulations in his book.

Only the representatives from Foster Wheeler, Chessie, et al would really be able to confirm the relative worth of the entire project and the 1985 test runs. Unfortunately, the evidence seems to speak against ACE and/or steam in general for whatever reasons--and the proof of that is that we're still not seeing locomotives loading up their fuel bunkers as they roll under the Powder River mine loadouts with their unit trains, in spite of the spike in oil prices. Of course, we will always have those blaming the "internal-combustion-industrial complex" conspiracy, just like the GM/National City Lines/bus "conspiracy".

Hello All,

Very early this morning I had written a reply and lost the bloody thing before it posted.

There has been some interesting dialogue through the course of the day. I was attempting to respond to Mr. Stephenson’s lead into the description of the 1985 ACE tests. Mr. Mitchell's comments were correct that Wardale's comments on the test conditions were pretty strong.

We all have quarks in personalities, but if you peal away our differences, we all have the same goal. The positive spirit that was in Livio Dante Porta was noted many times in Wardale's book and was demonstrated in the many letters that he wrote to David during the 3450 redevelopment and testing. Porta could not be in South Africa but he had the enthusiasm to help with the cause.

Since we in this field are few, we many times become quite opinionated since we want so much for the cause not to die. Perhaps disagreement is good, it forces us to think through and reinforce our approach!

In studying steam propulsion for years, following the ACE project and after reading David Wardale's book, there appears to be two schools of thought emerging. First, David made no secret about is love for the classic reciprocating steam locomotive as ultimately displayed in the 614, 3450 and many of their sisters globally. Even with the advances made on the SAR 3450, without closed loop condensing, pressure limitations and other limits of the classic design, you will only get so far in thermal efficiency. Even moving to condensing (if practical) starts to move the classic steam locomotive away from its appeal. Exhausting steam....stack talk, etc. There may be merit in freezing the concept, make it durable and maintenance free as you can but keep the good parts…the features that make the classic steam locomotive seem “alive”.

A second school of thought is the direction ACE was heading. Its conceptual design dramatically departed from the look of a classic steam locomotive so there could be some remote chance that an engineer could step out of a GE diesel cab and step into the ACE 3000 cab and have the same feel, controls and maybe to some degree, drivability. I don't think David wanted to go there. His core desire is to refine the classic design. This is now evident in his deep design involvement with the 5AT project in the UK (see the web at www.5at.co.uk) I hope they can get it built.

Now for some creative speculation - If you take the second school to the extreme, you may ultimately have a locomotive that looks exactly like the modern diesel locomotive of today but with one difference, the diesel prime mover is replaced with a self contained, positive displacement steam engine…..not a turbine. Keep in mind, modern electrical switch gear and controls have been extremely refined since steam has been sidelined. If you swap power modules, the conversion is not near as dramatic. Taking advantage of modern switch gear, generators, traction motors, PLC’s, etc. could save a bundle in development cost. It would be a matter of how you control the steam engine power output in an existing locomotive driveline. If you look at steam tables, you can quickly reach some astounding pressures with relatively moderate temperatures. This bolster’s my firm belief that fundamentally, steam propulsion may be able to produce power densities far beyond what is possible with spark ignition or compression ignition engines (diesels). With extreme steam pressures, you also get better thermal efficiency. Central station power plants are proof of that. The challenge is to reduce the engine package size and make it mobile. The big challenge?....lubrication. Ross touched on that challenge with the 614’s superheat temperatures and broken piston rings. There has been some recent development of a dry friction product which is claimed to withstand and operate in extreme steam pressure environments and be durable. I am waiting to see if it gets past the conceptual stage. Steam propulsion launched the Industrial Revolution, perhaps it could still make a major impact, but in a totally different form.

I am sure with the above speculation, many of you are thinking this concept is heresy. But if you take steam propulsion to its theoretical limits you have entered another world. Classic design and layout are out the window. For me, I like and thoroughly enjoy both schools of thought. There is a place for both.

Regards,

Randy Musselman

I'd say that Brother Mitchell's point is well taken. Our freinds here will have to make an intellectual choice. Either believing that my statements of "fact" on the whole Wardale issue (as the guy who was paying the bills,was responsible to the partners(( CSX,Foster Wheeler)) etc.) or that the allegations and grumblings of a disgruntled ex-employee supported tangently by reporting in a fan magazine carry the day.
The collapse in the world price of crude oil was the death knell of the project as it removed the sense of urgency/vulnerability which were the driving forces behind the interest on the part of CSX(and BN earlier). It's important to remember that the CEO's of Fortune 500 companies are in large part judged on what's the price of their common stock and thus what will next quarters earnings be. The ACE project was asking them to risk $50 million to be build a prototype(no gauruntees) and that even if the prototype was a great success it would be at least 6 years down the road before it was clearly evident that we did or didn't have a winner. Then add another 5 years to get into production and you're clearly way past the tenure of the CEO you're asking to say yes to the risk capital. Unfortunatly in the USA it's a formula that doesn't fly. To butress this reality is the fact that of the remaining Class1's only the BNSF has a R&D dep't. and it's tiny. The others spend ZERO on R&D!!! Need I say more?
Ross Rowland