Wasatch Railroad Contractors Delegates Attend Modern Steam Technology Conference in York, England

December 11, 2006

WRC CMO Dave Griner and WRC Foreman Matt Janssen attended a one-day conference at the National Railway Museum in York. The Conference, titled, “Developments in Modern Steam Traction for Railways” was hosted by the Institute of Railway Studies and Transport History of the Universities of Birmingham, Sheffield, and York.

The conference was focused on showcasing recent research and technical advances in railway steam traction for commercial use in specific applications. The event was prompted by the completion of Dr. J.J.G. Koopmans’ new book, The Fire Burns Much Better, where he traces front-end design to its inception and concludes with a theory of his own. Other speakers discussed research, feasibility studies, and applications of modern steam technology and the political, economic, and environmental challenges steam traction faces.

The overall sentiment for the future of steam at the conference was bright. While faced with many challenges, steam continues to captivate young and old alike. Improvements to steam locomotive design will aid at increasing revenues of tourist railroads while reducing costs and improving reliability and at the same time meeting environmental concerns. These attributes are essential for steam traction to compete with other forms of educational entertainment. WRC would be pleased to answer questions and share any additional information on the conference and its attendees.

Please see additional comments and photos at our website.

Matt Janssen, Foreman
Wastach RR Contractors
http://www.wasatch-rr-contractors.com/blog/

You lucky bastards. All that and good porter and pub grub. Surprised you returned home so soon.

Is there any chance the proceedings of the conference will be published on the web?

dave

I understand they will be. I will post a link as soon as I find out. Here are some of the papers I found on individual websites:

D. Wardale, Modern Steam in England: The Design of the 5AT
http://www.5at.co.uk/Dave_Wardale%27s_York_paper.doc

M. Bane, Water Treatment for Modern Steam Locomotives
http://www.portatreatment.com/pdf/york-paper.pdf

A. Hass, Modern Steam on the Hauenstein:
http://www.modern-steam-hauenstein.ch/pdf/Full%20steam%20for%20a%20region.pdf

C. Newman, Traction Cost Comparisons for Indonesian Coal Haulage
http://www.5at.co.uk/Chris_Newman%27s_Cost_Comparison_Paper.doc
http://www.5at.co.uk/Chris_Newman%27s_York_Conference_Presentation.ppt

Also, you can find much of the material used on the presenters' respective websites.

Thanks Matt, appreciate the leads, but since we don't actually have a list of the presenters it would be difficult to know whose web sites we should research.

dave

I believe you posted such under the topic "British Tech Steam Conference" some time ago. Anyway, here is a link:
http://www.5at.co.uk/5ATnews.shtml#yorkconferencereport

Matt,
Is Waller's paper posted yet?
-Chris

I'm still trying to get through Koopman's book and Wardale's response to it - what a wonderful time for modern steam technical information overload!

Now if we can just get enough people to actually read it.......

dave

Chris,

Waller's presentation was similar to the 2002 presentation, and based on this paper:

http://www.dlm-ag.ch/prospekte/modern_steam.pdf

He is designing a new project, ""Modern Steam am Hauenstein GmbH" which is a push-pull train with a steam locomotive on one end and a cab car on the other.

He has also designed a new engine for a prop-drive paddle wheeler that was dieselized to convert it "forward" again to steam economically (using two vertically mounted rack engines mounted to a subframe driving a common shaft.) The boat would use biomass fuel.

Both of these projects were covered as speeches by their individual directors.

DLM now has 141R 568 under its care also. No word on plans for it.

Matt

Matt,
Is there a way we can get Mike Lewis to put a webpage together will all the links you have to all the different papers. I would very much like to read them and be able to send other people to a specific place to read them. Would Wasatch be willing to host this page on their site? Talk to you soon.
Greg

I've read Koopmans, and managed to allow the book to have a free round trip to La Rochelle (don't ask.....) - whats this about "Wardale's response"?

http://www.5at.co.uk/Wardale%27s_respon ... s_book.doc

dave

Thanks Dave.

Greg,

I'll do it if we don't see something official soon.

Matt

Dr. Koopmans's presentation:

http://www.thefireburnsmuchbetter.nl

I'll work on a post of all links for WRC's website.

Greg, everybody,

I have a quick fix for now, a PDF document located in our file library that contains all the links. (If your Acrobat Reader is set up right, it should open each link in your default browser.) This is a temporary fix for our website until we release some major updates to our home page in the next couple of weeks. One of these updates includes a central location for external links such as these.

The PDF file containing these links can be found at http://files.wasatch-rr-contractors.com/index.php?file=Steam_Technology_Links_01.pdf.