5AT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Vehicle Acceptance Engineer
Bob Bramson is a Vehicle Acceptance Engineer for steam traction and is a Principal Consultant at Lloyd's Register Rail. He has been involved with the examination and certification of many of the preserved locomotives that run on Network Rail including the new A1 Pacific "Tornado." He currently advises the 5AT Group on acceptance matters for future operation on Network Rail.
With the passing of "Peak Oil," Bob believes that society urgently requires to innovate sustainable rail transportation for the future and that modern steam traction could bridge the gap, particularly in develping countries, whilst new forms of realistic energy technology is being developed.
Job Titles:
- Design Draughtsman and Designer
Brian Gregson began his career as a design draughtsman and designer in 1947 when he began a five year apprenticeship as a fitter and turner with British Railways in Darlington and Stratford. From 1954 to 56 he worked as a draughtsman working on design modifications to steam locos at BR's Doncaster Design Office. After leaving the railways, he worked in the motor and aircraft industries in the UK, USA and Australia. He retired in 1987 but remains interested in steam locomotive development.
Brian has come up with a number of articles and design ideas, including:
A discussion on the LNER W1 "Hush Hush" and Water Tube Boilers ;
Job Titles:
- Electronic Communications Specialist
Brian McCammon: a electronic communications specialist who in retirement has become expert in environmental matters.
Brian has written several reports and papers for the 5AT project relating to fuels and emissions. One titled "Carbon Neutral Fuels" is available for download from this site. Brian also "guest edited" the NZ Solar Action Group's Oct 2009 Bulletin No 88 which featured papers by Jamie Keyte and Chris Newman.
Brian lives in Dunedin, New Zealand.
Job Titles:
- Webmaster of This Website, Who May Be Contacted
David is a retired career railwayman who spent a lifetime working in the operating and commercial areas of the railway - latterly at senior officer level. As the director of the Special Trains Unit of BR during the years 1986-94 he had responsibility for all special passenger trains over the national network from the Royal Train to football specials and including all steam locomotive operations.
Following his retirement, David has been very active in heritage and steam railway matters being the current Chairman of the Settle and Carlisle Railway Trust, a board member of the Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust and a retired Chairman of the Bressingham Steam Museum.
David has assisted the 5AT Group by giving us access to his unique expertise in running special trains. This has enabled the Group to build up a picture of the key operational and economic factors required for successful running of excursion and cruise trains on the main line.
After graduating in Switzerland, Roger Waller was employed by the Swiss Locomotive Machine Works (SLM) at Winterthur. In 1982 he joined the South African Railways and worked as an assistant to Wardale during the latter stages of the tuning-up and testing work on The Red Devil. He returned to SLM in 1984 and was responsible for the development of the all-new Class H2/3 rack locomotives, eight of which had been built in 1992 and 1996 and are since in service in Switzerland (on the Brienz-Rothorn Bahn) and in Austria (on the Schafberg railway). These engines embody a number of advanced features, including light oil firing giving very low exhaust emissions and allowing one-man operation on the steep 1 in 4 mountain railways on which the locomotives are used. By comparison with the previous 1933 design, the new locomotives are 25% lighter and develop 36% more power, this resulting in 61% less fuel being consumed per passenger trip, with a top speed 56% higher. They are thus operationally equivalent to diesel locomotives yet retain the commercially important appeal of steam traction. These are probably the only steam locomotives worldwide that are relegating diesel to spare power.
Job Titles:
- Project Co - Ordinator for the 5AT Project
- Retired Director
Dr Alan Fozard (PhD in organic chemistry): retired director of two on-line industrial process control/laboratory automation companies.
Alan Fozard has acted as project co-ordinator for the 5AT Project since its inception in 2001.
Alan has led the Project Planning team and its Commercial Planning Group. He was responsible for coordinating the preparation of the project Feasibility Study and its 16 appendixes.
Alan lives in England.
Job Titles:
- Retired Group Research Director
Dr David Pawson, a retired Group Research Director from a large multinational company and a student of steam locomotive performance, has published a number of papers in which he has made detailed comparisons between test data from the old Rugby and Swindon (steam) locomotive testing plants, and performance predictions from Professor Bill Hall's Perform and Perwal software packages.
Dr. David Smith (PhD in mechanical engineering, 2003 Imperial College, London); David gave invaluable assistance at the beginning of the project by searching the Imperial College libraries for papers and casebooks that Wardale needed to undertake the FDCs, and preparing preliminary designs and drawings of critical components such as the 5AT piston and valves.
David had to suspend his involvement with the project because of increased work and family commitments, however we hope that he will find time to offer further assistance in the future.
David works for Doosan Babcock (a major international company specialising in coal-fired power plants) and is also a volunteer and regular attender at the Bluebell Railway workshops.
David lives in England.
Ian Gaylor is a consultant design engineer with a lifetime of experience in both mechanical engineering design and steam locomotive operation. One-time Head of Mechanical Engineering at Cranfield Institute of Technology's Product Engineering Centre, Ian now runs his own engineering consulting practice "Steam Loco Design" specialising in steam locomotives and railway rolling-stock.- see http://www.steam-loco-design.co.uk. He is also a Senior Associate with a leading European technology and management consultancy.
Ian has more than forty years experience (at of 2010) of working as a volunteer engineman on many lines including the Festiniog, West Somerset, Leighton Buzzard and Bure Valley Railways. Over the years he has been involved in many locomotive restoration projects, volunteering his engineering design expertise and skills as a fitter. He also has extensive experience of training footplate staff and has produced training materials which are in use at several lines.
In 2009, Ian was appointed Design Engineer for the ‘Lyn' project for the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway which aims to create a locomotive with a 19 th century outline incorporating 21 st century technology using the principles developed by L.D. Porta - see http://www.762club.com/762home.php.
In 2006, Steam Railway Magazine published a two-part article written by Ian Gaylor which described some of his work modernizing locomotives on the Bure Valley Railway. The combined article is is reproduced in unabridged form on Ian's website at http://www.steam-loco-design.co.uk/pages/zb_article.html.
Job Titles:
- Engineering Manager of the Kirklees Light Railway
Ian Screeton is the Engineering Manager of the Kirklees Light Railway who has masterminded the upgrading of the entire KLR locomotive fleet to incorporate "modern steam" features such as GPSC fireboxes, improved Lempor-based exhausts, roller bearings, steam sanding and Porta water treatment. Modification of the locomotives is an ongoing task that Ian undertakes as time and loco availability allow him.
The KLR currently runs four locomotives two of which (Badger and Fox) are pictured below. Ian describes the improvements that he has made to locomotive fleet in a report titled "Modifications to improve the reliability and operability of steam locomotives on the Kirklees Light Railway".
Jamie Keyte comes from the south of England. From the age of 14 he was an active volunteer on the Mid-Hants Railway (the Watercress Line), eventually becoming Third Man on a footplate crew.
After a year's work experience with BREL Ltd (formerly British Railways Engineering Limited) in Derby, Jamie completed a Mechanical Engineering Degree at the University of Southampton. He then entered full time employment as a Structures Engineer at Derby with (then) ABB Transportation Ltd, later Adtranz and then Bombardier. This mainly involved work on the repair of collision damaged rail vehicles. After five years he moved to the post of Power Equipment Engineer.
In 2002 Jamie moved to a small company specialising in bespoke hydraulic and pneumatic power systems, including supply to the rail industry. Around this time he became involved with the 5AT group, offering his knowledge of CAD, structures engineering and the UK rail approvals process.
Job Titles:
- Ex BR Locomotive Engineer
John started his engineering apprenticeship at Gorton in the days of steam and also worked for a short time at Doncaster (including on the original A1s).
In addition to his many years experience in various areas of the UK, John has direct experience of steam loco maintenance in Canada (Canadian Pacific), Egypt (during his National Service), and Africa. He also had experience of steam in Australia.
John therefore brings to the project a wealth of knowledge about steam locomotives together with very wide operating and maintenance experience.
John lives in Carlisle, England
John is a Chartered Engineer and member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He is a project management and project-planning specialist, with over 20 years of experience in the Power Generation and Automobile industries.
In the 70's John was part of the GWS team that rescued ex GWR 2-6-2 5572 from Barry scrap yard. He is currently one of the shareholders in sister-engine 5542 and was involved in the manufacture of new parts for its restoration.
Job Titles:
- General Manager of the Rio Turbio Railway
- Ing.
- Ingeniero
Ing. Livio Dante Porta was the inspirational force behind the 5AT Project and spearheaded most other steam locomotive developments in the latter half of the 20th Century.
Job Titles:
- Mechanical Engineer
- Member of the NSW Rail Transport Museum
Malcolm Cluett: a mechanical engineer, who once worked on the Hamersley Iron Railway in Western Australia at the time Pendennis Castle was operating there.
Malcolm is an active member of the NSW Rail Transport Museum and currently involved in the restoration of the NSW Garratt Locomotive No 6029.
Malcolm lives in Como, Sydney, Australia.
Job Titles:
- Member of the 6024 Preservation Society
Martyn Bane was one of the original members of the 5AT planning team, participating in many of the early meetings and attending the Brienz conference in 2003 as part of the 5AT delegation.
He left in 2006 to concentrate on bringing Porta Water Treatment to greater prominence around the world.
Martyn is also a member of the 6024 Preservation Society's engineering team and a regular contributor to its journals. He travels regularly to visit steam railways around the world, and runs an encyclopaedic website on Modern Steam at www.martynbane.co.uk.
Mike Horne trained as an aircraft electronics fitter at RAF Halton and worked on aircraft for 12 years. He then worked for a multi national company in the office equipment industry until retiring from his position as European Technical Services Manager.
He is currently involved with voluntary work on the railway at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester (see photo at right).
Mike assists Alan Fozard with the commercial planning for the project and also takes part in engineering planning meetings.
Mike lives in the UK.
Nigel Day spent many years working on the Snowdon Mountain Railway (SMR), where (at the time) motive power staff had responsibility for all aspects of operating and maintaining their locomotives. He first started to modify one of the line's 0-4-2 rack tanks, No.7 Ralph, in 1986. This being successful all the SMR's operational steam locomotives were fitted with improved exhausts (Lempors) and other modifications in accordance with his designs.
He subsequently carried out important work on oil firing systems, SMR locomotive No. 4 "Snowdon" being fitted with his own design of oil burner for burning gas oil. Whereas previous attempts to oil-fire SMR locomotives had failed, No. 4 became an excellent performer giving fuel savings of 25-30% compared to the coal fired engines.
In parallel with his work on the SMR, Day went into business with Shaun McMahon forming 'Day-McMahon Steam Technical Services'. This partnership was responsible for the first stages of development on the SMR oil firing system. In addition the partnership specialised in redraughting locomotives beginning with the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway (WLLR) in Wales which has now fitted all its locomotives with Lempor exhausts which are hidden within the outline of the original chimney. Typically the WLLR locomotives achieved a reduction in coal consumption of 10% with a 16% increase in power with no change to their external appearance.
When McMahon departed for South Africa in 1994, Day formed 'Modern Steam Technical Railway Services' through which he has undertaken redraughting work on railways across the world including: the Ffestiniog Railway in Wales; the Isle of Man Steam Railway; and the Puffing Billy Railway in Victoria, Australia.
Job Titles:
- Editor and Proprietor of Locomotives International
Paul Catchpole is the editor and proprietor of Locomotives International, a quarterly magazine focussing on obscure and often ancient railways outside the UK.
Robin describes himself as follows:
"Brought up in the mid and late 1940s with a busy main line railway at one hand and a steeply graded colliery line on the other, both exclusively operated by steam locomotives, I could not but become enthused. Later years saw interests broaden, leading to a varied career which included over fifteen years in civil aviation (the word 'security' then unheard of - innocent days) and in the museum service (including the role of Custodian of the Lauriston Castle Museum near Edinburgh). Other interests include a fascination with modern European history (post-1800), and of course railway history, especially in the development of the locomotive. This led to facing the challenge of interpreting in perspective working drawings of unfulfilled designs and now, in a very particular challenge, in the 5AT project. The illustrations for this were prepared under the close supervision of David Wardale, who absolutely correctly was concerned that what was produced reflected exactly his thinking. I have greatly enjoyed this, and also the fact that although today it is a simple matter to produce such images electronically, many people have told me they prefer the 'richness and depth' that paint, applied to brush to paper in the traditional manner, brings to them."
Robin fails to mention is that he has authored several fascinating books on some of the more obscure aspects of railway history, including the following which are both highly recommended if they can be procured:
Broader Than Broad: Hitler's Great Dream Three Metre Gauge Rails Across Europe published by Locomotives International in 1996/7 ISBN 1-900340-07-0;
Locomotives that Never Were, published in 1985 by Jane's ISBN 0 7106 0326 6 and with a foreword by E.S. Cox.
Job Titles:
- Officer in Charge of the Aerodynamics Laboratory
Terry G Flynn is officer in charge of the Aerodynamics Laboratory in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering University of New South Wales Sydney Australia.
Terry kindly made arrangements for an undergraduate engineering student, Matthew Turner, to undertake a thesis project to assess the smoke lifting capabilities of the 5AT's front-end arrangement.
Tex Pickthall is a 33 year-old (as at 2010) professional engineer with a first class MEng in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Sheffield. His career has spanned Automotive Quality and Project Management; Materials Processing; Industrial Market Research and Higher Education. He currently works as a Lecturer and Technical Author for the Agricultural Engineering Department at Harper Adams University College.