LMA Handbook

For anyone who might find it useful the entire LMA handbook can be found in sections from this page:

http://www.martynbane.co.uk/tech/steam-tech.html

I hope no one cares about the copyright anymore!

Also on the above page are links to other tech documents previously available on my site.

 

Nice job chap. My copy is unfortunately on the brink of death!

 

hi. I have a hard copy of this book that actually i'm not interested. Its 1951 edition. The cover is in bad conditions, but the inner pages are fine.
If you know anyone that will appreciate it i can send it by courier
thanks

 

I'm interested if no-one else has got there first please

 

Should you get your hands on a copy, I would be interested in your opinion of any differences in the materials standard specifications given for the time and those applying today. Having a gifted copy of the 1949 edition, I have often wondered if specification changes may be the source of many problems affecting main line running and your expertise may help provide an answer.

 

actually you where the first and at the moment, unique
can you send me your email. I can send you some pics of the books conditions.

 

Fred

Material specs are material specs.In basic terms much of the material was all basic mechanical engineering materials and as such comparable materials continue to be available today. the trick is finding the correct materials as Standards and their numbers have change and as most of the changes are driven by somewhere called Europe you can guarantee that the numbers have not got less complicated. It really is just a case of knowing what was then and what is now and having the knowledge to select the right grade. Any problems which may exist are usually due to lack of knowledge leading to the wrong selection rather than any deficiency in material specs.

Regards
Bob

 

Thanks for your reply Bob which is as I thought I understood the situation. What confuses me is that some years ago I was told that copper used for fireboxes could no longer have added arsenic and consequently copper fireboxes were of a lower standard than hitherto; that point I could understand and by extension wondered if other material specifications had changed ingredients / percentages of chemicals to a point in which - for example - the metals used to build 7029 in post-war Swindon were no longer available. In that case the obvious question is whether the alternative quality is better / worse than the original.

As a postscript my interest stems from the fact that when I worked for BSC between 1964 - 1970 one of my tasks was to file the updates to metal specifications issued by the British Standards Institute and my University flatmate from 1970 was actually on a degree course at Aston undertaking research on metal interfaces with reference to specification changes. I confess that I still haven't been able to get a definitive answer to satisfy my curiosity.