5AT Group Complete Project Feasibilty Study and start fund raising.

I believe some of the design calcs are on the website. Dust off your slide-rule and check them out.

 

The whole thing is based on documented facts - in other words it's been done somewhere else already. It's actually very conservative in terms of what it is possible to do (and has been done/is being done elsewhere) with a steam locomotive.

Anyone that wishes to argue it is not possible to achieve the stated performance should first read David Wardale's ‘Red Devil’ book (noting the massive increase in output AND efficiency he got by applying basic thermodynamics to a South African 25NC) and second should go through the calculations done for the 5AT to show the errors. Given that everything contained within the calculations is referenced in minute detail there's a lot of info to support them. Supposition and feelings about what might be possible don't cut it.

Chapelon, Porta, Wardale and plenty of others have always been told what they said they could do was impossible. I guess this'll never change but no prizes for guessing who's been right previously, time and again.

And talking of done before the idea of sanding a very small amount (and we are talking absolutely tiny amounts of sand) in front of the bogie wheels to pre-condition the railhead in poor adhesion conditions this was first done in France. Would have to look up the first loco it was applied to but a similar thing was applied to the Chapelon's legendary 4-8-0s (both the variety which were too powerful for the chassis and the 2nd batch which gave no trouble at all.)

 

As 1802 writes, it is nothing new. The 5at design incorporates features that have been developed and used elsewhere. It will not need 'Duchess like' evaporation since it will offer much improved specific steam consumption (power is given by evaporation divided by SSC). As for adhesion, there are a number of ways of improving this, rail head conditioning, high adhesion tyre profiles, driven wheels turned so that micro-slip is accounted for - there are others. The best way to view this engine is to forget all about Black/Standard class 5s or even Princess Royals. If you were to modify one of these types so that it incorporated the maximum amount of best modern design practice there would be little or nothing of the original remaining.