A Compendium of Articles and Papers to celebrate the Centenary of the birth of the eminent Argentinian Locomotive Engineer Livio Dante Porta 1922 - 2003 Volume 1

The Argentinian engineer Livio Dante Porta (1922 – 2003) remains an unsung hero in the long history of steam locomotive development.  Following in the footsteps of Chapelon, he rebuilt numerous locomotives in Argentina and elsewhere, and designed several revolutionary locomotives, both large and small.  Like Chapelon, none of his designs were built and most of his rebuilds have been lost to scrap.  He has however left a rich legacy in the form of over two hundred technical papers covering a wide range of subjects and written in at least three languages, the majority in English.  A few of his papers were published in conference proceedings; some were typed, but the majority were left as hand-written manuscripts.  Many were written for specific purposes such as “Application of the Gas Producer Combustion System to the 141R” and “On the Hudson-Orrok Heat Transfer Equation” which were written to guide David Wardale in his South African or his China endeavours.  Others would have been written for the purpose of guiding present and future engineers and designers towards the further development of steam locomotive engineering.

Chris Newman has transcribed over 40 of Porta’s English-language papers which have been published in three volumes by the Advanced Steam Traction Trust.  Further volumes of his papers are planned.

This Compendium, however, takes the form of a collection of articles and papers, not by Porta but by other writers, about the life and work of this great man.  These have been assembled by Chris Newman to celebrate the centenary of Porta’s birth which falls in 2022.  It is hoped that it does him justice.

Time and space limitations have necessitated the publication of this Compendium in two volumes.  This first volume, was released shortly before Porta’s 100th birthday on 21st March 2022.  It covers the first part of his career from 1947 to the end of his work on the Rio Turbio railway towards the end of the 1970s. The second volume covers the work that he undertook elsewhere in Argentina and in other countries.  

1. The book contains 230 A4 pages and is split up into three sections: 
2. Introduction chapters including Porta’s bibliography. his CV and a biography.
3. Early days covering the period from c.1947 to c.1960 – six chapters describing his early projects in Argentina.
4. Rio Turbio describing his work on the Rio Turbio Railway in Patagonia in the 1960s.

It includes numerous black and white and colour images.

Publisher - Advanced Steam Traction Services Ltd

Author(s) - Chris J Newman | Martyn Bane

Paperback

Published Date - February 15 2022

ISBN - 9781645169963

Dimensions - 29.7 x 21 x 1.3 cm

Page Count - 230