CSR is pleased to announce that Alejandro Dante Porta, the youngest son of Ing. Livio Dante Porta, and Wolfgang Fengler have been appointed to its Advisory Committee. Their inclusion and in-depth support of CSR will help further the organization's technical goals.
Alejandro Porta traveled the world with his father, Ing. L.D. Porta, who did more to advance the application of modern steam thermodynamics to the steam locomotive than perhaps any other engineering practitioner in the Twentieth Century. Working closely with friend and L.D. Porta protege Ing. Shaun T. McMahon, CSR's Director of Engineering, Alejandro is excited to develop a close cooperation between CSR and the Porta Family Foundation Archives, a collection of technical papers and research created by Porta over his 60 year career. An example of the collaboration between the Porta Family Foundation and CSR is evidenced in the publishing of never-before-digitized "Case of the Better American Steam Locomotive," written by his father at the height of the Arab Oil Embargo. The collaboration between the two entities will also facilitate a preservation and promulgation of research that has yet-to-be released, allowing CSR engineers access to real world test results from the Red Devil, Rio Turbio Railway, FCAF [above right] and other railroads that have employed steam locomotive modernizations successfully.
Wolfgang Fengler is no stranger to the world of large Santa Fe steam locomotives and modern steam locomotive mechanical engineering. He is currently assisting, on one level or another, the overhaul of A.T.&S.F. locomotives 5000 and 2926, and has served on the board of the San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society, owners of A.T.&S.F. 3751. Having corresponded extensively with Ing. L.D. Porta and Ing. D. Wardale, as well as having applied and tested modifications to both scale model steam locomotives and 3751 (e.g. high tech, low resistance coatings on one main crosshead pin), Wolf is excited to be a part of the Coalition. In specific, his expertise in computer modeling and thermodynamics will be of great help as the engineering phase of Project 130 begins in earnest in 2013.