CSR has invested significant time and effort into creation of its "White Paper Program" with the intent of providing substantial bodies of information about the history, principles and viability of modern steam technology, advanced biofuel research and the union thereof to the general public. As 2014 begins, CSR is venturing into completion of its most in-depth white paper series yet - a detailed history of the "Development of Modern Steam." This series will focus on the history and technological developments undertaken in Europe, South America, Africa and North America.
This first paper, "André Chapelon and his Steam Locomotives" focuses on the predecessor mechanical engineers of modern steam locomotives, primarily the French locomotive designer André Chapelon. The application of fluid and thermodynamics to the steam locomotive was most successfully undertaken by Chapelon on the Paris Orleans Railway and, once nationalized, the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF). His understanding of the "steam circuit," the utilization of advanced front end exhausts paired with large steam passages and his successful utilization of "compounding," that is using steam more than once, were as successful in theory as they were in practice.