SLS Publications Archives Vol 3

Sales during the COVID-19 period/e-payments

The book is in stock and we are able to mail books out during this current situation; however, the cashing of cheques has become problematic. If you are able to pay using a personal PayPal account please email the Society PRO (John New) for details of how to make your payment. A permanent e-payment shop to replace this temporary measure is our current work in progress item.

Post & Packing

Our standard flat rate for P&P is £3.00 and is sufficient to mail up to two books from the list below by Royal Mail to UK addresses. For more than two titles, or for mailing to non-UK destinations, please email the Society PRO (John New) for a bespoke P&P quotation.

IINTERNAL COMBUSTION TRACTION - A compilation by R A S Hennessey

210mm x 297mm (A4), colour cover in softback. The book has 80 pages lavishly illustrated in mono. First printed 2020
ISBN 978-0-903881-09-8

Available for general sale from the SLS Journal Editor & Promotions Officer, 2A Spring Gardens, PORTLAND, Dorset DT5 1JG on receipt of a cheque or postal order payable to The Stephenson Locomotive Society. (Note E-payments may also be possible as per the COVID-19 message above) Email - Journal/PRO - John New

This book records some of the better and lesser known developments of applying internal combustion motors to railway traction. A note on what it is not: the Editor has selected from the large stock of past articles in the Journal of the Stephenson Locomotive Society [SLS] to illustrate, by examples, various stages in the long chronicle of internal combustion traction, but it is in no way a definitive or critical history as such. The large range of samples offered is, nevertheless, arranged along broad, chronological lines.

For those wishing to find a more formal chronicle there is a brief, selective bibliography at the end of the main text. The principal objective of the compilers has been to offer ‘a good read’ and, we hope, one that throws some light on a form of traction that tended, over the years, to be overshadowed in affection by the steam locomotive.

‘Internal Combustion’ has been interpreted here fairly widely. It includes, perhaps obviously, diesel power, but also petrol motors, gas turbines, even jet engines and an attempt to combine internal and ‘external’ combustion in the Soviet Teploparovoz, or the Kitson-Still locomotive.

Most of these developments took place in an era somewhat innocent of the environmental issues that loom over humanity in the early twenty-first century, although they were perceived as sound enough progress in their day.

The Stephenson Locomotive Society, founded in 1909 and sponsor of this book is still striding forth; it has been an assiduous recorder over the years of railway traction developments. Here we present from the pens and keyboards of its authors and correspondents, some of the highlights in the now venerable history of traction by internal combustion.

Editor’s Note

These extracts from the SLS Journal are presented as written by members of the SLS, with minor adjustments to standardise spelling or punctuation. In a very few cases a sentence has been adjusted for clarification. One or two short items and many captions are entirely new.

Acknowledgements

The Editor thanks the following for material assistance in compiling this work: Allan C Baker; Brian Dotson; Sylvester Damus; Mike Fell; Philip Hunt; Robert Humm; Brian Lewis; Bruce Nathan; John New; Gerry Nichols; and Edoardo Tonarelli.

£12.50 (£5 off for members) plus P&P.