Books For Sale

ASTT offers a number of specialist (steam-related) books for sale to members and non-members alike. The current range of available books is listed below and will be expanded in the future.   Further information on titles (including postage prices) can be found by clicking on the blue “Find Out More” button on the right of each book entry, which will open the appropriate book’s page.

ASTT’s “in-house” titles are published by ASTT (the trust), but they are printed and sold through the auspices of Advanced Steam Traction Services Ltd (ASTS), which undertakes commercial activities on behalf of the trust, and which markets and sells books from other publishers as may be seen in the listing below.  Payments for books should therefore be made to ASTS, either through its PayPal account or by BACS transfer to ASTS’s bank Barclays bank account (please write to info@advanced-steam.org for bank details), or by posting a cheque made out to Advanced Steam Traction Services Ltd to Chris Newman at Flat 4, 2 Kimmerghame View, Edinburgh EH4 2GP, UK.

If placing an order using the PayPal button on one of the book pages, please be sure to select the appropriate postage charge from the drop-down menu.

Price discounts are offered to ASTT members as follows:  ASTT titles – 20% on retail price; other titles – 10% discount.

Note:  As a consequence of Brexit, EU residents may be required to pay customs duty on ASTT’s in-house publications that are printed in the UK.  Lightning Source (the on-demand printing service that we use) has advised that they will be opening a new printing work in France sometime soon which will overcome this problem.  However it is not yet known when this will happen.


Title: Reminiscences of a Trainspotter
Author: David Wardale. First published 2023.
Brief description: The story of Wardale's "passage through the 1960s" and his obsession with steam as it disappeared from the rails. 67 pages including black-and-white images.
Please see the book review page for further information.

£16.00 including UK postage

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

Editor: Chris Newman. First published 2022.
Brief description: a collection of articles and papers about the life and work of Livio Dante Porta. 230 pages including both colour and black-and-white images.
Please see the book review page for further information.

£27.00 including UK postage

Title: A Compendium of Articles and Papers to celebrate the Centenary of the birth of the eminent Argentinean Locomotive Engineer
Livio Dante Porta 1922 - 2003 - Volume 2

Editor: Chris Newman. First published 2023.
Brief description: a collection of articles and papers about the life and work of Livio Dante Porta. 330 pages including both colour and black-and-white images.
Please see the book review page for further information.

£27.00 including UK postage

Title: Selection of Papers – Volume 1 - Tribology and Lubrication
Author: L.D. Porta. First published 2018.

Description: This is the first of three volumes of papers by the Argentinean locomotive engineer Livio Dante Porta. For more information, please click on link at right.

£27 including postage within Europe. Additional £3 postage to countries outside Europe


Title: Selection of Papers – Volume 2 - Adhesion, Compounding and the Tornado Proposal
Author: L.D. Porta. First published in 2019.

Description: This is the second of three volumes of papers by the Argentinean locomotive engineer Livio Dante Porta. For more information, please click on the link at right.

£27 including postage within Europe. Additional £3 postage to countries outside Europe

Title: Selection of Papers – Volume 3 - Steam Locomotive Boilers, Fireboxes and Combustion
Author: L.D. Porta. First published in 2021.

Description: This is the third of three volumes of papers by the Argentinean locomotive engineer Livio Dante Porta. For more information, please click on link at right.

It is expected that this the book will be available for sale in January 2021.

anticipated price - £27 including postage within Europe. Additional £3 postage to countries outside Europe

Title: The 5AT Fundamental Design Calculations
Author: David Wardale BSc. Mech. Eng.
Edited By: Chris Newman
Publisher: The Advanced Steam Traction Trust

Description: - click on link at right for details.

From £49.00 including UK postage.
Title: Steam Locomotive Design Specifications and Calculations for New Build Baldwin 2-4-2T 'LYN'
Author: Ian Gaylor.

Description: This 604 page volume provides the complete design documentation used to build the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway's new 2-4-2T locomotive No. 762 "Lyn". The locomotive is built to the outline of the original Ballwin design, but incorporates a number of "modern steam" improvements.
The publication is intended to enable future engineers to understand the design rationale and to provide an overview of an approach to locomotive design in the 21st century in which computer modeling augments traditional methods and facilitates design optimisation.
See the book review page for further details and ordering information.

£52.00 including postage within UK (extra outside UK).

Title: The 5AT Project Feasibility Study
Edited By: Alan Fozard BSc, PhD, CChem, FRSC
Publisher: The Advanced Steam Traction Trust

Description: - Feasibility Study regarding the formation of a Steam Locomotive Development Company to produce advanced technology Second Generation Steam (SGS) Locomotives. Undertaken and compiled by the 5AT Group 2001 - 2010.

£35.00 incuding UK postage.
Title: The Red Devil and Other Tales from the Age of Steam
Author: David Wardale

Description: - An established classic that should be compulsary reading for anyone interested in the development of steam traction. See The Red Devil book review page.

It is regretted that this book is currently out of print.
Title: A Defence of the Midlands/LMS Class 4 0-6-0
Author: Adrian Tester
Publisher: Crimson Lake

Description: - click on link at right for details.

£28.95 including UK postage
An Introduction to Large-Lap Valves & Their Use on the LMS Author Adrian TesterTitle: An Introduction to Large-Lap Valves & Their Use on the LMS
Author: Adrian Tester
Publisher: Crimson Lake

Description: - click on link at right for details.

£19.95 including UK postage



Title: Here be Dragons
Author: Phil Girdlestone.

Description: This is more an "autotechnography" than autobiography in that it reveals almost nothing about the author himself. It focusses almost entirely on his professional career as a locomotive engineer which began in the late 1970s on the Festiniog Railway in Wales, took him to Sudan in the 1980s, and at the end of that decade to South Africa where he settled near Durban. See the book review page for further details and ordering information.

£37.90 including UK postage

Title: The fire burns much better ....
Author: Dr. J.J. Koopmans.
Description: This is the updated version of Dr Koopmans' 2004 thesis in which he traced the history of the development of locomotive exhaust systems since the beginnings of steam traction. Please see the book review page for further information.

£29.95 including UK postage

Title: Advanced Steam Locomotive Development
Author: L.D. Porta.

Description: This 2006 publication contains three papers by the famous Argentinean locomotive engineer Livio Dante Porta. For more information, please see book review page for further details.

£11.95 including UK postage