As well as looking backwards at historical aspects of railways and locomotives I'm keen to look forwards and support new steam ventures in this magazine. For this reason I'm glad to be able to throw the spotlight on Ing. Porta's work and also to show some illustrations of the new locomotives designed by Roger Waller for DLM (formerly part of SLM, Winterthur), one of which, a 2-8-2T, now seems likely to be realised.

Furthermore, I'm very pleased that I can now announce the start on design work for David Wardale's ambitious advanced technology 4-6-0 - see page 6. Already two years have passed since an editorial in this magazine first prompted his outline proposal, but now that a sponsor has come forward to start the project off I hope the initiative will be taken up by others. After all, if we don't have steam for the future, who in the next generation is going to be interested in its history?

During July news arrived from David Wardale that sponsorship is now in place to finance the initial stage of this exciting project. By the time this magazine appears it is expected that work
will have commenced on the fundamental engineering design calculations needed as a precursor to production of the working drawings. The new diagrams will be necessary to enable the manufacture of components for the re-designed locomotive.

Some basic calculations had already been made and were incorporated into the Business Specification. These have already been worked through in greater detail and are being published on a new official web site for the project: www.5at.co.uk

A link will be made from the Locomotives International web site and any new developments will be reported as they occur in the magazine.