Chris NewmanLivio Dante Porta (1922 - 2003) was an Argentinean engineer, famed for his indefatigable advocacy for the steam locomotive. He graduated in civil engineering in 1946 and within 3 years had masterminded the rebuilding of a metre gauge Pacific locomotie into a highly sophisticated compound 4-8-0 at the behest of the Peron government. The locomotive equalled the world record for steam locomotive thermal efficiency that had been achieved by Chapelon's famed 240P locomotives. Porta went on to develop countless innovations aimed at improving the efficiency, reliability and performance of steam locomotive, famously taking over as General Manager of the 750mm gauge 225 km long Rio Turbio coal railway where his improvements to the railway's fleet of diminutive 2-10-2s achieved haulage feats that can claim to be unbeaten by steam on most standard gauge railways of the world. Most famously, he developed the Gas Produce Combustion System that served to dramatically reduce fuel loss through the chimney. Around 1970, Porta left Rio Turbio to take up the post of Head of Thermodynamics at the Argentinean National Institute of Technology (INTI) in Buenos Aires. In that role he undertook numerous locomotive developments, including suburban tank engines in Buenos Aires that outperformed new diesel multiple sets then being introduced. He developed an improved loc exhaust system (The Lempor), and effectively reduced boiler maintenance to a near-zero level by developing a new internal water treatment system. In the 1970s he provided immense assistance and guidance to David Wardale in his South African and Chinese endeavours as detailed in Wardale's book The Red Devil and Other Tales from the Age of Steam. In the early 1980s he was engaged (with Wardale) by the American Coal Enterprises (ACE) consortium that had been set up to develop a new generation of steam locomotives to operate on US coal at a time when oil prices were sky-rocketing. When that enterprise collapsed c.1984, Porta moved to Cuba where he began a series of improvements to the ancient fleet of locomotives that operated the sugar traffic. He also produced a brand new design of locomotive that would have burned bagasse as its fuel. His work ended with the death of the Cuban transport minister and consequent change of policy. Porta retired around 1990 but maintained an interest in steam until his death in 2003, amongst other things acting as a consultant adviser to the FCAF, the End of the World tourist railway that operates out of Ushuaia at the southern-most tip of Argentina. Read More Read Less