Chris Newman: retired civil engineer, born and educated in the UK; worked 20 years in the grain storage, handling and transportation industry in Australia before moving to China in 1991 to work as a consulting engineer on grain infrastructure projects in that country.  He subsequently ran his own small engineering business in China.

Chris was one of the first people to become involved in the 5AT project which he joined in late 2001 after reading Wardale's book "The Red Devil and Other Tales from the Age of Steam" and meeting the author in Scotland.  Chris was responsible for setting up the project website and for the development of the new (2010) website on which this page appears. He also provided the funding for Wardale to undertake the work involved in producing the Fundamental Design Calculations for the 5AT locomotive.

Amongst other duties, Chris has been actively involved in the preparation of the Project Feasibility Study and has authored some of the Appendices that form part of it.

In 2003 Chris was contacted by an Indonesian group planning the construction of a coal haulage railway, who wanted to use (coal-fired) steam locomotives for hauling their trains.  Chris undertook much work on behalf of the project as reported on the 8AT page of this website.

Chris has authored several papers relating to the Indonesian project and the substantial cost savings that steam traction would have offered had the project proceeded.  These papers (and others) are available for download through the References section of this website.

Chris created the website for the 5AT Project and continues to act as webmaster for the 5AT Group.

Chris lives in Beijing, China.