The topic of live steam came up on another thread, which got me wondering, does anyone on the MR forums do live steam or other outdoor, ride on model trains
Often at Train Mountain (were I run 1:8 scale stuff) the topic of smaller scales of model railroading comes up so I know overlap exists. Still I expect many have never heard of the live steam hobby.
Feel free to respond with how much you’ve heard of live steam. Do you have any locomotive/rolling stock? Are you building something or would you ever build something?
Wow, that’s some nice F units. It’s difficult to get the perfect F unit nose, a lot of bad models out their. Yours look quite nice, not perfect (non are) but I’ve seen a lot worse! That Chessie geez is nice too!
Though discussion is not as busy there as it is here, you may find more people who follow that particular branch of the hobby in our sister forum, Garden Railways.
Model Railroader up to and during the Linn Westcott era used to carry a fair amount of coverage about “live steam” sized trains (3/4" scale, 1" scale, 1 1/2" scale and so on – referred to as live steam commonly even if there is no steam). Indeed a fair number of MR covers showed such large scale trains. I can’t speak for the Garden Railways forum, but the magazine carries little or nothing about these trains, which when well done they have more in common with scale model railroading than with garden railroads, in my opinion. The Milwaukee Light Engineering Society “layout” for example has sidings and a signal system and the members have even had operating sessions in the “model railroad” sense of the word.
Good idea Steve! Nonetheless I think it would be interesting to keep this conversation on the MR forums, I want to see how much overlap there is between Live Steam and smaller scale model railroading. May head over to garden railways if I get the urge…
A few years ago one of the ”layouts” in MR was a large 7 1/2“ gauge pike in Michigan if I recall correctly. I though it was weird that it was in MR, which usually focuses on smaller scales. I don’t know how much Live Steam appears in Garden Railways, but a few glances at their website looks to me like they rarely cover it if at all. There is one Live Steam magazine, called “Live Steam and Outdoor Railroading”, but it’s not made by Kalmbach. I would welcome a bit of live steam from time to time in MR but I’m sure a lot of folks would find it strange.
My personal outdoor stuff is 1:20.3, so not big enough to ride on.
But people certainly know about live steam around here. One of my division’s (Illinois Terminal Division)
members does live steam. Not sure of exact scale, but too small to ride on as it runs on LGB track. I could see doing this size live steam, but have no current plans.
Larger scale ride-on trains are around here. Our division visited a outdoor layout in Decatur a few years back and it was a blast. Way outta my league, but if I ever did something that size, I’d probably go diesel.
Here is our engineer that day getting up steam.
Engineer’s cab view
Out on the main
This fellow is an engineer on one of the Decatur-area shortlines. He’s running behind a model of an Illinois Terminal freight-motor, on battery power, because that pesky caternary would just get in your way.
I think the reason IIRC that the Michigan line was in MR was that they featured operations, which would be really cool since you’d be able to ride the train to your next set-out, and maybe there was an NMRA convention in Michigan that year?
Something I would love to do, but I don’t have the time, the $$$, or the space. I do have a 17HP engine in storage to build a diesel outline, but is in the future. I was a member of HALS for a year, but the hour and a half drive made it difficult to participate to the extent I wanted.
I think it looks fine Ed. Everybody is so opinated on F units, look at all the endless discussion that goes with the HO scale versions.
Everyone has their own idea of the “correct” F unit. NOBODY has shown it too me yet, because NOBODY can agree on just what the “perfect” F unit looks like. I’ve asked in a couple of different threads.
I Remember in a nother thread, SPSOT considered himself a “recovering rivet counter”
Ask a rivet counter just what a perfect F unit is, than step back as other rivet counters join in. It goes on and on and on.
They are all mighty quick to tell what “is not” the perfect F unit.
Even EMD seems to have struggled to get it “right” - the bulldog nose on Es and Fs was not a casting but was formed and it is not uncommon to see photos of a bunch of engines at a terminal all nicely lined up – AND see distinct if subtle differences in the nose contours!
I said it wasn’t perfect because I’ve been told that no one has made a good f unit nose. I’m not an expert on what f unit noses should look like but I have friends who are planning one buying an f7 and I know they are having trouble getting one with a correct nose. Now that I take a closer look at your engine I can’t find anything wrong with it, though I’m not an expert.
Yes, that nose controversy has been going on a long time. I’m not about to scrap all my Proto E units or Stewart and Intermountain Fs. I have many Genesis (Hilighliners) Fs too. There may be slight differences in them but they all look pretty good overall.
That’s hardly fair to state that the model is not perfect based upon hearsay. If you are not an expert on F7 styling, how can you critique someone else’s model?
I really shouldn’t have said anything about the f being incoerect. I assumed (stupidly) that is was metal and I knew metal shells were almost alway featuring some discrepancies. Fiberglass in the other hand generally get very good detail. I personally would never get one because the windows are usually blocked of, but aside from that I think the f is very good. I sincerely hope no offense was take from any of my comments!
Not at all… I just thought if you spotted something I was curious as to what caught your eye.
We gave that some consideration and decided a full cab interior was too much hassle. At a distance the dark window tint looks just fine, you get used to it.
These guys know how to have fun:
One of the members there has a beautiful Pennsylvania K4 and several sharp looking Pennsy passenger cars to haul with it. Another fellow has a huge Q2 that is equally impressive.
