How do you operate a G-scale live steam powered engine? Do you use a radio controller with servo motors just like an R/C car, or do you set the throttle and let it go?
Yes.
Live steam locos can be radio controlled, or they can be run manually depending on the whims and preferences of the operator. Jeff Young has covered R/C and live steam on a few occasions in his “Raising Steam” column.
Later,
K
You can use both, but always remember live steam needs water and fire 20 mins is a usual time for a run on one fill of water and gas/coal
My alcohol fired Aster Mikado’s get about an hour’s run on one fill of the fuel tank and if I am careful to run mostly in the “company notch” on the reverser then I only have to refill the tender once or twice (but if I run in the corner the whole time I have to refill the tender 3 or 4 times). Radio control is great for controlling the Throttle, Reverser and Blower.
If you have a rod steamer like a Mikado R/C is needed if you have any grades. Live steamers are more sensitive than sparkies to grade. Some like the big Accucrafts will handle a 3 % upgrade with no problem but the same throttle setting coming downgrade will make them fly.
Smaller engines like the Ruby just won’t make grade at all.
R/C on a geared locomotive such as a Shay doesn’t make any difference unless you want to change from forward to reverse. My Shay just runs about a scale 6mph no matter what the throttle setting, grade or load.
Hope this helps
As some of the other respondants have said, live steamers can be operated either manually or via RC control.[:)] It’s also possible to convert a manually-operated live steamer to RC operation; I did this with my Accucraft 3-cylinder Shay, plan to do it with my Ruby 2-4-2 (which REALLY needs RC control - my layout has grades, & trying to run Ruby manually on it has resulted in a couple of spectacular wrecks [xx(] from runaways[:O] going downgrade!),
Probably one of the biggest appeals of live-steamers is the show they put on when working hard[:P] - here’s my Shay blasting up my 3% grade with a heavy train in tow:
I have produced a 3-part series on the basics of running this engine on “YouTube” - here’s the links to them:
Part 1:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfsJGphS0bY
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4BnNupaXkE
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8z9-MqBHv4
Hope the videos will answer a lot of your questions![;)] Enjoy![:D] Tom
Nice Video’s! [:D]