I am old enough that I can remember steam engines at the end of their active service lives in the early 1950s. I have loved steam and continue to do so. I love books on steam locomotives and have over the years amassed quite a collection of books and videos on Steam and in particular the Steam Engines of the Northern Pacific. I have however found that as I get older and similar to how the real railroads also found, that the higher maintenance of steamers is becoming less and less attractive and may well be selling off all but my most reliable and well built steam engines and taking the equity I had in the Steamers I sell and buying more 1st generation diesels.
While some will surely reply in defense of steam, they are a real pain in the neck. The biggest problem is that they are prone to derailment. Yeah, I know, it is my track work. But, I have spent years improving my track work and, while the derailments have greatly diminished, diesel is clearly more reliable than steam.
If I ever build my Dream Layout, passenger operations at Dearborn Station in Chicago in the 1950’s, I will probably dump my 11 steamers on eBay.
I guess when/if I finally make the decision to sell off the steamers I’m considering getting rid of, it will be my newer ones. My Roundhouse MDC kit built 10 wheelers and 0-6-0 switcher, my Rivarossi Mike and PFM Samhongsa Y1 Consolidation, I will keep.
Rich, I agree, it could be my track work, however, I have worked on it and worked on it over the years and some problem places are only a problem for one particular steamer and everything else works just fine! Although it certainly can be my track work, the fact that it is only one locomotive that has a problem with it leads me to believe it’s a failure of that particular locomotive!
My BRVRR is a transition era railroad so I run both steam and diesel routinely. I do not do very much in the way of operations as most of my personal steamers, a Hudson, Niagara, and Mikado, are intended for mainline operations.
My grandson, however, is a steam fanatic. His locos run the gambit from a UP Challenger down to little Bachmann tank engines.
With a few exceptions, most notably the small tank engines, we have very little trouble with derailments, on the mainline, sidings, or in the reverse loop. It does happen occasionally but not enough to discourage the use of the steamers.
While most of my diesels are transition era F7s, early GPs and RSs, I have several larger diesel locos, E7s, E8s, PAs, FP45s and SD40s. There are even a few modern AMTRAC Genesis locos.
In my experience the reliability and track-ability of our locomotive fleet is about equal between steam and diesel. But, the maintenance time required by the steamers and their initial cost, is quite a bit higher than their brethren.
I have to admit that I am the opposite. I have very few diesels mostly early ALCO’s and Baldwins with a few GP’s and SD’s. While I love running steam I have shied away to buying the largest steam that most model manufactures are shoving out to us. I do have one Y3 in PRR paint. I am like the prototype and run the bread and butter 0-6-0, 2-6-0, and 2-8-0 in just about every location and leave the big guys to drag and push freight on the mains. All my passenger trains are pulled by 4-6-2, and 4-8-2 with a rare T1 4-4-4-4 out front. Mainline freight is handled with multiple 2-10-0 and 2-10-4 locos.
There is nothing like it when you run a pair of decapods on the front of a sixty car train with a pair behind pushing on the clubs long uphill climb. Whistles blowing, cylinders barking, rods turning and crowds watching. All that’s missing is the smell of acrid smoke and steam mist raining down. As a plus to this scenario I also get 2 switching moves. One at the bottom of the hill pulling the cabin and running around it to add the pushers in front. and another at the top of the hill putting the cabin back behind the last car.
Most people run into problems with steamers when they use them for jobs they were not designed for. I would never use my T1 for switching passenger cars. I use an 0-6-0 for that and the T1 couples on only when the train is ready to go.
If you don’t want your steamers anymore send them my way.
I use my steamers where they would have prototypically run. Having been in the hobby since the 1960s and built my share of steam kits and done my share of steam kit bashing, for people to think I am a neophyte; or, that I can’t use a logical sequence, to trouble shoot problems when they have arisen, is a mistake! I have done all of these things and the conclusion I have come to (above) is that I no longer feel the endeavor worthwhile!
I have retired, I have fought the good fight, I was a skilled tool & die maker and tool & die designer. The computer and CAD-CAM has superseded the need for these skills. What I mean to say here is: In retirement, I hope to simplify my life.
Those of you who want to continue running and continuing to purchase Steam Locomotives certainly have my blessing! I am interested in what you are finding as good equipment in HO Steam Locomotives; however, excuse me for only being interested in reading about it, as I have been there and done that!
Nobody here is attempting to take anyones steam locos away from them![C]
I had brass steamers when I was in my teens in the early 60s and after that I’ve had very few steam engines…I guess the steam bug never got a good grip on me even those I witness the last days of steam in the mid 50s…IIRC the last steamer in Columbus (Ohio) had its fire dropped in '58.
Of late I had passing thoughts of buying a steamer but,I doubt if that will ever become a reality due to the reported problems.
in response to your post about cabooses and my attitude toward them;
this only counts if you play mind games with your operations and i am sure many of us do.
1-the cab must be taken to the cab track upon arrival or at least set over out of the way since we don’t want to switch with it next to the engine.
2-the cab must be switched out and pulled from the cab track so it can be tacked onto the outbound train.
3-older wooden cabs must be carefully handled when shoving cuts to avoid crushing them. (see TRRA shelter cabs)
4-if your road has assigned cabeese, the fifo system must be applied which requires a lot of switching or at least a double ended caboose track.
5-road crews are continually complaining about the condition of the very pool caboose they trashed coming in. (in HO scale you can barely hear them shout)
6-cabeese are the second most expensive piece of rolling stock on my railroad after locomotives.
7-they generate absolutely no revenue unless you are running mixed trains or smuggling something…
8-they are the most costly piece of equipment to maintain after locomotives.
9-they are where most personal injuries occur to crew members. (personal injury settlements are paid in HO scale dollars so that takes the edge off)
10-they are a hiding place for yard clerks and car knockers, especially in cold or wet weather.
now for the upside.
A-they give my little spectrum 0-8-0 something to do since it can barely pull it’s own tender.
B-their absence tells me the train broke in two while going through the adjacent room.
C-they do look neat.
D-I haven’t figured out how to rig a tail hose for shoving in HO scale yet.
I run 90% steam from BLI, Rivarossi, PCM (BLI), Proto 200 Heritage, Trix, Lionel HO, and Sunset Brass Models. The rest comprise the following: Proto 2000 SW8, Proto 2000 FA2/FB2, Atlas Trainmaster H24-66, and two Athearn Genesis SD-75M’s. Those SD-75’s gave me as many fits on my last layout as the one steamer that made me rip up 3’ of track, relay it, and reballast and weather it…my BLI Brass Hybrid Union Pacific 2-10-2. I checked the poor-reputation trucks for being twisted on a shiny flat counter-top. Nada. When I saw that they were nice and straight, the inevitable conclusion was that my outer rails on the two curves, in small arcs, were lower than I had accepted they were based on steamer performance…all ten of them at that time.
So, diesels have a way of humbling smug people who think they have their rails beaten into submission. (My hand is up.)
Secondly, I don’t run any of my steamers much. My longest serving one, the BLI Hudson with QSI, has perhaps 3 running hours on it. So, I have yet to experience the disappointment of a steamer that suddenly needs some serious attention…unless I drop three of them off a shelf…happened to me.
Lastly, I couldn’t imagine being in the hobby without at least one steamer. I grew up around steam, and that is what keeps me in the hobby. It’s not to say I don’t grealy admire the brutish looks of an SD70ACe: I do, and would love to have one. I won’t part with any one of my steamers for it, though. In hobby terms, it would be like selling one of my kids. Unthinkable.
This is a question that’s near to my heart. My prototype ran steam, long after they started buying diesels, up until they sold it off in 1980 – and the Silverton is a long way from a last run still.[;)]
I have standard, narrowgauge, and dual-gauge track. I have the standard issue of not quite as much room as I’d like, but was able to maintain a 28" min radius on the SG main. But there just wasn’t enough room for my Durango engine service facilities to be dual-gauge without really cramping things. I decided that the narrowgauge would run both steam and diesel, reflecting more traffic and a Rio Grande willing to invest in its NG system. But SG is all diesel, perhaps better reflecting real life. I still may take the plunge for a SG steamer some day, especially if Blackstone decides to move forward with a Rio Grande SG steamer as their motive power survey seemed to indicate.
Blackstone, hmmmm? you say. Yes, in a nutshell, if you’ve not had the chance to operate any of their wonderful K-27 and C-19 locos, you don’t know what you’re missing. In fact, you’d be wondering what all the fuss is about steam not running as well as diesel. In any case, Blackstone sets the bar for what we should expect in terms of steam loco performance.
Blackstone’s locos are built by Kader. Bachmann is one of Kader’s brands and it’s obvious improvements have been great over the last decade. If you haven’t seen some of the B-mann’s stuff lately, it’s obvious that the Blackstone has raised the bar and others have decided to try to keep up, which is of benefit to the consumer. Frankly, if B-mann sells a loco that’s 80% of what Blackstone builds into theirs, you’ll still have a darn fine loco – and it shows in recent B-mann offerings, which even more amazingly cost about half of what a Blackstone sells for due to the economies of scale in standard gauge.
Brass can be finicky and some of them are and always will be a basket cases. On the other h
I came to that conclusion back in the late 70’s and over the years have sold or traded off all but a couple of my steamers. I’ve picked up a few along the way since then, some of which I sold or traded, others that I have on display. Diesel is about all I run now, from FT’s up to GP40’s and U30’s. My biggest are the H24-66 Trainmaster and Century 628.
Well, I grew up with steam in the 'forties and most of the 'fifties, so that’s what I have always been attracted to. My great-uncle was a brakeman on the Espee, and my first train ride was in the cab of an AC-6 Cab Forward helper locomotive over Donner Pass in 1946.
My own MR is about 98% steam, with 1 F-3 ABBA diesel and one E6 ABB diesel set and that’s it. Everything else encompasses steam from 2-8-0’s up to 2-8-8-4’s. Mostly brass. Mostly re-worked and re-balanced and re-motored to optimum effiency. And yes, tinkered with. I’m my own roundhouse and shop, LOL, and for me, that’s half of the fun of owning steam. My oldest brass locos are probably older than some of our forum members, but they still keep running along smooth, quiet, powerful and sweet. For me, the esthetics outweigh the maintenance.
Not to start an argument, and this is strictly a personal opinion, but most diesels to me are just flat out boring. More efficient, yes. But boring. I’d much rather watch a clanking steamer than a humming diesel.
And since I’m 73, I doubt that I’ll be converting to diesel. I’ve got too many steamers I like to run.
I used to have mostly steam. Got my layout running and now I have more 1st gen diesel. Some modern steam runs great. My Proto 2000 0-6-0 and 0-8-0, no problem, Spectrum, can run just as good with a lot of their problem being in their wiring harness, it needs to be positioned correctly to run great. Got rid of all my MDC except for some shays that run great, also still have some Rivarossi That run great that I turned down the flanges on (I run code 70 and some 18" radius curves).
