Let's See Your Steam Power!

The backbone of my railroad:

and a personal favorite:

Rusty

Lionel Boston & Albany #618:

Here's some steam on the Free State Junction Railway.

This model of New Jersey Central #833 is an MTH Premier model with PS-1 that I purchased around 1999. Never run. While it's a good-looking model, I think that MTH used its Premier New York Central Hudson (4-6-4) chassis for this (4-6-2) Pacific. Therefore, the model and firebox are about an inch too long and the trailing axle and cab are a similar distance too far aft.

MELGAR

LionChief+ NJC K4 in action:

3463 and the Fast Mail Express pass a west bound El Capitan.

A bit of the gambit.

Ron

I've always liked the PRR T1

Here's some big steam.

Generally my favorite steamer to run when I get the chance, the fantasy Daylight scheme AC-12 cab forward, here shown sounding off in the bottom snap:

I like these because they do not derail on curves, make plenty of noise rumbling along their assigned closed-loops, and with their chuffs, emit a goodly amount of storm-clouds level of smoke, especially when run simultaneously, like you can see here, and their horns are a real nice blast. When I run my trains, for myself as well as for guests, I enjoy a lot of commotion, action, noise, and smoke. I find nothing to whine about amidst that cacophony of the sights and sounds of model railroading...FrankM at Moon Township,USA

"Show us your steam power!"

Oh, gosh, I'll never live long enough.... 

I photographed my K-Line Boston & Albany D1a 4-6-6T suburban tank engine for another thread this morning. Seemed like a good idea to include it here too.

MELGAR

Oh, we're talking little steam.

Just got this one at York, NIB.  It tested out fine on the rollers, and if I ever get my benchwork, I'll be able to test it for real.

I also have the same engine in CNJ livery.

Then there's the Legacy B6sb, nice little unit.

Don't want to leave out my little K-Line A-5...

A few recent 3rd Rail acquisitions...

Tom

I like this thread!  Nice “Grif Teller” images!  Great Erie Berk!  I have one of those in incipiency.  Disc drivers and lost wax brass special trailer truck.  Someday a boiler . . .

A few of my favorites.

Pete

Check my Youtube channel link below.  I'm a all steam operation.

Pete, i'm loving your NYC motive power.

The Mighty H-7! Nick

bob2 posted:

I like this thread!  Nice “Grif Teller” images!  

I was thinking O. Winston Link... 

Mark in Oregon 

Here are a few from my steam fleet. There are more packed away which will eventually make it into a rotation on the layout (as soon as I get some track work finished).

...Wow!... Love that 4449. 

Mark (like 4449, also) in Oregon

My favorite, the N&W J 611.

MTH Premier Southern 1401 in the Smithsonian (20-3006-1; 1994)

Moonson posted:

I like these because they do not derail on curves, make plenty of noise rumbling along their assigned closed-loops, and with their chuffs, emit a goodly amount of storm-clouds level of smoke, especially when run simultaneously, like you can see here, and their horns are a real nice blast. When I run my trains, for myself as well as for guests, I enjoy a lot of commotion, action, noise, and smoke. I find nothing to whine about amidst that cacophony of the sights and sounds of model railroading...FrankM at Moon Township,USA

gandydancer1950 posted: just a few I could get to quickly.....

Moonson posted:

I like these because they do not derail on curves, make plenty of noise rumbling along their assigned closed-loops, and with their chuffs, emit a goodly amount of storm-clouds level of smoke, especially when run simultaneously, like you can see here, and their horns are a real nice blast. When I run my trains, for myself as well as for guests, I enjoy a lot of commotion, action, noise, and smoke. I find nothing to whine about amidst that cacophony of the sights and sounds of model railroading...FrankM at Moon Township,USA

I might feel differently if I had a layout with wide radius track, but what Moonson said resonates with me. I like locomotives that hug the rails around my 031 curves and can pull 11 or 12 train cars. So I shy away from the gorgeous long steamers shown above, and am very happy with petite and medium-sized steamers like these:

Baby and mid-sized Hudsons, steam switchers, and Pennsy K4s are ideal for me. Big Berk # 736, and the 646 or 2046 also run very well on my layout.

Also, MTH RailKing Steamers that run on O31 are generally very good. The RailKing GS4 Southern Pacific Steamer barely navigates my O31 curves and 022 switches, so it is the maximum-size steamer that my layout can handle.

Don't have a 773, but my guess is that it will run OK, but not great, on my layout, like the MTH Railking GS4.

Arnold

One of 7 scale steamers I have. (MTH PRR decapod with ERR, two Lionel B6s switchers, K-line K4s, Lionel Consolidation, Lionel Atlantic, Lionel M1a.  I hope this video of my Decapod works.  I took this a long tome ago before I added lots of trees. 

NP all the way. EXCEPT, The top engine is a American Flyer 565 from the 1941 Catalog that my father bought from a friend in 1945 when he returned from Europe for my 4th Christmas, Still runs great.

A few more.

This thread is going to run for a long time.

At 41,328 pounds of tractive effort, the PRR G5s 4-6-0 was "the most powerful Ten-Wheeler ever built." This MTH Premier model with PS-1 is from the first run in 1999 and, using a BCR, has the most run time of any of my steamers. I own models of the largest steamers but actually prefer to run the smaller engines which are a better fit on my layouts. This engine was definitely a high-quality build by MTH.

MELGAR

Another major advantage of the small and medium-sized steamers, compared to the big ones, is affordability.

I'm not diminishing the big steamers in the slightest. They are magnificent and majestic running on large layouts with wide radius curves. However, they tend to be very expensive, often in excess of $1,000, which is not affordable for me and many others. If I had a substantially larger layout with wide curves, I would probably buy one  big boy steamer with big sounds and smoke.

The reason I'm highlighting the small and medium-sized steamers is to share how much fun they are to run, and how affordable. And on a Postwar layout with 031 curves like mine, you can still experience big steam power with medium sized engines like the ones below.

Below is the classic Postwar Lionel 736 pulling a tender and 11 Postwar cars with ease. It is a very smooth and strong runner with Magnetraction. I paid about $400 for it at a train show about 15 years ago:

Below is the MTH NY Central Mohawk with traction tires pulling 5 Postwar extruded aluminum passenger cars.  I  paid about $300 for it in the mid-1990s:

Arnold

Fendermain posted:

 

Arnold, I concur about small engines as I too have small radius curves. Also, my layout has a prewar theme and small equipment looks better on it. I have included a photo of my Regner live steamer that I run outside.  I could adjust the axles to run on this track but it has a butane burner. Not good for indoors.  Fendermain

Fendermain, I have never seen anything like the engine in your 3rd photo,  which must be your Regner live steamer. Very cool, or maybe I should say hot. Imagine that thing in the hands of a child?

First I have my X1110, my only modern Lionel engine in the fleet. This came with a 1998 set that I understand was the last ready-to-run set made partially in the USA. It was my only engine I had and ran it to death when it finally kicked the bucket when I was probably 11 or 12, and fell out of running trains for a while. 

Since this engine didn't work, I bought my first postwar engine to replace it, a 1948 2026:

After that, Christmas was coming up and I wanted to build a village with a railroad in it, rather than the table-top trainless (boring) villages of past years, and I envisioned two different trains running in it, so I bought this rather hagardly looking (great runner, though) 1948 2025:

Following that Christmas, my growing addiction to vintage Lionel trains was becoming apparent, and upon a visit to the local train store, I came home with this beautiful 1937 259e:

Only a week or two passed before the train show came to town, and I bought my first complete set (may start a new thread on that later), outfit 1427ws from 1948, with a pristine 1948 2026 at the helm:

Then the addiction subsided a little, with some accessories here, some rolling stock there, and even a nice UP 2023, but that ain't steam. The following Christmas, I got a naked, paintless, and non-functional 1946 2020 steam turbine. My dad and I always had fun sitting down at our kitchen table work bench and fixing these up. In fact, almost half of all my engines weren't working when I got them, but they all run now. Anyway we fixed it up and it was pulling cars through the village before Christmas dinner. Throughout the year when I had time, I adorned it with a handsome brown and gold fictional livery to match my MPC PRR Broadway Limited set.

The next year for Christmas, I got a 1955(?) 2065. I was drawn to it for the feedwater heater which reminded me of my first engine.

That following summer, I went to a month-long recording school out in the foothills of southern Ohio (I'm a musician when I'm not hiding away in the basement with my trains) and we stayed in the provided cabins up in the hills. During the downtime I went into town and visited an antique store and found this 1952 2056. It had grey paint on all the pipes and details, and it still exists on the water scoop on the tender. I sat on the porch of my cabin and gingerly scraped off the grey paint with a pocket knife, without flaking off so much as one piece of the original paint.

Most recently, for Christmas, I received this 1946 221. But it is worth noting, however, that this was no ordinary 221, as one of the previous owners had jammed an old Christmas light in where the headlamp should be. I immediately fell I love with the red headlight. It recently burned out, however, so I replaced it with a normal bulb...that was coated in red.

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Fendermain, I have never seen anything like the engine in your 3rd photo,  which must be your Regner live steamer. Very cool, or maybe I should say hot. Imagine that thing in the hands of a child?

Yes, I believe it was common to have alcohol fueled live steam engines as toys for children as far back as the end of the 19th century.  Actually, I had a stationary live steam engine as a child around 1960. It had an electric heating element that would plug into the wall outlet.  Not happening today!  My Regner was made in the small village of Aurach, Germany.  I currently run it on LGB track but it is adjustable to various gauges.  Fendermain

This is the only steam I have on my layout...

Tom

Here is some of my steam

Mikey

All of the steam power on my railroad are MTH Rail King engines.

NYO&W Mohawk

J3 Hudson

H10 Consolidation

Well, we went from big steam to small steam, how about tiny steam?   Here's my K-Line Porter that I upgraded to TMCC, the coal car has the electronics and a 3rd pickup so the little guy will traverse switches without stalling.

I purchased this Lionel Legacy 6-82272 New Haven Ten-Wheeler #816 about a year ago and it has been running frequently on my single-track branch line railroad ever since. I let it cruise along at about 30 miles-per-hour pulling three boxcars and a caboose. It has a beautiful whistle and actually is a model of a New York Central prototype.

MELGAR

Custom detailed brass cab forward. It's 3 rail.

SP&S Z-6 Challenger and a Northern Pacific Hudson

      Bill T.

I have a Minion of em.

Click on the photo for larger better view

Oops forgot about this one a classic.

Or this one Teakettle 

All of my favorites... 

 When you model a road like the Rutland. You pretty much have to roll your own. Luckily decals are available from Highball Graphics.

Dave C, Those are very handsome vistas. And a detail I especially appreciated is that you got the scale of the ballast among the RR-ties correct, it seems to me - better than I did on my own layout.

You make me want to see more of your layout !

FrankM

Lionel Hudson Boston & Albany #618 pulling coal and oil. Listen for the realistic horn during the short video:

Except for the repeated photos, this is a really good thread!  You have seen all of mine several times, but here is my favorite, #1, in 17/64, with a steel exhaust pipe for a boiler:

Photos of my 2025/Reworked.

This one still gets the most run time.

RonH posted:

Photos of my 2025/Reworked.

 

 

Very nice work!

RonH posted:

Photos of my 2025/Reworked.

 

 

Super job...I like it a lot.     Fendermain

midnightwrecking posted:

This one still gets the most run time.

Is that a custom or kitbash? It looks really cool!

And these.

Nice thread, Don.  I own three steam locomotives and each is a favorite in one way or another.  My MTH 0-4-0 gets the most runtime but I'm a fan of the Espee and have two 3rd Rail models that I think dynamite.

My live steam power:

Regards

Fred

Over 45 years of building and painting.

GNRW.

Seattle's roundhouse:

St. Paul's roundhouse.

My other 'love':

Cab forward, pot metal, nickle, & brass detail, plastic, 3 rail

Small?...

Not tall, not long..but short

Taller

old

new

old

brew

the rest are "devicivly" unavailable at the moment

the ready tracks at Harmon...…………………….Pat

My latest project. After looking for a 221 for several years, I ended up with two about the same time. I refinished one in black, but decided to do this a bit different. Just finished this last night.

i thought the topic was steam....

overlandflyer posted:

i thought the topic was steam....

That is a nice engine you have! What gauge is it?

Regards

Fred

Here's a few.  (although there always seems to more hiding somewhere!)

sncf231e posted:

overlandflyer posted:

i thought the topic was steam....

That is a nice engine you have! What gauge is it?

The Berkshire is 7½" gauge, 1:8 scale.  oddly with the same scale/ gauge error as traditional O.

this guy is 1" scale, 4¾" gauge.  one of the more accurate live steam gauges.

overlandflyer posted:

sncf231e posted:

overlandflyer posted:

i thought the topic was steam....

That is a nice engine you have! What gauge is it?

The Berkshire is 7½" gauge, 1:8 scale.  oddly with the same scale/ gauge error as traditional O.

this guy is 1" scale, 4¾" gauge.  one of the more accurate live steam gauges.

How many large live steam loco's do you have! Amazing!

Regards

Fred

overlandflyer posted:

i thought the topic was steam....

What a BRUTE!

Andre