Live Steam Locomotives.

A few live steamers. If you like model trains, you have to have at least one live steam engine. Nothing else like them.

O gauge Big Boy
My current project, and a very interesting one at that. A live steam Big Boy has been an idle daydream of mine for some time. Restoring a full sized Big Boy will have to wait until I hit the lottery, so in the interim this O gauge example will have to do.

Just the running gear and boiler tube, but most of the hard work has been done. Built from two Little Engines Northern models. The boiler design on this one will be interesting, as it is 18" long, and 1.6" in diameter. Getting a decent draft through the firetubes on the long boiler will be a challenge. Nicely done reversing gear. Early thoughts on the boiler are a 3/4" flue, with a butane burner. Steam taps at the front, with delivery lines running the length of the flue to get a bit of superheat. Most likely, I'll build a test boiler to try various configurations, before constructing the final boiler on the locomotive.

Along with completing the boiler and plumbing, I will need to finish this off with the shell from an electric model. As this is live steam, it would be best to use brass, so if anyone has a clue on where I might find a brass shell or non functional brass Big Boy, please drop me a line. Otherwise, I'll probably have to rip apart a perfectly good Williams model, after breaking the bank to get it.
Showing it's articulation on O-72 track, which it will barely negotiate. Hey, it's a Big Boy, would you expect anything less? For size comparison, that's a Bing locomotive next to it.
Carette 1 gauge Stork Leg (Storchbein) locomotive
Repaint job, and the wheels on the tender are not correct. 3 wick burner is present. Should run, if I can find some 1 gauge track. Has a nice on/off valve, the handle extends back into the cab. Operating rod for this is labeled DRGM.

LBSC Bat
Enough! I finally obtained an accurate photo of a Bat, and it matches this locomotive.

Early Bing
This one came out of the UK. Appears to have a Bing style boiler, smokestack, and pressure valve. The cylinder arrangement is what one finds on early Bing locomotives: mounted horizontally, driving the wheels through a crown and pinion gear.

O gauge Bing locomotive
With tender. Burner missing the fill plug, otherwise complete. Some blueing left on the boiler.

O gauge Bing locomotive
A fairly persistent runner. Heat it to operating temperature, refill the burner, and you get a good ten minutes of run time.

Now here's some serious steam. It's a 3/4" gauge (3 1/2" gauge track) 0-4-0. Given the overhang on the rear, it's probably an 0-4-2, as it would appear that a set of trucks on the back will be needed to support the rear. Coal fired, there is a teaspoon sized opening on the rear of the boiler, though no grate or dustbin has been built. Reversing gear present. The hardest parts have been finished - boiler and running gear. Can't find any 3 1/2" track, though, and the boiler is unmounted at this time. No air box on the front, either, and most of the steam plumbing is not present. It'll be a sight to see this one running.

Another view of the front of the boiler. Nine firetubes and two superheat lines.

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