8-34-8

[Boyd]

At a train show I picked up a box of older steamer drive wheels for $2.00. There are 34 wheels. When I was a teenager I had this wild idea to build a super long monster steam engine from Lionel  parts,,,,, for display only. Nothing with 34 drive wheels is going to make any curve. If I build this the tender will be proportionally as long too. I'm thinking red instead of black with a stripe running the entire length of engine and tender. I will have to figure out axles, a frame to run all the drive axles through, some kind of boiler that is light and inexpensive.

[Seayakbill]

The very long steamer certainly would be a conversation piece.

[gunrunnerjohn]

You could make it an articulated model with multiple trucks so it can make the curves.

[servoguy]

Back in the '50s, or maybe '40s, Santa Fe had some tentative plans for articulated locos with hinged boilers that had as many as 5 sets of drivers.  That would be 40 driving wheels.  There was an article in Trains Magazine about them.

[Penny Trains]

PVC makes a reasonably inexpensive building material and it holds paint and glue well.  Also, you could modify a PVC end cap for use as a boiler front.

Becky

[phillyreading]

If you make something that size, Gargraves makes curves in the 110 inch or larger diameter.

[dwiemer]

In one of my old Model Builder magazines, they spoke of kit bashing Lionel steamers.  They had plans and photos.  Not sure where my copy is, but may be worth looking into.

[Boyd]

The smaller curves in my layout are 042 so I have no dillusions of making this monster a runner. With tender it will be well over 42" long.

[overlandflyer]

Nullabor Plains RR #9999

...still working on the 200' turntable.

cheers...gary

[lionelsoni]

I have in front of me an old ad that I printed from the Internet for the "treno d'oro", a "locomotiva a vapore articolata:  4-12-12-6" in HO scale made of 18-karat gold.  The price is 250 million lire, whatever that was worth in 1998.