In live steam, one really gets what one pays for. Ruby can be a nice engine, but more often than not it can also need lots of tinkering to run best. Avoid the Mamod/MSS engines, they are toy level, dont tolereate breezy days in the outdoors due to the burner being under the boiler. If the price locks you at $500 or under, go with the Ruby or the new Accucraft Dora. If you can buy in stages or wait a bit and save your money, I highly recommend the Roundhouse kits. Yes you have to soft solder the body work, but if you have a few small clamps, some flux paste and a small pencil butane torch(available for under $5 at Harbor Freight Tools!) you can build the body, or someone like myself can build it for you. By building your own engine, you will better understand how to fix or correct any problems that crop up in the future. Roundhouse engines have the absolutly best reputation in the industry for engines that run near perfect everytime you steam up. Thier instructions are excellent and not awkward as can happen when other languages are translated to English. While the Roundhouse kits are more expensive, about $800 more than your budget, you can buy the kits in sections to spread out the cost. My Lady Anne was made up of 3 kits, Chassis, Boiler and Body. Of all the live steamers I have owned, the Roundhouse run the best of them all. Regner comes in second with only long delays to get some things and poor instructions in the negative column. Here is a pic of my Lady Anne to give you some food for thought. Roundhouse also offers the Billy, Katie and Fowler as kits. I can walk you thru the build up, painting ect thru email or phone calls if you need help. Cheers and good luck!!! Mike
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
Wow, it's been a while since I checked this thread!
Thank you everybody for your help. I'll probably get a Ruby or a Dora. EMDMIKE, thank you for your tip about Roundhouse locomotives. I may end up buying one sometime in the future. Your Lady Anne looks great - beautiful paint job!
S&S
Modeling the Pennsy and loving it!
It appears that you may be in the north philadelphia area and there is a live steam club with G scale track in the area.
Also there are Mamod units for sale on Ebay. I bought an aristocraft 0-4-0 as I already have a garden RR with 2% grades. Radio control helps on the hills.
the problem with USED live steam is if somebody ran it out of water there may be damage requiring silver soldering. There are people in the area that repair this commercially.
Live steam is a different kind of fun from electric locomotives.
I haven't been very active in the Forums but I have a little advice. About 3-4 years ago, my brother and I bought an Accucraft ruby kit for our railroad. I built the kit not to expert standards and I had a little trouble. The hardest thing to do is to set the timing so it runs correctly. I had so much trouble that I sent it to Accucraft to see if they would time it. Well, two weeks later, we had a RUNNING ruby in our hands. Over the years I have done so many things to it and to name a few would be, converting it to a forney (twice!) installing radio control and modify the timing (Once I got comfortable with the inner workings, I re-timed it so it ran better in forward than reverse). It is much more reliable than our electric trains and is a blast to run. Accucrafts's service is second to none. We even visited them one day and the owner gave us a tour and their head "mechanic" showed me how to time and re-time the ruby. The timing is difficult but with the help of the great people in this forum, it can be done. Plain and simple, I have two live steams (1 is a Wilesco Stationary) plus I have gone to steam ups and seen a lot. Here is what is in your budget and what I recommend:
1.Accucraft Ruby (kit $499 or not $539)
2.Accucraft Dora ($435)
3.Regner Max ($350ish) Friend has one. Really great engine (SIMPLE)
4.Locomotion Pepper ($389) Out of Stock at the moment
5.(New) Mamod Brunel Vertical Boiler Engine ($580) A little pricy but I hear it is worth it
There is not an engine that I would put down because I believe EVERY engine has potential and can be fixed, bashed, modified to whatever one's desire may be. Good luck and happy steaming!
-Paddy McConnell
Sorry, I just forgot two pretty good ones:
6. Mamod Mark II ($450) I have seen good reviews.
7. Accucraft starter kit ($830) Includes a prebuilt ruby, 5ft diameter circle of track, brass boxcar, brass caboose and steam oil. I consider this a really good deal. The only other thing you would have to buy would be distilled water and butane. Accucraft is having a discount on this item I think so check out their estore website and look at the different started set options they have.
As someone keenly interested in live steam, I would humbly beg to insert a question here.
Do Accucraft locos (1:20.3 narrow gauge, specifically) usually come in kit form or RTR?
That Lady Anne is gorgeous, by the way.
Stu
Streamlined steam, oh, what a dream!!
All of Accucraft's engine's come pre-assembled unless you order one of their engines in kit form. For example, you can buy the Ruby either pre-assembled or in kit form. The only engine I know that Accucraft offers in kit form is the Ruby, but there might be a UK model that they offer. The kit form is a tiny bit cheaper but not by much. I am not extremely familiar with Roundhouse but as far as I know, any engine that they offer in kit form, they offer in pre-assembled form. Go to Accucraft's Estore (http://www.accucraftestore.com/) to see all the products they offer.
Yes, I've been drooling over that site already; Roundhouse's as well. Roundhouse is quite clear about selling both kit and mostly-RTR; Accucraft's site is a bit vague on that particular detail.
Thanks!
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