Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
The "G" scale, being 45mm track width, and is ALSO known as Gauge 1 among old Liver Steamers, has actually been around for about 50-60 years. Longer in great Britain. The British have been modelling live steam for almost as long as the actual prototypes have existed. "G" came to be used recently for "Garden" but it's still the same old 45mm Gauge 1 track width from the earlier era. Several SCALES are modeled on this gauge, usually from 1:20 all the way down to 1:32. The Aster Allegheny, a 1:29 live steam monster for "G" scale weighs in at 40 pounds and will easily pull a single human of up to 200 lbs weight. The problem is getting a car to ride on that you could BALANCE on and that would ITSELF hold that weight. You track bed has to be solid also, but then I test mine by actually walking on it, heel to toe, all the way around to do this. (Learned this trick from the steamers.) I use Brass rail on kit ties and It supports me just fine and stays in place. I use red lava crusher fines for bed and ballast, buried in a trench 10"-12" deep, 8" wide, and then elevated about 1" above road level, and dressed at the edges. Lava crusher fines, red OR black, are like glue when tamped, settled and finally in place. And they drain VERY well. I import it from Hawaii from a Concrete supplier I used to do computer work for. They have their own quarry. It's very pricey, and to me, worth every penny of it. I used it for my layout in Hawaii, and am now stockpiling it for use here in the SW next spring. 3.5" Track Gaugers have tried to ride and found it also too difficult to deal with. 5" Track Gaugers have been successful at it tho it is still not easy. Those who wi***o have riding models generally start at 7" gauge rail width and go up from there. Steam loco prices go up radically as gauge goes up also. A Ready To Run Steam Loco for 7" gauge can easily cost $200k. I've seen several go for over $500k, depending on quality of detail of the model. Most are exquisite. Many folks at this level are true machinists who either build them from scratch, or purchase kits for assembly. Still VERY pricey. But at nearly $30k, so is that Aster Allegheny mentioned above. Out of MY league to be sure. If all this sounds outrageous in $$$, remember, many Rail Societies around the country are trying to restore actual Baldwin Prototypes and others and can easily spend over a million dollars in so doing. Note: Steam Boilers actually require Certification. And if you play by the book, even "G" scale ones do too. If you purchase a "G" scale steamer, make sure the Boilers is indeed Ceritified. At this level, they are usually made from Silver Soldered Copper and require DISTILLED, ( not filtered, NOT ionized, and CERTAINLY NOT TAP,) water. Regards and good luck to Live Steaming.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag