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I think most of us were thinking yard switcher. These would be NW1, SW1200, SW1500 and there are others. Nice size road switchers are GP-xx (GP=General Purpose) or F units. GP-38 and F-7 are probably most produced. This will get you railroading while you figure out what steam you want and what timeframe. <br />The set you had a link to is O scale (1/48) running as narrow gage on HO track (1/87). This has become popular due to the buildings you can get at various boutique and discount stores usually with a Christmas theme. <br />The engine shown in that set is a 2-6-0 also known as a Mogul. A couple of the Whyte classification charts found on line will also tell you common name and typical service of what ever wheel arrangment takes your fancy. Two major types of steam are rod engines such as the Mogul, American (4-4-0), Ten-wheeler (4-6-0), Consolidated (2-8-0), Mikado(2-8-2), Praire (2-6-2) and geared engines such as the Shay (offset boiler, 2 or 3 cylinders side mounted), Climax (2 inclined cylinders), and Heisler (V-twin mounted cross-wise). Rod engines liked freindly grades and could attain higher speeds then geared engines. Depending on the rod engine its service would be agriculture (suger cane), industrial (pick your industry), freight or passenger. Some were designed for dual purpose of freight and passenger. Sizes vary from 0-4-0 to really really big. Geared engines were used in logging, mining and some heavy industry. Well funded logging operations would have a mix of geared and rod engines. The geared engines would bring the logs down from the rougher terrain to a rod engine that could cover the distance to log dump faster than the geared engine. Geared engines have been clocked at ear pinning speed of 17MPH. Depending on rod engine, Speeds as high as 100 MPH were recorded.
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