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OLD DAD: I would appreciate an elaboration on why you think Live Steam is fussier about level track. My experience is quite the opposite. My Aster C&S will pull a 5 car consist up a 7% grade with NO problem. The sheer power of steam and the weight of the loco not only gives strong pulling power, but the traction capability to handle the pull. I have no doubt it will pull up to a dozen cars before showing signs of breathing hard. The real nemesis in Live Steam traction is OIL on the track, not the grade or even small amounts of water. Steam oil simply boils off thru the exhaust and machine oil can drip from the valve gears. Both CAN contaminate the rails. Generally tho,... ...and no offense to the sparkers, but I've yet to see any sparkie that can outpull a steamer of equal size. Even match it. If your steamer is pulling THAT poorly, you need to go back and re-examine your assembly of the steam chest. Particularly the admission valve area and/or the integrity of the needle steam valve itself where it seats. Ensuring good free motion in the valve gear assembly are also a good checkpoints since this is where the very timing itself is regulated and can result in poor power if not timed properly with regard to TDC (Top Dead Center). True Walchaerts or Stephenson combination levers are usually eliminated in "G" scale locos due to size, so the timing at the eccentric becomes more critical. I wrote a very in-depth article on this almost 4 years ago and published it to the web. If you would like a copy, let me know and I'll email it to you. vsmith has a copy. But I'd still like to hear your experirnces.
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