HO scale live steam

[DMcG14]

Now that Hornby has announced that it will be releasing an OO scale live steam version of the Mallard, how long til we see a live steam engine mass produced for HO?

[cacole]

I don't know about mass produced live steam, but there was an item in Model Railroader a couple of years ago about a man in Japan who built an HO live steam engine (a Big Boy, I believe). It took him something like 10 years and several million Yen (thousands of dollars) to complete it. If live steam can be mass produced, it will hopefully be reasonably priced.

[FJ and G]

I'm wondering if law suit worries would scare off investors. Live steam fires are common. Also there's the smoke. I don't want to seem too negative, however. I personally think it would be pretty cool. Then some smart train scientist will try to make live steam in N and Z?

[nfmisso]

Many years ago, in MR there was a model of Stephenson's Rocket is HO scale, live steam. Ran on CO2.

Anything like this is going to be expensive, due to the large amount of precision machine work required. And the liability issues.

[DMcG14]

The Hornby model uses a rail powered electric heater to boil water. The engine is supposed to have enough steam for about 20 minutes. Granted it will not be cheap, but you won't need a sound decoder since the sounds will be authentic. I don't see why a set up like this or even a partnership with Hornby couldn't produce a commercially available live steam in HO. OO is only around 10% bigger, so a manufacturer should be able to fit this in a larger HO engine.

[Anonymous]

HO might be a bit small for live steam............... But it'd be cool if they could make something like a live steam G scale big boy! That'd be big enough.

[Overmod]

There's already a locomotive as good on the market -- Allegheny, anyone?

Check Aster's Web site...

[Anonymous]

I recall seeing a few live steam big boys in no. 1 scale, needless to say, those are HUGE. I also recall seeing something about the world's smallest steam engine, worked with capilary action and was the size of a speck of dust... If things get better, we might be able to see Z scale live steam... or maybe I'm just getting too whimsy

[Anonymous]

Around 1950, I went to a show in the Oakland, CA Auditorium. I was fascinated by a brass locomotive that boiled solid CO2 in the boiler for propulsion. With todays DCC, you could throttle and set the valves for better control. I used to see CO2 bricks for cooling items in transit. He had a nice set of gloves.
Lindsay