The Holy Grail of Model Railroading (Now with pictures)

[Anonymous]

How about this it will only need final asembly and should be ready in a year. How many people could one of these pull.http://www.realtrains.com/locob.html

[ericboone]

Live steam is the coolest. [:D]
That said, I just don't see myself having the time and/or money in the near future. You can start off and build a nice steamer for $10k if you have the time, the skill, and access to a good mill and lathe. I have the access and skill, but not the time or money right now. My dream is to have a live steam Berkshire in Pere Marquette paint. See http://www.realtrains.com/lococ.html. I did call the company, and all of the pieces, less assembly and machining would be around $18k. Fully assembled with all the bells and whistles (pun intended[:D] ) would be around $80k. Maybe after retirement many moons from now. For now my garden and basement empire will have to do.
I used to live in Michigan about 15 miles from the second largest 7 1/2 inch gauge railroad in North America. http://www.whitecreekrr.com/ I had the opportunity to operate there several times and really enjoyed it. I even had the chance to take a live steamer for a spin. Oh the wonderful smell of soot and ash in your face!

[ProtoWeathering]

If I recall correctly, Aster still makes #1 Scale live steam, RTR.

http://www.asterhobbyusa.com/homepagetarget.htm

This place looks pretty cool too.

http://www.livesteamlocomotives.com/index.html

[Big_Boy_4005]

James, I spent a little over a year as a member of the local grand scale club. You don't need to be a metalergist, you need to be a machinist. Having access to the tools and the skills to use them is what it takes to be into live steam. I didn't have the money or the skills to to do it seriously, and considered anything less to be a tease, so I went back to my basement. Maybe some day, maybe not.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by RevMattCNJ

I'm waiting for someone to come out with a "Ready To Roll" live steam locomotive. Imagine the uproar in the live steam community if Athearn or somebody decided to tap into that market.

I wi***hey would! I am a modeler, not a metalergist.

[Anonymous]

I'm waiting for someone to come out with a "Ready To Roll" live steam locomotive. Imagine the uproar in the live steam community if Athearn or somebody decided to tap into that market.

[Big_Boy_4005]

James when you find a spare $10,000, you can start shopping for used live steam engines. If you can only scrape up $5,000, you can get a decent battery powered or gasoline powered diesel.

[ereimer]

keep hanging around train mountain , talk to the members . eventually somebody will steer you towards a used loco


can't wait for the pictures !

[Anonymous]

live steam is so awesome, i have went to one of thsoe meets in kansas city, its really cool!!!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

You may have been wondering where I have been, I left Sunday left for Chiloquin, Oregon. I went to see Train Mountain, the largest miniature railroad in the world. It is
7 1/2 gauge live steam, with 24 miles of track 14 of it main line. I only rode 2 miles of the track operated by the Over the Hill live steamers; it was a great ride. I went armed with my 35mm, the most powerful camera in the world it will blow your head clean off, or at least take a mighty good picture of it. I am still getting the film processed so no pictures yet. I got to talk with the founder of Train Mountain. I even road behind a
UP 4-8-4, but alas it ran out of fuel on the trip after mine, too bad I couldn’t get to follow it to Train Mountain’s fuel dock, only members can do that. It is very impressive up there. I hope to get a train of my own and become a member of Train Mountain. This is it, the biggest model railroad in the world.

So, when talking with a few of the guys there, I discovered what I feared to be true, you need a lathe and a milling machine to build a steam locomotive. Doesn't anyone make a easy to build steam locomotive, I would prefer American design?

Two or three months ago, after watching Grand Scale Trains on RFD TV, I sent filled out the form for a free Mountain Car Company catalogue, I have yet to receive one. Has anybody else had this problem?

Where is a good place to look for used live steamers, and diesels?