Live steam locomotives

[coogy]

Now, forgive me. I know nothing of the subject but ever since a child I have been fascinated by steam engines, in particular, locomotives - traction engines just don't seem to cut it. Anyway, one day I plan to have a driving day on the foot plate, its something I can't shake. But, back on topic. I've also always been in awe of scale steam. 5 inch gauge i believe? Does anyone own such a thing? I know they are massively expensive and are proper machines rather than play things but its something I'd love to own one day. Indulge me?

This for example is rather beautful

Or perhaps a Black 5?

Edited by coogy on Thursday 12th January 15:41

[Whitean3]

My brother-in-law have an 0-6-0 live steam engine- I believe in this scale; his father has a GWR 4-6-0 which was scratchbuilt by him. So powerful, it can pull about 10 people. Amazing to see in action.

[mrmaggit]

My Dad finished a 7.25" gauge rack and pinion loco a couple of years ago, won a third award at Harrogate.

Back in the '50's him and his mate went to Glasgow to the North British Loco Works and came back with a set of blueprints for the then-new South African Railways 15F 4-8-2. Built to 5" gauge (would run on 3.5" tracks due to the SAR using 3'6" gauge tracks) the thing would actually have been too big to fire by hand.

So he contented himself with building 3 (yes 3) 3" scale Fowler ploughing engines. They are six feet long and weigh half a tonne each.

He has built a 3F 0-6-0 with full Walshaerts valve gear "because the valve gear interested me."

I struggle with Lego!

[SystemParanoia]

any build threads/blogs?

[GarryA]

I guy I work with has made one from scratch, it has all been tested now and he is just choosing the colour for paint.

[RDMcG]

There is a gigantic layout outside of Montreal,,,the Montreal Live Steam Club ..if you have a look around the site its just amazing.....a huge outdoor layout. Take a look at the photos...........

http://www.montreallivesteamers.com/photo_index.ht...

[gunners100]

my brother builds them for a living, they are done to order, mainly for the American market.
the ones you show above would be about £25k

[z4chris99]

there is a track in Taunton in the park where old men sit and point at each others trains

[drivin_me_nuts]

I saw on the web a while back an American company making a kit for a challenger class logo that could be stretched into a big boy. There is also at least one Erie class in this scale (or quite possibly bigger) floating around. I vaguely recall the pricing for the Erie went above 150k. It is one hell of a model. You tube has videos of it.

[gunners100]

z4chris99 said:

there is a track in Taunton in the park where old men sit and point at each others trains

my brother was proberbly one of them!, also there is Beachurst in haywardsheath

[miniman]

gunners100 said:

my brother was proberbly one of them!, also there is Beachurst in haywardsheath

Been riding on that one since about 1980 There's also one at Hove Park, right next to the British Engineerium which I think is still currently closed sadly.

[Red Firecracker]

I used to drive at the Uckfield MRC track located at Bentley Wildfowl in East Sussex. 7 1/4 and 5 inch gauge track with everything from Sweet Pea's to Britanias (would you let a 16 year old out to drive your brand new 7 1/4 Britannia? )with everything in between.

http://www.uckfieldmrc.co.uk/bentleynf.html

Usual story, girls and fireworks seemed more attractive and I drifted away from it.

[impish]

Greetings! Having happened upon this glorious topic, I thought perhaps someone might care to see the results of my own efforts at re-creating in miniature, one of the locomotives I saw routinely pounding it's way through my hometown many years ago. Lest this prove boring to the majority, I will here desist, unless additional of my tripe is asked for. (Displaying the cautiousness of the new and uninformed!)

impish

Edit: Chicago Burlington & Quincy (CBQ) R.R., Locomotive #5632, "Northern" 4-8-4, the 1/8-scale model weighs over 1,000 lbs., is 13 feet long with tender, operates on track of 7-1/2" gauge.

Edited by impish on Saturday 14th January 20:20

[Engineer1]

Beautiful, now get some more pictures and info up, I would love something like that train.

[DIW35]

There are 3 main sizes built by model engineers in the UK; 3 1/2" gauge, which is what the locos in the OP's post look like, 5" gauge and 7 1/4". I'm not aware of anywhere that sells these as fully built and ready to run, though I do believe that some companies have tried to ease the burden of the building process by making kits. Having said that, a lot of kits are for electric powered locos rather than live steam. There is quite a lively second hand market, but even second hand they do not tend to be cheap.

If you do a Google search there are several engineering societies dotted around the country, and most will operate a track, usually of mixed gauge, if you want to see these things in action.

[coogy]

Great to see some insightful replies in this thread, glad it caught peoples attention

I live just up the road from Uckfield and have been to Bentley years and years ago, their railway is quite impressive. I realise that they are very specialised machines and need are built by engineers rather than your average model maker. Quite a few appear on eBay for mega money, but in my eyes they're worth it.

The american loco posted above is hugely impressive!! Reminds me of the old Dobwalls railway down in Cornwall which ran very similar machines, though sadly its since closed and the collection sold off

[impish]

coogy said:

Great to see some insightful replies in this thread, glad it caught peoples attention
The american loco posted above is hugely impressive!! Reminds me of the old Dobwalls railway down in Cornwall which ran very similar machines, though sadly its since closed and the collection sold off

Thank you! I shall indeed post more pics, especially during early work on the thing, and hopefully interest will not be lessened by the fact that it looks suspiciously American (!). I am a retired Engineer (not R.R. type), Electrical and Mechanical, who has had a lifelong dream of building one of these machines. The opportunity to do so began in 2003, and the project is STILL not cosmetically finished.

As it is now bedtime 'way over here, I beg indulgence until tomorrow. Thank you all for reading! impish

[DIW35]

I have quite a few pics after visiting a few clubs. This one was taken at Gilling East, just north of York. The club there operates a ground level railway, complete with miniature signal boxes and working signal system. They can also operate different gauges, as evidenced by the track, but their main focus is 5", which is what is running here.

[drivin_me_nuts]

Interesting tripple gauge track. Pointwork in those scales and weights must be an interesting build.

[RichB]

There's a steam railway near Ascot Racecourse. I noticed it when my son was playing football there the other day. Must take a drive back and see what goes on.