Just wanted to thank everyone who recommended Jason Kovac at thetraindepartment.com in my search for a live steam AML 060. He had one he was refurbishing and after two and a half months, it’s done.

I don’t have it quite yet (I feel like I’m 8 years old on Christmas Eve or something) but it’s ALMOST HERE. He set me a picture of it this morning, it has custom decals and new paint and looks GREAT! So I thought I would post up the pic he sent:

I’m quite excited. My first steamer. I’m working on a new nano sized Xbee controller module just for this guy.

Looks awesome!!! The AML 0-6-0 is the favorite live steam
locomotive in my fleet. Wait til you see how smooth, powerful and reliable this little engine is.

Martin,

You have picked a good starter locomotive. Make sure you don’t over fill the boiler with water as they don’t like water in the cylinders. Have Jason send you steam oil and a butane can adapter and you will be ready to go.

Don’t run the gas too high as the smokebox will start to discolor. Low heat is best so if you are not a patient man you will learn to be one! You should have 40 pounds on the gauge and you will be ready to start running.

Ask any questions that you have, There are no stupid questions as we have all asked the same questions when we started in live steam.

Mike McCormack

mocrownsteam

Hudson, Massachusetts

Thanks Michael, I can think of a dumb question right off the bat here The butane. What do you use exactly and where do you get it?

Martin,

So glad you’ll have the opportunity to get gong in live steam! My friend Mike has given you some good advice (especially about over filling the boier) to which I would add, put some warm (not hot) water in the tender to surround the gas tank. A friend nearby who runs his 0-6-0 a lot says that makes a huge difference. As for the butane many of us use cans purchased in four packs at the Asian grocery store. They are the type of can that is inserted in a table top one burner stove. I’ll bet there is at least one such market in a cosmopolitan town like Cville.

Now you need to start watching for steamups to attend. The friendships to be developed in this small niche area of the model train hobby are the best. There is so much to learn and fun to be had. I’ll bet it won’t be long until you are looking for a second live steamer.

Have fun,

Tom

Congrats Martin. You cant go wrong with the train dept. Jay will take good care of you and your needs. Good luck.(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

Martin Sant said:

Thanks Michael, I can think of a dumb question right off the bat here The butane. What do you use exactly and where do you get it?

I Google’d “web results for asian grocery store near Charlottesville, VA” Found a number of asian grocery stores within the area. This one looked very promising

C’ville Oriental
Asian Grocery Store
1195 Seminole Trail
(434) 984-4903

Martin,

I use camping stove gas that is a butane/propane mix like the stuff Coleman sells in sporting goods stores. In cooler weather the performance of the burner is better with the mix as opposed to straight butane. As Tom wrote warm water in the tender helps in the cooler months.

Keep those questions coming!

Mike

mocrownsteam

Hudson, Massachusetts

I get my butane from the local smoke shop that sells more that just cigs. You will need the warm bath of water around the gas, espicaly in colder weather running. The gas tank gets cold as it flows to the burner, this lowers the pressure of the gas. On my Frank S, this makes the differance between making enough steam to run and not running. Congrats on the new engine, looking forward to pics of her running at your place Mike

I get my butane from the local smoke shop that sells more that just cigs.

And you pay a lot for it - probably $5-$10 for a can that is half the size of the asian butane costing $3-$5. It’s OK for the occasional steam-up, but my EBT #12 will empty a butane can in one run.

Thanks for all the helpful replies! More dumb questions:

So is it ok to use the propane/butane mixes on the 060? It won’t hurt it? I’ve found both the butane and the mix at Walmart. I’ve also seen bulk butane from amazon, 24 cans for $26, 8oz per can. How much typically fits in something like the AML 060? I mean, how may ‘fill ups’ would one get from an 8oz can? Are most cans ‘standard’ on the nozzle?

I was also wondering about steam oil? Is it some sort of special blend or is it just a particular type I could get in bulk?

Some other odds and ends- I really want to control this guy with servos and my control system. But I am assuming there is no electrical considerations in the stock locomotive? How is the headlight illuminated? Do steam locomotives typically have running lights of any kind? I’ve been googling the full size USRA 060s and it’s difficult to find details on any lights or see anything in the photos.

I’m sort of nashing my teeth waiting on this thing but I think if I bug Jason any more he’s going to be convinced I’m somewhat insane

Not dumb, you know enough to ask.

butane propane mix: Fine, use it especially in cooler weather.

Forget Amazon and go to the Asian grocery. It’s the same stuff, no shipping (might be hazmat) and looking at the tank I estimate about three fills per 8 oz can. The 0-6-0 tank is high up so no adapter with the butane cans is needed. You will need an adapter (Jason has them) for the threaded cap on the mix cans.

Steam oil: Absolutely!!! Don’t use anything else. Get it from Jason The lubricator has a drain so you’re OK there but you probably should have a syringe to draw 30-40 ml of water out of the boiler for steam space after you fill it. I bet he has those too. You’ll also need lube oil for the running gear. I recommend 3 in 1 electric motor oil in the blue can not the regular red and black can. Lowes has it or other places.

I can’t help you with RC, I run manual. There are no electrics in the engine, the headlight is not illuminated. My suggestion is to get comfortable with servicing and running the locomotive manually and when you are comfortable start to think about modifications.

Are there any live steamers in your area? Didn’t you used to be in Central NY and I invited you to come over? A mentor is a very helpful thing. I had Kevin Strong when I started 20 years ago and he was a fantastic teacher.

Finally, YOU ARE SOMEWHAT INSANE!!! We all are so don’t let it bother you. You are about to enter a niche of the model train hobby that most who have not been bitten by the bug just don’t understand. They put their trains on the track, turn on the power and off they go. We check the fasteners, oil the works, put in fuel, oil and water, light the fire and then WAIT for the fuel to do its thing and then we run for a relatively short time before more service is needed.

AND WE LOVE IT!

Keep those questions coming if you have them.

Have fun,

Tom

Very nice acquisition Martin! Steam oil is special in that it is not petroleum based. It needs to have tallow in it so that it can dissolve into the steam and deposit/lubricate in the cylinders. I’d recommend a second syringe to suck out the water in the lubricator at runs end. As Tom said you could use the drain valve on it, but my opinion is it’s easier to suck it out with a syringe.

You and I are on the same wave length with R/C. I think it really ads to the fun. I experienced it for about 10 minutes in my Ruby before the cobbled together servo mounts broke. It was fantastic. To be able to run on a layout with grades, and switch cars with live stem is very cool. I’d recommend the Spektrum DX6i radio. It’s a very nice unit and can control up to 6 channels. It can be bound with 10 different receivers and hold optimization features for all of them. As far as electric in the loco, you have to get crafty. You’ll have to find a place for the receiver, batteries & mounting spots for the various servos. You can have a stand alone system for lighting with its own batteries, or make a system that can make use of the servo batteries. A reed switch can be used to detect the position of you Johnson Bar servo for a reverse light.

If you have time to kill you can check out my Ruby Bash log and see where I’m finding places to tuck servos. I’m not far from putting in the electrical system but it of course comes last on the build list.

Thanks for the advice guys. Helps tremendously. I’m looking forward to getting going! Hopefully soon.

Tom, no, never lived in NY, my daughter did work in NYC for a couple of years and we visited once. Convinced me I really really like my rural setting here in Central VA We did fly over some of middle NY, beautiful forests and scenery. But me no like big apple. Also, nope, no live steamers here in Charlottesville, at least that I know of. Actually, according to the single train/hobby shop here, I’m the only G scaler he knows of in the area. As far as running, I will initially be manual, I do want to get the feel of things before I tinker with any controls. But I like to run in the evenings and would really like a working headlight. But that’s later.

Randy, amazing Ruby work. I want to try that too one day. Almost bought a Ruby kit but Jason got back to me in the nick of time As far as R/C, I am very (very) into control systems. I’m working on my own design that will do both diesels (battery/DCC) and steam. Or I hope so. I’ve just finished a redesign pass on my client board to shrink it down. I’m refactoring all the software as well, although it’s mostly a clean up pass as I have all the subsystems up and running. One day I’d like to have a consist of the 060 and my RS3 and have them work together on some grades or something like that. Not sure why, just think it would be way cool

Again, thanks to everyone for all the advice on this. This is a great site!

Martin,

Adding RC to the 0-6-0 can be done, but lots of work. The big issue is that the back of the tender tank was soldered shut at the factory so you cannot access that space without cutting, etc. I put RC in mine by using part of the water space where the optional hand pump is supposed to mount. At the local RC store I picked up an airplane fuel tank that would fit and cut it open to hold the battery and receiver. The loco has very little room for servos. I could only fit a throttle servo in mine that was mounted between the frames.

I think I would advise playing with the unit first and getting the hang of steaming and then you can think about changes that can be made. For lighting the front headlight I replaced the handrails with K&S tubing and ran heat resistant Kynar wire through the tube and used the loco as ground. You can do lots of things with the loco but, as I said, I would take it slowly and see how the loco runs and get comfortable with the operation and then go to town with the mods.

Mike McCormack

mocrownsteam

Hudson, Massachusetts

Michael I agree completely. I’m getting ahead of myself here. Any mods will be carefully considered after I get comfortable with manual operations. One thing at a time

Congrats. Nice looking steamer and always good to see another person getting into live steam. Tom described it perfectly. Just a warning live steam are like chips, you cant have just one. I thought I would only buy one, well now I lost count on how many I have.

Another good source for Butane is Ebay, free shipping and no hazmat fee. I dont have any place that sells it localy http://www.ebay.com/itm/262469261179?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK

Our local Walmart also carries larger isobutane cans but they will need an adapter to work with our engines. The AML 0-6-0 has always been on my short list of desired engines. Rare to see them come up for sale unless one attends a steam up. For now my line is more suited to Frank S or one of the lovely Regner geared engines. Mike

I told Jay to send me all the stuff I would need and just invoice me. I got a box of goodies on Friday. Gas adapters, water bottle, steam and lubricating oil. Fired it all up over the weekend and shot a bit of video-

Looks good Martin,

I like your railway too. You’ll probably get requests as to how you built it.

Reminds me I have to pick up leaves today.

Have fun,

Tom