Last spring I purchased a tram or steam donkey engine from GRS UK. It had been put together by someone in europe - no idea who. It looked great running on Jerry’s (Naptowneng) SC&M RR.

I was told it had been built from a couple of LGB engine cabs - in fact the inside says “2077” which makes the part a “Daisy” cab.

I started converting it to battery r/c operation this week, and thought I’d post a few photos so anyone who wants a quirky little tram will know how it was done. Here’s the body, which is symmetrical and obviously 2 cabs back to back.

Inside you can see the cab back and front. There are windows in the ends. Whoever built it added a coal bin at the back (needs a fake load,) and side water tanks. You can also see the cutouts for the ‘daisy’ boiler that he filled.

The front has a smokebox and a pair of cylinders, plus those pretty lamps, which I am lighting with a couple of small LEDs.

Lots of rivet detail around the frame, which hides a Piko 0-4-0 mechanism.

And inside the bodywork is just enough to suggest the steam boiler and controls. The wires come from the motor - I have removed the skates and wheel pickups.

I think it is a neat little loco. It’s getting 4x18650 Liion batteries and a protection board, plus a Viper ESC (and a couple of 6A diodes to drop the voltage a bit.) I think the r/c will be an Orange DSM2 RX and my Deltang TX.

While we are on the subject of steam donkeys, here’s my other new one that arrived just last week from the UK.

This is a Roundhouse “Stanley” (a k a “J.C.Watson”) - live steam and r/c. The other boxcab is Jack’s and also came from the UK. It’s electric, though the Crest r/c has steam sound (!)

For comparison, here they are together on top of my new workbench / roll-top desk. The LGB-Cab unit is 1:22.5, and the RH Stanley is 1:19 scale.

Hi Pete,

Found the link, these are fantastic! The Tram or Steam Donkey is a great example of what I’ve been looking for. Something like this will be a good model to work from.

Now I’ve got to wait to get home to get dimensions off the “Tram”. Trust me, its really not that hard to wait.

As I said earlier - FANTASTIC!!!