True for the big stuff on tourists lines but isn’t there a size capacity ceiling below which the federal inspections don’t apply? I know that the ride-on stuff is exempt, at least the smaller ride-on stuff is.
Well, it may be exempt, but most clubs will not let a live steamer on their lines, without some kind of inspection certificate. The boiler has to be pressure tested and certified somehow. Not being in that niche of the hobby, I do knot know all of the specifics
David Maynard said:
Well, it may be exempt, but most clubs will not let a live steamer on their lines, without some kind of inspection certificate. The boiler has to be pressure tested and certified somehow. Not being in that niche of the hobby, I do knot know all of the specifics
You are correct. All clubs that run live steam locomotives have to have boiler checked and hydro-tested every year OR they DON’T run. Period. The boiler is NOT the only thing checked. All safeties are checked for their correct "pop-off settings and ALL plumbing is checked for leakage. With all the “sue-happy” public that rides today, you would be crazy not to check these boilers.
The above is THE policy for my club, Los Angeles Live Steamers and we are one of the largest around.
Just a sidenote about what Vic is saying about having the real thing running on your property and if you have the unlimited resources to do something like a full-size railroad…Seymour Johnson, who lived in Montecito, California was CEO of Johnson Controls, a company founded by his grandfather. Mr. Johnson had two scales of railroads on his 40 acres. One was the Goleta Valley Railroad (I was a member) in 7-1/2 inch gauige and was about 2 miles of track. His other scale was 15 inch gauge. There were two Hudson 4-6-4’s used on the property. He had the land AND the financial resources to do whatever he wanted. It STILL took him over ten years to build that mountain railroad and the numerous bridges were built by professionals! And still this is not anywhere near what Vic believes could be built. When you start building in the size of a 2-footer or even 18 inch gauge, the construction costs go out of sight. Cost of rail in this size is extraordinarily expensive, cost of ties, ballast…this is NOT a size for everyone to tackle, even those with more wealth than any of us can imagine. This is why you see so many large and expansive railroads in 7-1/2 inch, all started by wealthy folks. Probably the largest in the world is Train Mountain in Southern Oregon. 38 miles of actual track in an area of pine trees that is over 4 miles in length and just about 2 miles in width. This was all started by one wealthy man with a dream, Quentin Breen. Do a Google of Train Mountain for a real eye opener in massive 7-1/2 layouts! BTW, they had a Operations Meet this past weekend.
By “full size” I’m talking about 12", 15" to 18" feldbahn and estate railways with tiny engines and tiny cars, not recreating Maine Two Footer or Colorado three foot stuff. Just to be clear.
Which would be modelable in G as Gn15, which uses HO gauge track and wheels to represent 15in gauge like Heywood Etates, and similar in 1/24 to 1/22 scales. For 20in gauge like some US mining trams, either, I forget which, 1/32 or 1/35 scale is used with HO gauge track. And with short cars, 4 wheel locos, and handlaid track, some insane curve radii can be used, we’re talking like 4 inches. Turntables made from CDs, anyone?
And then there’s Gnine on N gauge track …
If you read the history of Walt Disney and Disneyland, it was started because of the liability he realized when an accident happened on a Sunday afternoon at his home ride on railroad. Everything is a gamble, you can even get a paper cut stamp collecting. BUT fun is fun.
Ric Golding said:
If you read the history of Walt Disney and Disneyland, it was started because of the liability he realized when an accident happened on a Sunday afternoon at his home ride on railroad. Everything is a gamble, you can even get a paper cut stamp collecting. BUT fun is fun.
If you read Michael Broggie’s book “Walt Disney’s Railroad Story”, it’s fascinating to read how Disneyland came to be. Originally Walt built his home 7-1/4" ride-on railroad at his home in Holmby Hills, CA (near Brentwood) to experiment using that gauge to haul passengers around a very small “Disneyland” property to be located across the now Ventura Freeway, very near the location of his studio here in Burbank. Ideas and drawings were submitted to the city of Burbank, but were not approved. A few years later, Anaheim became the location for what is now “the Happiest Place on Earth”. I met Michael about twenty years ago when he and one of Disney’s daughter’s, Diane Disney Miller were proposing to move Walt’s barn from the estate to our LALS facility in Griffith Park. Walt Disney is one of the charter members of LALS along with Ollie Johnston, one of the “Nine Old Men” of Disney’s animators.
Michael Broggie’s father, Roger, was the person who helped Walt build his live steam 4-4-0 “Lilly Belle” in the studio machine shop. That locomotive now resides in the Disney Museum in San Francisco.
Forrest Scott Wood said:
Which would be modelable in G as Gn15, which uses HO gauge track and wheels to represent 15in gauge like Heywood Etates, and similar in 1/24 to 1/22 scales. For 20in gauge like some US mining trams, either, I forget which, 1/32 or 1/35 scale is used with HO gauge track. And with short cars, 4 wheel locos, and handlaid track, some insane curve radii can be used, we’re talking like 4 inches. Turntables made from CDs, anyone?
And then there’s Gnine on N gauge track …
Trust me on this, you DONT want to use N track and tiny N scale 4-wheel drivetrains. I came from trying feldbahn in HOn30, HO scale using N track and mechanisms, the little drives are not the best and it can be VERY frustrating to work with. It was a path to madness, and not the good kind of madness!
SOOOOOH,
This whole ride on train stuff is terribly intriguing! Many of you know that Jan and I have been traveling to interesting train operations and other railroad locations in the Summer. I thank all of you that have welcomed or, at least, tolerated our visits. It really is great to be with the people you first met as just online friends and many we now see many times a year in different locations and have become some of our closest friends.
A couple of years ago, we traveled to Canada before the American Invasion and got to ride the Steamship Sequin of the Muskokas Steamship Line.
http://realmuskoka.com/muskoka-steamships/
This deepened our friendship with Roger and Susie Caiazza and that led to stronger friendships with many other members of the Finger Lakes Live Steamers.
www.fingerlakeslivesteamers.org/
We are now members of that wonderful organization and has been our Summer anchorage as we travel to Canada, Boston and points east.
But earlier in this thread I asked, “Does anyone know a list or site listing other clubs or organizations with 1 inch, 7.25 inch and 7.5 inch ride on sites?”
Since then I found a site called “Discover Live Steam”.
Its a great site of a lot of dreams. But you need to look at it close, because - besides the wanted ads, there is a lot of information there.
Check out this page -
http://www.discoverlivesteam.com/A-clubs.htm
Look who is maintaining the listings, Rick Henderson of PC Rails. You old guys, remember, Rick and the boxcars from way back when. Remember the listing of every Shay ever created. Somewhere I lost track of Rick. Found him.
Did you see this list -
http://www.discoverlivesteam.com/A-clubs.htm
Holy crap! There are a lot of them. There are a lot in Florida, where we are trying to spend our Winters. Remember the early part of this rant was about Summer? I think we have found some stuff to do in the Winter, in Florida.
Okay, you stuck with me this far.
Now go to the wanted ads -
http://discoverlivesteam.com/forsale/
go to the locomotive section -
http://discoverlivesteam.com/discoverforsale/locomotive.html
go all the way to the bottom of the page
and click on the
7.5" ga. J&S Rail Bus & Car
Yep, that is now in the back of the car. It was owned by a former Coastie, “TK the MK”. And through our emails back and forth, his railroad is only 40 miles from where we stay in Florida. He’s got a great private railroad.
Through him and a friend, we got invited to another railroad and last Sunday we visited the Central Pasco and Gulf.
Next weekend, we are going to a private railroad that spands two or three neighbors yards, so I’m told.
Talked to Scott, who builds the J&S Rail bus (he loosely modeled it after the HLW Dizzy) and has a large railroad in Tennessee, we are going to visit them next week on our way home for Thanksgiving.
I was told a whole lot of people gather at Ridge and travel to a whole bunch of railroads in the Spring down here. Yep, February.
This is all proving interesting.
Ric,
Happy to see you have joined us all in the BIG ride-on trains! That is a very good price for that loco and a riding car. So you have both items in your car now? How cool is that!! You know, this is not the END. This ride-on hobby can be addictive…there are so many tracks to visit around the country. The photos look like they were taken on Scott’s layout in Tennessee. Please say “hello” to him for me when you visit. He’ll remember me I’m sure. 
If you decide you need more riding cars (or even a brand new, wireless controlled SD 45 in 1/8th scale!), talk to West Bend Railcar Shops in West Bend, Wisconsin. David Gehrke owns the place and he is a great guy to work with.
Scott Lindsay is a great guy. I first met him in early 2011 when I started to buy his ABS bridge kits for my 1/20.3 trains. He also does a lot of work in 1-1/2 scale now and builds some nice stuff at a fair price. When he found out I was also into the large scale ride-on trains, he would call me here in Burbank at all hours discussing what I was building and I traded some drawings to him so he could build a Baldwin electric box cab in 1/8th scale.
Thanks Gary,
We are very much on the low end of the learning curve, but still having fun with trains. Finding out some of these guys are in to “operations”. And there is a certain amount of operations, just negotiating the tracks. 
Ric Golding said:
Thanks Gary,
We are very much on the low end of the learning curve, but still having fun with trains. Finding out some of these guys are in to “operations”. And there is a certain amount of operations, just negotiating the tracks.
Ric,
If you ever get further south, there’s a private RR in north Fort Myers, the Buckingham Central. Oops - just googled it to find you the website, and I found an obituary for the owner. I can probably find out what happened to the RR though . . as I am a member of the Tradewinds & Atlantic RR in Coconut Grove near Ft lauderdale.
Where there is a fine gauge-1 track built by Andrew.
Congratulations Ric. I’m pretty sure I remember the day the seed was planted for this (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Marilyn won’t like this pic; she’s lost a lot of weight since then.
Hehehe… he’s running a train while butterfly gazing…“Yes Congrats Ric!”
Jon …was that the day Ken wrecked the train???
Nice move Ric. Ah, but to dream…
Daktah John said:
Congratulations Ric. I’m pretty sure I remember the day the seed was planted for this (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Edit: For Jon!
Great memory there, Jon! Yeah, maybe the seed was planted then. Not big in to the roundy round stuff, but if track is long enough you don’t notice. Jan really likes it and it gives destinations of exploring new areas. Very excited about Finger Lakes getting in to Operations. Understand some of the layout are in to it down here. Will learn more today when exploring the “Manatee Central Railroad” in Parrish, Fl.
Great news Ric! That’s a great start. I’ve been collecting drawings and info on EBT #11 for a 7.5" gauge build. I’m starting to get some parts drawn in Solidworks. I’ve wanted to build ride on Live steam since I was 12. I’ve got the shop about ready and I know I have the right Loco picked now. I think you guys are going to have a lot of fun. Congrats!
Ric,
The man who built my latest addition to my 1-1/2 rolling stock (David Gehrke@West Bend Railcar Shops, Wisconsin) (48 foot steel gondola), highly recommended The White Creek RR in Cedar Rapids, MI. for a visit. Here is a link to their website. These guys are “lunatics:)” when it comes to operations in 1/8th scale! 6.5 miles of track around two lakes, heavily forested and miniature towns everywhere with cars spotted in all of them. Link: http://www.whitecreekrr.com/.
Just Google White Creek RR for all kinds of Youtube videos
Randy: I started when I was 13 (1956) with a 1 inch scale Little Engines 0-4-0 side tank engine. Had the seed planted very early and the addiction is STILL there at 72 years old! Doing 1-1/2 inch for the past 40 years
Oh Ric, why must you join the dark side and post the info, always thought this would be a great hobby (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)
Now my mind is running with it again, hence the sound you are hearing of a marble rattling around in a tin can(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)
I look forward to seeing pictures and hearing of your adventures. Maybe someday I will build a small critter and join you on some rail lines (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
And if I found the right one on that sale page, I like it 
looks like a great find!