Hi Guys:
For anyone who is interested:
Beautiful locomotives. Check out the ALCO Hudson video on the main page as well as gallery photos under the various locos offered icon.
Norman
I should’ve done ride on scale
I bought my first live steam locomotive from this company back in 1956. I was 13 at the time. Irene Lewis still owned the shop then. A one-inch scale 0-4-0 tank engine…$315 for the complete kit, un-machined parts. Even included the one-piece bronze firebox casting, front and rear flue sheets, flue material and the copper tube for the boiler!
Norman,
Wonder if they would be interested in seeing one of their old catalogs, circa 1975. I have one. 
Bob C.
Mark Dash said:
I should’ve done ride on scale
Mark, when I win the big lottery prize I am going right into ride on scale. Right after I buy a nice house on a large plot of land, and that is after I change my name so no one I know will find me to try and mooch.
Yea, I am dreaming, but without dreams, life would be rather boring.
That Hudson is awesome! I’m amazed by how good it sounds – much more like a real engine than the G scale live steamers.
I have never understood the appeal of ride on, to me if you the money, space and ability for this:
Then you have the same for this:
…and why would you want a miniature when you can have the full size real thing???
Different strokes Vic. Different strokes.
Ray Dunakin said:
That Hudson is awesome! I’m amazed by how good it sounds – much more like a real engine than the G scale live steamers.
Well, Ray, that would be because it’s uh, bigger.
In any case, they are ALL real steam locomotives, IF they are propelled by steam.
Anyone in OR been to the Shady Dell Live Steamers at Molalla?
It unfailing pees down with rain whenever we go, but it’s a must-do on every trip we make to the PNW.
tac, ig, ken the GFT & The SDLS Fan-club Boys
Well, I have to admit to being a dreamer, too. About twenty years ago I wrote 'Lil Engines, as it was back in those heady days of Lomita Shops, and got their fine brochure to sit and dream about.
And that, Dear Friends, is as far as it ever got. By the time I’d have gotten my paws on the finished bits, shipped over here to UK for my 1.5" scale Northern loco - based, of course, on our own dearly-beloved #700 - it was going to to cost me roughly a quarter the price of our house.
Mrs tac understandably nixed it [spoilblanket], but a fella can dream, right?
tac, abjerct failure in the real world, but hero in his imagination.
If I had more land and a lot more $ I would have done this when the kids were small.
Vic - What is the smallest gauge that a plantation or estate loco would have run on? 1 Foot gauge would be possible in my back yard, but nothing larger.
I’ve ridden on 1:12 at Rod Johnston’s in North Bay. It was very scary, especially going over a long trestle. Both Ken and I managed to roll the train. Fortunately, no one got a picture of me doing it! Ken has fully paid exclusive rights on the one I took of him through the end of 2014, so I can’t post it.
Jon Radder said:
Both Ken and I managed to roll the train. Fortunately, no one got a picture of me doing it! Ken has fully paid exclusive rights on the one I took of him through the end of 2014, so I can’t post it.
I also have an extortion picture…
Jon Radder said:
Vic - What is the smallest gauge that a plantation or estate loco would have run on?
Most American narrow gauge trains seam to be either 24" or 36", however some mining tramlines and contractors construction site RRs ran much narrower. The smallest “reasonable” gauge that I am aware of would be 18" , though I have read about some construction contractors going as small as 15" gauge. 18" seams to be the smallest safe gauge to operate the heavy loads these trains were often asked to haul. The Arizona Copper CO. RR ran on 20" gauge and they successfully ran some pretty big 0-4-4 Porters for that slim a gauge. In Europe 600mm seams to be the most common of the smallest gauges, but again I have read about 450mm gauge lines also, that would make sense as they correspond almost directly to 24" or 18" gauges.
All these are 18" or 20" (A.C. Co) locos
18" would be fun when I win the lotto. Probably buy a bigger place and have room for 24"!
12" to the foot scale, two foot gauge.
It’s the perfect model railroad size.
At that size you can ride in comfort and it still feels like a real train. Any smaller, ie, 18" 0r 12", and it doesn’t even look or feel like a train.
Once you get down to balancing yourself over 7" gauge or worse, 3 1/2" gauge, it’s just no fun at all. Your muscles are all tensed up and your ass is sore as heck. And that’s if you’ve managed to keep yourself onboard and the train on track. I believe that among afficionados these are called king size scales. btw.
12" to the foot scale, two foot gauge.
These little guys are some of the best looking trains I’ve ever seen, whatever continent they may be on.
My personal faves are in India. The Maine two-footers are right up there, though.
It’s the perfect model railroad size. End of rant.
Thank you.
The, uh, Welsh 2ft gauge are pretty good, too. One of them, the Welsh Highland Railway, has four ex-SAR Beyer-Garratt articulated locos, AND the VERY FIRST B-G ever built - plus a lot of other stuff as well, of course.
Wales is THE home of the two-foot gauge…
tac
Oh yes, I wouldn’t want to overlook the Welsh two footers. And who doesn’t love the very B-G to which you refer, Tac? Couple or three of 'em down Ushuia way, too, as I recall, lovely… (I haven’t spell-checked it, sorry.)
Tac, while I am a fan of the Welsh narrow gauge and our 3 foot-WP&Y, D&RGW etc, I have always loved the 7 1/4 inch Tinkerbell type engines in the UK. The Moors Valley Railway, near Bournemouth, is my dream layout with its locomotives large enough that you sit inside the cab and drive the loco, not astride it. They are coal fired and you do both firing and driving. About twenty years ago, I spent a day at Moors Valley learning to drive Jason-one of the early Tinkerbelles-with a ride behind gentleman to teach me. It is one of my best family memories as my spouse and very young children got to ride behind on our own train, later in the day. It cost about 125 pounds for a fabulous day. I later asked the cost of a used Tinkerbelle, and have wished for a lottery win ever since! They are the only engines that I would want in 7 1/2 gauge here. Jim Haylock, the owner has built articulates, moguls, South African etc with the same type of boiler…
Myron
see some of the engines at: www.moorsvalleyrailway.co.uk
I keep threatening my wife that I’m gonna get one of these when I retire.
On second thought, that might not be such a good idea, she will never let me retire!! 
Like Ray says (writes, actually), a beautiful loco that’s interesting/amusing to watch. But not my thing. I do agree with Vic, why play with miniatures if you can have the real (i.e. full scale) thing? As for winning Lotto, as Jon mentions, if I won $245 million take home, like that guy who won’t reveal his identity did, I’d look into buying Maui’s “Sugar Cane Train” from the company that owns it (used to be Kyle Railways) and operating it as a non-profit, which I’ll bet it is anyway, judging by the small number of tourists I see riding it. You’d get two Porter 2-4-0 locos and a gas engine “emergency loco” (used when the steamers are down), plus an engine house and about 7 miles of 3-foot gauge trackage with two depots–one at Kaanapali and the other at the end of the line in Lahaina, where there’s a turntable to turn the loco. The steamers run on recycled crankshaft oil, so no high fuel prices. Best of all, the line runs parallel to one of the most beautiful shorlines in the world in a place that has (to quote Honolulu TV weatherman Guy Hagi), “The best weather on the planet.”