Keep 'em coming Eric. Toby is a neat little engine and I like Frank S too, but I love me some geared steam. The climax video was awesome. I can spend ours watching any geared locomotive. The mechanical operations is just fascinating. A live steam shay and climax is on my bucket list. The layout looks great too. Thanks for sharing.
Yesterday I ran my Sandy River and Rangely Lakes #24. she ran well right off the shelf with minimum servicing. I did have to disassemble and clean the hand pump in the tender which didnt seem to be working…does now!
I purchased her new in 1994 from proceeds from overtime earned on a seatest on the USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) her first crossing of the Atlantic!..Rough seas, in company with an aircraft carrier (Teddy Roosevelt?) on which President Clinton landed as we watched.
All the cars are scratch built, roughly 1:20 scale for Maine Two foot gauge.
Eric,
You are killing me with these excellent videos! I’m drooling on my keyboard. The photography of your beautiful railroad is superb. Keep up the splendid work.
Great video Eric, I see the snow is melting time to run the boat car.(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Nice seeing your collection of steamers. Logging engines really look good on your layout.
This time I show my old Number One. It is a modified Ruby. I purchased and modified it in 2005 but kept “improving” it for several years. She started with the standard small cylinders but I swapped them for some of the newer big cylinders. I made a new cab at some point and added details. I wrote her up for Garden Railways in June '06
She doesnt see much action lately and could stand a new safety valve and a little adjustment of the throttle R/C connection. but she seems pretty happy for all that.
Outta sight! Love it.
Wow that was fun.(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Thanks guys…
part of the reason for running all my engines is to check out how they work and perform any maintenance. I adjusted the safety valve and the throttle. and that was a good help. she ran quite a bit better today. the safety seems to be an old Roundhouse safety valve either from the next engine in the stable or purchased special. it is adjustable by turning a ring (nut) a little.
I know nothing about the control of live steam, but it seems, from viewing these and other videos, that they have only two speeds, on and off. Have I missed something?
Steve, no they should be controllable, some more controllable then others.
As David says some are more Controllable than others.
So far the only two I this series that are radio controlled are the roundhouse SR&RL 24 and Ruby old #1. The roundhouse is quite controllable, offering controllable starts and stops and some reason ly slow speed running. The Ruby stops and starts well enough but slow steady speed is hard. Most live steamers do not like to just crawl as sparkles often can. Larger steam models run more smoothly and can run slower than the small ones. Roundhouse has an excellent reputation for smooth running. An Australian fellow has made and sells a chain driven flywheel device which allows for very smooth and slow operation works best on outside frame roundhouse products.
Eric, I have that device. Its called a Slowmo. I installed it in my Roundhouse Billy. It works great.(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif) You can see a video of it on the second page of live steam forum. under lady Linda.
As always the videos are great, Eric. Your layout looks like it has been there forever and seems a natural fit into the environment. Thanks for sharing.
Terrific as always Eric.
It is a shame something can’t be done about the whistles on those live steam engines. I guess the whistle itself doesn’t scale down very well to allow the steam to make it sound nice. Is the problem there is too much water in the steam?
Great looking RR and equipment.
Todd–
I do have a whistle on one engine…lots of fun. the actual whistle is large compared to scale and has to be disguised some how. Even over sized, they tend to be a bit on the shrill side though there is a style of whistle that is deeper pitched if a little breathy sounding. so a prototypical sound isn’t really possible.
The following is my scratch built version of WW&F #9 built in 2011 or so. it is similar looking to the previous engine, modified Ruby #1 but a little larger and much more powerful and controllable. I have attempted some scale speed operations. slowing to a stop is easier than smooth slow starts.
Another great video Eric, Like the way the boxcars rock and roll.(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
That’s one heck of a switch machine on that 3-way…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Ken… That is modeled after thee switch stand for the WW&F 'street way stub switch. It is probably more correctly 7/8th scale.
The track is a little out of level as the frost comes out of the ground and my old box cars have plenty of play in the trucks so they can follow the rough track. They do waddle nicely!
Great video. Love the switches. Did you start hand laying track? In one frame it looks like a section was done or was it a switch?