I Thought This Would Be The Ultimate Steam Engine

Sounds like it would have been a lot of fun to run a live steamer via track power.  In your video, the trains are running rather quickly, are you able to regulate the speed by dialing down the amount the voltage to the track and thereby regulating the amount of available power to the heating element (btu production) to heat the water?

Steam is water in vapor form.  Possible layout damage?

Water and electricity ?...I'll pass, and since this is the first l heard of it, it must have have been wildly successful😀!

Ultimate? Maybe not, but I would certainly not dismiss these, if only for novelty/historical interest. Also they were made to tun on 2 rail small gauge track and so could not be just plonked on an O gauge layout.

Looks like Hornby made a variety of these in 00 scale, including the Dwight D. Eisenhower A4 pictured below. 

They don’t appear to be manufactured any more but are still serviced and there’s a British live steam club that provides parts.

I can’t find an internal parts diagram but this cutaway gives an idea of the internal workings:

There’s a video that explains these in more detail and it sounds like there’s an equivalent of a pop off valve on the top:

Ingenious, or so it seems to me.

Years ago Polks hobby had one that was under their name. Same concept but the shell was made of plastic and it had a habit of warping due to heat. At one of the Cabin Fever meets in PA years (#2 or#3) ago the Polk ones were selling for about $150.00 or so. Should of bought one, but who knows🤔

Thanks for posting that video. A very cool idea, at least on paper, although I can imagine lots of maintanence issues and possible damage from out of control engines when it derails. It is bad enough having any of my engines derail and crash vs a live steam engine doing the same! Having it outdoors would be a better option in my opinion.