Let's See Your Steam Power!

The backbone of my railroad:

and a personal favorite:

Rusty

Lionel Boston & Albany #618:

Here's some steam on the Free State Junction Railway.

This model of New Jersey Central #833 is an MTH Premier model with PS-1 that I purchased around 1999. Never run. While it's a good-looking model, I think that MTH used its Premier New York Central Hudson (4-6-4) chassis for this (4-6-2) Pacific. Therefore, the model and firebox are about an inch too long and the trailing axle and cab are a similar distance too far aft.

MELGAR

LionChief+ NJC K4 in action:

3463 and the Fast Mail Express pass a west bound El Capitan.

A bit of the gambit.

Ron

I've always liked the PRR T1

Here's some big steam.

Generally my favorite steamer to run when I get the chance, the fantasy Daylight scheme AC-12 cab forward, here shown sounding off in the bottom snap:

I like these because they do not derail on curves, make plenty of noise rumbling along their assigned closed-loops, and with their chuffs, emit a goodly amount of storm-clouds level of smoke, especially when run simultaneously, like you can see here, and their horns are a real nice blast. When I run my trains, for myself as well as for guests, I enjoy a lot of commotion, action, noise, and smoke. I find nothing to whine about amidst that cacophony of the sights and sounds of model railroading...FrankM at Moon Township,USA

"Show us your steam power!"

Oh, gosh, I'll never live long enough.... 

I photographed my K-Line Boston & Albany D1a 4-6-6T suburban tank engine for another thread this morning. Seemed like a good idea to include it here too.

MELGAR

Oh, we're talking little steam.

Just got this one at York, NIB.  It tested out fine on the rollers, and if I ever get my benchwork, I'll be able to test it for real.

I also have the same engine in CNJ livery.

Then there's the Legacy B6sb, nice little unit.

Don't want to leave out my little K-Line A-5...

A few recent 3rd Rail acquisitions...

Tom

I like this thread!  Nice “Grif Teller” images!  Great Erie Berk!  I have one of those in incipiency.  Disc drivers and lost wax brass special trailer truck.  Someday a boiler . . .

A few of my favorites.

Pete

Check my Youtube channel link below.  I'm a all steam operation.

Pete, i'm loving your NYC motive power.

The Mighty H-7! Nick

bob2 posted:

I like this thread!  Nice “Grif Teller” images!  

I was thinking O. Winston Link... 

Mark in Oregon 

Here are a few from my steam fleet. There are more packed away which will eventually make it into a rotation on the layout (as soon as I get some track work finished).

...Wow!... Love that 4449. 

Mark (like 4449, also) in Oregon

My favorite, the N&W J 611.

MTH Premier Southern 1401 in the Smithsonian (20-3006-1; 1994)

Moonson posted:

I like these because they do not derail on curves, make plenty of noise rumbling along their assigned closed-loops, and with their chuffs, emit a goodly amount of storm-clouds level of smoke, especially when run simultaneously, like you can see here, and their horns are a real nice blast. When I run my trains, for myself as well as for guests, I enjoy a lot of commotion, action, noise, and smoke. I find nothing to whine about amidst that cacophony of the sights and sounds of model railroading...FrankM at Moon Township,USA

gandydancer1950 posted: just a few I could get to quickly.....

Moonson posted:

I like these because they do not derail on curves, make plenty of noise rumbling along their assigned closed-loops, and with their chuffs, emit a goodly amount of storm-clouds level of smoke, especially when run simultaneously, like you can see here, and their horns are a real nice blast. When I run my trains, for myself as well as for guests, I enjoy a lot of commotion, action, noise, and smoke. I find nothing to whine about amidst that cacophony of the sights and sounds of model railroading...FrankM at Moon Township,USA

I might feel differently if I had a layout with wide radius track, but what Moonson said resonates with me. I like locomotives that hug the rails around my 031 curves and can pull 11 or 12 train cars. So I shy away from the gorgeous long steamers shown above, and am very happy with petite and medium-sized steamers like these:

Baby and mid-sized Hudsons, steam switchers, and Pennsy K4s are ideal for me. Big Berk # 736, and the 646 or 2046 also run very well on my layout.

Also, MTH RailKing Steamers that run on O31 are generally very good. The RailKing GS4 Southern Pacific Steamer barely navigates my O31 curves and 022 switches, so it is the maximum-size steamer that my layout can handle.

Don't have a 773, but my guess is that it will run OK, but not great, on my layout, like the MTH Railking GS4.

Arnold

One of 7 scale steamers I have. (MTH PRR decapod with ERR, two Lionel B6s switchers, K-line K4s, Lionel Consolidation, Lionel Atlantic, Lionel M1a.  I hope this video of my Decapod works.  I took this a long tome ago before I added lots of trees. 

NP all the way. EXCEPT, The top engine is a American Flyer 565 from the 1941 Catalog that my father bought from a friend in 1945 when he returned from Europe for my 4th Christmas, Still runs great.

A few more.

This thread is going to run for a long time.

At 41,328 pounds of tractive effort, the PRR G5s 4-6-0 was "the most powerful Ten-Wheeler ever built." This MTH Premier model with PS-1 is from the first run in 1999 and, using a BCR, has the most run time of any of my steamers. I own models of the largest steamers but actually prefer to run the smaller engines which are a better fit on my layouts. This engine was definitely a high-quality build by MTH.

MELGAR

Another major advantage of the small and medium-sized steamers, compared to the big ones, is affordability.

I'm not diminishing the big steamers in the slightest. They are magnificent and majestic running on large layouts with wide radius curves. However, they tend to be very expensive, often in excess of $1,000, which is not affordable for me and many others. If I had a substantially larger layout with wide curves, I would probably buy one  big boy steamer with big sounds and smoke.

The reason I'm highlighting the small and medium-sized steamers is to share how much fun they are to run, and how affordable. And on a Postwar layout with 031 curves like mine, you can still experience big steam power with medium sized engines like the ones below.

Below is the classic Postwar Lionel 736 pulling a tender and 11 Postwar cars with ease. It is a very smooth and strong runner with Magnetraction. I paid about $400 for it at a train show about 15 years ago:

Below is the MTH NY Central Mohawk with traction tires pulling 5 Postwar extruded aluminum passenger cars.  I  paid about $300 for it in the mid-1990s:

Arnold

Fendermain posted:

 

Arnold, I concur about small engines as I too have small radius curves. Also, my layout has a prewar theme and small equipment looks better on it. I have included a photo of my Regner live steamer that I run outside.  I could adjust the axles to run on this track but it has a butane burner. Not good for indoors.  Fendermain