Seldom seen in the USA, 2 rail O scale live steam in the garden

Love it.   Thank you.

Glad you enjoyed it.  I have one O gauge live steamer, one of the simple Moguls done by Corgi/Bassett Lowke in 2000.  Mine is the British Rail black version that I converted to a butane gas burner vs the original alcohol burner.  Much safer and cleaner burning for indoor use on my layout.  I would love one of those fine scale steamers with internal firing, but they seem to seldom come up for sale.   

How is something like that controlled? I kind of saw how they got them started, but what do you do to stop one? Those trains can be going pretty fast, so I don't think you could just make a grab for it!

Jeff

They have a manual throttle lever and on an internally fired model, a blower lever for the steam jet that shoots up the stack to draw the fire when the engine is not moving.  Mine is a pot boiler with the fire under the boiler, like pot.  Some have fitted RC control, but its not easy in O scale, micro servos do help

I always thought they fired them and turned them loose with no control whatsoever, thus the speed.  I have a very old single piston steam engine, haven't fired it in years.

Many of them do run like scalded rabbits.  Its a testiment to the drivers skill if they are running at a proper speed, be it express train speed or freight train speed.   Most people these days have little understanding of the expansive power of steam, even in the real railroad when lines host a steam excursion.  Having a raised railway helps with keeping the speed under control as your not having to bend over to try to adjust the throttle. 

I think the RC control would be mandatory, you get one of those zipping along and it might be difficult.

This little guy appears to have some remote control.  How cool would it be to have the whistle and bell under remote control?

That one is not live steam John, hence why they call it the Mouse as in electric mice.  Which is a UK term for electric powered trains, especially in smaller scales.   One, with practice, run a live steamer in O, 1 or G scale with manual control in a realistic manor and speed.  Just takes practice, just like running a real one.  Unlike electric power, live steam operation is much more dynamic with each engine having its own "personalitiy"  So to see one being run in a scale like manner is a testiment to the mastery of that engine by its owner.  Having a nice heavy train on the drawbar helps with tempering speeds, especially with tall driver passenger engines.   RC is by no means mandatory for scale speed operation

I refer to the having to catch the engine to tinker with the direction controls, etc.  That's where I'd want remote control.

I would not mind having that layout to run onboard battery powered trains.  Seems that would make more sense on a garden layout than indoor.           j

I have seen guys doing onboard battery/dead rail in O gauge.  Either putting the batteries in the tender if its large enough or a dedicated battery car that connects to the locomotive via a tether cable.  The engines power pickups would have to be removed or disabled so as not to backfeed the track.   

How do they manage the water level in the boiler of these small live steam engines?

most go by how the model acts, and most have a hand pump or provisions for a hand held pump bottle to be used.  With the steam blower running, you keep pumping till it starts to squirt water out of the steam blower, that means full boiler.   If the model starts to slow down while running, you stop, turn on the blower and start pumping water. Sight glasses, even in G scale are notorious for not being accurate. Unlike the real ones, running low on water isnt an explosion waiting to happen.  These are low pressure steam, under 3 bar is typical and the boilers are hugely overbuilt.  On an alcohol fired engine, loss of draft commonly results in the fire going out as it needs a draft to keep burning.     Once you learn your engine, you know how quickly or not it runs low on water.   There is an "Art" to running live steam, its very hands on and not for everybody.  But everybody should give it a try at some time in my opinion, either in O gauge or G gauge(I have both)

Thank you for your very informative reply, artful dodger.