Steam Engine I've Never Seen In O Gauge

A Rail King Imperial sized N&W Jawn Henry.......   It is a steam engine!!!

An inspection engine, like an oversized steam dummy....add that to my want list of

Mckeen, steam coach, Edwards railcar, etc., etc., although I have not seen photos of

one used on western railroads.   In the railroad station on the grounds of the Shelburne, Vt. historical museum (just south of Burlington where TCA had a convention a few years ago) high above your head, in the dark in the ticket

office, is a photo I managed to get a fuzzy photo of, a coach, loco combination, with a boiler out front (as though the following coach was an extension of the loco's cab, a one-car train)  It, too, is on my "to build" list.

Don

The New York Elevated Railways called these steam dummies   It was basically a passenger car fitted over a steam engine.  Here is an early one

They were later replaced by Forney steam engines   This is one that I would love to be made.

The idea of a "Steam Dummy" was that it was found that regular steamers tended to spook horses.  Some how the disguise worked and the horse went on his way undisturbed.  WHY......ask the horse! 

Don,

That's a real quirky looking piece of equipment; probably would make a great looking O gauge model.

Rick

I believe a steam dummy referred to the fact the engine was basically a empty container which was  filled up with pressure from a stationary steam source.

The engine was not capable of making it's own steam pressure.

Actual drive principle was normal.

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Thanks Rusty, sure got that one switched dnuora. tt

That's a fireless cooker, or just plain "fireless" locomotive.

A steam dummy is essentailly a steam locomotive in streetcar clothing in an attempt not to frighten the horses.

Rusty

I will give MTH and Lionel a call this afternoon and ask them to get cracking on making this model.  They should be able to get it out to dealers in time from Christmas (not sure what year or decade though).

Just found an On3 kit of an inspection train  $32.00 

Allan, you love the Lionel 520's you must love one of these. Don

Here's a similar steam powered rail motor car, restored at the Didcot Steam Centre, Didcot Parkway, UK. Great Western Railway used these cars for branch line service.

B&OBill

I'll see your inspection locomotives and raise you two Holman's:

Ooo-La-La, Soo Line...

You'll never see these in any scale.   Don't ask me what they were supposed to prove, I don't know.

Rusty

I'm more worried about getting hit by an asteroid than having to dig deep to pay

for one of these from the major makers.  But a steam dummy is not an inspection

engine, and one steam dummy you can study, and I made a 3 rail model of using a Marx chassis, is the Hercules at Kentucky's Mammoth Cave Nat. Park, from the Mammoth Cave RR.  Somewhere I think I saw both modeled, in brass, a steam dummy and an inspection engine..not sure of scales, probably HO..Ken Kidder, Red Ball, ?????

Either can be easily modeled in three rail, with a junkbox 0-4-0 switcher chassis

for the dummy and a small passenger steamer chassis for the inspection engine.

The term "dummy" was found by Beebe and Clegg in "Mixed Train Daily" to be applied to the Missouri and Arkansas in a folk song entitled"On the Dummy Line", and I

quote that below...

"Some folk say that the Dummy don't run,

But let me tell you what the Dummy done done:

She left St. Louis at a half past one

And she rolled into Memphis at the settin' of the sun."

The engine shown as the original "dummy" of the song, only from the front rusting in

a shed, looks like an 0-4-0 or 0-6-0 swicher with a footboard instead of a pilot.  If

it was a dummy as shown above, all of the cover had been stripped away, but the cab

looks like a steel cab.

(in another thread, there is a discussion on favorite RR books....I forgot to mention

"Mixed Train Daily" as one of mine)

A fireless steamer, who must know Thomas.

Hi Don, you just taught me something new, for me anyway.

I would love to have the Black and Red Woody, On30 model Ben posted, but in O-gauge of course.

B&O Bill's short was really cool, I would buy one of those, in O in a heart beat.

I even like the one you posted Don in green, what a cool looking train for around the tree. Or, chugging between job sites on your layout.

Thank's guys, very cool stuff!

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania has a fireless that looks like it's straight from the Marx factory:

Image: www.vistadome.com

Rusty

Yes, my friend, that B&O 316 would be a definite addition to my roster!

......that wouldn't sell very well. 

CNJ had a similar style inspection engine based on the American Standard design.  All I can say is that on a Jersey summer, it could not have been comfortable for the Jersey Central brass at all!

Here's an HO brass model of the CNJ inspection engine:

Bob

It never stops amazing me as to what was actually made in real life....Greg

It has never stopped amazing ME....how much was done in HO, or even O scale, as seen in the ads paging through MR's of the 1940's-1960's, and how little has been done in 3 rail.

3-rail did not have the status in the hobby in the 1940's-60's that it has today.

Compare what was available for 3-rail in the 1960's to today.  There's been quite a bit done for the 3-rail enthusiast.

Rusty