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Live Steam Garden Railroad Model Train


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Aside from my architecture and photography hobby, I have taken my longtime model railroading experience to another level of live steam.

 

This was the first run of the morning, the sun was rising and the air cool as wet steam and water droplets spout out of the stack as this Great Northern Railway Mikado steams around a back lit curve with caboose in tow. The rails are 45mm (LGB) track, the locomotive machine model is by Aster of Japan, and the caboose was made by myself. The locomotive runs on methol-alcohol (400ml) tank and will run for about 45 minutes with replenishment of water which is fed to the boiler via an axle pump from the tender.

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Thank you for all of your remarks.

It is a fun but expensive hobby akin to our Leica cameras.

 

Our group was part of a display at the Northwest Train Museum just east of Seattle, hence the full size model in the background.

 

In the closer up photo, you will see two levers between a vertical sight glass. The sight glass is a view of the water level inside the boiler, while the left lever is for the blower for the control of the draft in the firebox. The right lever is the throttle that controls the amount of steam let into the cylinders governing speed. Not in view is the Johnson bar which is a ratched lever that sets the cylinders for forward, neutral, and reverse. Some guys like to radio control their locomotives, however I prefer the hands on approach where we follow along with the trains as they go around the garden. To stop them you simply extend a hand and adjust the controls.

I've also attached other images shot with my M8 at some of our fine gatherings of live steamers.

 

The last couple photographs are close-ups of the caboose model that I am developing as a kit for a modeler to be able to construct. The parts are of laser cut plywood, cast metal, wire, and polycarbonate windows.

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