Live Steam?

Everything is forging ahead with the construction of my layout, but i just had a thought; everything has been designed with battery power/radio control in mind,but what if i decide to buy a live steamer? Is there anything that I should do now (just in case). ie bigger radii curves,long straights etc? I'm a bit worried that if somebody visits me with live steam my layout wont support it.

Mikey

I would say you won't really have any problems, Mikey. As long as you haven't got steep gradients with sharp curves at the bottom (where an overly-keen live-steamer might come to grief). I have two live-steamers, an 0-4-0 Raisa and an 0-6-0 Lady Anne, and both of these are OK on R2 curves. I don't have R1s so can't comment on them, but I would imagine no problems as the Lady Anne's centre wheels are flangeless anyway.

The only issue you might have is if you ever went down the route of track power, then you might need to ensure that any live-steamers have insulated wheels (most seem to do these days) and that the track is cleaned after the live-steamers have been about as the oil-deposits they invariably leave will potentially compromise electrical pickup.

Sound advice from Mr T.

I would only add that a separate 'steam up area' is advisable away from the main line.
This is pretty essential here in France as not only is it a place where you can get dirty without spoiling those nice buildings but when people come with their engines especially Frenchies they do like a place to gossip and drink while the machines are raising steam.

Glad to see you're getting the bug Mikey. I think your chrissie present should be a Regner catalogue.

You might consider this system Mikey,

NOT Live Steam

it is fascinating to watch. even if it is irrelevant

Blimey I thought magnets were for triggering reed switches! Impressive!!

Mikey

A 6m high liquid nitrogen silo may be a bit of an eyesore in the garden....

Hi Mike, I have a Roundhouse live steam Sandy River and Rangley Lakes loco which manages R1 curves OK. I do run it slowly though!

That's a great locomotive Geoff. I think one of the best from Roundhouse and I shall look forward to seeing that run next year.

Some tempting pics on here would be nice.

Well I don't own one myself, but I know a man who does; I have seen the loco in operation at an open day from last year:





If you want to see the rest of the pics from this particular open day, you can click here. I seem to remember the 'sharper' curves there were R2s...

Oh, and here's some video footage from the same event, the opening sequence of which shows the above loco in fine steaming...