Creating A Real Stem Engine Model

What a Joy

Getting an engine to work is joy to your heart here is apicture of me taken by my wife at the moment my enjine ran for the first time on air.

Current state Boiler mounted and tested (.certificate granted), cladding and Cab under construction, and then onto installing the miles of plumbing
 

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Trainclown ..........Started the frames in 1992 , The day after I built the boiler I found I had Cancer so ,the loco was put on a back burner. Got cured of the Cancer then moved house Built a granny flat in the back of my sons house have just started to reassemble my workshop in me sons garage So when my lathe, Milling machine and Shaper are working again it will be full Steam ahead to finish the Loco
 

krokodil

Member
Yesterday we also spent about 3 hours with the initial running experience with the latest real steam engine of my friend. It is the ASTER's German class 52 built from kit and modified for the Austrian railways. The model is in scale 1 and after about 1 hour heating finaly the machine started to move. We have now to tight diverse places (loosing to much steam) and also improve the heating as for some reason the construction do not create enough hot air flow, so without external fan we cannot reach the required pressure. We will see what can we do.
The model is wonderful, excellent construction with very small problems, we do hope to solve soon. (Pictures will be placed next week.)
 

boppa

Member
chipmonk said:
eric, if i were you i would attempt this project in a larger scale first, perhaps O, i seem to remember when i was about 6-7(10 years ago) my father got me a small live steam engine that was supposed to be a model of a stationary steam engine, used say for a saw mill or factory, it was not a "scale" model but the boiler was about the size of a descent sized 0 scale loco. did i mention it actually worked?! i of course being quite young thought it was great, but we only ran it a few times before the fuel ran out, (these little white bricks about 1" by 1/4" that we placed under the boiler and lit. there was some fairly simple tubing and one piston that drove a flywheel. the flywheel could be hooked up to a small stamped tin figure whose hand would move back and forth while holding a saw. it was pretty interesting i wish i still had it. it cam complete with whistle and everything, a fully functional steam engine that could theoretically by put on rails, with some fabrication of course. i would asume that someone still makes these as i think i saw one for sale....somewhere maybe a year or so ago. a search on google could turn up some results.
Be sure to post some pics when you get this project started!

Anyway i hope this helps, good luck
Chris :thumb:

my brother still has one of these and its still working!
doesnt have the tin man tho
 
Siderod.... I know how you feel !!!!!! The steam... the smell and the joy of having something alive under your control . almost like you know what
 
Wow that is great guys.
I have been researching the steam engine and how to build one. It probably wont get started right away but I am looking into getting the materials together.

Is there any good way to determine what to use to construct the machine?
Aluminum, Copper, Steel, Brass??

Eric
 

Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
On smaller scales (HO) I would use brass and copper in some places as it's easier to work with and can be soldered.
I've been thinking of using teflon for some parts like pistons and spool valves.
On larger scales, steel would be my choice for it's strength.
My brother has a live steam O scale Hudson kit from Little Engines. It uses a veriety of materials . Steel, brass, copper and aluminum.
 

krokodil

Member
Our latest steamer

This is the promised picture of the Class 52 on our scale 1 layout. It is a real steam (ASTER kit). After some problems the engine runs quite well.
 

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