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Vintage live steam

1482 Views 11 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  artful dodger, 
artful dodger
Do we have others here that run vintage live steam in gauge 1 or 0? Engines from the Bassett Lowke, Bing, Marklin ect. I have a pair of live steamers, one is the Corgi/BL remade of the Stanier Mogul in 0 gauge. I have converted mine to a a Bix gas burner set up vs the original alcohol burner. Just recently I have added a Bing for BL LMS Compound in gauge 1 live steam to my collection. It should arrive from the dealer in the UK in the next few days. I am looking forward to burning the dust out of the old girl and waking her up again. In my alcohol burners, I run ultra pure Bioethanol. Its much cleaner burning, so less sooting of the boiler on models that are not black. It also has a much less "stink" to the fumes and a higher flash point, which helps with cab vapor fires. In the states, its sold in bottles for vent free table top fireplaces/wall sconces and so forth. Here is a couple pics and video link to my 0 gauge mogul running on my old indoor railway. I still have the Mogul but have sold the wagons. So, this coming fall, I will be looking for some as I rebuild my indoor railway again.
I also have a Roundhouse Billy that I bought last spring, depending how well the vintage gauge 1 steamer runs. I may sell it and get another vintage BL steamer in gauge 1. AD


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John Webb
Welcome to the forum! The 'LMS Compound' is actually in its original livery as the first of its class made by the Midland Railway, which became part of the LMS in 1923. The original loco is preserved as part of the UK's National Railway Museum collection; regrettably not in working condition. (Apologies if all this was already known to you.)
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artful dodger
Its no different over here, we have many steam locomotives that look nice but are not operational, only so much money to go around to keep the ones that are running in working order. I have seen vintage movie footage on youtube of #1000 under steam back in the days when she was operational. Maybe one day she will return to traffic again.
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Quite likely the US situation is much like that in the UK, where it's increasingly apparent that maintaining working steam concentrates on two types of locomotive.

Those that are suited to working on a preservation outfit, relatively short run out and return, 25mph max.

Those that have the power output to move a paying load on the national network on 70mph stage schedules for 200 miles or more.

The Midland compound is one of many preserved locos that simply are way off being a good fit for either requirement. So it's either 'someone' philanthropic who wants to see one run and is prepared to massively subsidise the operation, or it remains plinthed.
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artful dodger
Yep, I would say the same goes for the LNWR Jumbo that is preserved in the UK. Not really a good fit for ether operation. One of the exceptions has to be the City of Truro. I wonder how its pulling power compares to the Midland Compound?
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John Webb
artful dodger said:
Yep, I would say the same goes for the LNWR Jumbo that is preserved in the UK. Not really a good fit for ether operation. One of the exceptions has to be the City of Truro. I wonder how its pulling power compares to the Midland Compound?
Click to expand...
The 'City of Truro' and the MR compound were built at roughly the same time (1903-1905), although the MR loco was partly rebuilt around 10 years later. Both ran at a boiler pressure of 200psi and on superheated steam.
City of Truro had 6ft 8.5inch diameter driving wheels and a nominal tractive effort (TE) of 17,800lbf.
MR Compound had 7ft dia wheels and a nominal TE of 23,205lbf.
(As you are probably aware the nominal TE is calculated from various statistics of the loco's physical size. The MR compound undoubtedly has the higher TE as it has three cylinders to City of Truro's two.)

City of Truro is preserved mainly due to being credited with touching 100mph for the first time in the UK in 1904, although the evidence is not strong. The MR Compound is preserved as one of the few examples of compounding being applied to a British locomotive.
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artful dodger
Here is the new steed, both in picture on the railway and under steam on the bench. Runs great for a nearly 100 year old model. As soon as she cools down a bit, going to try a short run on the railway before I go to work.

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artful dodger
And a quick run on the railway before I am off to work for the evening.
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John Webb
Pretty good running for such an old model. Do you pressure-test the boiler and safety valve operation prior to test running? Or is the boiler pressure quite low?

Here is a Gauge 1 electric version of a Midland Railway/LMS Compound that was given to the St Albans South signal box in 2016:
Train Wheel Vehicle Rolling stock Toy

It's a model of one of the final batch of LMS-built Compounds, built at Derby in 1932 and withdrawn from service in 1961. Unfortunately it won't run round the sharp curves on the small garden railway we have at the box!
(See www.sigbox.co.uk and look at the video on the home page.)
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artful dodger
She is a low pressure pot boiler. So around 15lbs or so boiler pressure. I did a test steaming on my bench after checking the burner for any leaks and running the engine on air successfully. I just watch every inch of the engine for leaks and weeping. I will drain her empty when she will sit for any length of time so the water doesn't draw material out of the brass boiler
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artful dodger said:
...One of the exceptions has to be the City of Truro. I wonder how its pulling power compares to the Midland Compound?
Click to expand...
In sustained power output the Midland compound is now the easy winner. The grate area was 'maximum size' for a UK design 4-4-0, the same as that of later class 5 4-6-0 mixed traffic locos . But this power potential was much reduced in service by Derby's poor detail design. It was a very different machine when restored for 'preserved celebrity' operation at the end of steam, when the full potential was seen. Apart from the reduced adhesion of a four coupled as compared to a 6 coupled 5MT with the potential difficulty in starting when adhesion was poor, it could do equivalent work in passenger service.

CoT was designed when the GWR's economical access to the 'world's best' Welsh steam coal (largest net energy content per unit weight, high volatiles for rapid ignition, minimal ash, no tendency to choke firebars) enabled a much smaller grate area. This boutique coal is no longer available, and the power output much reduced in consequence. The unnecessary feature of a very tapered boiler barrel, precludes a much larger superheater, which effectively compensates for lower energy content coal, so this design is locked out of improvement..
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artful dodger
Here is my other vintage live steamer in gauge 1, a 1908 vintage Bing for Bassett-Lowke GWR County of Northampton 4-4-0. This one is unrestored and after a reseal of the water sight glass runs really well. AD

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