http://home.earthlink.net/~clarklord/Steamup/
Bob Sorenson has scratch built a 0-4-0 alcohol fired steamer. The first runs in January proved it needed a better burner. The next runs in February showed it needed a better firebox and alcohol feed system. Yesterday's runs showed it made lots of steam but needed viton o-rings in the cylinders as the graphited yard had blown out of the piston groove.
By April it will be a killer engine. A one of a kind 1:20.3 British outline shunting engine.
Dave Hottmann Garrett and GarrettGramps are all about Dave Hottmann (seen next to the track in the first photo along with Steve Davis looking on) and his Accucraft conversion of two Superior 0-6-2T engines into a 0-6-0 + 0-6-0 Superior Garrett. The Gramps cars are 1:20.3 Bachman tank cars.
Next is my dear friend Lou Banning. Lou has been helping me over the past several years to build and maintain my large track. He has always been there when I needed a hand. Thank you Louis. In several photos you can see a DRG&W green passenger train which belongs to Lou.
RubyReefer is of my very own Ruby with three of my 18 Accucraft Reefers being operated by Bob Sorenson's 11 year old son Andy. Hook em early I say.
SteveDavisMimi is of his engine hauling his kit bashed car set. Steve owns ride on sized 7 1/2 inch gauge engines and we are both Riverside Live Steamers members. I invited him to one of the monthly steamups several months ago and it looks like the gauge one bug is bitting.
In GarrettGramps 03&04 you see several fellas. And you see a string of Southern Railway Bulleid coaches of mine. Out in front of those is Frank Russo's SNCF 232 U1 which is alcohol fired. Frank got his exercise yesterday running that engine. It does have a touchy throttle. But then when you watch Tony Dixon run his coal fired version of the same engine, it's off to the races. Both really zoom around the layout.
Lastly in GarrettGramps 06 you see the table and Webber Kettle where I prepared lunch for the guys on steamup Saturday. Yesterday it was hamburgers with all the fixings and potato salad.
I must give credit to Jim Crabb of Seabrook Texas (near Houston) for inspiring me to host monthly steamups. It was Jim who was doing that very thing in Houston and I could see that would be a good way to get our Las Vegas Gauge One live steam community up and running. We've been at this monthly business for 2-3 years now. At first there was just Lou Banning and me but now we've grown to 15 or so fellas and about half turn up with engines to run and the rest enjoy the fellowship.
I know the Seattle bunch are now having two steamups a month and they are cooking lunch also. What I'm getting at is... YOU can do the same thing in your area. It's amazing just how much fun you can have for very little cost. Think about doing it. With the advent of Accucraft's line of engines there are many folks who own one (or more) and need a track upon which to operate. And all of us who have Aster, Roundhouse, DJB, etc. engines can show em how it's done. :)
A few phone calls or emails will bring them out of the wood work. Knowing that every month (rain or shine) a steamup will happen makes folks look forward to attending. If you have enough layouts you can do the round robin kind of thing that the Puget Sound GRS live steamers do. They are blessed with a PSGRS owned live steam modular layout which is setup all the time (when not at a trade show) and several persons who have live steam tracks at their homes.
The bottom line is ... Just Do It.
Cheers Clark ============================================ Clark B Lord - Las Vegas, Nevada USA Las Vegas Live Steamers - Gauge 1 live steam Treasurer, Las Vegas Garden Railway Society Member, Steam Events LLC
Dave Cole wrote:
//snip//... unless it is and then i won't see this message move over it.
it's been a week since the last posting to the list and in recent hours a number of people have e-mailed me to say that they are no longer getting the list. you are. there just haven't been any messages for you to receive.
the irony here is that i was going to exhort you to contribute to the list, but i think that's a wrong thing to say. if i'm going to be so presumptuous in telling you to do anything, it should be to go out and run a train today.
\dmc
