Found this print in an envelope with other subjects. Looks like it is missing its tender (obviously not a tank engine). Has anybody seen it before? Or know where it is? Shawn and Sally Harrison — Modeling 1850s B&O
Hard to say what gauge it is but it looks like around 2 feet or so. Proportions look a bit odd. Possibly a logging or plantation loco, or even a miniature live steam ride-on for an amusement park. It's the cab that throws me off - it definitely looks out of place on this, especially with the overhang behind the drivers.
I wonder if it may be a non-operating home-made model for the following reasons. I can't distinguish inlet and exhaust pipes on the steam chest. I don't see a safety (pop) valve on top of the boiler. I don't see a bell rope, though it may be there, just too small to show up. The pilot rods are very crude. Lastly, as Mike observed, very hard to determine size since there are no close-by visual references. It could be a Z-Scale model taken with a macro lens.
I can't recall, ever, seeing a loco where the headlight is larger in diameter than the boiler! I kind of agree with Hytec suspecting this may be a model ... but, who knows!
The more I look at it the more I agree with Hank. Bill, you are right, that headlight is WAY out of proportion, and the air pump doesn't look right, either. Maybe cobbled together with parts to resemble a locomotive? Could be a steam tractor boiler, I guess.
Still scratching my head. This picture could have been taken by my Dad — maybe 1990s. He lived in St. Louis, Missouri, and in Madrid, Spain for a couple years. Does that help? Shawn and Sally Harrison — Modeling 1850s B&O
It is quite a puzzle. It seems to be missing its sand dome, right behind the bell, but there is the sand pipe going down to between the drivers. The missing sand dome may account for the missing bell cord - it might have been supported by the missing dome. The pumps look right but because of the angle, the steam dome behind it makes them look odd. What appears to be the headlight is way out of proportion, but eyeballing proportion from it - assuming it's about the size of the barrel headlights on some early GP7s and GP9s - makes me guess at two-foot gauge max. I'm also taking into account the background, especially on the left. There seems to be a high fence (white thing just to the left of the loco) about 6-7 feet high, enclosing something, and another fence in front of a low building that could be stables or some kind of shed to park farm equipment or something like that. That's my best guess, considering photo quality. If it's just a display piece cobbled together with scavenged bits, someone went through a lot of trouble to detail it to that point.
I'm thinking half that. I think the headlight is from a vintage steam locomotive, the air pump is from a very small one, and that's a genuine Baldwin builder's plate sitting slightly crooked on the side of the smokebox. If so, I'd say that's an early live steam miniature; I think it's too small to haul a zoo train. Is there a generator for that headlight? Could those drive wheels be scavenged from an old Climax or Heisler? I think they're too small, maybe an old industrial diesel with outside rod connections between axles. I doubt it was built to run; that looks too little like it can hold pressure and too much like the boiler is just sheet metal. Could be wrong though--is that functional valve gear I see? Does that cab have a roof? If it does, I'd be surprised...
That's the thing with this beastie - a lot of what's needed is there, and a few things are missing, just enough to throw doubt on it. Some of the missing stuff can be believable (like the missing sand dome), but others are perplexing. One has to consider that it's hard to see everything due to the angle and (especially) the quality of the photo. The valve gear looks OK, at least for a simple one. The pilot looks a bit flimsy, but is correctly built (I just looked at a few early Alco and some pre-Alco steam locos and the pilots look pretty much the same, just not quite as spindly). With acptulsa's observation that the builder's plate is from Baldwin, I'll look into my docs from that builder. The boiler? I'd reserve judgment since I can't see what's inside. I suspect that little steam pressure was needed to get this little critter going. Just enough to get it moving with a minimal load. A mystery worthy of a Holmes, a Poirot, or even a Castle...
Sorry for the quality of the picture. All I have is this 3½ x 5 inch matte print, scanned at 200 dpi. I checked steamlocomotive.com and railpictures.net but did not find it. It remains one of life's mysteries. Shawn and Sally Harrison — Modeling 1850s B&O
