Interesting links! Thanks! So I put the latest battery technology in the floor of the tender, with a supply of butane above it. Then I use a hundred micromachines in the engine, each powered by butane, coupled to a transmission, which is also a micomachine. The battery ignites the butane. Since a hundred micromachines are still very small, I have lots of room for weight (and heat-sinks) in the boiler. That these links are 25 years old amuses me to no end!
Maybe when scaling down the 33,000 gallons, it has to be scaled in X, Y, and Z? Then you would end up with .008 gallons in that tank car which would be about 1 ounce, so maybe a 1 ounce N Scale tank car scales out to 33,000 gallons 1:1? -Robert
I believe this has been done, at least in HO. Maybe it was O. I read an article a while back about a company that was making a "live steam" locomotive in either HO or O powered by a electric "heater", and using distilled water. I searched for the article, but could not find it. I'm pretty sure it was in MR. I don't think it's as far fetched as people might believe. I believe the technology exists to built this today. However, would it be priced attractively, or be practical, probably not.
Hornby sells an LNER/BR A4 Mallard type 4-6-2 in HO that is live steam. There was a full page ad in MR earlier this year. It's in the US $800-1000 range.
At this site: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass/steam/stmintro.htm someone wrote: "The late Jim Wilson of Miniature Steam Railways built a Stirling 2-2-2 in N scale [1:160]. The tender was the burner, and the loco ran off a single tiny oscillator. Jim made a train of three cars for it and a loop of track, and the thing would run for 20 minutes unattended!"
Sooo, in fear of jumping down the rabbit hole here, If we have live steam, and DCC, can we use the DCC to actuate a throttle, reverser and brakes?? Just askin....
