Hello, I am new to the Train Board but I am sure some of you may know me from some of the other forums, Like Aristo, MyLargescale, The Whistle Post and a few others. Anyway, my name is Shawn and I am an avid G scale modeler and so-so scratchbuilder. I am also President of The Elevated Live Steam and Electric (Elsie for short) Railway club located in Cleveland, Ohio. My indoor (clubs inclimate weather layout) is 28'x11' with 2 mains, service facilities, a Coal mine and Coke Ovens and a 3rd loop which goes thru the yard and to the mines to bring loads out to the main. There are alot of switching and mainline running possibilities on my layout....which makes for alot of fun....I'll post a few pics of the layout in a day or two as the Layout just finished a major track revision due to some new switches arriving. The clubs outside layout is roughly 1200 feet of track outside and another 150-200 feet inside the clubhouse with a Garden Metal Works Bridge connecting the two layouts as one...we have a hump yard in Progress of be built hopefully by the end of spring it will be in service. well that's about it, take a look at our website I have it linked into my Signature. Well I'm off to run some trains. Oh, and great site, I'm glad I found it.
Welcome aboard, nice to have a live steamer aboard in the G scale section, I actually think you may be the first. I'm EMD Trainman and the moderator of the G scale section. Any help or questions please fell free to pm me. Also be sure to read the Announcement for Newbies and G scale members post to get the most out of your G scale experience here.
Shawn Fields, please feel free to click on the link in my signature which will take you to my photo albums. I have pitures there from The York Large Scale train show and there are pictures from that show. I took a few pictures of the live steamers at the show you may enjoy.
A Few Links.... Everyone, Here Are A few Links to my Videos And Pics And of course Our Clubs Website is below in my Signature, Thanks for the Welcome EMD Trainman I've been a G Scaler for the last 12 years and a Live Steamer for the Last 3, There is a Joy I get out of running Live Steam, It Appeals to that Tinkerer Side of Me.
Welcome to train board, we hope you like your stay and look forward to your post on your club and learning about live steam. We hope you will share and help broaden our horizons. J
Thanks Guys for the welcome, I'm currently in the building process of a new outdoor layout thats gonna be roughly 75 feet wide and 48 feet deep and 3 feet high on the main section with bridges crossing over a stream that runs next to the house to another 15 x 20 x 3 foot section and back with max. curves of 16 foot Diameter and min. curves of 12 foot diameter on the mainlines with 10 foot diameter curves in the yard, branches and sidings, I should be able to run just about anything I want and with the 3 feet of height, running non radio controlled live steam should be easy to do. The Layout will be able to run Live Steam, Battery and Electric, and Radio, Plus having 4 acres of land at my disposal makes expansion very possible and easy as well, I'll be posting progress pics as construction continues. I also will be planning open house run sessions in which if you bring it you can run it, plus I think I have enough equipment even if you dont bring anything. So Stay Tuned.....
I wish I had the room to run 16ft diameter curves on the mainline and 10ft curves un a yard area, this sounds great. You should be able to run anything, the USA Trains Big Boy will run on 16ft diameter curves so I can't think of anything that wouldn't run on 16ft curves. At the East Coast large scale train show, I have seen that live steam club run many variations of steam powered trains. Some have radio controlled, some operate them maunally which is kinda neat being hands on. Most run seem to run butane, but there was one person there one year that ran on actual coal, my kid was excited over that. I also noticed the amount of speed these trains can go with no derails, I'm guessing live steam train models are well balanced. I mean some of these live steam trains go fast and you would think they would fly off in the corners, but they stick to the track like glue.
A Little follow up There is a little cottage on the property that I'm planning on rebuilding into a Mock Depot for train storage and a workshop with a large enough platform for train watching. Also Ironically, I now live in between The Old Virginian Main (Still in use by NS Currently called the P-D District, Princeton-Deepwater) in the front of the house and the old N&W Bluestone Branch (Long Abandoned but Still intact) on the back side of the house, I can watch Coal drags rumble by from my home office window and from the living room, the property line stops at the tracks, so I can go snap pics and not be trespassing, and I can walk the old N&W line too as its right across the road on the other side of the property, you have to cross over it to get to the house. I Guess I have Officially made it Home... Oh Yes EMD, The live Steamers are very well balanced and can pull and pull I plan on running the Big-Boy and a ClinchField Challenger and the Virginian Triplex with a few Aristo Mallets and Some modern Stuff As well like Dash-9's and GP-38's and SD-45s plus one Pennsy E-8 and long Passenger Trains And long Freights I thought about doing 20 foot curves but the cost for these curves even in brass is for lack of a better word "WOW"
