the steam effect

[Michael]

hello,  I'm a modeler in need of some help.  i want a cheap and safe way to make steam.  Someone said incents would make steam, but I'm afraid of them toasting my chassis. 

[Jim Banner]

A cheap and safe way to make steam is to boil water in a microwave oven.  But I suspect that what you want is to generate something that looks like steam but is not steam.  Heating 'smoke oil' in a smoke unit like the ones found in many model locomotives makes a vapour that looks like white smoke but also looks like like steam.  Lionel used to do the same thing with smoke pellets made of ammonium chloride.

[Michael]

ok thank you very much. 

[AlanM]

I wonder if anybody has tried dry ice for simulating steam.  Cold rather than hot, even though it might not last very long in such small quantities.  Yah I know, it is CO2, but you can't have everything.

[r.cprmier]

Dry ice is an old photographer's trick for effect, and an excellent example would be Malcolm Furlow's book about building the "San Jaun Central".

In one shot, he used dry ice to achieve the effect of morning mist over the "Crazy Horse River", and it really looked nice.  I think that dry ice, strategically placed, would lend itself to achieve your end.

Rich

[SteamGene]

It might be good to know how long the steam needs to hang around.  Is this for a photo shoot, or for a two hour operation?
Gene

[JerryB]

Dry ice is very cold and thus the vapor coming from its sublimation (melting) is also very cold. The vapor really tends to go down toward the table, floor or ground rather than up like the hot exhaust from a steam or internal combustion engine. This makes much better ground fog than smoke / steam.

Happy RRing,

Jerry