Uh oh, I got the steam bug!

[jdvass]

I was at our local model railroad show last weekend and at the used table I found a Spectrum 4-6-0 lettered for Canadian Pacific, complete with Digitrax decoder for $85.00. It's in mint shape too. I dont have any steam on my layout but I thought it was a good deal so what the heck, I bought it. And dang it looked good running around the layout!

Then I pulled out this IHC  Canadian National Hudson 4-6-4 that I had laying around under the work bench for a couple of years-


and redid it as a Canadian Pacific loco (I know that Canadian Pacific Hudson's never looked like this but I like it).


And now I'm hooked. I model the Canadian Pacific in the 60's. Now I'm going to move time back to the 50's and model the transition era. Just when I thought that I had about every loco I needed. Yay steam!

[Santa Fe buff]

Steam locomotives were the pioneers of railroads; diesel was an improvement. I'm into steam locomotives a lot, but it seems I'm a born diesel fan... Although, a steam locomotive is nice to have, it doesn't hurt to have a Pacific or Northern around.  Although, I'm sticking to prototypical railroading of modern railroads. Steam is not even considered. ES44CWs, Dash-9-44CWs, EMD SD90s, EMD SD70ACes, and other modern diesel/electric locomotives rule. I just need to buy them. So far, early Geeps and U-Boat rule. I'm looking to change that- slightly.

Your Hudson looks nice, enjoy it.

Josh

[Pacific Northern]

I think the Bachmann 10 Wheeler 4-6-0 is the smartest looking of all of the Spectrum Steamers.

It would look very good with a set of the 60' Harriman coaches made by Roundhouse some time back. These coaches are painted maroon and if you looked around you can still find these sets I just picked up two a while back on e-bay.

A low boiler version of the engine

http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/cgi-bin/www2i/.visual/img_med/dir_152/f_05700.gif

and the high boiler version

http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/cgi-bin/www2i/.visual/img_med/dir_152/f_06547.gif

http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/sn-5F25D8/cgi-bin/text2html/.visual/img_txt/dir_152/g_01387.txt

[WGL]

jdvass, as others here say, "It's your railroad!"  I renamed my Bachmann DCC 4-8-4 Santa Fe Northern to The Milwaukee Road, because I live in Wisconsin.  I researched The Milwaukee Road & found that they had two versions of the 4-8-4:  S2 made in 1937 & built by Baldwin;  & S3 made in 1944 & built by American Locomotive Company.  The S2 looks more like my locomotive than the S3, so that's what I'm calling it.   

[SteamGene]

Actually the Road had three S classes.  Class S1 had two locomotives, built in the early 1930s which were smaller than the next two classes of 40 and 20 which apparently differed only in boiler pressure, with the S3 having slightly less boiler pressure than the S2 class.  Road 261 is an S3 class. 
Gene

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Abandon all hope, ye who enter the realm of steam. ...   

[BIG BEAR]

  Is there anything other than STEAM? HMMM

           Enjoy,
             Barry

[WGL]

 Thanks for the information, Gene.

[TempesT]

Steam is "infectious", buddy! Welcome on board!

[taku]

Ok, my layout from my childhood is long gone, but I'm unearthing boxes of old stuff (20-35 years old) and I am nearing completion of a new small layout for my sons.   Many of the locos are great and ready to roll but I'm sure many of the old large steam will not run on the new layout due to size.
For this first new layout I used 18" radius as I wanted to keep it relatively small and portable (wife wants to move soon....) and it's really for the boys (although I guess I'm still 'a boy', so......
What is the largest steam engine that will run reliably on a 18".
I'm considering a new DCC w/ sound 'for dad', but it would be nice to run it on this as well as the proposed new layout.

[#94]

jdvass,

You don't have to re due your whole world (unless you want to).

Just get some older heavy weight passenger cars. You can match them or intentionally mismatch them.

Now run "Steam Excursion Trips".

Allen

[RAM]

A 4-6-0 or 2-8-0

[jdvass]

Welcome back to model railroading Taku  A 4-8-4 is about the biggest you'll run on 18" curves.

You bet #94. I found a set of Canadian Pacific heavy weight cars for the Hudson. And well I was at my LHS yesterday I came accross a Roundhouse 34 foot Canadian Pacific passenger set. Had to buy them. They're too short to run behind the Hudson but they look okay behind my Spectrum 4-6-0.

Now I found another of those green CN Hudsons under the bench! I can see it now. All done up in CP gray and tuscan. I got to get to work!

[SteamGene]

Whether any model railroad locomotive can get around any particular curve depends on who built the model.   The Rivarossi C&O H-8 is designed to negotiate an18" radius curve - though it looks awful doing so.  But any brass H-8 sure isn't going to.  I have a brass C&O K-3 by PFM, which has a hard time on 42" radius.  While the Spectrum 2-8-0 has no problem with 18", I'll bet there are brass 2-8-0s which do.
Gene

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

For what it's worth, I recently acquired a late Mantua Pacific and a late Mantua Hudson, and both run fine on 18"-radius curves.

Tonight I actually need to check whether any of my 0-6-0s won't negotiate a 15"-radius curve.