![LTS464TBaltic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/LTS464TBaltic.jpeg)
Live steam is
steam under pressure, obtained by heating water in a
boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...
. The steam is used to operate stationary or moving equipment.
A live steam machine or device is one powered by steam, but the term is usually reserved for those that are
replicas,
scale models,
toy
A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and pet ...
s, or otherwise used for
heritage
Heritage may refer to:
History and society
* A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today
** Cultural heritage is created by humans
** Natural heritage is not
* Heritage language
Biology
* Heredity, biological inheritance of physica ...
, museum, entertainment, or recreational purposes, to distinguish them from similar devices powered by electricity, internal combustion, or some other more convenient method but designed to look as if they are steam-powered.
Revenue
In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business.
Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...
-earning steam-powered machines such as mainline and
narrow gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
steam locomotives
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
, full-sized
steamships, and the worldwide electric power-generating industry
steam turbines are not normally referred to as "live steam".
Steamrollers and
traction engine
A traction engine is a steam engine, steam-powered tractor used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin ''tractus'', meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any t ...
s are popular, in 1:4 or 1:3 scale, as are model
stationary steam engines, ranging from pocket-size to 1:2 scale.
Railroads or railways
Ridable, large-scale live steam railroading on a
backyard railroad
__NOTOC__
A backyard railroad is a privately owned, outdoor railroad, most often in miniature, but large enough for one or several persons to ride on. The rail gauge can be anything from to or more. Smaller backyard or outdoor railroads that c ...
is a popular aspect of the live steam hobby, but it is time-consuming to build a locomotive from scratch and it can be costly to purchase one already built.
Garden railway
A garden railroad or garden railway is a model railway system set up outdoors in a garden. While G is the most popular scale for garden railroads, 16 mm scale has a dedicated and growing following especially in the UK. Model locomotives in ...
s, in smaller scales (that cannot pull a "live" person nor be ridden on), offer the benefits of real steam engines (and at lower cost and in less space), but do not provide the same experience as operating one's own locomotive in the larger scales and riding on (or behind) it, while doing so.
One of the most famous live steam railroads was
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
's
Carolwood Pacific Railroad
The Carolwood Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a -inch () gauge ridable miniature railroad run by Walt Disney in the backyard of his home in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It featured the ''Lilly Belle'', a 1:8- scale li ...
around his California home; it later inspired Walt Disney to surround his planned
Disneyland
Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envision ...
amusement park with a working,
narrow gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
railroad.
Live Steam 1:8 1987.">Malmö 1987.
The live steam hobby is especially popular in the UK, US, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. All over the world, there are hundreds of clubs and associations as well as many thousands of private backyard railroads. The world's largest live steam layout, with over of trackage is ''
Train Mountain Railroad
Train Mountain Railroad is the world's largest miniature hobbyist railroad near Chiloquin, Oregon, in Klamath County, which is in the south central region of Oregon. It is situated between Klamath Falls, Oregon, approximately to the south, and ...
'' in
Chiloquin
Chiloquin ( ) ( Klamath: mbosaksawaas, "flint place" ) is a city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. Chiloquin was the pioneer version of a Klamath family name ''Chaloquin'', which was the name of a Klamath chief who was alive at the time ...
,
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...
. Other notable layouts are operated by the
Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum
The Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum (LALSRM) is a non-profit public-benefit corporation founded in 1956 by live steam enthusiasts for the purpose of educating the public about railroad history and lore, and to promote live steam and scal ...
and the Riverside Live Steamers.
Scale
A live steam locomotive is often an exact, hand-crafted
scale model. Live steam railroad scales are generally referred to by the number of inches of scale per foot. For example, a 1:8 scale locomotive will often be referred to as a 1½" scale locomotive. Common
modelling scales are
Gauge 1
1 gauge, gauge 1 or gauge one is a model railway and toy train standard that was popular in the early 20th century, particularly with European manufacturers. Its track measures , making it larger than 0 gauge but slightly smaller than wide gauge, ...
(
1:32 scale), 1/2" (
1:24 scale), 3/4" (1:16), 1" (1:12), 1½" (1:8), 2½" (~1:5) and 3" (1:4).
Track gauge
Track gauge
In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many ...
refers to the distance between the rails. The
ridable track gauges range from to
, the most popular being , , , and (see
Rail transport modelling scales
Rail transport modelling uses a variety of scales (ratio between the real world and the model) to ensure scale models look correct when placed next to each other. Model railway scales are standardized worldwide by many organizations and hobbyist ...
). Some live steam club layouts use
dual or even triple gauge tracks. Gauges from and up are called "
Miniature Railways" (in the US these are known as "
Grand Scale Railroads"), and are used mostly in amusement park rides and commercial settings.
Often the gauge has little to do with the scale of a
locomotive since larger equipment can be built in a
narrow gauge railway configuration. For instance, scales of 1.5, 1.6, 2.5, and 3 inches per foot (corresponding to scales of 1:8 to 1:4) have been used on a track gauge.
The generally accepted smallest gauge for a live steam locomotive is
O scale
O scale (or O gauge) is a scale commonly used for toy trains and rail transport modelling. Introduced by German toy manufacturer Märklin around 1900, by the 1930s three-rail alternating current O gauge was the most common model railroad sca ...
. Producing smaller-scale models remains problematic, as the laws of physics do not themselves scale: creating a small-scale boiler that produces useful quantities of steam requires careful engineering.
Hornby Railways
Hornby Railways is a British model railways manufacturing company. Its roots date back to 1901 in Liverpool, when founder Frank Hornby received a patent for his Meccano construction toy. The first clockwork train was produced in 1920. In 1938, ...
has produced commercial live steam-powered locomotives in
OO scale
OO gauge or OO scale (also, 00 gauge and 00 scale) is the most popular standard-gauge model railway standard in the United Kingdom, outside of which it is virtually unknown. OO gauge is one of several 4 mm-scale standards (4 mm to 1 foot, ...
by utilising an electrically heated boiler mounted in the tender, with cylinders in the locomotive, and control provided by electrical signals fed through the track from a remote control unit. They are less mechanically realistic than models in larger scales; the visible valve gear is a dummy, as on the electric-motor-powered models, and steam admission to the cylinders is controlled by a rotary-valve
servo
Servo may refer to:
Mechanisms
* Servomechanism, or servo, a device used to provide control of a desired operation through the use of feedback
** AI servo, an autofocus mode
** Electrohydraulic servo valve, an electrically operated valve that c ...
inside the boiler casing, which is also a dummy. Nevertheless, the locomotive is driven by steam that is created on board the locomotive and is hence a genuine ''steam'' locomotive.
It is technically possible to build even smaller operating steam engines. Hand-made examples, as small as
Z scale
Z scale is one of the smallest commercially available model railway scales (1:220), with a track gauge of . Introduced by Märklin in 1972, Z scale trains operate on 0–10 volts DC and offer the same operating characteristics as all other ...
(1:220), with a gauge of only , have been produced. These are fired with a
butane flame from a burner in the engine's
tender. AA Sherwood of Australia, an engineering lecturer, produced some miniature scale model live steam engines in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His smallest live steam engines were 1:240 scale which is smaller than the 1:220 of Z Scale. The smallest scale Sherwood worked in was 1:480, though that was not live steam.
Technology
![Working principle of steam locomotive model](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Working_principle_of_steam_locomotive_model.gif)
A wide variety of boiler designs are available, ranging from simple externally fired
pot boiler
In archaeology or anthropology, a pot boiler or cooking stone is a heated stone used to heat water - typically by people who did not have access to pottery or metal vessels.
In Archaeology
The term refers to a stone used to move heat from a ...
s to sophisticated
multi-flue internally fired boilers and even
superheater boilers usually found only on larger, more complex models.
For basic locomotive models, a simple
valve gear
The valve gear of a steam engine is the mechanism that operates the inlet and exhaust valves to admit steam into the cylinder and allow exhaust steam to escape, respectively, at the correct points in the cycle. It can also serve as a reversing ...
can be used, with the reversing (if any) performed by a
valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
, or by using a "slip"
eccentric.
More complex locomotive models can use valve gear similar to real steam machine with the reversing done mechanically, most frequently the
Walschaerts
The Walschaerts valve gear is a type of valve gear used to regulate the flow of steam to the pistons in steam locomotives, invented by Belgian railway engineer Egide Walschaerts in 1844.
The gear is sometimes named without the final "s", since ...
type.
Fuels
There are several common fuels used to boil water in live steam models:
*
Hexamine fuel tablet
A hexamine fuel tablet (or heat tablet, Esbit) is a form of solid fuel in tablet form. The tablets burn smokelessly, have a high energy density, do not liquefy while burning and leave no ashes. Invented in Murrhardt, Germany, in 1936, the main c ...
s – which produce relatively little heat but are cheap and relatively safe. They are often used on "toy" live steam locomotives and engines, such as the newer models in the range produced by
Mamod
Mamod is a British toy manufacturer that specializes in manufacturing live steam models. The company was founded in Birmingham by Geoffrey Malins in 1937. The name is a portmanteau of Malins Models. The first models produced were of stationary ...
.
*
Methylated spirit
Denatured alcohol (also called methylated spirits in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom; wood spirit; and denatured rectified spirit) is ethanol that has additives to make it poisonous, bad-tasting, foul ...
, (methanol/ethanol mixture) – which burns hotter than solid fuel, but, as with any flammable liquid, requires more careful handling. Cheap and easy to obtain, this fuel was used with early Mamod models.
*
Butane gas – clean burning and safe, but relatively expensive to engineer the burners.
*
Electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describ ...
– delivered via the track and used to boil the water with an
immersion heater
Electric heating is a process in which electrical energy is converted directly to heat energy at around 100% efficiency, using rather cheap devices. Common applications include space heating, cooking, water heating and industrial processes. An ...
. In 2003,
Hornby launched a range of
00 gauge models that run from a 10 to 17 Volt power supply, making this method safer than previous, higher voltage versions.
*
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
– which is the prototypical fuel for most full-sized steam locomotives, and the preferred fuel for ridable trains. It can also be used in boilers down to at least
16mm:1 foot scale.
*
Oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
– also a popular fuel for large, ridable trains.
*
Propane gas – an alternative to coal or oil in large-scale models. Propane has also been used successfully as fuel in smaller 1:48 scale live steam locomotives produced most notably by Roland Neff.
Road vehicles
![Burrell Kirmeszugmaschine 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Burrell_Kirmeszugmaschine_1.jpg)
Live steam road vehicles are popular with model engineers because they are not restricted to running on tracks or water and can be easily transported to rallies and exhibitions. They include
traction engine
A traction engine is a steam engine, steam-powered tractor used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin ''tractus'', meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any t ...
s &
steam roller
A steamroller (or steam roller) is a form of road roller – a type of heavy construction machinery used for leveling surfaces, such as roads or airfields – that is powered by a steam engine. The leveling/flattening action is achieved through ...
s,
showman's engine
A showman's road locomotive or showman's engine is a steam-powered road-going 'locomotive' designed to provide power and transport for a travelling funfair or circus. Similar to other road-going traction engines, showman's engines were normally d ...
s,
wagon
A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people.
Wagons are immediately distinguished from ...
s,
cars, road-making & agricultural machines, often seen with ancillary equipment like
threshing machines
A threshing machine or a thresher is a piece of farm equipment that threshes grain, that is, it removes the seeds from the stalks and husks. It does so by beating the plant to make the seeds fall out.
Before such machines were developed, threshi ...
.
Boats and ships
Most types of
boat
A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats.
Small boats are typically found on inl ...
s and
ship
A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...
s that were powered by steam in real life can be found as live steam
ship model
Ship models or model ships are scale models of ships. They can range in size from 1/6000 scale wargaming miniatures to large vessels capable of holding people.
Ship modeling is a craft as old as shipbuilding itself, stretching back to ancien ...
s. These include, amongst others,
speed boat
A motorboat, speedboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine.
Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the internal combustion engine, the gea ...
s,
launches,
tugboat
A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...
s,
ocean liners,
warship
A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster ...
s,
paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses we ...
s and
freight carriers. A specialized type is the tethered
hydroplane. When steam-powered, these often have
flash boiler
A flash boiler is a type of water-tube boiler. The tubes are close together and water is pumped through them. A flash boiler differs from the type of monotube steam generator in which the tube is permanently filled with water. In a flash boiler, ...
s.
Stationary engines
Stationary engines tend to be less popular with modelers than mobile engines; probably because they are less easily transportable. They are more popular with toy makers. They can be anything from small farm engines to
winding engine
A winding engine is a stationary engine used to control a cable, for example to power a mining hoist at a pit head. Electric hoist controllers have replaced proper winding engines in modern mining, but use electric motors that are also tradit ...
s and
mill engines.
Toys
![Mamod fire engine fe1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Mamod_fire_engine_fe1.jpg)
In the late 19th and early-mid 20th centuries, live steam toys were extremely popular, with some large manufacturers like
Bing
Bing most often refers to:
* Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer
* Microsoft Bing, a web search engine
Bing may also refer to:
Food and drink
* Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread
* Bing (soft drink), a UK brand
* Bing cherry, a varie ...
selling hundreds of different models in large quantities. There were very many smaller manufacturers all over the world. Some of these, like
Mamod
Mamod is a British toy manufacturer that specializes in manufacturing live steam models. The company was founded in Birmingham by Geoffrey Malins in 1937. The name is a portmanteau of Malins Models. The first models produced were of stationary ...
,
Wilesco
Wilesco is the trade name of German toy company Wilhelm Schröder GmbH & Co. KG, known for manufacturing live steam toys such as steamrollers, traction engines, stationary steam engines, and numerous accessories such as countershafts and drive ...
and
Jensen, are still in business making live steam toys, although they are now mainly marketed as collectables and novelties rather than toys. Toys tend to be less accurate representations of real life equipment than are models and many are somewhat generic in nature. The range includes all those seen as models and some of a purely novelty kind.
Festivals
A live steam festival (often called a "Steam Fair" in the UK and a live steam "meet" in the US) is a gathering of people interested in steam engine technology. Locomotives, trains,
traction engine
A traction engine is a steam engine, steam-powered tractor used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin ''tractus'', meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any t ...
s,
steam wagons,
steam roller
A steamroller (or steam roller) is a form of road roller – a type of heavy construction machinery used for leveling surfaces, such as roads or airfields – that is powered by a steam engine. The leveling/flattening action is achieved through ...
s,
showman's engines and
tractors
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...
,
steam boats and
cars
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, people in ...
, and
stationary steam engines may be on display, both full-sized and in miniature. Rides may also be offered.
Publications
There are several magazines devoted to the live steam hobby:
"
Model Engineer
''Model Engineer Magazine'' was first published (in the United Kingdom) to support the hobby of model engineering in 1898 by Percival Marshall, who was to remain its editor for over 50 years. It has been owned by MyTime Media since 2008. The mag ...
" is an English publication that is published twice a month and was founded in 1898. Most locomotive articles have an "English" flavour popular in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The magazine is aimed at constructors but also covers non-steam and non-rail
model engineering
Model engineering is the pursuit of constructing proportionally-scaled miniature working representations of full-sized machines. It is a branch of metalworking with a strong emphasis on artisanry, as opposed to mass production. While now mainly a ...
interests.
"
Live Steam & Outdoor Railroading" is a U.S. magazine, founded in 1966 and devoted to the live steam hobby, as well as to other uses of miniature and full-size steam. Originally, it was a
mimeograph
A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a copy made by the proc ...
ed
newsletter, but soon expanded into magazine format. In 2005, the name was changed from "Live Steam". It is currently published bi-monthly, with a
press run
Print circulation is the average number of copies of a publication. The number of copies of a non-periodical publication (such as a book) are usually called print run. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulat ...
of slightly over 10,000 (Dec. 2004).
The now-defunct publication (launched in 2006), was "The Home Railway Journal".
which was specifically aimed at enthusiasts with ride-on railways (although not just steam-powered) in North America. It is published quarterly in Sacramento, California, US.
See also
*
Carpet railway
Birmingham Dribbler or carpet railway describes a type of very early model railway. It is a bit of a misnomer, as the railway featured a model live steam railway locomotive, but no track – the locomotive was simply run across the floor. In som ...
– the 'Birmingham Dribbler' locomotives were a very early form of live steam toy
*
List of steam fairs
A steam fair or (steam rally) is a regular organised gathering of historic steam-powered vehicles and machinery, open to the public. Typical exhibits include: traction engines, steam rollers, steam wagons, and steam cars. Often, the scope is wid ...
*
Live Steam & Outdoor Railroading (magazine)
*
Model engineering
Model engineering is the pursuit of constructing proportionally-scaled miniature working representations of full-sized machines. It is a branch of metalworking with a strong emphasis on artisanry, as opposed to mass production. While now mainly a ...
*
Model steam engine
A model steam engine is a small steam engine not built for serious use. Often they are built as an educational toy for children, in which case it is also called a toy steam engine, or for live steam enthusiasts. Between the 18th and early 20th ce ...
*
Railway modelling
Railway modelling (UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale.
The scale models include locomotives, rolling stock, streetcars, t ...
*
Rail transport modelling scales
Rail transport modelling uses a variety of scales (ratio between the real world and the model) to ensure scale models look correct when placed next to each other. Model railway scales are standardized worldwide by many organizations and hobbyist ...
*
Saturated steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
*
Superheated steam
*
Ridable miniature railway
A ridable miniature railway (US: riding railroad or grand scale railroad) is a large scale, usually ground-level railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are often models of full-sized railway locomotives (powered by diesel or petrol ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Live Steam
Rail transport modelling
Amusement rides based on rail transport
Steam power