Live steam is

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 vaporizat ...

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

replica A 1:1 replica is an exact copy of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without claiming to be identical. Al ...

scale model A scale model is a physical model which is geometrically similar to an object (known as the prototype). Scale models are generally smaller than large prototypes such as vehicles, buildings, or people; but may be larger than small prototype ...

s, toys, or otherwise used for heritage, 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 rev ...

-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 struc ...

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 locomo ...

, full-sized steamships, and the worldwide electric power-generating industry

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turb ...

s are not normally referred to as "live steam".

Steamroller 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 throug ...

s 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 engine Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. They are distinct from locomotive engines used on railways, traction engines for heavy steam haulage on roads, steam c ...

s, ranging from pocket-size to 1:2 scale.

Railroads or railways

Ridable, large-scale live steam railroading on a backyard railroad 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 railways, 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 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 envisi ...

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

with a working,

railroad. Live Steam 1:8 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'' in Chiloquin,

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 Idah ...

. Other notable layouts are operated by the Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum and the Riverside Live Steamers.

Scale

A live steam locomotive is often an exact, hand-crafted

. 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 ( 1:32 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). Some live steam club layouts use dual or even triple gauge tracks. Gauges from and up are called "

Miniature Railways 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 pet ...

" (in the US these are known as "

Grand Scale 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 ...

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 rail transport modelling, 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 pr ...

has produced commercial live steam-powered locomotives in OO scale 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 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 (1:220), with a gauge of only , have been produced. These are fired with a

butane Butane () or ''n''-butane is an alkane with the formula C4H10. Butane is a gas at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Butane is a highly flammable, colorless, easily liquefied gas that quickly vaporizes at room temperature. The name bu ...

flame from a burner in the engine's

tender Tender may refer to: Entertainment Film * ''Illegal Tender'' (2007), a film directed by Franc. Reyes * ''Tender'' (2012), a short film by Liz Tomkins * ''Tender'' (2019), a short film by Darryl Jones and Anthony Lucido * ''Tender'' (2019), a sh ...

. 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

A wide variety of boiler designs are available, ranging from simple externally fired pot boilers to sophisticated multi-flue internally fired boilers and even

superheater A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. There ar ...

boilers usually found only on larger, more complex models. For basic locomotive models, a simple valve gear 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 type.

Fuels

There are several common fuels used to boil water in live steam models: * Hexamine fuel tablets – 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. * Methylated spirit, (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 Butane () or ''n''-butane is an alkane with the formula C4H10. Butane is a gas at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Butane is a highly flammable, colorless, easily liquefied gas that quickly vaporizes at room temperature. The name bu ...

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. 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 stratum, rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen ...

– 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 – also a popular fuel for large, ridable trains. *

Propane Propane () is a three-carbon alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but compressible to a transportable liquid. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum refining, it is commonly used as ...

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

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

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 throug ...

s, showman's engines,

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 ...

car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

s, road-making & agricultural machines, often seen with ancillary equipment like threshing machines.

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 i ...

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 distinguishe ...

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 ancient t ...

s. These include, amongst others, speed boats, 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 ...

ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). C ...

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 a ...

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 wer ...

s and freight carriers. A specialized type is the tethered hydroplane. When steam-powered, these often have flash boilers.

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 engine Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

Toys

In the late 19th and early-mid 20th centuries, live steam toys were extremely popular, with some large manufacturers like Bing selling hundreds of different models in large quantities. There were very many smaller manufacturers all over the world. Some of these, like Mamod, Wilesco 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,

steam wagons 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 vaporizatio ...

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 comm ...

, 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, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

, and

s 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 pro ...

newsletter A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of ...

, 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 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Live Steam Rail transport modelling Amusement rides based on rail transport Steam power

Railroads or railways

Scale

Track gauge

Technology

Fuels

Road vehicles

Boats and ships

Stationary engines

Toys

Festivals

Publications

See also

References