Adirondack Live Steamers - Spring Meet 2019

This past weekend the Adirondack Live Steamers in upstate, New York (Saratoga Springs) held their annual Spring Meet. Like nearly all other live steam clubs in the northeast, this one was open for visitors to bring their trains to run on our track. Our track gauge is 7.25", which is also used in parts of Canada and Europe, and trains are mostly 1/8 scale though some trains based on narrow gauge prototypes scale out to roughly 1/3 or 1/4. (Much like On30 models use HO scale track). They make for large trains which are not just ridden on, they are ridden in. My own narrow gauge steam locomotive under construction is 1' = 3.75" scale.

Our club engine... members are allowed to run it with training.

I joined ALS in 2006 after picking up a couple of issues of Live Steam & Outdoor Railroading magazine in a local hobby shop on a whim. I had visited a live steam club in Western NY when I was a child (they are celebrating their 50th Anniversary this August, but that is a subject of a future post) and I wasn't totally ignorant to the hobby. Still, I wasn't sure if this club was for me. Having moved to Albany in 2004 I looked around for clubs and finally sent emails to ALS and the local N-Trak club. ALS responded first, so I visited and joined, and the rest is history. I finally stepped down as Treasurer after 9 years on the Board of Directors, so this was also my first meet where I didn't have to count money, write checks, etc. I could just sit on a bench, watch trains, smell coal smoke, and have a good time.

The inside cab view of a working steam locomotive.

While we usually have a good turnout (no pun intended), the weather was absolutely gorgeous for all three days of the weekend and that is something that I can't recall being true since I have been a member. We let mostly visitors run their trains during the weekend, and they love to come to our club as our track is much larger than other 7.25" gauge tracks in the northeast (nearly 1.5 miles in mainline along), with lots of grades, curves, bridges, tunnels, water features, and road crossings. It is not a railroad you can just set your throttle to "go" and kick your feet up. For an even greater challenge, some days we reverse direction and it creates essentially a new railroad to learn.

What do you do when your train is too long for a single engine to pull? The real railroads would just add more engines, either in the front or the back or perhaps mid-train. The exact same thing is done in smaller scales, though I think we modelers usually do it just for the operational challenge of controlling two motors. Here, while five passenger coaches isn't a difficult load for this LMS pacific on flat track, I heard that the throttle was a bit touchy and it would spin its wheels instead of getting traction at the bottom of our grades. This might be true, but whatever the reason it was necessary for the engine to get an assist over the main line. 

So, the club's very own steam locomotive (0-4-0) was pressed into service and played the role of "banker" and ran with the train along the way. Even with only four wheels, it worked admirably. I think I can, I think I can...

The owner of the large LMS pacific also owns at least two other British steam locomotives: one is a GMR "King Class" (with 4 cylinders and thus twice as much fun adjusting the valve gear) and a chunky 0-6-0 narrow gauge tank engine. This one is built to a narrow gauge scale and thus it is large enough to ride in, not on. And it is a great puller. It easily handled those five coaches above loaded with passengers round after round. It is named "Thomas", perhaps in deference to the other tank engine going by that name. That isn't the owner in the cab but someone who frequently operates the engine when it visits the club. That tender looks mighty comfy.

This is an "Allen Models" locomotives. Allen Models is a manufacturer of locomotive castings for about a half-dozen different styles of locomotives. While no live steam engine project is considered easy, these engines are simple to build and very dependable to run. Lots of people use their castings to build running engines, and this ten wheeler is one of about 5 Allen Models-based engines at ALS. I happen to have the prints for the mogul (2-6-0), of which there are hundreds running across the USA. Someday, if I get my own shop, I may pursue building one of those as I really like the way they look and it is a very user friendly engine. 

This engine was designed and built by one of our founding members using a combination of Allen Models castings, some other manufacturer's parts, and a lot of thinking and building from solid chunks of metal. He essentially took the frame from a locomotive based on a small narrow gauge plantation locomotive (0-4-2) and stretched and reconfigured it to look more like a Colorado based steamer. While I think he did a great job, even those who don't understand what his background or thought considerations were would be hard-pressed not to call it attractive or "cute." The railroad on the tender, "Fitchburg Northern," is also the name of his HO layout.

For those who think that Athearn was the only company building diesel locomotive kits, here is a shell for an SD-40 from the Railroad Supply Company. It is cast in fiberglass and has several add-on pieces at the top depending on whether the builder wants dynamic brakes or not. Unlike in HO scale, switching that around would be a major undertaking here. Windows still need to be cut out, but most of the other details are molded in place or are added separately like a super-detailing project. Then, it needs to be painted and for jobs like this automotive paint sprayers and epoxy paint are good choices for durability.

And what to put under that shell to run it? Here are the guts: it is a 48 volt system that runs off of four deep-cycle batteries (don't get regular batteries which are designed to be discharged a little over time- we need deep cycle batteries that can get drained down to zero and repeatedly recharged) and special control packages to control the motors. Two of the axles on each truck are connected to the gearbox, the remaining two axles are connected to the rest by chains and sprockets. You can also see the handrails are in place. All in all, it is a powerful engine.

That isn't a guy hanging out the bottom. He is working on the
ground on the next engine over. It looks funny though!

One last picture here is of importance. This engine shell has been painted blue for as long as I can remember, perhaps 10+ years. It had no decals or graphics and was starting to get a little shabby and rusty. But, the owner retouched the black paint and unveiled the engine this weekend with Conrail graphics. The slight rust in the cracks and other areas looks like perfect "weathering." But what is so special about this engine? It is painted in actual Conrail blue, obtained from the railroad's engine department. When I said to my friend it might be the last existing engine in genuine "Conrail blue" paint he responded with "Don't forget Conrail Shared Assets engines." Grr, he might be right!

Here is one last picture of our roundhouse area. You can see some of the engines are being steamed up, some are being blown down, and some are being cleaned. All of it is work. Filthy work. No one said that owning an operating steam locomotive was easy. But it is this work that makes the running so much more enjoyable. Those of you who have ever operated a live steam locomotive before (like a Gauge 1 engine) can relate. Except these guys are 100x the work and 100x the pleasure when things go right. And when they don't... oh well... then you get to fixin' them.

If any of you are around in the fall, our Fall meet is the second weekend of September. Feel free to check out our website.