My other hobbies

[HIWATT1]

Live steam models to scale, steam locomotives, steam shovels, metal working, guitar playing and historical construction equipment. Oh, and how can I forget-chasing women and drinking beer!

[billcreller]

Do you chase women and drink beer when you get " steamed up" ??

 Live steam models are really cool.

[Shrapnel]

Hiwatt1,

If you got pics of your steam locomotives, I'm sure my wife would love to look at them. In fact if you want to share examples of all your endeavors in steam power, I'm sure we all would appreciate it.
 

[madison]

Gosh, some people get all hot and wet over the subject!

(I actually think it's a great hobby, please share more)

[Dynaflow]

 My late uncle had a engine he machined and built and a old model of a steam tractor. The engine was probably nearly six feet long, and they'd take them to live steamer events hook on to 10-12 cars and pull people around the track no problem. Wish I had some pictures still. I can't recall the whole deal I was pretty young when he started it, but I do recall he bought the castings raw and finished them out to spec. Pretty neat old guy, he as a engineer with the SP for about 30 years before he retired, taught himself to do machine work. Really miss the guy.

Regards,

Dyna

[Barrett]

How do you power an amp with stam?   Just wondering...   

[G._Hoffman]

How do you power an amp with stam?   Just wondering...   

Well, I just plug into the wall.  That works pretty well, unless you live near Niagara Falls or the Hoover damn.

Sorry, just being pedantic.  Feel free to ignore me.


Gabriel

[rafe]

How do you power an amp with stam?   Just wondering...   

There are lots of steam generators :shocked:

[Frankenamp]

I heard a steam powered amp before- it was a silicon Peavey with a cheap speaker hooked into ship's power. Ships power was a pair of 600 psi steam plants driving a couple of GE steam turbines that put out about 24,000 HP. Sounded 'bout as good as any transistor practice amp... 500 feet long, 100 feet wide, flat bottom "stand by for heavy rolls while ship is coming about".

[PRR]

> How do you power an amp with stam?

Who is "stam"?

If you mean "steam": steam is low-energy. Electricity is high energy. You need a big lever.

As Rafe and Franken say: you usually build an engine to turn steam into mechanical power, then a generator to turn mechanical into electricial. If you are in the right place and time with a lot of cash, you could buy a steam-ship like Frankenamp served on. On a more personal scale, you can find old steam engines (but most of them were melted-down for WWII), you can train 30 years as a machinist and build your own (castings are available), or you can modify the valveworks on a small water-cooled infernal combustion engine. The neat way to get a boiler is to use a small home heating boiler: all ready to go except you want to turn-up the pressure. With luck you can get the steam conversion to spin as fast as it did as an IC engine, and then you just couple it to a standard emergency-power alternator.

There was a Chevy V-6 powered backup generator behind my building. This with a 125,000 BTU home boiler is nominal 50 horsepower, which would power the whole band plus a small-arena sound system. Efficiency would be poor. "Looks" would be poor: part of the appeal of steam is the flashing rods and valveworks, all hidden on modern engines. If you can find a circa 1900 steam motor-boat, and get it working again, that would be a good power, but you'd have to belt-up the RPM by at least 1:4.

[supro66]

How do you power an amp with stam?   Just wondering...   

Thats easy



I was a bladder and built these

[J Rindt]

I was born in Los Gatos, CA, in 1960.
I have fond memories of riding on Billy Jones Rail Road, when it was located in his own back yard. It was a real "One In A Million" place to go. He ran it on donations and sales of Bireleys Orange Soda. He was an incredible guy. RIP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Jones_Wildcat_Railroad#The_.22Wildcat_Railroad.22

[Ritchie200]

Hey J Rindt, does the J stand for Jochen? 

That is a great story.  Pretty cool that he and Walt Disney were buddies too.  We have a local narrow gage 12" RR that I have posted about.  When I had time to volunteer there years ago, there were a few of the older guys who used to work for UP and MoP and drive the old steam trains.  They could make those little engines talk!

Jim

[J Rindt]

I just got through watching all the Steam Rail Road videos on Youtube. So interesting and fascinating. 1920-1950/60 was a great time to work for the RR. Amazing how many JOBS there were back then. Steam required a lot of man power to keep it gong, and the lack of "technology" demanded more people for a given task.
Days gone by I guess.....

[PRR]

> Steam required a lot of man power to keep it gong,

That's the #2 reason steam is dead.

A highway engine has so much fire in so little space that after EVERY day someone has to go in and scrub the soot out. Lots of other chores too.

Steam hung-on in places where labor was cheap. South Africa. Even today in India's small dedicated lines.

The #1 reason in most of the world is that GM was selling Diesel locos on time-payment and rapid delivery, when Baldwin and other classic steam builders demanded front-money and long waiting lists. Combined with the fact that most engines were worn-out after WWII, the post-war period was all about Diesels.

[J Rindt]

Oh Man..!!!
The Steam videos were just Awesome!!!
But yeah, the repair yards were FULL of man power. All kinds of forging, fitting, cleaning, etc., went into the rebuild of a steam locomotive. LOTS of guys had jobs back then. No doubt (like tubes on a MUCH smaller scale) a lot of the knowledge/art of building a steam train has gone to the grave with many of those men.
It is funny (or at least ironic) That GM had such a big effect on steam. Later it would be GM gasoline automobiles, and Diesel trucks that would take a bight out of the RR once again.
Thank You

[sleepyhead]

Hi,

Check out the Home Model Engine Machinist forum to see some really beautiful tiny steam engines.

I was thinking as I read one of the comments above "Would it really take thirty years to learn?" and then remembered that I started as an apprentice fitter in 1982. Time flies. Few things are as scary as a steam boiler up to working pressure.

Take care

John