Hi all,

This is a hypothetical question. Steam engines obviously need to boil water in order to power them and I realize there is more than one way to boil water. Since a coal- or wood-burning fire is not the only way to heat water, could a steam engine be potentially created so that a powerful electric heater could heat the water? This seems to make sense to me but maybe a fire (that burns coal or wood) creates more heat than an electric motor could?

This is only a curiosity/theoretical question, so don't jump all over me! I'm not advocating that anyone should do this, just wondering if it would be possible or if it's feasible. It would also be totally green as well.

Thanks,
Rob (aka RobertInOntario)

WPMA-17 with empty grain cars for Agway.

Bruce

   

So my last two projects have been hand painted with a brush and Vallejo acrylic paints as I don’t have an airbrush or means to do any spraying with a rattle can or airbrush anyways. I’d like to hopefully change that sooner or later, but in the meantime I have been painting by hand. I’ve produced serviceable results but I‘m not as happy with the final products as I could be. What sorts of advise can you guys offer to improve the quality of my painting? Are there any particular products you guys would recommend? What’s your workflow look like when you do hand painting? Literally anything would be incredibly helpful.

WPMA-40 makes a pull from Pier 34.

Bruce

   

Hauling coal over the mountain.     
Charlie

A late start this for the thread this week.

Lehigh & New England Alco S-2 Switcher (Atlas) pulls some boxcars through a very busy Leiperville Union Station.

EBT Coach 8 was built by the Laconia Car Co for the Boston Revere Beach & Lynn. The car was sold as part of a batch of identical coaches to the EBT and numbered 8-11. When the EBT acquired M-1, they set up Coach 8 with roller bearing trucks as a dedicated trailer for it. The car survives and is at the railroad today, though it is currently down for some repairs.

The kit I’m building is a 3d printed resin kit made by Western Rails.

A day late and no entries.  
Aerotrain making a trip along the Wilderson Division.     
Charlie

The pier yard jockey waits while WPMA-40 sorts out some trailer flats that were mistakenly added to their consist.

Bruce

   

Hi everyone, I will again try to explain how I set-up my layout to be controlled by a computer.

I couldn't really find a suitable part of the forum that dealt with this sort of topic so...... here we are. 

I started to do this on the PistonBroke Thread but will now start separate thread here for those who are curious



So I will attempt to copy and Paste the relevant posts from the other thread to refresh and start again and see how we go

 

This new layout will be using a computer to control it (when I call it into action) with the "Train Controller" ®  programme by Freiwald Software
Here is a PDF of the computer drawing of my layout done with the "Train Controller" software
Which is a very simple exercise, just using the mouse as a pencil .

   

      

        

   

   

   

   

       

   
You just keep adding them in series to increase the number of sections that you need feed back from 

      

       

I bought one, so we will see. 

   

I guess it's the Challenge. ...... Wait. Wut. did I just say that!