Does anybody here build live steamers?

artfull dodger

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Does anybody here build bespoke models? Not looking for anything fancy or complex. What I want is a gauge 1 version of my Bassett Lowke Super Enterprise. An alcohol fired simple pot boiler, with everything contained in the locomotive side, the tender is just there to make it it look complete. The simple gauge 1 BL live steamers are much harder to find, they did make a pot boilered Mogul, but finding one is like a needle in a hay stack. I enjoy my O gauge version and always look at it and wish it was gauge one instead of O gauge. Same for the other BL O scale live steamers. Building it myself is out of the question, but I am open to paying someone to build it or if someone has one of the vintage BL engines they would let go of, please let me know. Thanks. Mike
 

Paul M

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If you haven't already, you may be better of asking on a model engineering forum, or, of course, the Gauge 1 Society.
 

dunnyrail

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Bespoke live steam building can be an expensive prospect, think of a number then double it. Reason is it takes an awful lot of time no matter how experienced and as they say time is money. Off the cuff I would have thought a repo pot boiler Mogul would likely be in the region of $6000 possibly much more if you can find someone to build it.

A better bet may be one of the kits by someone like Barrett.
 

playmofire

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Bespoke live steam building can be an expensive prospect, think of a number then double it. Reason is it takes an awful lot of time no matter how experienced and as they say time is money. Off the cuff I would have thought a repo pot boiler Mogul would likely be in the region of $6000 possibly much more if you can find someone to build it.

A better bet may be one of the kits by someone like Barrett.
The metalwork teacher in my first year at secondary school built live steamers, certainly more than Gauge 1. Unless it was clear that the class were likely to continue metalwork beyond the first form, he got quite a bit of work done during class time on his locos.
 

justme igor

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Google for billy1906. He is all you need.
I will post a link if I have time tonight
 
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Igor, I see you recently have "discovered" mylargescale.com, it's been around for many years. I see your comments on the live steam thread.

Yes, the OP is on mylargescale.com, and we all know "Billie1906" (not "billy1906") who is also on mylargescale.com ... not sure that he does anything not fancy like the OP requested.

("Bille1906" joined the forum in 2009)

The OP, Bill Allen, and I are all in the USA and MLS is one of the 2 largest US forums. In fact his is California, a few hundred miles north of me.

Bill does phenomenal models and almost always complex. They cannot be cheap.

Greg
 
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justme igor

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Igor, I see you recently have "discovered" mylargescale.com
1.5 years?? or something??
So, what is you point....

I see your comments on the live steam thread.
I guess i would like to do that also and i have the capabilities...
Yes, the OP is on mylargescale.com, and we all know "Billie1906" (not "billy1906") who is also on mylargescale.com
Yes it was written all over it, sorry i read over it.

Billie1906" (not "billy1906"
sorry did not mean to offend anyone..
The OP, Bill Allen, and I are all in the USA and MLS is one of the 2 largest US forums. In fact his is California, a few hundred miles north of me.
want some candy for reward.... as i live a bit more further down the road.
Bill does phenomenal models and almost always complex
Why do you think i follow him and ask questions, cous i have no clue....

They cannot be cheap.
not even 500$ on materials.....but time, machinery and the handy work..one i DONT have, the other one i have...and the last one i have also....

Stop triggering me, stop pulling me into a mud fight...i am fed up with you...just stop making me black, stop asking the obvious stupid questions that are making no sense that even a toddler can answer(Also referring to other topics)
You are the reason i dont come much around here anymore( i am NOT the only one, or on other forums i am NOT the only one(incl the ones you are blocked on)), so kcuf off
If we all would follow the same idea we would still walk in bear skins....
Stop bickering greg....you are on a slow train already...
You know your own history, but you don't learn from it.

\So what is the caus that
That i earn less than you? that i "just" can keep 75000 euro's a year clean after tax? before tax 150 to 165000 euro...We have a different tax system, do i really have to explane this...
Or was it that i have a successful power wall running on 18650's.... a whopping 106Kwh(soon 160-170Kwh on li ion 18650), cous i know how to test and maintain them.
Or that i have a shed full of machinery and i can do those tricks as well.....
And got some knowledge as a (2x)engineer...

You are not that stupid greg so stop the bickering, or keep playing dumb, but leave me alone

YES the whole comments to you where sarcastic greg, get a life greg

Sorry folks this has a large and loaded history.
 
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Wow, take a breath. I do find it somewhat comical that when you find something new to you, you don't take a breath to see if it is really new to everyone else.

Bill Allen is well known as a custom high end locomotive builder, and he and the OP are in the USA. But as I said if you took a breath and looked at the complexity (and clearly the cost) of the locos he makes, it's not what the OP of this thread asked for in any means.

"Does anybody here build bespoke models? Not looking for anything fancy or complex."


Greg
 
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tac foley

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Allan - here in UK we have a goodly number of live-steam builders, one of who is known to me personally as a member of the Anglia group of G1-ers. He batch-builds Gauge 1 models of popular locos for anything between $4000 and 6000 a pop, so he might be off your scale in that regard.

I've not seen your name in my address book, so I guess that you are not a member of G1MRA in the USA, although a call to Ernie Noah would fix that. Getting hold of a copy of 'Steam in the Garden', an American publication, might be useful, too.

Copying a known model is just as expensive as building from scratch - but instead of drawings you have real-live metal to work from. However, I really can't see it costing you anything under ca.$3000.

Why not ask on the G1MRA FB page or the 16mm page? I know that you go there.
 

tac foley

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Bespoke live steam building can be an expensive prospect, think of a number then double it. Reason is it takes an awful lot of time no matter how experienced and as they say time is money. Off the cuff I would have thought a repo pot boiler Mogul would likely be in the region of $6000 possibly much more if you can find someone to build it.

A better bet may be one of the kits by someone like Barrett.

Barrett do not make kits for narrow gauge, but I'm sure you know that already. The main point is that they do not sell to North America.