Well, the 0-6-0 starts to be in working condition now, even though a lot of cosmetic detailing is missing...
Veijo Kivipelto, who is himself building a 2-8-0 live steamer (see this page), visited me one day and we ran both my steam locos simultaneously. It is interesting to compare the handling of the 0-6-0 and the 4-4-0 - the former has power, the latter speed, but is prone to slipping due to low adhesive weight. I weighed both locos: the 0-6-0 is 105 kg, the 0-4-0 is 70 kg, of which only around 45 kg is on the drivers.
(If you look closely, you can see a couple of bare spots on the lawn close to the track - I won't make the error of blowing down the boiler on the lawn anymore - I'll do it on the gravel walk instead... ;-)
Somehow, the neighbor kids always seem to know when I run the loco - even when I refrain from using the whistle. So I always have some "dead weight" when testing... ;-)
However much more interesting I myself find the steam locos, the kids of visitors and neigbors alike are much more interested in the "Quickie", the little plywood box on wheels that I built in only 48 workshop hours - obviously because they may run it all by themselves, even though that really only means that they hold the on-off switch! Maybe it's so much more exciting because no adult is riding along?
Anyway, one evening I had all these eleven (!) kids around the Quickie, all waiting for their turn as "engineers". As you can see, the steam locos are set aside!
Here's the youngest driver so far, Maria, 2 years 3 months old. She handled the loco expertly! Since the Quickie does max. 3 mph, I can safely let even a less than 3 year old kid sit in the driver's seat - with an adult walking along just for safety, of course. Kids from 5 and up don't need much supervision - when instructed, they understand that they are to stop the loco if it, or a car derails.