Two steamups, 2003-05-20

Spring has finally arrived in Finland! Today was a nice, warm day, just perfect for trying out the improvements and modifications made to TWO locos during our long winter - Juhani Saloranta's "Russian Decapod" 2-10-0, and my own 4-4-0. I lent some 80 ft. of my portable track to Juhani, who put it up in his yard (his own track is 6" gauge, except for a short test piece of 7 1/4"). I brought my engine along, for a double portrait.

My new propane burners are a vast improvement in efficiency over the old "pokers", I had my steam up to safety blow in less than 7 minutes, and was able to test that everything worked as it should:

Juhani also tried the throttle of the 3003:

Using some birch bark and wood, Juhani kindled the fire in the firebox of his 2-10-0, which even has a stoker for the coal (in the lower edge of picture):

It took a while for him to get the steam up on the much larger 2-10-0, but when he pulled the throttle, you could hear his engine had POWER! The chuffs were impressive, even on his own very short piece of 7 1/4" test track! He'll move his engine onto the longer track later this week, for further testing...

Here's the cab interior of his Decapod - all the tiny stuff works...

... even the turbo-generator, built using parts from a bicycle dynamo:

Another portrait of the two Baldwin engines, originals built over 70 years apart. The size difference is very noticeable, the development of steam locos during those years made the engines larger and larger...

For more pictures of Saloranta's 2-10-0, see this page!

Incidentally, Saloranta is an accomplished graphics artist - many years ago he made this exquisite gouache painting of the Baldwin 3003, long before I even got interested in live steam...



Close this window when you are ready...

Any information presented on this website (especially any do-it-yourself instructions) is given without any acceptance of liability for damage or injury - so, always remember: SAFETY FIRST!

The material on this page and its related pages is Copyright © 2001-2007 by J-E Nystrom. You may NOT copy, transmit and/or publish any of my images or texts in print, electronically, on your own website or in any other way. The author retains all rights to this work, with this sole exception: Storing the pages on your own computer or printing out a paper copy, for your own, strictly personal use is allowed.

You may, however, freely link to the "Building Live Steam Locomotives" page at: http://www.saunalahti.fi/animato/steam, or to my Animation Home Page at: http://www.saunalahti.fi/animato.

You should NOT link directly to THIS page, since it's address may change in the future. Also, you may not put any of these pages or pictures into "frames" on your own website.

Thank you.