Playing with trains is fun, playing with bigger and bigger trains gets
increasingly more fun. Take the hobby of
Live Steam and Live Diesels.
It doesn't get much better unless you own a real railroad! :-) The
majority of Live Steam sized railroads in the United States are 1/8 scale, being
either 7.5" or 7.25" gauge. The 7.25" gauge will be found mostly in the
North East, north of Pennsylvania.
There are a number of quarter scale railroads in the United States, but we lost
one of them back in 2018 - Junction Valley RR,
north of Detroit MI. They are even more fun, because they are much easier to
ride, and in some cases, you can even fit inside the locomotives and cars.
If you're looking for info on "Park and Zoo" sized railroads, you can find what
I have on them
here and here.
There are other "size" trains out there that are not of the "standard" small
railroad gauges. The only one I have personally seen is the "Little Sykes" train
located in Sykesville MD, and has a gauge of something like 9 inches. It
came out of a mall somewhere up in Pennsylvania I believe. The train gets
a brief mention on my
Sykesville page.
One of the best -personal- examples of the hobby is Russ Eldridge's
White Creek Railroad just north of Grand Rapids Michigan, where
he has approximately seven miles of track. What makes Russ' track
interesting is that he has track going all over the place, and it's not
just a big loop, thereby providing engineers with multiple opportunities
to maximize their fun..... Just watch out for those crossovers!..... :-)
The picture at the top of the page was taken there in 2009, on the trestle
coming back from Three Mile Island.
One other railroad that stands out from the others is
Train Mountain in Oregon. They hold the record for the largest
"model" railroad in the Guinness Book of Records,
with 70,000 feet of mainline (13-1/4 miles / 21.3km), and a total trackage of 133,250 feet (25-1/4 miles
/ 40.6km).
Below are some of the places I have had a chance to visit. I've also
been to the Los Angeles Live Steamers and the live steam group in Roanoke,
many, many years ago before they moved, someday I will scan the slides.
Note: The pages for Junction Valley and the Traverse Steam Train are part of my
railfan guide series. While the Junction Valley/Bridgeport page is 100%
JV, the Traverse Steam Train part of that page is just a small part of the
guide to the area.
The Live Steam hobby is a great hobby, regardless of the
scale you decide to involve yourself in. Here are a few additional links of
places you can go for more information and inspiration:
I don't know why, but it seems to me that guys in the UK
have more "iron" or something in their blood, cause they sure do have some great
railroading over there, and the Live Steam scene is no exception. For a
good place to start, check out Peter's website:
http://www.miniaturerailwayworld.co.uk/
http://mountaincar.intuitwebsites.com/
is now: http://titantrains.net/
One of the premier gas/hydraulic locomotive manufacturers of 1/8 scale stuff, located in Salem VA
The MCC site will redirect you to the Titan Trains website.
https://www.rmirailworks.com/
Supplier of locomotive and trolleys using either electric or gas/hydraulic
drives, they also do signals and rolling stock
