Steam powered RC?

[Stigtheone]

Sooooo.... after seeing a guy talking about something I wondered- has anyone made or seen an RC powered by a steam engine? I have a mamod tei steam traction engine which uses a real steam boiler to propel itself, but you have to manually steer it. And as a kid I was taught keyboard by a very talented old man who could build very accurately copied RC boats and Steam Traction Engines out of cardboard powered by battery but I’ve never seen a fully remote operated steam powered RC motor (wagon, car, etc) and thought it would be fairly epic to see (think either true to history copies or even steampunk style).
You can get standalone engines that produce a spinning wheel which could possibly be remotely clutched to give on/off drive and connected to a driveline, and have the steering operated remotely too... just a thought tho, not planning anything just yet haha

 

[tntpoof]

seen a guy post his build on another site followed it as viewer only last post I seen was he said he was giving up as his contraption was to heavy,,but I think with a few servos and a large enough chassis 1 could do it

 

[Greywolf74]

 

[Stigtheone]

seen a guy post his build on another site followed it as viewer only last post I seen was he said he was giving up as his contraption was to heavy,,but I think with a few servos and a large enough chassis 1 could do it

I think it would be good as a curiosity type thing, thinking about it a steam wagon would be a good base as it’s gonna be big and have a heavy duty chassis. Way out of my current expertise though lol

 

[WickedFog]

Just one more thing I would have to worry about blowing up

 

[Stigtheone]

Just one more thing I would have to worry about blowing up

It really would blow up too mate haha I’ll have to get the steam traction engine out and pressure test it some time, if it works I’ll have to upload a video

 

[WickedFog]

It really would blow up too mate haha I’ll have to get the steam traction engine out and pressure test it some time, if it works I’ll have to upload a video

Oh hell yeah, that would be awesome. I worked with a guy years ago that was a phenominal wizard of a machinist. Him and his dad built miniature steam lovomotives that you could ride on that were exact miniatures of real engines. One of the most amazing things I have ever seen with all the lines, the boiler the cabin with all the gauges, even the bells looked just like the real ones.

 

[Doom!]

Oh hell yeah, that would be awesome. I worked with a guy years ago that was a phenominal wizard of a machinist. Him and his dad built miniature steam lovomotives that you could ride on that were exact miniatures of real engines. One of the most amazing things I have ever seen with all the lines, the boiler the cabin with all the gauges, even the bells looked just like the real ones.

I am just a fan of miniature anything!

 

[Stigtheone]

Oh hell yeah, that would be awesome. I worked with a guy years ago that was a phenominal wizard of a machinist. Him and his dad built miniature steam lovomotives that you could ride on that were exact miniatures of real engines. One of the most amazing things I have ever seen with all the lines, the boiler the cabin with all the gauges, even the bells looked just like the real ones.

That sounds amazing I’d have loved to have seen that! We have a locomotive museum a few miles away and they refurbish full size trains, it’s a really good day out if you’re into that stuff as they’ve got loads of trains parked up inside, and some you can even get in the cabin and take a look around!

 

[WickedFog]

That sounds amazing I’d have loved to have seen that! We have a locomotive museum a few miles away and they refurbish full size trains, it’s a really good day out if you’re into that stuff as they’ve got loads of trains parked up inside, and some you can even get in the cabin and take a look around!

You talking about the St Louis RR Museum? If so we went to that one when Breydon was a baby. It was amazing.

 

[Stigtheone]

You talking about the St Louis RR Museum? If so we went to that one when Breydon was a baby. It was amazing.

No bud I’m UK remember!
It’s called “Locomotion” in a town called Shildon.
Where I live is the birthplace of passenger railway, Darlington to Stockton line and Witton Park, and I’m about 25 mins from Tanfield Railway, the oldest operating railway in the the world!!! 300 years next year I believe!!!

 

[WickedFog]

No bud I’m UK remember!
It’s called “Locomotion” in a town called Shildon.
Where I live is the birthplace of passenger railway, Darlington to Stockton line and Witton Park, and I’m about 25 mins from Tanfield Railway, the oldest operating railway in the the world!!! 300 years next year I believe!!!

Oh derr. That's awesome.

We got to go on some really big steam locos, like the Union Pacific 4884 Big Boy (largest "operating" locomotive ever built). It was a helluva thing to see in person after seeing it in miniature (N scale). It was alway my favorite engine.

 

[Stigtheone]

Oh derr. That's awesome.

We got to go on some really big steam locos, like the Union Pacific 4884 Big Boy (largest "operating" locomotive ever built). It was a helluva thing to see in person after seeing it in miniature (N scale). It was alway my favorite engine.

Man that is so cool!!! I love the railroads over your side of the pond, so epically huge and go through some beautiful places, I love the street runners too where the line goes through the centre of the towns main street haha

 

[WickedFog]

Man that is so cool!!! I love the railroads over your side of the pond, so epically huge and go through some beautiful places, I love the street runners too where the line goes through the centre of the towns main street haha

Yeah, we used to have streetcars here in Terre Haute Indiana years ago. Here are some old photos of my home town...

This is the street where we all cruised our hot rods as teenagers. I remember one night near to where this shot was taken where I parked my 65 Mustang, and within an hour we had 16 Mustangs ranging from my 65 up to an 88. The 67 Boss 302 that showed up was pulling the front tires about 6" off the ground when he hit the gas.

 

[Stigtheone]

Yeah, we used to have streetcars here in Terre Haute Indiana years ago. Here are some old photos of my home town...
View attachment 136066
View attachment 136068

This is the street where we all cruised our hot rods as teenagers. I remember one night near to where this shot was taken where I parked my 65 Mustang, and within an hour we had 16 Mustangs ranging from my 65 up to an 88. The 67 Boss 302 that showed up was pulling the front tires about 6" off the ground when he hit the gas.
View attachment 136067

That's a cool story mate we don't don't too many hot rods over here that cruise the streets haha and yeah we have those we can can trams but I meant the owns that have the rail line through the main street, full on freight trains that run down and they have to close the streets and stop the traffic to let then come through, just looks so epic in fact all the railroads over your side look so cool lol we've lost all our interesting ones and just have the boring main lines you can barely get close to

 

[WickedFog]

That's a cool story mate we don't don't too many hot rods over here that cruise the streets haha and yeah we have those we can can trams but I meant the owns that have the rail line through the main street, full on freight trains that run down and they have to close the streets and stop the traffic to let then come through, just looks so epic in fact all the railroads over your side look so cool lol we've lost all our interesting ones and just have the boring main lines you can barely get close to

That cruise street is Wabash Av. We used to call it "cruisin the Bash" back then. But anymore, I don't think anybody cruises there. They just go pile up in a parking lot somewhere and do burnouts with their Honda Civics

 

[WideOpen]

Oh derr. That's awesome.

We got to go on some really big steam locos, like the Union Pacific 4884 Big Boy (largest "operating" locomotive ever built). It was a helluva thing to see in person after seeing it in miniature (N scale). It was alway my favorite engine.

That Big Boy came within about 9 miles from us - wife and I went and saw it at a re-watering stop. We got some coin squashed by it.

 

[WickedFog]

That Big Boy came within about 9 miles from us - wife and I went and saw it at a re-watering stop. We got some coin squashed by it.

Very cool. It is a monster. I got to stand in the cabin of one and go "CHOO CHOO!" with my boy when he was a baby. It really makes you feel small to be standing near a machine that big.

 

[Stigtheone]

The scale and amount of engineering on most locomotives are what really impresses me and the fact they were sll made by hand and pencil no CAD anywhere, true heyday of human engineering

 

[WickedFog]

The scale and amount of engineering on most locomotives are what really impresses me and the fact they were sll made by hand and pencil no CAD anywhere, true heyday of human engineering

So true. I feel the same way about steam engines. The fact that they had so many moving parts that were all beautifully crafted working together just made them awesome pieces of art. If they were to design one today, not having any idea what they looked like, they would probably look like a refrigerator with wheels under it.