!Boiler Work! Construction photos of a 1.6" scale, 7.5" gage live steam USRA Heavy Mikado locomotive, wheel arrangement 2-8-2. Under construction in my basement under the expert tutelage of Bill W., retired master machinist. I have chosen the home road for this locomotive, it will be a Frisco 1400-series engine.

!In Progress! It's my goal to finish my Mikado locomotive in 2010. One key milestone will be getting the locomotive out of basement. I plan to do this by fabricating my own freight elevator for the stairwell opening during the winter of 2010. H. Graham has completed the engineering, provided 16 pages of drawings and turned the fabrication over to me.

Fond memories of 2003 to the present. Run day events, construction pics, more.

Moving the 1911-1920's vintage Iron:a Rahn-Larmon Lathe, a B.F.Barnes 20 Drill press and a Mill from a friends shop to my garage, then Restoring them. !!The Rahn-Larmon lathe is back in service!! --------------------- I aquired the lathe from Paul Strippgen Woodworking Co, Inc, Valcour Ave, Affton MO. He paid $130 for it in 1963 from Ed & Bill McKee's Machine Shop on Big Bend Rd, St. Louis MO, and it was owned by Charlie Gray originally. Paul paid $90 to have it hauled. ---------- Paul paid $25 at auction for the drill press and the Milling machine was from a Silk Screen company in St. Louis.

Meet Max. He wants you to throw the ball.

May 2010 - The water pump ram is jamming in the pump bore, causing the wheels to lock up. It will be replaced with an injector. Also the graphite string piston rings will be replaced because they are leaking. August 2009 - Improvements to the water pump and riding car made. *** November 2008 It's Done It Runs!! *** First steam up ever during the Thanksgiving holiday and it ran great! I am so happy!

...Like building a three-phase power converter, New tooling storage

Photo highlights from my July 23-27, 2009 Michigan Steam Train festival trip with Bill and Bud. See also my videos on YouTube.

A visit to the Illinois Live Steamers Track

On the closing weekend, I went to the 'Toy & Miniature Museum of Kansas City' and saw the 300 year old tool collection on special display and met one the collection owners, Bill Robertson. All photo's and text in this gallery were taken and copyright by Bill Robertson, my software incorrectly identifies the copyright owner. Used with Permission.

First steamup of Zach Mikko's Mikado 611. A fine running machine with its first ever fire on sunday 30-Aug-09 at the St. Louis Live Steamers track.

For the last weekend in September a bunch of us from the St. Louis area went to the Big Creek & Southern RR for a steamup and had a great time! On this beautiful and LARGE layout Bill and I ran the Crab locomotive some 15 hours, using 35 lbs. of coal. Gallery now includes pictures from William Webster.

Pictures from my December 2009 Holiday Break. Lots of stuff including a bit of being a tourist in my own hometown pictures.

The family gathered together in western New York to celebrate a special 90th birthday.