Steam outline powered by compressed air

[warmstrong1955]

I was trying to find some pics I took several years ago of an Eimco 401 loci.
They were made for underground mining, and ran off of 100 PSI air. Ones I have seen were 18 gauge. Not your conventional steam type power....they used a radial piston air motor & a two speed transmission.

Must be something on the net about 'em.

Bill

[jcbrock]

Forget the steam outline, be the first to have one of these! http://blog.modernmechanix.com/new-rail ... ual-drive/

Back in my day on the Billy Jones we acquired a Homestake Mining air loco, and then someone scrounged a submarine high pressure air system compressor to fill it. My recollection is the big tank was at something like 800 psi with the cylinders stepped down to 250 psi or so. We never used it much, it took forever to pump it up with that submarine compressor. The sub compressor was good to something like 4000 psi, but at a low volume. Hooked to the Homestake air system, it filled in about 5 seconds. Mines have big air handling systems!

[Mr Ron]

Thank you all for your replies. I was more curious than serious about actually building one. I do build electric prototypes that operate from storage batteries. I'm more into construction of locomotives than running them. If it runs even a few feet, that is enough to satisfy me. I've built 3 locomotives and on my third one which is a model of the famous DD1 used on the Pennsylvania and Long Island railroads. I use mostly wood in construction with metals for running gear. I have made operating couplers from wood. They work just fine as I have no intention of actually using them. I try to keep the cost down to around $100 each. I work mostly with wood, but I have all the metalworking tools needed.