we used to take it to my gramma's for family reunions.between my dad, me(12-17yrs old) and a few of the relatives we could take it from trailer to running in about 45 minutes.had 22 sections of 10ft track,4 sections of 5 ft track and 12 turn sections of about 8ft each,so a little over 320ft of track.the engine drove out both ends so all 8 wheels under the engine were drivers.and it had a big brass bell mounted up right behind the headlight.they show up occasionally on usedrides.com.if your ever out in craig colorado thats where it went.the guy ran the miniture golf course there in town.

616-7 would be ideal really. Quieter then this weedeater of an engine. the engine is liquid cooled it's an old Isuzu or chevy engine (same thing really) our live steam engine would still be a heavy brute compared to this thing, It's matching counterpart is a Red White Blue Propane/Diesel that shares the exact Trucks and Engined Driveline as this one is supposed to have. why they wanted to go to Hydro on this one I'll never know...my Idea was pushed aside...

That Carnival Ride looks Awesome! looks to bee 7 1/2 gauge or G which is Very popular

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hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

its a g-12 basically 12 inch track.they also made g-16 but they are alot bigger.

I'm thinking that with a 617, there would be too much weight concentrated at one end of the power car. But, whatever you do, don't use a turbo 617. I don't think the governor will deal well with constant speed operation.

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When I was a kid (5-6yo) Dad had a part time job operating a park RR in Austin at Zilker park. From what I know now, one of the trains was a G-16 and the other, a 'steamer' was the same machinery underneath a 4-4-4 loco. IIRC, they both had a 4-cyl Wisconsin air cooled engine running through a torque converter.

The old fella that built and ran the concession was B.E. Glenn, a former Roadmaster for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. He seemed ancient at the time but thinking back, he was probably only in his mid-60s.

The line was about a mile or so along Barton Creek, to a balloon track and then back to the station where the train traveled another balloon to the station. The trainsets were stored in a tunnel that was just before the station. I remember that it was a PITA to reverse so the last run of the day was a deadhead out and back to stop in the tunnel.

In the summer, I'd always get to ride with Dad on the loco on the deadhead move. Great memories.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

All of the other engines are far heavier then this one, so I'm not sure of weight would be an issue. I had hopes of a 70's 616/7 but I cant find one cheap enough surprisingly,

the Crown 4-4-0 without the tender comes in at I belive 9800lbs with the tender it's a whole lot more, 318 G of water plus the weight of the car, and we keep it full, but it's seldom used, only special run days, Christmas that sort of thing, when there's enough people to make it worth while to run, to get it to steam it takes about 50lbs of coal to get to 140Psi or if we pop off at 170psi it's about 65lbs

The replicate engine comes in at about 1900lbs and the power car comes in at I'd say close to 3-4,000lbs right now, a 617 weighs I think around 1800lbs so it wouldnt be too bad, the only down side is rigging a braking system for that setup as the hydrostatic once you let go the train stops pretty quickly and will stay where ever you put it. again this is all speculation. will know more monday or tuesday when we actually get it all the way around the track.

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hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

Engine was Re-Timed today. It was waaayyyyy off, further off then any of us expected, The engine is Quieter and now will move under it's own power at idle speed, Also got more Hydro pressure too. Will post a couple video's later on when I find a free Movie editor

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1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

I never knew that NAD built trains. They definitely build a lot of the roller coaster trains of that era, some of which even still run today.

Check it out:

Both of the Trains that are diesel powered are National Amusement Devices. What I've read online is they are not common and actually quite rare with only a handful left that still run. kinda interesting really.

this is the final Setup complete and the engine timed. If you look at the older videos compared to this one you'll see a major difference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFurkH4VoZs

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hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

Train made it's public Debut today. Was supposed to be a private affair but the owners blabbed around town and a crowd showed up... but All in all everything went well. There's a couple small things to Iron out and I guess it's good to go. Time will tell if this engine in the power car lasts.. but anyways. I'll post video and pictures when I get my Editing PC fixed.

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hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed