6 live-steamers on the Living Room Railway

[@marksaunderson3042]

When I was a kid, so we are talking early 1980’s, a work colleague of my father has a live steam railway in his garden. Perhaps 3 or 4 inch? It ran round the garden and through the garage in a circle. Parts of the track lifted up for when not in use. . . He was a tool maker, and built it all himself. He also had a small working (not steam) locomotive that was about 2cm long, that ran on a small circular track about 7cm in diameter, on the mantle piece above the living room fire. It ran on compressed butane from lighter refills. It did not burn the gas, it just ran off the gas as it expanded. Fill it up from a can of lighter gas and it ran around the track for about 15 seconds before the gas expanding caused it to get covered in condensation that froze up, and it stopped, frozen. He just wanted to see how small he could make one that worked.