My other vehicle is a locomotive

[two spot]

Hello-

I have been lurking on this site for about three weeks now. I must say there is awesome stuff going on here! Some real talented fabricators for sure. A great inspiration.

I am a professional model maker/fabricator. I live in the S.F. bay area with my fiance and our dog Casey. I used to build models/props/sets for TV/film/advertising, now I am the exhibits guy at a local museum. I have been a fan of old bikes for about 8 years-- ever since I saw my first hot rod cruiser in New Orleans back in 2000. I thought "I want one of those". Not knowing any better, I bought a pacific cycles Chinese Schwinn a couple years later. Currently I commute to the museum on an Electra Rockabilly Boogy that I have customized. I'll post pics in the gallery. That junky Chinese Schwinn is still in my garage. I have big plans for it. I'll try to make a slight bit more respectable For the time being I will have to appreciate all the vintage American iron vicariously through you all on this site.

I also spend almost every Saturday wrenching on my first love; steam locomotives. I actually own five live steam locomotives. Two of them can haul full size human passengers! :shock: Picture:

Regards,
Two Spot :mrgreen:

 

[KOTA]

WELCOME!.....Nice choo-choo!

 

[jtdaddy]

Wow. Welcome.

 

[duct-tape]

Nice one

I have always wanted to get into building minis/reps for movies or something. Cool job you have

 

[Markm]

welcome :mrgreen:

 

[Rat Rod]

Welcome to the rat trap!

 

[ratdaddy]

welcome mr. twospot. You should enjoy it here. One of the other members here JohnPSmith is a locomotive engineer based in Denver. He has an awesome train collection. He is going to be jealous of your trains. He is on often, so you should hear from him soon.

 

[Anonymous]

that rocks!!!! my boy would go nuts over that.. it's been a while but isn't there someplace around there that has a whole park for little steam engines???

can't remember if it's north or south of S.F. ever ride twin peaks? thats some fun.




welcome

 

[johnpsmith]

Greetings, I was told there was a live steamer on here. Im jealous, I had a kit but never found the time or money to have it built and had to abandon the project. Instead I play with 1/1 scale deisels for the BNSF here in Denver and have a large collection of 1/32 Marklin Maxi in my basement. Then the bike hobby came along and the trains stay packed in the closets. Welcome to the site, there is some unbelievable talent of custom builders and modifiers on here. My personal favorite is Adapt. He takes old bikes of all kinds and modifies the frames to resemble really classic designs and paints them accordingly. Then he builds them with period style parts and they look like they just came out of a time capsule. Being a steam nut, Do you plan do do some steampunk themed stuff?

 

[StephenH]

Building and using steam locomotives (of any size) is one of those cool hobbies that I've not had the time, energy, money, or talent to persue. Sounds like a lot of fun, though. Welcome to the forums.

You might be interested in this:
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pattl ... rc0373.htm

 

[two spot]

Thanks everybody for the warm welcome. Mike, the park here in the bay area that has steam trains must be Tilden park in Berkeley. The club is called Golden Gate Live Steamers. I do run my train up there, when I get the chance, which is not very often. John, I can appreciate the problem of not having the time and money to fit all the hobbies you would like, although 1:1 diesels sound pretty fun too. 8) The Marklin Maxi stuff is cool. You know there is a company out there that made some "live diesels" out of Marklin Maxi F7 locomotives-- pretty cool. I have no immediate plans to do any steam punk stuff. I do love steam punk style, but as cruisers go I prefer the hot rod or military style bikes. There was a set of castings and drawings out there for a steam powered bike at one point. It was called the Vesuvius. Here is a picture:

As you can see the boiler, water tank, fuel, and cylinders all mount to the front wheel. Wouldn't it be cool to blast the whistle and go for a ride on one of these. Maybe one day I'll find the time to build one.

Regards,
Two Spot

 

[BLASTER]

"Steam punk"....I like it!!!
Welcome.
I dig your train!

 

[johnpsmith]

Im in heaven. That would be my ultimate bike. Steam power on two wheels. Ive been to Tilden many times and strange as it seems, Im actually wearing a redwood valley railroad t-shirt right now. I had a battery powered Mckeen car for a while when I lived in San Diego. I rode it on the LALS track and the CVLS in San Diego. But once you run Live Steam, Battery power or gasoline engines just dont cut it. Check out my myspace page, lots of cool train pics on there. By the way, did you know Robert Frank, the owner of Sonoma Traintown, is a BNSF Engineer? Very cool guy and he will gladly take you into the roundhouse.

http://www.myspace.com/johnthetrainman

 

[OUTLAW]

welcome, kool choo choo, how big is it?

Outlaw :mrgreen:

 

[Timbo]

WOW! oh man I love steam engine technology, I still mess with Plastic models when I am not illustrating or printing. I like building Russian planes. That steam engine looks so awesome! and the bike is so nifty! very very cool to meet you! Welcome!

 

[karfer67]

welcome those pics are awsome i would love to see more of the trains you have and in action maybe. hope you had fun at the shop (this is adam over at college cyclery) sorry i could not spend more time sat is always nuts and i am "the guy" who knows where everything is so i get pulled every which way. welcome like i said before dont be a stranger!!