Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad; 9 new old steam locomotives

linkthebutler · **Joined:** Mon Jul 13, 2020 12:29 am **Posts:** 267

To my surprise the collection of Tom Murray's
7,5' steamers survive on a safe place at the
Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad.
See:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEB5cZ_5_qY

Bobharbison · **Joined:** Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm **Posts:** 3011

Those locos were built by Dave Skagen and are nothing short of amazing. I have run several of them, and Dave only had to do a very quick briefing on the firing system. Pretty much everything is the same as on the full size locos. That does lead to some annoyingly tiny valves, but they are incredibly accurate.

tom moungovan · **Posted:** Tue Oct 14, 2025 8:36 am

I rode Simpson's lumber line with Dave in April of 1976 and then he invited me over to his property and showed me his railroad. He gave me a choice of just about any of his live steam engines to fire up and I picked the big Heisler. He allowed me to operate it over his line and then we went to dinner.

Dave was a fine and talented gent.

Tom

Bobharbison · **Joined:** Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm **Posts:** 3011

tom moungovan wrote:

He gave me a choice of just about any of his live steam engines to fire up and I picked the big Heisler.

The three narrow gauge locos are fun to run. Since they're larger and have more boiler capacity they're not as touchy about steam use and firing. Dave built a model of 2 foot narrow gauge loco for 7-1/2" track, so basically 1/3 scale. It was huge and quite a runner. Wonder what happened to that one? (It was a Maine Narrow Gauge loco and not one of Tom's)