New Regner Live Steam Heisler

Many people were confused over Regner's interpretation of the Willamette Shay...so it's hardly surprising that there is a measure of customer resistance to the new Heisler model. I'm guessing that nobody had ever seen, or taken much notice of, Charlie Heisler's prototype loco, and I include myself in that group.

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IMO only a mother could love it, especially at the original price of over eu2400 as a kit..........................

 
Steamrocks said:
Maxi: If you do not like the looks (it IS similar to the first Heisler ever built, but many people have not seen that one-first Shay looked crude, too) or price, see the articles in USA Steam in the Garden on constructing your own. No machining, no silver solder, you can build your superstructure to suit, and about 1/2 the price. Uses highly reliable Roundhouse boiler system and uses a great running PM Research oscillator. The Regner also appears to be an oscillator.
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Thank you Steamrocks, I'm not sure my limited skills will stretch to that. I think the problem for me is with the use of oscillating cylinders - In my mind I associate them with Mamod and entry level Roundhouse products.

While the Regner range are rightly lauded for their build quality and operability they do have a "house style" (as does any manufacturer) that does not lend itself to those of us who might prefer something that looks and has a feel more akin to a scale model of a given prototype. I also appreciate that there are always compromises that have to be made for both production and esthetic reasons when scaling down with most models that will render them as not exact scale replicas, however good the original intention.

With my experience in specialist model race car production it's a well known problem of how to interpret a real life car in scale form without ending up with something that frankly looks a little odd even though all the dimensions match exactly.

It's horses for courses. I hope that Jay and Regner have hit the motherload with this one as it is an unusual and interesting addition to their portfolio. But then Regner have never been one to shy away from the idiosyncratic. Long may they prosper. Max
 
I am not a live-steam person, but it is growing on me! :)
Dead-slow, looks like a loco crashed through Henry Ford's works, and sounds like a steam-driven sewing machine! What's not to like?
:giggle::clap::clap::clap:
 
If I remember rightly from when I had a Mamod some moons ago, the benefit, in model terms, of oscillating cylinders is that rather like a 2-stroke petrol engine it manages the inlet and exhaust of steam without any additional moving parts.

The Heisler has always been a slightly ungainly loco, but it looks good in that setting, and the rocking cylinder tops give a little bit of visual interest.

Some people had mentioned covering the drive shaft, but on the 1:1 locos they were always visible, and part of the attraction of modeling the geared steam locos is watching the unusual mechanical bits and pieces.


:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:
 
PhilP said:
I am not a live-steam person, but it is growing on me! :)
Dead-slow, looks like a loco crashed through Henry Ford's works, and sounds like a steam-driven sewing machine! What's not to like?
:giggle::clap::clap::clap:
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The singed eye brow from light ups and hot steam oil spattered in the eye is not so good but apart from that they are far more interesting than electrickery ones. :D
 
Owning ANY live-steamers, especially in the early days of the the learning curve, can provide a salutary reminder of the transience of eyebrows....
 
tac foley said:
Owning ANY live-steamers, especially in the early days of the the learning curve, can provide a salutary reminder of the transience of eyebrows....
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Isnt lack of eyebrows the real mark of a man? Also fringe, beard, 'tash and nostril hair?
 
Rhinochugger said:
Some people had mentioned covering the drive shaft, but on the 1:1 locos they were always visible, and part of the attraction of modeling the geared steam locos is watching the unusual mechanical bits and pieces.
:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:
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Track debris size and it's ability to stick to the gear grease does not scale the same. Leaves, sticks and rice sized grit can get pulled into the cogs whereas rocks the size of potatoes don't get stuck to the grease on prototype sized locomotives. :nerd:

Some simple sheet covers that curve around the crown gears without sides would help deflect deris below and out of the gears but the covers themselves could also be a trap for debris collection and ideally need to be easily removed for cleaning. I grabbed the image below from the video in post 6 from this thread for reference.

RegnerHeislerGears_00.jpg
 
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It's a long time since MY eyebrows disappeared in a puff of hot gas, but in the intervening years my fringe seems to have retreated to an area just above my occiputal process. Never had a beard [Army, y'know] nor 'tash [I was never that kind of officer], but my nostril hair is personal and very close-up.

I DID have the dubious pleasure, and a quiet snigger if I admit it, when I saw a fellow Gauge 1-er's Panama hat brim disappear in a flash of flame a while back. He had been regaling us with tales of having bought his fifth locomotive that year so far, and was making himself as popular as a fart in an elevator as a result of his 'five-upmanship' among us plebs when the occurrence, uh, occurred. My normally charitable self disappeared as quickly as his hat-brim, and I was not the only one laffin' like a drain at his puzzled and slightly-blackened expression...

Ah, life is good, eh?
 
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Heisler truck - the real deal.... Sumpter Valley Railway Heisler #2.

This is about as near as most folks will get to a Heisler in action, unless, of course, you go to Oregon or Washington -


Me, I love the clunky mechanical sounds made by that huge heavy crank rotating and the grinding meshy gear sounds....
 
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tac, the Regner shay locomotive appeals to me being such a weird hurdy-gurdy contraption, especially in the weathered condition as in the picture you posted. Far removed from the aesthetic elegance of British locomotive design. :)
I don't think we had any actual Heislers here in Australia but we did have some locally built copies of the idea such as Day's Engineering locomotive that worked at the end of the Puffing Billy 2'6" gauge line in Gembrook, Victoria on the timber tramway there which used the wider 3ft gauge because it proved more stable on the roughly made timber tramways which were often laid directly on the ground with no ballast.
The below photo has it's front truck removed and perhaps not the fugliest of locomotives but fugly none the less. :giggle:

http://www.lrrsa.org.au/LR212_3-8.pdf

HeislerCopyGembrook_00.jpg
 
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East coasters in the USA can go to Cass West Virginia to see ex Meadow River Lumber 3 truck Heisler #6 in operation. I think the model looks splended running on Shawns railway! Maybe I will be able to get a kit version. Mike
 
artfull dodger said:
East coasters in the USA can go to Cass West Virginia to see ex Meadow River Lumber 3 truck Heisler #6 in operation. I think the model looks splended running on Shawns railway! Maybe I will be able to get a kit version. Mike
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I believe I had a video (professional job) of that loco - can't watch it now as video players are a thing of the past (in our house anyway).
 
West coasters can go the the Mount Rainier Scenic Railway in WA state, or the Oregon coast Scenic Railway in Oregon, operating out of Garibaldi up to Rockaway beach and sometimes Wheeler or as far as the line goes up the river to the landslide...
 
tac foley said:
West coasters can go the the Mount Rainier Scenic Railway in WA state, or the Oregon coast Scenic Railway in Oregon, operating out of Garibaldi up to Rockaway beach and sometimes Wheeler or as far as the line goes up the river to the landslide...
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Now you come to mention it, the video may have been of the Mount Rainier Scenic Railway :nod::nod: sounds more familiar.

Anyway, on the question of a guard for the drive mechanism, I think we may be worrying needlessly - I've just run the Shay, and the drive shafts are much closer to the ground, and outside the line of the rails, but I've never had anything get stuck in the mechanism .......................... yet :think::think:
 
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