In 2007 I began looking for my next Live Steam Project and started researching the Mulberry Locomotive Works Class A Climax that recently was sold on eBay. The more I read about this Keith Manison Loco and for that matter, Climax Locos in general, the more I wanted to build a 15-ton Class A Climax.

 

I decided to try my hand at scratch building a locomotive, well, at least to partially scratch build it.  The locomotive will be patterned after a Class A Climax and with a trailing car for water & fuel.  The steam engine will be a butane gas-fired 2 cylinder kit from Graham Industries.  A number of the components, like valves, the gas canister, lubricator, steam pressure safety valve, the butane burner, and the pressure gauge will be purchased.  The rest I will make from either procured castings or from scratch, including the locomotive & trailing car frames, cab, the boiler, a 2 speed gearbox/transmission, the smoke box & stack, water tanks and fuel enclosure, the power bogies and trailing car wheel sets.

Which evolved into this T-boiler, locomotive & trailing tender:

Click here to go to the archived Class A Climax Builder's Log on MyLargeScale.com

Then click here to go my current Class A Climax Builder's Log on MyLargeScale.com.