Saturated Steam

History
GWRDriver posts:


 * Years ago, a company called Small Parts had an employee named Leo LaFond who was interested in live steam and model engineering. He talked the owner into entering that market and started Saturated Steam. Things went well, they mostly had run of the mill stuff, Stuart castings, Fyne Fort Fittings, and the other usual stuff, but they made a contact in England and produced designs and castings for at least three really superb projects, the 1.5" scale PRR E-6 Atlantic, and the Tangye Mill engine in two scales. Two things happened to upset the apple cart, first there was a falling out of some kind between their UK contact and their source for lost wax iron castings for the E6 and Tangye engines disappeared, and not too long afterward Leo passed away. Since there was no one else in the organization who knew the live steam business they closed it down. This has been before 1991 so I would doubt that any of the stock remains. I was once in Miami and stopped in to see Leo but he was out and not another single soul knew a thing about the "steam engine stuff". There was no Saturated Steam "store", no showroom, no office, just shelf space in the back of the Small Parts warehouse.

Pennsy E6 Atlantic
A "museum quality" Pennsylvania E6 Atlatic built from Saturated Steam castings was posted on eBay.com in November 2010.

Doug Edwards comments on the quality of the locomotive.


 * Here is a shot of the cab. In keeping consistent with the level of detail this model was taken to, there are no out of scale parts, even in the cab. No ball valves, etc.. Note the main shut off valve and valves to the Ohio injectors. There was nothing close available, so investment castings were made and the valves machined up from them. Also note the check valve between the injectors. This is a common feature on most PRR locos, but one rarely modeled. A pipe from the check went the full length of the boiler and discharged the water near the front flue sheet.


 * There is a screw reverse that is hard to see on the engineer's side. The E6 class was eventually spec'ed for a power reverse, but none were ever applied.


 * The Detroit lubricator was made to be functional (here is your lubricator you asked about Dave). The oil reservoir is under the cab. There was investment castings available for the lubricator, but iirc, you had to machine the valves again, as there was none the right size.


 * Note that the cab is wood lined, and that the plugs for inspection holes are modeled in the back head.


 * For those not up on Pennsy practice, this cab and back head match PRR practice. There is no compromise here.


 * The water scoop on the tender is designed to be functional. The valve is visable on the left side of the front end shot of the tender.


 * I have a casting set for this model design, and have been very impressed with the degree the model has been taken to, even in areas that will be difficult to see after the loco is done. There are a few sand cast iron castings, but the vast majority are investment castings.


 * The loco is intended to be functional, but the owner never personally intended to run it on steam, so that the finish would not be compromised. He has run the chassis on air by filling the boiler, which is a Swindon built copper boiler, btw.


 * The patterns are mothballed at this point. I am told that not all made it over from the UK, and that some did not make it over compete. I was told about 2 years ago that a casting inventory was going to taken, but it has not been finished.

George Gaskill writes:


 * I have at my desk at work The Modeltec magazine that shows E6s No. 460 as the cover (thats back-to-front cover) photograph. In fact, the whole inside front cover is devoted to describing it and there is a paragraph on page 1 that says:


 * Featured on our cover is a recent arrival from Rugby, England: the 1 9/16" scale model of the PRR E6s No. 460. The inside front cover explains the history surrounding this famous locomotive. Don't miss it!


 * From the inside front cover:


 * A museum quality reproduction of Pennsylvamia Railroad's E6s Atlantic No. 460, the locomotive featured on our front cover is the result of more than ten years of careful planning and machining. Modeled, designed, machined and built by F. Brian Gittins of Rugby, England, this 1 9/16" scale model features a 4 1/2 foot locomotive and a 3-foot tender with a total weight of approximately 900 pounds...


 * Working from original drawings, a total of four kits of machined parts and castings were made at the same time. Two of them are still available. You can also obtain a complete series of excellent quality scaled drawings from our Saturated Steam division.

Doug Edwards writes:


 * The loco is 1-9/16 inch to the foot, or 0.130 (approx) to the inch. The odd size makes sense in that it is near half way between 7.25 and 7.5 track gauge. Scale gauge for 1.5 to the foot is 7.0625. Odd thing is that of the sets of castings sold that I am aware of, only one in the US is building in 7.25" gauge, and he is the only one near where the PRR ran. There were more starts west of the Mississippi than in the east. Go figure!


 * The drawings that Saturated Steam supplies are typically on sheets 46x32 inches, and are drawn full sized to the scale of the model, which is 1.562 inches per foot.


 * I have seen the Saturated Steam E6s drawings, and they are almost the same as in Modeltec except that I hear there are a few mistakes that crept into the drawings in Modeltec. I understand the mistakes in the magazine are minor, but are there none the less. I am told the drawings were done for all the loco and tender except for drawings for some specific parts, such as the headlight, air pump, class lights, etc.

Drawings
A complete set of drawings for the Saturated Steam E6 Atlantic drawings were post to eBay.com on 4 October 2012.

Drawings for the Saturated Steam Pennsylvania E6 Atlantic were printed over several years in Modeltec magazine. The October, 1987 issue provided an introduction for the project.

Here is a list of issues that contained the drawings.


 * Oct 1987 p10–14
 * Nov 1987 p42–51
 * Dec 1987 p48–55
 * Jan 1988 p26–32
 * Feb 1988 p35–39
 * Mar 1988 p11–15
 * Apr 1988 p19–27
 * May 1988 p44–48
 * Jun 1988 p32–37
 * Jul 1988 p29–33
 * Aug 1988 p51–54
 * Sep 1988 p32-35
 * Oct 1988 p43–47
 * Nov 1988 p49–53
 * Dec 1988 p26–32
 * Jan 1989 p35–37
 * Feb 1989 p34–35
 * Mar 1989 p44–50
 * Apr 1989 p35–38
 * May 1989 p19–22
 * Jun 1989 p27–29
 * Jul 1989 p31–34
 * Aug 1989 p22–26
 * Sep 1989 p25–28
 * Oct 1989 p14–17
 * Nov 1989 p44–47
 * Dec 1989 p34–37
 * Jan 1990 p23–25
 * Feb 1990 p34–37
 * Mar 1990 p26–27
 * Apr 1990 p29–31
 * May 1990 p12–13
 * Jun 1990 p18–21
 * Jul 1990 p41–43
 * Aug 1990 p29–31
 * Sep 1990 p21–22
 * Oct 1990 p29–31
 * Nov 1990 p33–35
 * Dec 1990 p38-39
 * Jan 1991 p36–40
 * Feb 1991 p25–27
 * Mar 1991 p22–23
 * Apr 1991 p10–11
 * May 1991 p14–15
 * Jun 1991 p32–33
 * Jul 1991 p32-33
 * Aug 1991 p14–15
 * Sep 1991 p20-22
 * Oct 1991 p34–35
 * Nov 1991 p34–35
 * Jan 1992 p28–29
 * Mar 1992 p22
 * Jun 1992 p17
 * Jul 1992 p36–38
 * Aug 1992 p22–23
 * Nov 1992 p28–29
 * Jan 1993 p24–25
 * Mar 1993 p26–27
 * Apr 1993 p34–35
 * Jul 1993 p26–28
 * Oct 1993 p28–29
 * Feb 1994 p26–27
 * Mar 1994 p26–27
 * Apr 1994 p24–25
 * May 1994 p34–35
 * Jun 1994 p34–35
 * Jul 1994 p32–33
 * Sep 1994 p34–35
 * Oct 1994 p34
 * Dec 1994 p30–31
 * Jan 1995 p30–31
 * Feb 1995 p31
 * Mar 1995 p40–41
 * Apr 1995 p36–37
 * Mar 1995 p36–37
 * Jun 1995 p30–31
 * Jul 1995 p38–39
 * Aug 1995 p38–39
 * Sep 1995 p34–35
 * Oct 1995 p38–39
 * Jan 1996 p28–34
 * Feb 1996 p38–39
 * Mar 1996 p20–23