Cold Steam Engine

The October 1949 issue of Model Railroader magazine contains an article entitled "Cold Steam Engines", about a very unusual live steam, or rather, cold steam locomotive. The system described was developed by Emil Vollenweider of Sacramento, California.

The photos below show an O scale locomotive modified to operate off the CO2 gas emitted by melting dry ice. The ice is placed in a sealed reservoir in the tender. A pipe leads to the locomotive where a valve controls the flow of pressurized gas to the cylinders. The valve is controlled by an electric motorized mechanism, connected to the two-rail track. The output from the valve flows into a small equalizing tank hidden inside the boiler, and then to the left and right cylinders.