Quotations

This is the way a young British lady described the making of a locomotive after she had visited the Baldwin Locomotive Works.

"You pour a lot of sand into a lot of boxes and you throw old stove lids and things into a furnace, and then you empty the molten stream into a hole in the sand, and everybody yells and swears. Then you pour it out and let it cool and pound it, and then you put it in a thing that bores holes in it.  Then you screw it together and paint it and put steam in it, and it goes splendidly, and they take it to the drafting room and make a blueprint of it.  But on thing I forgot -- they have to make a boiler.  ONe man gets inside and one gets outside, and they pound it frightfully.  And then they tie it to the other thing, and you ought to see it go!"

Reported in

One feature of live steam that is commencing to gain recognition is the historical side. I don't think many of the Live Steamers have thought much about it, but it will not be long now before the only place you will be able to see what a steam locomotive looks like will be a Live Steamer meeting. In a few years there are going to be lots and lots of kids around, and grown-ups also, who will not remember having seen a steam loco.


 * Carl Purinton, The Miniature Locomotive, October-November, 1953

Everything on this earth takes time, even a flash of lightning, and steam doesn't move quite as fast as that.


 * L.B.S.C., The Live Steamer, May-June 1951

Standards are among the tools of simplification. How many of us would be in the hobby if we had to turn all of our wheels by hand on a lathe? Standards have produced many a practical shortcut so that all kinds of men besides machinists can enjoy model railroading.


 * Linn H. Westcott, Model Railroader, May 1965, Page 21

To me the phrase "Live Steam" encompasses the hobby as a whole. It doesn't exclude non-steam powered equipment.


 * John Schuch, Canton, Saint Paul and Pacific Railway President, Chaski.org

I have noticed that the quality of the locomotives – Steam or Diesel – has improved greatly through the years. One can only wonder what this hobby will be like 40 years from now!


 * Bill Koster

Beginners are the key to our future.


 * Louie Lettiere

I don't care anything about steam engines, but I think that steam engine people are the nicest in the world.


 * Un-named wife of a live steamer attending Alva Trook's meet, May 1956

What will you do this year to introduce someone to the live-steam hobby?


 * Steve Baker

I suggest our motto should be "Build something today."


 * Jim Leggett

Is it possible the founder of The International Brotherhood of Live Steamers would have embraced this medium had it existed in 1932? Carl Purinton surely would have set up a web site, don't you think?


 * John D. Atkinson

The late Carl Purinton when talking about his experiences on full sized steam locomotives once told me that "they run best when they are completely worn out.....but not quite!"


 * Keith Taylor

The IBLS wiki contains a wonderful number of standards for the home hobbyist to integrate into their designs in order to properly interchange with other equipment - tire gauges and machining profiles, coupler placement, track standards.


 * Van Anderson, Chaski.org, 27 May 2017

Does BLS not mean also "Bless Live Steamers"?


 * Charles S. Purinton, Live Steam Magazine, April 1983

Look up IBLS. International Brotherhood of Live Steamers (or large scale). It's the NMRA of large scale.


 * John Doyle on Facebook

Post-graduates in Model Railroading are the "live steamers". This ambitious group build models from the base metal to realistic replicas actually operated by steam.


 * Victor Shattock, "Live Steam in the Basement", movie caption

I feel it is my duty to pick my own brain and broadcast technical information that would be useful to others, thereby increasing the chances of prolonging The Hobby.


 * Paul C. Haar, former Secretary of the Northeastern Ohio Live Steamers, letter to editor, Live Steam Magazine, January 1978