"Cold Steam" Locos

Dunno who that is. I googled her, but find mainly art references, and nothing, for example, on wikipedia. The report I mentioned, I think I was the link on either the Guardian, or via slashdot, and if I remember correctly, it was in something like Nature.

mark

Well, no, since it was plastic, and about 2" long, and just putted along in the tub.

Right. We didn't have warning labels like "do not lift lawnmower above head to trim bushes".

mark

I think "she"'s a publishing house.

There was a later article or answer to a letter to the editor in MR that said that the dry ice did not evaporate fast enough to keep the engine going. Michael

"Michael Creem"

We use "dry ice" a fair bit in theatre, it produces the low lying ground fog about a foot or two deep..

When we use if, we break blocks of dry ice, about 16" x 8" x 8" inches into fist sized lumps.

On cue, when the dry ice is needed, it is dumped into a large, like a 45 gallon drum, that has hot water inside. This is what creates the fog, the hot water. Without hot water the ice will take too long to evaporate and produce so little gas as to be useless. So, a "dry ice" steam loco will not work without hot water. Kinda defeats the purpose somehow, doesn't it?

-- Cheers

Roger T. Home of the Great Eastern Railway at:-

I seem to remember that when this idea first came out some wag at MR or RMC called it 'dead steam' much to the chagrin of the fellow who came up with it.

With 12 volts already available on the rails it would be easy to put a resistance heater inside the "boiler" to help the dry ice along.