Photos by Jim Hadden
Text by Richard Finlayson
If you've been within earshot of anybody talking about 45mm live steam it is likely that Jim Hadden's name has come up. His live steam snow plow and "Frank the Tank" Frank S. rebuild are not only eye-catching, but the tight finish on the work he does speaks to his skill.
The following photographs document his C&S snow train complete with scratch built brass flanger, au natural Aster C&S Mogul, and live steam powered working rotary snow plow. But first, a few shots of Jim's "Frank the Tank", a much modified LGB/Aster Frank S.
This shot shows off the many details that Jim has added, the most visually interesting being the fire fighting equipment. This locomotive is lettered for Jim's Poison Creek line.
This was shot on Jim's line in Park City, Utah.
This shot captures it all; chunky 1:20 narrow gauge pulling duty in the high country.
Jim's rotary snow plow and attendant snow train evolved from a past like many other live steamers. Jim's first rotary was electrically driven and built up from styrene. His interest in live steam paralleled the development of the next rotary which relied on Frank S. components as shown in the following photographs.
The flanger, custom C&S Mogul, and plow make up the snow train.
Rotary plow with tender.
The drive train can be seen in this shot.
Close-up of the cylinder and crank arrangement.
This shot of the backhead reveals the Frank S. heritage.
Jim has produced several rotaries, Franks, as well as numerous scratch "rebuilds" of commercial locomotives. He is scaling an Aster Elk River Shay up to 1:20, and has reworked a Wrightscale Porter. Currently cluttering his work bench is a 1:20 scale Heisler...
The 1:20 Shay.
The 1:20 Heisler project under way.
Jim can be reached on America Online at jimhadden@aol.com.