David, I've been a long-time lurker on this list, sending in only an occasional note because I'm still very much a working stiff with not near enough time to devote to this live steam hobby. I expect to be retired by this time next year so I hope that will free up the time I need to practice the hobby as I would like to.
Concerning the scope of discussions on the list, my interest is in 1/4" scale live steam. My one scratch built steamer is that scale, running on 1.25" gauge (32 mm) track. I have the frames of two more locomotives for that scale and gauge on my work bench right now. I have a couple of sets of trucks and some rolling stock drawings in 1:13.7 scale, projects I plan to build that will run on 1.75"/45mm gauge track. I don't consider these projects to be (too far) out of the scope of this list, considering that 1.25"/32 mm and 1.75"/45 mm gauges are listed on the sslivesteam web site, even if 1:48 and 1:13.7 scales are slightly out of the published range. I also have a Ruby and a Ruby kit so I can claim to have a stake in the topics covered by the sslivesteam list. You can see that my interests fall both within and just outside both ends of the published range of list interests and topics. If the scope of the list is to be expanded I would like to see it bracket scales like 1:48 and 1:13.7 that run on 1.25"/32 mm and 1.75"/45 mm track. However, I agree that the central focus of the list should remain live steam and not get off into deep discussions about sparkies. There are plenty of other lists that cover that aspect of the hobby. Topics like outdoor track building, rolling stock construction maybe even indoor benchwork and structure modeling might be legitimate topics for discussion, as long as the focus remains on live steam locomotives running on 1.25"/32 mm and 1.75"/45 mm track. This sslivesteam list is my major source of information about the hobby. I quit taking daily messages from the Yahoo group lists because most of that stuff gets off into chit-chat between or among a few individuals. I'm not at all displeased that the sslivesteam list is often quiet. When messages do come through they are almost always informative and very useful to me. Thank you for making the sslivesteam list available. Don't worry about having to prime the pump. We know the list is out here. Folks will contribute as their interests coincide with the time they have available to chat about their small scale live steam work. Casey Sterbenz O Scale Kings #8 _________________________________________________________________ Stay in touch with old friends and meet new ones with Windows Live Spaces http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwsp0070000001msn/direct/01/?href=http://spaces.live.com/spacesapi.aspx?wx_action=create&wx_url=/friends.aspx&mkt=en-us _______________________________________________ SSLiveSteam mailing list Send messages: [email protected] Cancel subscription: http://postfix.45mm.com/mailman/listinfo/sslivesteam Rules: http://www.45mm.com/sslivesteam_guide.html
