A friend of mine that belongs to a live steamers club in NJ has a similar locomotive (don't remember if it's a "Daylight") that he had built. The build took place about 20-25 years ago; took several years and two builders to complete (one went bankrupt); cost him around $40,000 back then. Even the passenger cars were expensive. I painted them for him to save about $1,000 each. He has let me operate it a couple of times and, frankly, it's a lot of work. You are constantly watching steam pressure, water level, and a bunch of other things to keep it from blowing up or overspeeding into a turn. They require a great deal of maintenance and very careful winterization too. He has learned to operate the tools in the club's machine shop so he can craft parts when needed. Steam locomotives are complex, but reduce them in scale and everything becomes more complex than you can imagine.
