Field Trip

Field Trip to the Florida Live Steamers – Part 1 of 3

by Russ Milland February 23, 2014November 21, 2019

Once upon a time, there was a tradition for Miniature Railway Clubs on the west and east coast of North America to hold an annual series of “meets” over a succession of weekends over the summer period. The umbrella organization, the International Brotherhood of Live Steamers (IBLS), oversaw these series of events in the past. While the IBLS, founded in 1932 still exists, these “rambles” (as they were sometimes called) have not happened for many years. Click here for more information on history of the IBLS or visit their Facebook page.

In Florida, a number of the Miniature Railway clubs have organized themselves as the Florida Live Steamers. The group continues a tradition of holding a series of “miniature railway meets” over successive weekends during the winter months. The series of meets was also supported by Discover Live Steam, a major online meeting place for miniature railway enthusiasts and is being promoted as the 2014 DLS Convention. In 2014, their schedule is:

February 13^th to 18^th: Manatee Central Railroad
February 20^th to 23^rd: Ridge Live Steamers
Feb 23^rd to Mar 3^rd: Central Pasco and Gulf Railroad
March 8^th: Big Boots & Western Railroad
March 13^th to 16^th: Sebring Systems

Michael Guy of the TRHA has begun a tradition of taking his small 7 ¼” gauge electric switcher down to Florida and visiting several of these miniature railway clubs over a few weeks in mid-winter.

Manatee Central Railroad

Below we find a series of images from his first visit this year to the Manatee Central Railroad, a privately owned 7 1/2″ gauge and 4 3/4″ gauge miniature railway.

Click here to read part 2 of this series.

Posting by Russ Milland; Images by Michael Guy

Click on each image for a closer look!