garden railroading - the steam is driving the loco

The steam is passed from the boiler through a regulator valve and down to the cylinders. In the cylinder, it pushes a piston from one end to the other, first one way then the other. The piston is mounted on a rod which is attached by a cross head to a second connecting rod which in turn is connected to the wheel or crank. As the piston is pushed backwards and forwards, it causes the wheel to rotate.
The steam has to be sent to each end of the cylinder in turn and the used steam must exhaust up the chimney. This is taken care of by a valve in the valve chest mounted either on top or at the side of the cylinder. It must also do it at the right time on every stroke of the piston and this is accomplished by means of the valve gear. The amount of steam passing to the cylinders is controlled by the steam regulator.
Radio control is normally used to control the locomotives. This gives full control of stop, start, speed and direction from a distance.

Can I run steam engines along side my electric ones?
If insulated wheels are fitted you can operate the G Scale steam locomotives on the same track as your
electric trains without shorting out the system.
Because a working steam engine exhausts a certain amount of water and oil from the chimney, track cleaning may be required a little more frequently but this does not normally cause a problem.