Engines of Diamondhead '01

Two (burned) thumbs up

Jerry Reshew doesn't want me to come back to Diamondhead next year.

Don't feel superior, though: he doesn't want you to come either.

With more than 220 registrants at the International Small Scale Steamup and some showing up for a full week -- officially held from Jan. 12-14, in reality the steamup started this year on Jan. 8 -- organizer Reshew has a little more success than he would like.

Hence his desire to discourage me -- and you and anyone else -- from coming to the Ramada Inn in tiny Diamondhead, Miss. in January 2002, which not coincidentally will be the tenth anniversary of the gathering of builders, collectors and operators of small-scale live steam engines and equipment.

And the International Small Scale Steamup is not just successful in terms of numbers of participants or duration of the event -- it has become something of an all-around steam-related arts fair, with an old-fashioned brass band made up of steamers (the Clack Valves and Cornets Steam Band) that gives a couple of concerts every year, a set of crafts tables, a paper airplane contest and a series of films, not to mention auxiliary steam-related events like workshops, steam-boat operation, swap meets, supplier exhibitions and contests of steam engine strength.

For those who haven't been to the event -- which is universally known just as "Diamondhead" -- imagine a mid-sized hotel that has a large atrium and in-door pool with rooms overlooking that scene. Then imagine one huge elevated track, one large elevated track and one medium-sized elevated track, all squeezed into the space. Drop 200 live steamers as well as their spouses and assorted hangers-on (not to mention a few incredulous Diamondhead residents) into the space and you have an idea of at least the scope of the event.

But size and scope -- I decided that there were probably 800 live steam engines there -- don't express the overall sense of Diamondhead. I have to go back to my youth to come up with something that gave me the same feeling: summer camp.

The things heard most often go something like this: "Oh, I stayed up too late last night." "I've only had three hours sleep." "I really need to go to bed earlier, but just too much is happening." "The best time to run is 2 a.m."

These are not the utterings of grown adults -- these are things we said when we were teenagers.

I guess that's the best part of Diamondhead: we're kids playing with toy trains. Yes, they're expensive toy trains (frequently heavily detailed) and they exotically run on real steam, but they allow us to put away the stresses of our daily existences and return to an era where we would stay up all night with our friends.

And friends is the operative word here -- those who are not your friends when you arrive become so shortly thereafter. You forgot a wrench? Someone will loan you one. Though water and fuel are provided by the event, little necessities like steam oil and batteries are readily available from most anyone -- just ask. Need some assistance in getting your teakettle to go? You'll have the ready advice (sought or not) of the hobby's leading authorities.

It's our own little club and the dues are just that you be interested in live steam.

Though I have been in the hobby for almost three years, this was my first Diamondhead and the experience reinforced some of my impressions about the hobby as well as gave me new insights. For example:

I always had a sense that this was a hobby of old white men. Though women and people of color are few and far between, they are there. And the average age of those at Diamondhead was younger than I had expected. Though most at the event were intimately aware of the Eisenhower administration, there were many who probably can't remember the Nixon administration (as well as a few who have lived under only one or two or three presidents).

It is pan-national, as long as the nations are Australia, Canada, England, Japan or the United States.

In a hobby that is certainly its own sub-culture -- in the pantheon of train enthusiasts, we're large-scale model train fanatics who eschew electricity -- there are even smaller subcultures. The butane burners, the alcohol burners and the coal burners. The American-profile and the European-profile. The fine-scalers and the anything-goes group. The 1:32 scalers and the 1:20.3 (or 1:13) scalers. The 18th century modelers and the 20th century modelers. The builders and the buyers. As well as gradations between them all -- I'm a butane burner who would like to try coal, an American-profile guy with two European engines, a 1:20.3-adherent with a couple of 1:22 consists and mostly a buyer, but who has built some stuff. This hobby gives you a chance to be with a group, but yet have a degree of individuality.

Sharing and volunteerism are the cornerstones of the hobby. Diamondhead itself is the product of hundreds of hours of volunteer work and pretty much anyone will tell you anything about their techniques and experiences. These qualities provide a camaraderie that spills over into real friendships.

The "business" of the hobby is in actuality just another hobby. Most of the retailers of the parts and equipment are just hobbyists who have elected to use commerce as a lever to afford more train stuff, or as a way to perpetuate a "neat idea." At other live steam events I wondered why the "dealer room" was only open for a few hours a day -- at Diamondhead I realized it was because the dealers want time to run their trains too.

From the perspective of the sslivesteam list, it was great to put faces and voices with the names. Some folks, of course, I knew beforehand; others I met for the first time. It was a treat to finally meet Vance Bass, Ron Brown, Jim Curry, Pat Darby, Salty Fogelquist, Keith Manison, Mike McCormack, Bob Paule, Bob Starr, Kevin Strong, Walt Swartz, Paul Trevaskis and Harry Wade as well as making new acquaintances among the great unwashed who do not belong to our list. Despite the fact that I have been involved in building on-line "communities" for more than two decades (arg!), it still seems strange to become friendly with people whom you have never seen (I once had a guy work for me for three years before I met him face-to-face). Nonetheless, I attribute the recent growth of the hobby directly to the Internet -- obviously not this list, but the overall ability to contact other hobbyists, suppliers and manufacturers directly and easily, across continents and time zones in a relatively inexpensive manner.

Oh, yeah: and everybody in the hobby is absolutely crazy.

I have more thoughts about Diamondhead, but I've taken too much of your time already. At some point I want to write about what Sam DiMaggio calls "the cult of the Ruby," but that's for another day.

Suffice it to say, visiting a town of a couple of thousand people on the Gulf Coast in the middle of January has invigorated my enthusiasm for small-scale live steam.

And a warning Jerry: I will be back.

-- dmc

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