The Forney is based on an actual plantation engine that ran in Louisiana on the Long View Sugar Plantation. It’s 1:20.3 scale, and has been designed to be both simple to operate and sophisticated enough to satisfy more experienced modelers. With proper care, your Forney should give years of service in the garden.

Operating a live-steam locomotive is much different from running an electrically powered engine. It is a more handson, interactive experience. The locomotive must be periodically fueled, oiled, and watered. As supplied, the Forney is manually controlled, which means that you must actually drive the locomotive using the controls in the cab, just as you would a full-size engine.

The performance of the engine is also unlike electric locomotives. The Forney should pull two to four standard-size freight cars on good, level track, which is about the same capacity as a full-size locomotive of this configuration. Grades and sharp curves will diminish its capability. A good engineer will learn the engine’s characteristics and idiosyncrasies over time to get the best performance and longest duration from it.