This forum is even more "steamy" than usual lately, and from the talk you'd think steam is most of what we do. How many steam locomotives are basically operational, in-date and able to be steamed up and pull a train with a workdays' notice?

This has become somewhat of an annual tally in Railfan & Railroad Magazine's issues each springtime. The problem does come from having to distinguish between engines running literally at the moment, engines that are under repair with a reasonable expectation towards returning to service (say, whatever Strasburg is doing routine maintenance on at the moment), engines potentially operable but only lacking either current certification or minor repairs (three EBT 2-8-2's fall in this category, as do some Grand Canyon locos now or in a couple service days), and engines in a long-term "coma" or undergoing major repairs but operated sometime in recent history (see, for example, Reading 2102, or Frisco 1522 or T&P 610, or CP 972 at Strasburg......).

My foggy memory is telling me that the last tally done by R&R and Jeff Terry came up with a number around 150-170 in the U.S. and Canada.............

Okay, then. Here's a definition for you. "Standard gage steam engines revenue passengers rode behind in 2011." In the U.S.

You may want to include vintage narrow gauge, otherwise you're cutting off quite a few engines.

Do replicas, such as the Golden Spike locomotives, count? If you count narrow guage locomotives; how about industrial or even amusement park steam locomotives? Some homebuilt steam locomotives of 15" gauge may also count.

That makes it hard to pin an exact number down. I have 450 operational engines listed; but roughly 150 of these are replicas, homebuilt, and amusement park steam locomotives; while another 100-200 are in the expired certificate, long term "coma"; or undergoing long term repairs catagory.

One way to "draw a line in the sand" would be to specify locomotives covered under FRA and currently qualified to operate under the FRA regs.

That would eliminate most park trains and a few replica engines, but not many of those. I also suspect it's along the lines of what the original question was asking.

The only downside is that it rules out some of the most active steam around, the engines at Disney, that quietly rack up miles every day of the year.