I arrived here by a circuitous route. I visited the USS Texas in Houston 2 months ago, and managed to find my way into the engine room, which was not supposed to be on the tour route. Between the magnificence of the MACHINERY, and the overbearing admiration of the men who operated..."THERE", I was literally OVERWHELMED! So steam, once again became a subject I wished to explore, as I have a project which steam would dovetail into quite well. As I cruised around the "net" looking at steam related stories, I ran across Bob Kirtly's Flash steam hydroplane on U-Tube. Here was a small "High performance" steam power-plant, which came close to what I was looking for. That led me here to this site. I will leave it at that for now, but here are some of my photos of "My" favorite ship, the USS Texas, the last US Battleship built with piston steam power. (2) Vertical- Inverted Triple Expansion, compound 4 cylinder engines, 28,000 SHP. She served March 18, 1914 thru June 18,1946.