Yes, alcohol and gas run much hotter and you get a lot more out of it. Just make sure that the saftey valve works! And most of the toy steam engines are not silver soldered, so you risk leaks in the boiler due to it running too hot and melting the solder (yes I've done it before, it's not pretty). It may be ok to convert tablets to alcohol, but becareful if take a boiler made for tablets and jump up to gas. Model level steam flue boilers that are made for gas are fully silver soldered, and they perform much, much, much better than tablets or alcohol, able to generate good pressure, and able to maintain good working psi. It's not just about how much pressure can be generated and held by the boiler, but also how fast steam can be generated, as engines usually eats up more steam than the boiler can produce, so in an rc setup, you run into short runs, and having to wait for pressure to build up again to go.

Really nice collection by the way! And yes.... nothing like hobby grade rc, but nothing like the coolness of steam! It's definitely not something you see everyday, and gets a lot of attention, especially with the sounds that it makes, and steam plumes that they generate. And yeah, fire.... you get an good excuse to play with fire. You tend to forgive the lack of power and just enjoy running them at it's own pace

-Crabfu