Thinking about live steam

I’m looking into live steam, having had my interest piqued by some posts on forums I’m reading. One possible choice for a first live steam loco would be the Roundhouse Billy as seen here;

roundhouse-billy

Apparently it is very reliable, easy to learn on and run, and Roundhouse are known for their quality locomotives.

At the moment, two things are holding me back–the scale (it’s 1:19, much larger than the 1:22.5 G Scale I’m currently running) and cost. The loco pictured above is currently listed for $1800 on eBay.