Featured Mamod Steam

Thanks to OP as it’s a lovely story that brings a smile.

 

That is a brilliant find. Takes me back. My best mate had the traction engine and the flatbed truck.
Fond memories. He would have been 57 in July 2 days after me.

 

Inspired me to dig this beast out and fire it up!

 

i always thought as a kid that the holes in the base were for joining to mecanno sets

i thought that adding steam power to a Meccano crane or bridge was awesome (as a 9 year old)

 

Sadly Mamod shut down last year. IIRC, it was something to do with no longer being allowed to sell the solid fuel because of anti-terrorism legislation. I'm sure there's a parable for our times in there somewhere.

 

Fantastic Nasher, looks great, great find.

Can’t say I’ve ever seen any Mamod steam miniatures before, deprived childhood

 

I had a typical Gen X childhood, so naturally I also made napalm when I was a kid using four star, acetone* and Fairy Liquid. These days, the internet suggests that polystyrène is the secret sauce which really makes it “go”, but these days you’d probably also get arrested and chucked in HMP Belmarsh for even attempting to make it. Swings and roundabouts……



* My dad was a plant manager at a chemical factory and so he used to bring home all sorts of interesting and highly flammable substances. One of my earliest memories, from when I was about 4 or 5, is the aftermath of him putting a motorbike wheel still fitted with inflated tyre on a bonfire, which exploded, soared skywards, then returned to earth like a fiery meteor and crashed through the abestos roof of the garage in which he had stored numerous bottles of acetone, ether and other solvents. 3 fire engines, 2 evacuated streets and a very pissed off wife who returned home from having a wisdom tooth out to find that all the washing on the line had either gone up in flames, been damaged by smoke or was trampled into the muddy and charred garden by the fire fighters. We lived roughly equidistant between a huge American air base where no doubt all manner of ordinance was stored and numerous chemical plants and oil refineries, and apparently the bang was loud enough that people living nearby thought one of those had gone up

 

That'll most likely be Ethanol gel and unfortunately it's not as potent as meths for your Mamod. I spent ages trying different fuels when my son was into steam engines and always returned to meths. However if the gel works for you, it's really cheap from catering supplies - they call it chafing gel. It's the stuff restaurants put in warming-tray burners nowadays because of H&S regs - it's less fun than the liquid fuel they used to use...

 

It's great as a firelighter tho'

 

Whatever you burn you want it to burn cleanly so as not to darken that lovely polished copper/brass.
Meths i think does this.

 

Don’t you want the realism of coal at all, just for that authenticity?

 

Not sure if my household insurance covers coal burning boilers

I’ll check.

 

But they have no objection to Meths?

 

I seriously hoping this isn’t a euphemism….

 

Cupboards full of it, next to the whiskey