The Unofficial Mamod and Other Steam Forum

hairy jesus · Guest

My romance with the Mamod began at an early age. I say romance but I mean a seedy affair, the kind that eventually sees you spread across the pages of a red top Sunday newspaper with a headline that screams "Filthy Perve In Deep Throat Scandal". I love them. If I could, I'd adopt all of my Mamods as children and give them names; the biggest of my Mamods is a Steam Beast XR3i and I'd call that one Clive.

My first ever Mamod was given to me by my Great Uncle Tobias in 1982. I remember the day. I was playing with Lego in the living room, building a scale model of the Buchenwald Death Camp with my Father. Great Uncle Tobias burst in holding a weathered shoe box. "Here," he proclaimed, his glass eye reflecting my startled face, "here is a toy!". I was concerned at first as for Xmas the year before Tobias had wrapped up a dead badger he had hit with his car and given it to me as a "project". But to my relief it was a Mamod, a little tin engine, a beautiful gleaming contraption made up of copper tubes, miniature rivets and cylindrical pistons. "Don't lick it though, it could be poisonous" he added shuffling out of the room. Strangely he had given me the same advice concerning the badger but this "project" was to give me endless enjoyment for the next 24 years (unlike the badger that gave me scabies).

And so to the present. I currently own 36 examples of Mamod engines both great and small. The smallest is a fully working steam powered stag beetle replica that I hand built from old Irn Bru cans and the largest is a 1-1 scale model of the SS Great Britain which now stands proudly in Portsmouth Harbour. My personal favourite Mamod, the Mamod zeitgeist so to speak, is a device that I constructed for my Grandmother who, due to a freak accident with a push mower, lost both her legs in 1991. The Mamod Dual Piston Legs Replica is a sight to behold. The idea was stolen by Nick Park in his animated film The Wrong Trousers but both myself and Granny Stalin know the truth. My invention, my adaptation of the Mamod, now allows Granny Stalin to disco dance, go to the shops and, if she can remain alive and well, she will carry the Olympic torch through Stockport in 2012.

So, my question to the forum is, where did you start your love affair with the Mamod and have you built anything useful? I am currently working on a pair of Mamod themed roller skates that will one day (through experimental tweaking and reworking) threaten to beat the current land speed record.

Thank you for listening, good pie

James · Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 4:20 pm Post subject:

Welcome hairy jesus

that story made me laugh loads

i like the bit about the badger

i hope you stay a regular with us, and give us so more comedy

i can see your going to be a legend!

stay with us!

james (admin)
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