Another newbie from California...

AlBowers · Another newbie from California...

Greetings to all!

It seems we have a spate of newcomers from the USA (Mo, Marty, and John Reid). I am adding my name to the list.

I am an aero engineer, living in Lancaster California. Despite it's merry olde English sounding name, its actually a largish town located at the edge of the Mojave Desert (I work for NASA at Edwards Air Force Base). While I do have a bit of a curiosity about steam and engines in particular, my primary love is aerospace.

When I was a teenager growing up in Alice Springs Australia, my family had a small collection of Mamods. I owned an ME1, which was installed in a radio controlled scratch built tug boat (great fun on our swimming pool), this engine and boat now belong to my father who makes good use of it. My brother has one of the steam cars, a traction engine, and a stationary plant, he still has all of them and they all run. So I was without a steam engine.

Trains are a VERY big deal in our household. My Great-Grandfather, Elmer S Bowers, was an engineer for 57 years on the Reading Railroad and one of the men that ran the Reading Crusader, one of the first streamliners. My father and my brother are both major train fiends, and for the first Christmas after my oldest son was born, my father made us a complete Christmas train layout in HO gauge with a Reading camelback (Mother Hubbard) of course. While we still have that (the layout and train will be 20 years old this Christmas), there is something about small electric trains that just isn't real. And I recalled the days when I was a teenager, and we had Mamod live steam in the house. And I wondered if 1/ Mamod were still around, and 2/ did they ever make a locomotive and train?

Alan Dunster over at Dream Steam (many thanks Alan!) has "hooked me up" as we say here. So in a few days, I should have an Mss Garden Railway Starter Set (not quite REAL Mamod, but VERY close) for my two teenage sons (one has finished his first year of university at Cal Poly, the other is about to go next year). Neither of them knew live steam was possible at this scale. And it turns out there is a "garden railway" club in Santa Clarita, about 20 minutes down the road. We will have to go visit. This should be fun!

I hope to add to the collection. And perhaps add my own Mamod steam car as well. I look forward to reading all your stories and swapping ideas...

Best regards to all,

Al Bowers

Roly Williams

Hi Al, and welcome.

As you may already have worked out, MSS took over production of the Mamod locos, which is why they are so similar. Genuine Mamod ones still turn up frequently for sale second hand, but some say the MSS ones are better.

mogogear

A large sweep on my doffed cap to you Al

Welcome and thanks for such a nice and interesting intro !!

IndianaRog

Welcome Al from Indiana !!! It does seem we Yanks are beginning to gain traction on this forum...great to have you aboard and thanks for the interesting intro!!!

cheers,
Roger

johnreid

Welcome aboard

Minor1PJG

Welcome from leafy Surrey in Old England

The old Mamod and new MSS locos are great fun. Take a look in the video section. I just added a smalll video of my Mamod SL2 on the rails

http://modelsteam.myfreeforum.org/about14685.html

I should say that the upgrades on this loco were bought from Alan at Dream Steam

Kevin Klein

Welcom from the cold open prairies of North Dakota!

Chris

Welcome to the friendliest forum on the internet.

ozsteamdemon

Welcome from oz , great intro .
Gotta love Rocket Science .

Steve_S

Welcome to the forum Al.

tmuir

Welcome to the forum.
The only trouble with live steam locos is that one isn't enough.

I've now got 4 running live steam locos and another 3 waiting to be restored / built.

Mammod / Mss are great locos to start with and there are many mods that can be bought to improve them or just tweaks that can be done to make them run better.

Look forward to hearing about your live steam set.

Wallace

Great to read your intro and welcome to the forums.

From downunder

Manxman

Another hello. This time from the Isle of Man. I look forwrd to reading about how your train layout progresses and I'm just wondering how long before one MSS loco is just not going to be enough.

Les

Hello and welcome from Bournemouth.

flywheel61

Hello,

And another welcome from OZ.

Albowers wrote

Graham-Jilly

Welcome Al from some more from Oz

Kritika

Hi Al

A big Forum welcom from the South of England

Alf

Hello and welcome

AlBowers · Greetings to all!

What a friendly lot all of you are! Wonderful!

Well, the Mss loco kit arrived today. We've had our first firing. Power is left a bit wanting, but the loco should loosen up with use. I had forgotten the smell of Esbit tablets burning!

I ordered the higher pressure safety valve as well as the three wick meths burner, but have not fitted them as yet. I stopped off at the hardware store and bought some meths as well (I believe here in the USA we call this "denatured alcohol").

I am going to fire the burner by itself to start with. If this proves to work well, we'll fit it to the little loco.

Excellent!

And yes ManxMan, the bug has bitten. One loco shall not be enough!

I admire your collections Indiana Rog and Chris Steam Legend! Very extensive. I am "small time" and will remain so for quite a while.

indiana Rog and John Reid: both of you live quite close to my brother Lee with his Mamod collection in Dayton OH. Should you all get together I could see a singularity form in middle America from which a Mamod explosion might result...

Best to all, and to all the Yanks: Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Al

pauly

Welcome from merry old England.

Warning mamods and trains are dangerously addictive!

as you can see Im a victim.

Sandman

Hi Al, and a big Scottish welcome.

I've just returned from your neck of the woods after having a wonderful vacation.

You've come to the right place here with all the help and experience you'll need to get the most out of this wonderful hobby.

Hope to chat steam with you soon.

ozsteamdemon

Great pics there Pauly , love your wallpaper too .

BK

I better get in on the

thingy, being a truckie I've been through Alice a few times when I was working, top town, Todd river is a bit of a problem nowadays.
You'll enjoy it here, great site.

kusuchi

Another big

from Richard and Andrew in the US Virgin Islands.