Archive for The Unofficial Mamod and Other Steam Forum The Original Unofficial Toy Steam Forum Established 2006 The biggest, most popular steam forum around! Accept NO imitations! We have a growing community of regular posting members who chat about all aspects of toy and model steam.          The Unofficial Mamod and Other Steam Forum Forum Index -> Locomotives bessytractor coal fired Mamod this is a long term idea (one I probably won't actually do tbh) but I had just finished stripping my SL1K (some of you will know, the useless one!) and was sitting looking at it and thinking about coal firing.  I came to the conclusion that if you got rid of the tanks and smokebox (you'd never succesfully coal fire a standard sized boiler, the firebox would be too small) and got a tender with a hand pump, you might be able to do it. what do you think? rangerssteamtoys I would like to see a coal fired mamod. Probably get good speed, but not for indoor use. pauly sounds like a real challenge   andysleigh i think the iodea is possible. tolhurst model engineering do a sm32 coal fired hunslet, which is small,  and dave watkins made a tiny sm32 coal fired bagnall. hunslet- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofAUgopaOkM bagnall- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIhfEXP5VBg if it was to happen,  having the right sized tubes is critical, or it wont steam properly,   also with the size of the exaust nozzel,  that can change the performence of the engine alot. if the exaust thrust doesnt draw enough air, then you have to have the blower on all the time. finally, you need a good space between the grate bars. Graham-Jilly looks great but a lot of work im sure Titan And for 700 pounds you can get a coal fired boiler for an edrig... andysleigh Titan wrote: And for 700 pounds you can get a coal fired boiler for an edrig... where? if its djb, then they have stopped them Titan Can't remember where, was probably the DJB one I was thinking of.  Oh well. andysleigh Titan wrote: Can't remember where, was probably the DJB one I was thinking of.  Oh well. yes,  its quite anoying.  i am dying for a coal fired edrig syrtismajor I toyed with the idea of making a coal fired Mamod, to the extent that I drew up some rough plans. I was going to use as much original parts as possible and scratch build the boiler. The smoke box would be modified with an opening door and a baffle inside to protect the mazak from the heat. The boiler would roughly be the same size and diameter , but jutting an inch further into the cab. Operating pressure was going to be 40Psi, with a blower and regulator with a displacement lubricator. I was even going to route an extra steam way to the cylinders to pass hot steam from the boiler through the mounting plates to heat up the cylinders before a run to prevent priming. A small axle pump would having introduced water from plastic containers hidden in the side tanks, but main top ups were to come manually when adding fuel. The trickiest bit is giving it a large enough grate area with a proper loco boiler. The only way to do it is modify the frames behind the rear wheels to make room for the fire box, but even then the grate area is only 6.75cm square, limited by the inside frames and gauging of the wheels on an '0' gauge engine. eventually I scrapped the idea even though I believe that it is possible, but only in the reach of a professional builder that knows what they are doing. Not much hope for someone like me who just dives in and see what happens! bessytractor andysleigh wrote: Titan wrote: And for 700 pounds you can get a coal fired boiler for an edrig... where? if its djb, then they have stopped them quite right Accucraft Ruby's that are coal fired abound, I am dead certain somewhere in the world someone has built or is currently building a Mamod loco thats coal fired. rangerssteamtoys I think it would be eaiser to make a coal fired loco look like a mamod.    Think about that. syrtismajor rangerssteamtoys wrote: I think it would be eaiser to make a coal fired loco look like a mamod.    Think about that. Must... not... be... tempted...   ...   ...    Gah! bessytractor syrtismajor wrote: I toyed with the idea of making a coal fired Mamod, to the extent that I drew up some rough plans. I was going to use as much original parts as possible and scratch build the boiler. The smoke box would be modified with an opening door and a baffle inside to protect the mazak from the heat. The boiler would roughly be the same size and diameter , but jutting an inch further into the cab. Operating pressure was going to be 40Psi, with a blower and regulator with a displacement lubricator. I was even going to route an extra steam way to the cylinders to pass hot steam from the boiler through the mounting plates to heat up the cylinders before a run to prevent priming. A small axle pump would having introduced water from plastic containers hidden in the side tanks, but main top ups were to come manually when adding fuel. The trickiest bit is giving it a large enough grate area with a proper loco boiler. The only way to do it is modify the frames behind the rear wheels to make room for the fire box, but even then the grate area is only 6.75cm square, limited by the inside frames and gauging of the wheels on an '0' gauge engine.eventually I scrapped the idea even though I believe that it is possible, but only in the reach of a professional builder that knows what they are doing. Not much hope for someone like me who just dives in and see what happens! this is why I'd do away with the existing tanks and cab and have a tender engine with a large barrel boiler with a Wooten Firebox.  It would make steam all day, even if it looked somewhat ugly. But then all you would have left would be the chassis, and then you'd have to ask yourself "is this really a mamod anymore?".  I mean for the coal firing to be efficient and work well you'd have to do all the usual mods, new wheels (to replace the naff old ones that come off the axles), lubricator, cylinders and reverser valve.  In the end all you'd have left of the engine would be the frames, bufferbeam (rear at that, you couldn't use the old smokebox) and some screws! You might as well buy a set of frames as the starting point rather than a whole loco! steam4ian Coal fired Mamod G'day Sounds a fun Idea. You could keep the existing boiler and put a sleeve around it to make it into a kind of Smithies with a long grate underneath. To get draft you would need to extend this to the smoke box and keep the front end air tight; possible. You also need to get a means to feed water to the boiler. A simple single acting oscillating pump working off the back crankpin would do. A pump is needed to comply with the AMBSC Code. Regards, Ian alan2525 I don't think there would be much of the original Mamod left, It would still be a mamod though if it's based around the mamod dimensions and uses the cylinders, same wheelbase, reverser etc. Are there many drawings for coal fired boilers in that sort of scale? I like the idea of one of those hand pumps to keep the boiler topped up. I've bought one from maccmodels to play with. It'd be fun to have the tender with water in there and a little pump handle hidden under a dummy coal load. It'd be much safer to top up the water in there too, rather than burn fingers on the boiler mounted valve! On some internally fired models they have the side tanks house the water pump on one side and the water tank on the other. If you are really clever you can hide the fillers for the gas tank and oilers in there too, and just access them via the water filler lids! The nice thing about coal firing though is you also have the extra control for the blower too, so there's a little more to the art of steaming the loco. I must admit that they do look a lot of fun! Another thing about coal firing, is that on small boilers, you dont need the water jacket around the firebox as most of the heat is drawn up the boiler tubes and the backhead stays relatively cool. Although when burning coal that can get pretty hot! Lots to think about though! I guess there isn't really much demand for a coal fired mamod though as there are a lot of projects for other small locos which are just a little bit larger which really simplifies fitting everything in! bessytractor I'll make one someday, when my workshop is properly up and running.        The Unofficial Mamod and Other Steam Forum Forum Index -> Locomotives Page 1 of 1