Greets from a mucker in Miami

Reid · Greets from a mucker in Miami

Hello, my name is Reid Welch. I'm fifty three years old and still a kid.

I had an Empire engine when I was a nine year old.
A few years later my dad brought home from a trip to London, a brand new Mamod TE1a.
Both engines are long gone.

Lately I've gotten interested in early engines
(well, I've always enjoyed reading up on their technology),
and coming from a mechanical background of Model T Fords,
clocks, watches, and gadgets in general, it seems like
a good idea to obtain another toy steam engine

SO! Only yesterday, I ordered a.... uh oh! I ordered a Wilesco direct from Germany.
A bloody Wilesco? Please don't shoot me, ha ha!

I'm financing the Wilesco purchase by selling-off an unusual toy engine that I've had for many years:

1910 solenoid flywheel electric engine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k9BXvGNOOA

This will be on ebay, probably tonight. I hope to get ten thousand bucks (ha ha!) but I'll settle for fifty if that's all it brings.
I paid $165 for it about 23 years ago; top dollar then, no doubt!

Cheers,

Reid

(his mug)

James

Reid, it's really great to read about you.

I hope you enjoy it here!!

We look forwards to your contrabutions!

All the best
James

IndianaRog

Hi to a mucker from Miami...hay seed from Indiana here!!!

Reid, good to have you join us and whatever you do, don't worry about ordering a Wilesco and telling a Mamod forum about it!!! In reality this forum spans virtually all brands from all countries and we have lots of folks from the UK, Australia, US, Canada, France, Austria, New Zealand, Germany and more.

There are lots of very experienced folks here who can answer most any technical question that might arise be it a brand new engine or an eBay find with a few miles on it.

Again, glad you joined us...loved your photo at the end of your post...had that look of "is that the UPS truck??"

cheers,
Roger

MTA

Good to have you on board Reid!

I hope your stay here is a long and pleasant one. We don't kill people for ordering Wilesco's! I myself have 3 Wilesco#s in my collection and they are very good engines

All the Best,
Si

P.S. Thanks for the comment on one of my YouTube videos

johnreid

How can you trust anyone who has a name like Reid? Sheesh

Hello from Southeastern Indiana from John Reid. That solenoid engine is real cool, I would have kept it if it was me, kind of relates in a manner of speaking, with the flywheel and all.

Atticman

Welcome Reid,

Ive got one Wilesco- Old Smokey , and many of us would like an Atomic Wilesco

would like to see pics when it arrives. Most of us like pics

Some very experienced people on here who can help with any probs as well

Sandman

Welcome to the forum Reid, from rainy old Scotland.

You've come to the right place.

Mind you, your pocket will feel considerably lighter once this hobby starts to bite.

I look forward to talking steam with you.

Sandman.

Griffin

Welcome to the forum Reid, I once very nearly bought a Wilesco, but got side tracked by a Jensen

Mister Occlusion

G'day

Did you buy your Wilesco off ebay from Station500 by chance?

I picked up a few things from him last summer.

Which model did you get? I went for the D22

Yeah, we'll have to point you at Jensen one day and see if that scratches an itch you didn't know you had

Cranko

Hi Reid, welcome to the forum from New Zealand , i hope you enjoy your time here

Manxman

Hi Reid form the Isle of Man. Nothing wrong with a Wilesco. I own a few myself. Great engines and please send us a pic once you've got yours up and running.

Andy

welcome to the forum

Reid

What an active forum. Thanks for the welcomes!
I feel like I half-well know all of you because I've been haunting here and at youtube
where I post mechanical, electrical, and toady stuff under the name Hartford Tommy.

I decided on the Wilesco D455 for starters.
Ministeam here in the USA did not have it in stock.

So instead, and perhaps preferentially for the lower price, I ordered D455 direct from Matthias, proprietor of Station500

The price? Substantially cheaper than from anyone else, apparently:

$209 delivered. Add to that the oil ($4) and Esbit (2 @ $4) and a pack of drive belts ($5), total cost $230 US.

I paid Matthias directly with PayPal, and know that he's reliable and trusted and friendly.

The best sales picture of a D455 found so far; it's at Ministeam's site:

I'll be tinkering with this from the day it arrives; my background in mucking "improvements" into watches and clocks and typewriters and cowbells...it's a habit

Thanks for the greetings,

Reid

IndianaRog

Reid,

Good choice of engines and sellers. I likewise bought the identical engine from Matthias a few years ago and he stood behind his product when a small valve part arrived broken...I had a no charge replacement part in less than a week.

You got a really good price to boot...can't beat that!! If you want to see a beautiful modification of a D455...check out the photos from member: TOXX which he posted in the past week. He put a lot of time and TLC into making a gorgeous engine.

Again, welcome aboard...we are a family friendly bunch who just happen to have this penchant for mechanical steam things!!!

cheers,
Rog

rangerssteamtoys

Nice to meet you and READ about you. Nice engine.

BTW you dont look 53

Reid

rangerssteamtoys

Well, 52 or 53 you look younger.

I have no room to talk I'm 14

TRAPPERKEEPER

Welcome to the forums Reid, I like all types of steam engines, and Wilescos are some tough stock, you will like them

Steve_S

Welcome to the forum Reid!

Reid

Reid

There are too many of you all to thank individually.
So I concentrate on the pyromaniacs for direct thanks (you understand).

Uh, wait... you ALL are pyromaniacs!

MooseMan

Hiya Reid,

A big welcome from sunny Wales mate! I can tell you're going to be an asset!

Good choice of Wilesco BTW....the D45 was my first engine, some 30 years ago.

You're right about inventors in ancestry....my great-great (repeat great a few times) grandad invented the pendulum/escapement clock mechanism, the pocket watch and a bunch of other stuff. He also discovered Saturn's moon "Titan".

IndianaRog

Moose...at the rate young James is accumulating old pocket watches, me thinks you ought to be collecting a royalty for your old grandad's efforts

Rog

Steve_S

MooseMan

Now there's a thought!

MooseMan

Steve_S

It explains everything!

James

Moosey

Wow

MooseMan

Anyway, enough about me - this is Reid's thread!

James

Yeah, sorry Reid

Reid

"Reid's thread"...

I removed the glop about my granddad because I thought to self:

your ego's looking SIX miles wide!

Very glad to meet a Huygens!
The Dutch are said to have the highest IQ of all Europeans.
That may well be true.
But we YANKS have the greatest tendency to spout off.

indeed. heh!

Dave B

Hi Reid, and welcome from the "Great White North"!

I was looking at your solonoid engine at lunch today, and a couple of co-workers (both electricians) FREAKED OUT! They thought that it was the neatest thing they had seen in ages!

Too cool.

You sound like you will be another valuable source of information here, a real renaissance man.

Cheers!

Mamodman123

Welcome to the forum Reid!

johnreid

I know that my Uncle did a genealogy at one time as did some ancestor on my Mothers side. There were some interesting individuals back there, but a lot of money seems to have gone elsewhere before I came to be

Mister Occlusion

The D455 is a fine motor. Definitely on the short list of Must Have's in the Wilesco line. I bought mine by accident on ebay, because no one would outbid me (and it was a good price too).

If you get/make an alcohol burner for it, it'll kick out some insane revs.

And on the topic of the sub topic here: nope: no one of any great record in my family that I know of. We're all bog standard european peasant stock of enough nationalities that I simply think of myself as Canadian, and to heck with the rest of it.

Wallace

Hi Reid and welcome to the forums mate

Great to read about you, and looking forward to your posts

Graham-Jilly

Welcome Reid from the great land downunder.
im sure you will fit in well

tmuir

Hi Ried,

Another welcome from Australia.

Stilldrillin

Hello Reid, and a big welcome from Derbyshire, UK.

It`s nice on ere!

Wilesco D455...... My next engine, I hope.

John Chapman

Welcome aboard Reid

johnreid

Minor1PJG

Welcome, welcome from the South of England, where the air is clear and the people don't talk the way James does!!

As I've said a few times before I was a Mamod man before I found this forum and now I have two Wilescos and a Jensen and a few Wilesco tools now I come to think of it.

Whatever you had before you joined this group will be a tiny part of your collection in 12 months time - trust me

James

Oi oi I talk all proper like

Sandman

James

LOL!
Would anyone understand me??

Sandman

James

Aye! I like Scotland it's alrate! Not as good as England though!

barry1946

from Bonnie Scotland - and as Sandman says - it's still raining!

Reid

Where can a person go to hear comparative samples of English as only the English (and Scots) can speak it?

One of the members here, a young bloke, has a great deal of good things to say.

I listen and play the youtube recordings over and over and I get, by degrees,
upwards of 30% comprehension! Mind you, I know that the fault is
all in my ear. Accents are wonderful things.

I've been told that I sound a lot like a wanker.
Hmmm... I wonder what part of the world that's from ?

Here, here's a clear-talking fellow (surely his mates all know what he's saying).
All I know is that he's one of the best humans I've ever met on the net.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQTSTpA1Kls

Sandman

Reid

Reid

James

Here ya gus la'!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pKfqSHeD3XM

Sandman

Mister Occlusion

Reid

Mister Occlusion

I like it

But then again I have an off kilter sense of humour anyway..

johnreid

MooseMan

Nice bit of South Welsh here, with a bit of proper Welsh for good measure...from one of my favourite films:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ArYpfmIX8WI

Reid

johnreid

So far so good, he even spells Reid correctly

I like the experimental attitude too, I think you are going to blend in real good. How long till you get the Wilesco do you think?

Reid

Channel design toot toot for James,

and my my, what a lovely icon picture: an empty, dirty tin

humble beginnings will stay this way

---

Have altered country location to UK because this is a British place and should remain so-flavoured.

Note that I'm learning to spell English pretty well lately? Eh?

right!

James

Wow thanks for that mate, that's real kind of you!!