| 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. |
| erikl |
Who's Erik?Since everybody seems to have done their introduction by now, it's time for my very late introduction
My Name is Erik (as you might have guessed  ) I'm 24 and I live in the Netherlands. I live in a place called Houten in the center of the netherlands (close to Utrecht)
I work at a charity organisation as a application developer / operator for 5 days in a week. I became interested in steam toys around January 2005. While browsing the internet I noticed that these kind of toys where still largely available at ebay. I saw one in action when a teacher showed it when I was a little kid, I was surprised thay where still for sale, so a few days later I bought my first engine, a Wilesco D18. One thing led to another, and now I have 11 engines. I came to this forum when it moved from the original mamod page. I 've been on quite some forums, but I must say this one is the most fun to be at. There's a wealth of information on here and a lot of very knowledgeable, friendly and patient people. I try to check in every day to see what's happening
My other hobbies are: - Geocaching - A worldwide game where someone hides a box with at least a logbook in it somewhere (most of the times at a nice place, like somewhere in the woods)and publishes the coordinate on the internet so other participants with a GPS can go and search it and log their found. For some you are required to walk a route (from a few 100 meters up to many kilometres), for others you need to solve a puzzle, and some you can just park the car next to. You can read all about it here: http://www.geocaching.com/ you never know if there's one hidden right next to your front door
- Listening to rock & metal music. I also like to go to concerts if bands visit the Netherlands, bands I like include Sonata Arctica, Dark moor, After forever, Kamelot, Children of bodom, Delain, Epica, Dragonforce, Nightwish, ect... I bet you've never heard o any of them )
- American cars - Ever since I was a kid I loved American cars. About three months ago I finaly had the chance to buy one (the one you see in my avatar, a '93 Chevrolet caprice with a 5.0L v8 ). I haven't regret the buy any moment yet, it rides like a dream! (as long as you don't have to park it in a tight spot). Unfortunately the Dutch government now want a lot of money from me because of the weight of the car, so I hope I can still keep it when I buy or rent a apartment (I now still live with my parents) - Cycling – when the weather is good, I like to ride my (race) bike. You might have noticed that sometimes I am not very active at the forum and that restorations sometimes take me a long time. Unfortunately I have a good reason for that  For about 3 years I have some RSI rouble (If you don't know what that is, read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repetitive_strain_injury)
It kind of comes and goes, so when it's worse I can't sit behind the computer for too long (I already have to do that at work for about 7 hours a day) and repetitive movements like polishing and grinding don't do it much good either
Well, that’s it for now, I hope I haven’t bored you too much with my introduction
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| Mamodman123 |
Great to know more about you Erik!
You have a great collection and keep at it 
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| IndianaRog |
Hi Erik,
Very smart car you have there...I had an older one once, a 1978 Chevrolet Caprice Classic and it rode like a dream. They will never win a fuel economy contest, but they look classy and feel wonderful. Hope your govt. isn't too hard on you...sounds like they charge fees based on weight??? Strange way to do it. In the US it is based on value...if you get a new car they really hammer you with registration and licensing fees...drive an old beater that weighs 3 tons and gets 5 miles per gallon, and fees are very low. I suppose it is designed to help lower income folks, but if you think about it, it discourages purchasing new, which creates jobs. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Anyhow, glad you are part of our forum...11 engines since 2005...yup, you have the bug...no cure, just resign yourself to it!!! cheers, Roger |
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| Wallace |
Hi Erik, and thanks for sharing.
Nice to read your post, and I really like your car 
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| James |
Great to read mate! | ||||
| MooseMan |
Hi Erik,
Nice to know more about you - great to have a fellow Dutchman on board!
Love your website BTW - great clean layout. How's that PW201 coming along? |
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| Graham-Jilly |
Is great to meet you Eric and read your story
thanks for sharing. G-J |
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| Sandman |
Great to have you here mate.
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| erikl |
The 1978 is great too, I've been looking for the older models too (since you dan't have to pay any tax if they're older than 25 years) but unfortunately they where all either expensive or vey rusty, so I thought I'd better start off with this. The fee here is indeed based on weight, since this one weights 1900kg I have to pay the goverment $190 each month. You're probably going to have a laugh when I tell you that we have to pay $7,60 for a gallon of petrol at this side of the pond... (that's why I have a LPG installation in the car)
I haven't started working on it yet, still busy with my flatbase SE1. I have steamed it several times though
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| Griffin |
A great read Erik, thanks for sharing.
BTW, I was in the Netherlands a couple of months back, great place, look forward to going back there again.
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| Steve_S |
Hello Erik, it's very interesting to read about you. I spent a week in Holland last year, at Almelo, and I was very impressed with the place, the people, and the way of life. It seemed much less stressed than here!
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| oldstuff |
Great to read about you, Erik. Looking forward to seeing your PW201 when you get to it. |