coal fired mamod.

[Matt]

I've just had an interesting thought. You know that the mamods come with a soild fuel tablet tray which is useless as the pelets are useless so you through it away and replace with a meths burner? Well, why don't they keep the tray, and replace it with broken up coal?

Think about it. It'll be more realistic thatn meths or pelets, it'll produce more heat than meths or pelets, and will last longer that meths or pelets with attention needed.

It may sound a little crazy, but it might work. whats your view?

[SillyBilly]

It would never work properley, one on the things with firing with oil/coal is that you need a decent draught to draw the fire's flames thus giving a decent blaze, to boil the water, ect.....

[Matt]

well, the bottom of the mamod is pretty open, so all you need to do is get one of those hand head fans you can get from a gift shop, hold it above the boiler, pointing away from the boiler to create a draught, untill you've got pressure up, and bob's your uncle! Besides, you need a good strong draught if you've got internal firing about trying to make 40 to 60ppsi, whilst with a mamod your making only 20ppis.

[andysleigh]

a fan wouldnt work.

it needs to get under and throught the coal, hence why you have grates.

theres alot of technical info on burning coal and why they are in fireboxes with grates, and vacumes etc.

[Matt]

Well then, replace the bottom of the tray with wire mesh which won't melt under the heat of the coal.

[andysleigh]

it wouldnt work, if it was that simple than alot of mamods would probs be coal.

i have tried burning coal on wood, oil fires that are open like a mamod, and it jsut doesnt work.

[Matt]

OK, if somes tried it, and it dosn't work, I take it not to try it out.

[South-Trethevy]

OK, if somes tried it, and it dosn't work, I take it not to try it out.

I ran mi TE1A on Charcoal n it worked fine... i dont c Y an SL1 wont do the same!!!

[MTA]

OK, if somes tried it, and it dosn't work, I take it not to try it out.

I ran mi TE1A on Charcoal n it worked fine... i dont c Y an SL1 wont do the same!!!

With a TE1A, if you used the bottom of the frebox then that has a large 'grate' area than that of the two tiny compartments in a solid fuel tray used by Mamod loco's.

Plus, charcoal burns more easily than coal...

[SillyBilly]

pointing away from the boiler to create a draught

Eh, how is that going to work? It'd just create a warm breeze smelling remotly of coal.

Besides, you need a good strong draught if you've got internal firing about trying to make 40 to 60ppsi, whilst with a mamod your making only 20ppis.

Are you insane? You have to maintain a strong draught or the fire just dies!

[Hancockshire]

Fab idea . And also, coal is cheaper as you can get a huge bag of the stuff from garages and the odd key store. Can you produce a prototype for modellers who want the cheap and easy way of getting a more realistic mamod

[SillyBilly]

I can asure you that coal a mamod without a new boiler us impossible, with a new boiler then it'll just be awkward.

[ptlrcecil]

And even with a new boiler the rear axle is in the way of the ashpan.
I think trying to coal fire a mamod would be as difficult as sending bluebottle into space.

[Chris]

I agree with the others, it won't work. You will need a constant draught to keep the fire burning.

Feel free to prove us wrong though

[andysleigh]

i dont think such a thing would be impossible.
But it would be quite hard to do, and fire.

You can avoid the back axle by bringing the firebox right back into the cab. Like DJB did on the edrig. This would give good firebox room.

Another option would be to use a marine type boiler, like on the bagnall saddle tank locos. This may just about clear the rear axle.

[Chris]

i dont think such a thing would be impossible.
But it would be quite hard to do, and fire.

You can avoid the back axle by bringing the firebox right back into the cab. Like DJB did on the edrig. This would give good firebox room.

Another option would be to use a marine type boiler, like on the bagnall saddle tank locos. This may just about clear the rear axle.

Indeed I'm sure that you can make something that would work, but not just putting coal into the mamod solid fuel burner.