Having just sold my Juliet (3.5" 0-4-0 steam loco) due to constant frustration and the growing dislike of the M.E.S I was a member of, I decided that it was finally time to buy a Mamod. I had wanted one for years after discovering that wondrous railway in the garden, could in effect, one day be mine to enjoy. So a look on Ebay came up with a Maroon MSS loco, tender and a good amount of track and at a good price! (£230 in fact) The loco was bought as a present for someone who steamed it once and left it in the corner to slumber feeling unwanted... Until it arrived at my house. I couldn't run it for the first few days due to the appalling weather and when it was first run it sputtered and wheezed... it hadn't been run in by any means... so a few more sessions of running and it started to free up and eventually it ran like a dream!
As New
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM_0jkpl ... ature=plcp
Just run in and its first proper run.
Not long after it had been run in, I started thinking about the possibility of making the loco Remote Controlled using a bell crank arrangement with a little reversing lever in the cab.
At the same time the loco was turned into a permanent tender loco by using a brass bolt and a spring. This worked quite well and was kept. The bell crank however was disposed of as I hadn't made it right and the other materials used simply weren't up to the job... it was simply a bodge job to see if it could be done.
After seeing a rather nice example of a half cabbed tender on the forums (Built by Peter Jones I think?) the inspiration was there to do the same to my tender... again this was a bit of a bodge making the most of what I had to hand... I really need a workshop... Anyway parts were brought in and it was modified.
Looking back on it, I really shouldn't have used cardboard in the tender as it eventually went soggy...
Now the tender and loco had been butchered, the paint was beginning to show signs of my heavy handed nature with spanners from fitting a regulator, uprated safety valve, water top up and a meths burner, so it was decided to bite the bullet and paint it green. I had some Humbrol enamel gloss No.3 left over from the Juliet as it was used to touch up the paint from yet more heavy handedness... the loco came out absolutely perfect with no runs whatsoever, the tender on the other hand looked like it had rolled in sand and then been painted on...
So after a short while of putting up with the tender's sandpaper paint job, during this time a new chimney was fitted, I attempted to repaint it thinking another coat would cover it... it actually made it worse... So at this point it was decided to ditch the tender for the time being and convert "Ofario" back to a tank engine but this time with a cut down cab and a complete pair of centre buffers.
It was also decided at this stage to paint the smokebox and boiler into matt black.
After some more running it was found that the meths burner seemed a bit small... so the hunt had begun for a new bigger burner... This caused much stress and annoyance as I bought one only for it to never turn up and £25 that I never had got back... It was not until Gremlin had got in contact with me to let me know he was doing another batch of his brilliant burners, that I bought one... and what a difference! it ran for much longer than it did previously on the standard meths burner and the extra weight seemed to have given it a tad more power.
After taking it to the CVLR and giving it a proper good thrash, I got it home and left it in its box for a few weeks not knowing that the wheels were finally giving up the ghost and had started to come loose on their axles... An order was placed with Roy Wood Models who was fantastic and had the new wheels and a set of his reshaped rods to me very quickly and for a good price (£32!) The wheels were painted in the same Green as the rest of the loco and the rims were painted black. whilst this was going on, I removed the old wheels and rods. whilst given the chance, I cleaned the frames. Now it was a bit of a sod to fit the wheels as the bearings were slightly too large to fit in the frames so the holes were opened up slightly and the wheels pushed in, needless to say I had ruined the paint on the wheels doing this, after they were fitted the rods went on and the crank pins shortened. I have yet to steam "Ofario" in its current state as I won't get the chance until I take it to Leighton Buzzard narrow gauge railway's Great Slate Quarry fest this Saturday. But here's a photo of it in its current state.
Next things on the list will be the coal bunker which I will be getting this weekend Via Doug... this will mean making the meths burner intake pipe longer to poke out the top of the bunker... Fingers crossed it'll work!
