One trader had a complete RS1 set at a reasonable £195, but was asking tall prices for the rest of his Mamod bits.
Mamod Ltd - David Terry was manning a rather basic trade stall yet attracted a lot of attention, so I had to wait for a quiet period for my visit. On display was a Mark II with no decals & matching tender, a Diamond Jubilee Saddle Tank without decals and with a tender (in black as I recall), and a Brunel. Also a selection of accessories (steering rods, solid fuel tablets & funnels, etc.) plus a small selection of spares.
The new SP8 Beam Engine was also on display now all painted up, but with some rather large & ugly aluminium rivets holding the beam engine plate to the baseboard - due for release next month.
David confirmed that they have now sold 70 of the 100 Diamond Jubilee locomotives, and as has been posted elsewhere in this Forum, will quite happily post out an oval sight glass seal upon a telephone request (he only had them available in the pack of washer sets). I asked whether they were considering releasing a kit version of their locos and he indicated possibly with the Brunel, which is having the gearing changed to 3 to 1 from the current 2 to 1, but sadly it cannot be retrofitted to the current Brunel.
Thomas Telford - David confirmed that the current piston valve cylinders were the source of the difficulties with the prototype. So they are designing a new slide valve cylinder which will take time and so a date cannot be determined at this stage. He also indicated that they hope to keep price at the £430 range, and that it would not be released until they had a proper running locomotive. Having attended the lecture on building a Roundhouse Kit and getting one of the free manuals it is interesting to point out that Roundhouse run in their locomotives with a 20lb load for 8 hours prior to dispatch. I discussed the fact that Mamod use nitrile 'O' rings and did wonder whether using a different type of 'O' ring may help, and he did say that Mike Wakefield had also discussed this subject before. I explained my problem with my Brunel which loses pressure and slows down yet on refilling the lubricator off it goes again. So I've been advised to contact Peter Johnston at Mamod to see if I can get some unassembled cylinders to try out other 'O' rings.
Mamod were offering the best discount of the show (10% discount on all purchases), so I bagged a red tender for my Diamond Jubilee loco and 2 of the washer packs for an 18% discount. Thank You David.
Dream Steam - Their stand looked like a folding shelved display cupboard which folded out into a U shape and each time I passed it looked as if they were admiring their stand more rather than interacting with the public. Whilst waiting to ask some questions I heard the owner state that he tests the boilers to 140 PSI for 6 hours, but they are now having to use a metric source for copper tubing so the next batch is due for release in October 2013. I asked if they had any enhancements planned for the Mark II & Brunel which they now sell direct, and was told they plan to introduce boiler cladding and an opening bench seat for the Brunel, but nothing additional for the Mark II on top of the current water tank tops, etc. I pointed out that the front of the boiler on the Mark II needed some form of smoke box door and a saddle mount but he only agreed it was rather plain looking. They also intend introducing Radio Control for the MSS, Mark II & Brunel locos. They were offering 5% discount if you spent over £150.
RWM Steam - Not strictly Mamod but his range are the nephews of the original Mamod SL family. Roy was very approachable and keen to talk about his range and developments. He stated that sales of the RWM Janet & RWM De Winton were going well, with the De Winton being more popular. Only a couple of Janet's were ordered with plain steel wheels with most buyers opting for the spoked steel wheels. He had a box of these on display and they are very well manufactured and look great as well, sadly I cannot justify the cost of buying a set just for their looks on a good running Mamod. I mentioned that it was interesting that the spoked wheels had similar bearings to the original Mamod design whereas the plain steel wheels had those awkward screw in bearings and he said that those bearings interfered with the fitting of gas burners. We also discussed his 'O' ring cylinders which have been engineered very well, and confirmed that the cylinder end face is just pressed in (I had mentioned the difficulty this design presented if you needed to change 'O' rings whereas the old design at least allowed the end caps to be pushed out).
We then discussed the latest nephew addition to the Mamod family - the RWM Steam 'James' for which a rather bendy prototype was on display. He had started the mock up with cardboard then moved on to the only other material he had to hand (some thin copper), hence the bendy looking model. This has full length running boards, reshaped side tanks, and the rear drag beam has been replaced by a bracket which fits onto the standard chassis frames and very cleverly includes built in cab steps whilst retaining the cab back and rear buffer beam. The cab floor has also been cleverly cut around the bottom sight glass fitting, and the cab has been redesigned including a half open cab back. He will now be able to use the copper prototype templates to have the metalwork laser cut.
He also confirmed that the Janet does have extra steel weights mounted inside the side tanks to increase adhesion, and they also provide the added benefit of reducing the heat transfer to the side tanks.
The latest nephew of the original Mamod family - a prototype RWM Steam James.
I did get some info on a question that has been asked on this forum more than once so will start a new discussion for that question shortly.
Chris Cairns.
