Those holes in the bottom of Mamod boilers

[Chris Cairns]

Some current items on eBay helps to date the strange practise of drilling holes in the bottom of Mamod boilers so that the dealers would not sell these 'display' models.


A Mamod SL3 locomotive


A Mamod SL4 "Princess of Wales" Limited Edition locomotive


A Mamod SL5 "Prince of Wales" Limited Edition locomotive

Whilst I do not understand this strange practise I do find it even stranger to drill holes in the limited edition Mamod SL4 & 5 locomotives as there were only 250 made of each version.

These limited edition locomotives were made by Charles Cooper's Mamod 80 Limited in 1981, so this practise was probably sanctioned by their Sales Manager as it is not mentioned in the MSS published "Mamod Bible".

Chris Cairns.

[Boustrophedon]

What is this "Mamod bible" that I have seen mentioned on several threads now?

[Chris Cairns]

The "Mamod Bible" -

Mamod - The story of Malins Models by P.S.Malins. Published by the original MSS (Mamod Sales & Service) in 1996. ISBN 0 9529237 0 X.

Did not sell out when first published (MSS actually sold their remaining copies to Alan Dunster's Dream Steam company) but now out of print and highly sought after thus commanding some very high prices.

Written by Steve Malins who was made redundant when Malins (Engineers) Limited, the original Mamod owners, went into receivership in 1980. Information from 1980 through to 1996 comes from David Evans, who was Mamod's Work Manager in 1980, Managing Director of Mamod Limited when it was taken over by the current Terry family owners in 1992, and finished as the Sales & Marketing Manager. His version of the Railway System story as told in the "Bible" is the Terry family were not interested in the railway system so he personally acquired the remaining assets and production rights, and started to produce MSS locomotives from 1994. This caused problems with Mamod Limited (David Terry has confirmed that the Railway System assets were never included in the sale in 1992) and so the Mamod Sales & Service link up was terminated. David Evans re-named MSS to Model Steam Specialists, and the current Mamod owners introduced a new Railway System.

There are many mistakes in the "Mamod Bible" but requests for an updated version to be published have so far gone unanswered.

Chris Cairns.

[Boustrophedon]

Thanks Chris.

[Boustrophedon]

Thank you one and all for this thread. Spent a nice Saturday morning at the Tring Auction where there was a rather nice unsteamed Mamod roadster car. The reason it was so pristine became obvious once I spotted the hole in the bottom of the boiler. Stopped me from making too big a bid.

Didn't win it, but someone was in for a disappointment.

[Narrow Minded]

You say that, but some loonies (read "collectors") buy stuff and have no intention of steaming it - ever.
I've heard of some of these half-wits never even opening the boxes

[pauly]

You say that, but some loonies (read "collectors") buy stuff and have no intention of steaming it - ever.
I've heard of some of these half-wits never even opening the boxes  ;)

My uncle does that with Tri-ang

everytime I go round its that scene from James Mays Top Toys: Can we run that one?   No.  How bout that one? No.

I think this practice was a store-to-store thing I dont think Mamod ever did made it a rule for display locos.
A few months back I took a look at a mamod loco on eBay, in the description the seller said: It was a display model in my fathers old shop : I asked him to check for holes in the boiler and he said there werent any holes