Garden Railway Forum

Hello, The improved Mamod 'Brunel' that I ordered nearly two weeks ago finally arrived. I had to make a decision to purchase it as my existing Brunel 7/8" scale conversion was building up steam and I hate having to take stuff apart when I convert stuff, then have to undo it all! I can see that the purchase was a good one. The people at Mamod must note what is written on this sub forum. The burner is placed right in the middle of the burner where it should have been placed in the first place!! As my line 'history' allows for only two steam engines I will be selling the original Brunel. I must say I was surprised that the improved version is the same price as my year old? existing model....More to follow...

Please keep updating the forum, particularly if you are able to run the locos side-by-side.

Interested in what you say about the burner now being in the centre under the boiler.


Mike

Looking forward to finding out more. I´m interested in a Brunel, myself for the K&NWLR ....

I have taken pictures of the cog's underneath plus close-ups of 'Jakarna....(Urdu for JAM!)...top wise. To tell you the truth I think the rest of the improvements must be cosmetic. Maybe the next improvement might be 'Direction Control'?? If so I will buy it to add on. I am doing this in the kitchen on our lap top so cannot down load the pictures in the camera! Just noticed that the counter on my web site has gone past the 70,000 mark and rising fast....people out there must like reading my pithy remarks about 7/8" scale very expensive kits!....more to follow.

Bill/Rubery:101546 wrote:I have taken pictures of the cog's underneath plus close-ups of 'Jakarna....(Urdu for JAM!)...top wise. To tell you the truth I think the rest of the improvements must be cosmetic. Maybe the next improvement might be 'Direction Control'?? If so I will buy it to add on. I am doing this in the kitchen on our lap top so cannot down load the pictures in the camera! Just noticed that the counter on my web site has gone past the 70,000 mark and rising fast....people out there must like reading my pithy remarks about 7/8" scale very expensive kits!....more to follow.

Nice website

I do not think that Mamod monitor this specific Forum, but they are members of the Unofficial Mamod and Other Steam Forum & The Freesteam Forum.

They do however listen to feedback from customers, usually by phone or letter, and we have seen several improvements introduced from this feedback.

With regards to the Brunel they moved the water sight glass more inboard after the negative comment on its original position in the Garden Rail review. However they took a lot longer to fit a copper gas pipe as standard.

I'm not convinced that placing the circular ceramic burner directly under the centre of the boiler is the most efficient position. Some vertical boiler projects I've seen either have a ring burner (the ring being under the boiler rather than the flue), or a circular ceramic burner where the centre of the ceramic has been removed.

I've decided that upgrading my Version 2 Brunel to the latest Mark II spec is going to be too expensive due to the additional requirement for a new drive axle & wheels, compared to Mike Wakefield's Version 3 upgrade. Be interesting to see what the 2nd hand market price for a Mark I Brunel will be.

Chris Cairns

Here are some... (hopefully) pictures that I took for my web page where 'Jakarna' will have a 'spread! Pictures show the underside particularly the cogs area and boiler,

After those serious?? pictures here is a more typical picture of the train enroute to the Reynolston Engine shops where company mechanics will give the new locomotive the once over! The pusher is 'Pectin'...the converted Froig BBE and also some of the staff plus a pig are eyeing up the goods.....

Hello Chris, I am hoping that the shown boiler position will stop the flame creep that the boiler to the side position produces. The 'creep' looks like the 'steam'?? that comes off dry ice! On my burner too much gas produces flowing all under the engine which make the frame dead hot....No chance to run engine yet as I am on a drive to reduce back-log jobs down to ONE!!.....Two jobs to go to get to THAT happy position....

Hi Bill, and thanks for posting the photos

OK, here's a few observations in no particular order.

Mamod seem to have tweaked the design once again and have reverted to steel cogs instead of brass. I wonder why.

As for flame creep, its not a problem I ever experienced once I realised you only open the gas valve a tiny amount. Any more and you get a flame that's too large to be channelled up the centre of the boiler and instead it spreads out sideways.

The sight glass and blow-down valve still stick out an awful lot. When I first bought my Brunel I had to widen a bridge.

The cylinder seems to be higher than on my upgraded Brunel. Again I wonder why as it looks like they've altered the side frames again. Peter at Mamod told me a few weeks back they'd lowered the cylinder height by a few millimeters so the steam pipe to it would be horizontal but now it seems they've reverted back.

Have you decided how where you're going to route the steam outlet pipe from the cylinder.

Mike

Hello Mike, When I start converting the locomotive I intend/hope to have a exhaust pipe up by the chimney to give a impression of steam coming out there! I have a small condenser that...hopefully will join the gas tank at the front of Jakarna. I have a 1/8" pipe bender to bend the copper tubing I have to make a tidy approach to the chimney. The chimney needs being taller as the 7/8" scale engine man will have a face of smoke on each trip up the line!!....So many jobs and being pulled in every direction...

That is the first time I have seen a Brunel look at home on someone's railway, any idea what the new gear ratio Is ?

Approx 4.5:1 (I lost count on one of the cogs)

That gearing should reduce the number of times that it fails to make it round curves because of its centre of gravity ...

Does anybody know why Mamod lowered the engine block on the latest Mamod Brunel??? I cannot understand what this will achieve....

Bill/Rubery wrote: I cannot understand what this will achieve....

To lower the Centre of Gravity. When I ran my Brunel I had to keep the engine block on the inside of the curves so it was less likely to tip over at speed.

Chris Cairns

EEEERRRrrr, Chris, The lowered engine block on my Brunel is about a quarter of a inch at the most! I cannot see that little bit of 'lowering' making much difference. I can tell what will though...the weighty white metal buffers I am fitting right now to the buffer beams that all of my locomotive's have fitted. I think I will try to make the locomotive a sort of Sentinel type of VB engine as they looked really 'differant' and freelance!

Bill,

As Mike posted above your Brunel Mark II has, for whatever reason, the cylinder mounted higher than the Mark II chassis that Mike was provided with to upgrade his Mark I.

Mamod posted photos of their Mark II with the brass gears and lowered cylinder here - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater Click Next top right above the photo as there are a total of 6 photos posted there.

Chris Cairns

With the change to the gearing the Brunel will be much slower and so less likely to tip over on curves. Changing the buffer beams to white metal will lower the centre of gravity but won't help the side-to-side weight distribution. For that you need to place counter weights under the frames on the opposite side to the cylinder. I used steel blocks but lead would be better.

Mike

I wonder way they went for the high mounted fixed cylinder and flywheel combination the first place as I would of thought that using two of the standard oscillating cylinders to make a lower level vertical steam motor would of bean a better option.