Garden Railway Forum

I'm considering buying an MSS Mamod. I've some questions! Are they good runners 'out of the box' or do they need fettling?

And, saddle or tank?

Thanks

Lots of fettling and soft soldered. BUT can be made to work. An uprated safety valve is a must. Dream Steam. Steel wheels next then an oiler. After this you still have a soft soldered boiler.
Mamod Ltd Mk2 is much much better and out the box. Ask them to pre test it for you. Silver soldered and gas operataed with an oiler too boot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teLdwh3hwVw

See both on my Channel

Depends what you're after. MSS are easier to customer and personalise, plus upgrade support easily available via Roy Woods and Dream Steam. However you would be advised to thoroughly check the build quality when received - in one case, the wheels were not 100% circular, and in another case which I had to 'rescue recovery', the pistonheads in the cylinders were not 100% straight, causing gritting and seizure without an overload of oil in the 'Basic' cylinders.

Steamy !'s reply above say's it all....Look forward to lots of messing about when all you might want to do is have a bit of fun running a steam train! You might get what you pay for.....or maybe you wont.....

I think I must be the odd one out. My first loco was a red MSS tank engine and ran perfectly straight out of the box. I even ran it on solid fuel for 3 months untill I got chance to purchase a spirit burner. I was so impressed with how it ran I bought a Mamod one 6 months later. The latest MSS locos have been of variable quality, the machining of the wheels for one. There are locos on this forum that have barely any MSS parts left however I do have one that is pretty much standard and runs just as well as my modified version. As for saddle vs side tank that is up to you, the saddle tank is the rarer of the two if you like being different.

What Dan said. I'm guilty of having a so-called Mamod where only the smokebox, side-tanks and cab pieces are all that remain of Malins.