Mamod Loco Kit

[fred]

Dear All, sorry not been on for a while been very ill, Can some one please tell me what to do - no not that - I have bought a mamod loco kit, it is S/Hand everything is there except axles and c clips, (which I have now ordered) I think this is an oversight rather than a known fault. The loco is green with red side transfers and the box of pellets is the old orange pack,
The thing I cannot work out is the pipe to the bottom of the boiler seems to be a push fit, nowhere in the instructions or exploded view does it mention soldering this pipe, but my old mamod that was ready built is soldered - is this a speciallity for the kit? do I have to solder it? do I need silver solder? where do I get a small amount of silver solder? sorry I have gone on a bit but never seen one in bits before
Many Thanks
Fred

[Matt]

I think it needs to be soldered to the boiler, but i don't think it needs to be soldered to the reverser.

[fred]

Thanks Matt, but do I need silver solder

[SillyBilly]

On all mamods I've dismantled it has been a push fit.

[fred]

Thanks William, by the bye did you get my email re rolling stock ready end of August

[SillyBilly]

Ye, shall e-mail you later

[ACLR]

on my kit loco it was a push fit and under the Steam dome there is a Oring with a small washer on top and a spring pushing down onto the washer and Oring all held in place by the dome.
hope this helps Fred

[fred]

Thanks, it is me never having seen one in bits I falsely presumed, as my ready built Mamod and MSS are soldered, the water would leak out please don't laugh, when you look at the exploded diagram, it looks as though there are 2 pipes, 1 to boiler, 1 to disc behind reverser and then 2 on the other side of disc going into reverser, after your kind posting I put water into boiler and realized that it is a pipe going THROUGH the boiler! I only got it this morning, and didn't look at it until much later, but tell you one thing whoever drew that diagram wants shooting, not being able to get out, the Forum is a Godsend
Fred

[ACLR]

yep the forum is a godsend mate. and we all started as beginners

[Aizoon]

When was the kit made? I bought one when they first came out and it wa a total disaster I hope the manufacturing has improved since then...

[ACLR]

I believe they were first released in 1983 and discontinued 1989.

I think MSS also do a kit loco as my MSS was a kit when I bought it second hand, I think they are still making them but not sure.

[steamyjim]

Yup MSS still make the kits My one was a kit...i realy enjoyed building it

I haven't had any experiance with the steam take off coming from under the boiler as on my Mamod and MSS locos i have put a regulator in taking steam from the top of the boiler

[ACLR]

I have replaced my MSS boiler for one from dream steam and upgraded the pistons to Oringed type. have new boiler and steel wheels on the way to upgrade my SL1K
got sick of melting the plastic sightglass on the mss and mamod boilers

[fred]

Thanks for all help - it looks very early, green loco with red badges, grey box with Mamod, Kennel Ride, Ascot, Berkshire - don't know if this helps, I'd like to know age of it myself, after what you said I hope it builds O.K - it was bought from Kittle Hobby or at least there is a Mamod price list photocopy with date of 7/90 and kit I've just spent £100 on was £98.99 but Kittle Price was £79.20 and to think I bought this to avoid being done on Ebay
Fred

[Chris Cairns]

Hi Fred,

Sorry I've not been able to answer your posting until now but BT Total Broadband have totally failed to provide me with a service in my flat in Aberdeen, so my time online is limited to every 2nd week whilst back in Glasgow, until I can get another provider sorted out for Aberdeen.

Sounds like you have got a rare SL1K kit as they normally came painted black. But yours is Green (same as SL1) but with red transfers (only fitted to black SL1Ks normally). I would certainly like to see some photos of it if possible.

I have a mint boxed SL1K which came with those horrible 1980s photocopied instructions. I re-wrote the written instructions in MS Word, and the late Pete Longfils put my scans of the exploded diagrams together with these re-written instructions into a PDF file. If you click on 'Gallery' which appears at the bottom of this screen just above the copyrights you will find this PDF file there - SL1K Complete Instructions 2007.pdf



I've also previously uploaded a great image by Pete Longfils which explains the steam path better on the Mamod loco, and again that is in the 'Gallery' - Steam path on Mamod & MSS locos.pdf but I'll post it here for ease.



As others have already posted this steam pipe is pushed up into the pipe in the middle of the boiler, and your kit should have an 'O' ring (item 13), a washer (which appears to have been missed out in the instructions) and the spring (item 29).

In my experience I do not believe that Mamod soldered any of these pipes to the top of the boiler, but it was a modification that owners did to try and stop any steam leaking from here. I find a little steam oil on the 'O' ring before fitting helps a lot. MSS use a different style of steam dome and solder this pipe in place, and like the rest of the boiler fittings it is soft soldered.

As your box is the Ascot address then this must be one of the early SL1Ks produced in 1983-1984. Those that were produced by Mamod's owners Jedmond (Engineers) Limited between 1985 & 1989 when all railway production ceased have suffered from poor quality control leading to a lot of them being useless without replacement parts (reverser/regulator valve & cylinder assemblies).

If you need any more help just ask, and I'll reply when I can.

Chris Cairns.

(edited to correct image & PDF links)


Click to download file

Click to download file

[Aizoon]

Hi Fred,

I have a mint boxed SL1K which came with those horrible 1980s photocopied instructions.

Be warned - some of those SL1K's were very badly made  :(

[ACLR]

I know I have one but sa soon as my parts turn up from dream steam its getting a rebuild

[Chris Cairns]

Be warned - some of those SL1K's were very badly made

Thank you John, but I've identified the problem with these SL1Ks having owned 4 at one point. This mint boxed SL1K I have is purely for collection purposes, as I have 2 other SL1Ks to run on a railway.

As I said above Mamod went through a bad patch under the Jedmond (Engineers) Limited ownership, and as the loco was the only model with double acting cylinders in use at the time it seems to have been affected the most.

In my posting here ( http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/about423.html ) I identified a major problem with the reverser/regulator valve. By taking the rotating part of the valve from another SL3 I managed to get one SL1K working well enough to sell on, and I've just seen some photos of it in action at the Dorset Steam Rally.

I have almost got one of these faulty valves to work properly again, just requiring a little more soldering. But the other one that had actually been made up in reverse may not be salvageable with my limited workshop capabilities.

Also interesting to note that an MSS replacement valve from Dream Steam will not work in the SL3 as it has the cylinder back plates riveted to the chassis frames, and the steam holes just do not line up properly.

The other problem I'm aware of that affected these Jedmond built locos is that the holes in the cylinder did not line up properly with the holes in the back plate. I've not experienced this on the 13 Mamods that I have owned at some point, but I have found a difference with pistons when trying to make a working cylinder assembly out of 2 broken ones, and had to sand the piston down to fit the other cylinder bore.

[fred]

Dear Chris
Thanks for all that information, have printed page and PDF files they'll be a great help,
the only sad thing is the axles are missing which means I'll have to use the wheels off DreamSteam which are black/silver instead of red/silver,again really appreciate your help, hope you get Broadband sorted out, would that offer on mobile £10 per month for first 3 months then £15 thereafter be of any help
God Bless
Fred

[Chris Cairns]

Glad to help Fred. I hope you get the loco running properly soon.

Unfortunately I've been making up repaired wheel sets for my Mamods so no spare red wheels at present. If that changes I'll let you know.

Do not get me started on Broadband. I spent 26 minutes on the phone last week to India to try & get them to send the welcome pack to another address (last 4 sent back due to wrong address!). But I failed and was assured by the Indian that it would absolutely guaranteed arrive at my correct address (BT does not use a proper Postcode database for some reason). So when a simple paper User's Guide arrived (no modem or hub, software, logon details, etc.) I was furious and spent 2 1/2 hours yesterday driving back from Aberdeen to Glasgow composing my e-mail to BT Broadband. Still too angry to send it yet.

Probably go for the Talk Talk option as long as I can plug in their wireless hub to my computer (living in student country I'm not interested in them free-loading on a wireless connection).