I bought one of the Porters as a gift for my father. I wasn't aware at the time of the "controversy" that was raging over the locomotives' appearing a little too "Accucraft-like", and considering that one or more engineers formerly from the Chinese Accucraft factory had a hand in its design.
The locomotive itself appears to be built to a high standard, my father really likes it. He's built a passenger car for it to pull and runs it on a circle of track. It will only run for ten minutes or so because the boiler is very small. It runs smoothly and is entertaining for my father, who hasn't had a live steam engine before.
One thing that WAS strange, however, was that it didn't steam very well at first. The burner was very touchy and wouldn't stay lit. Usually I could keep it going if I left the smokebox door slightly open. Through fiddling around with various bits of pipe, I discovered that the chimney was much too narrow, and a large drop of water was enough to stop exhaust gases from escaping properly. There is the usual drain hole at the bottom of the smokebox, but the narrow chimney was enough to restrict proper airflow. I removed the chimney along with the spark arrestor, and made a wider one out of copper pipe. I made a dummy "spark arrestor" at the top which is fairly unsightly, but my father and I think it looks fine. Now the engine steams fairly well, and is fun to run.
There are some impressive features on the engine: Most of the fasteners are hex-head, and there is a lot of brass detail, like wood grain in the buffer beams and working hinges on the dummy tank filler. The wheels are all sprung! It's actually quite an imressive-looking little model. It's heavy and well-made. The safety valve is hidden inside the sand dome.
I posted some pictures here about a year ago, but it didn't generate much in the way of interest or comment at the time.
Here she is with the new chimney:
The engine is exceedingly small, here she is compared to a small Roundhouse locomotive:
Anyway, it runs well enough with the new chimney, probably won't pull very many wagons with those wee little cylinders, but oddly I am very fond of the little engine, and my father of course is very happy with it. I haven't seen the wagon he made yet, but when I visit at Christmastime I will take a picture and post it.
