Today I received my brand new Mamod Brunel live steam locomotive. I have wanted this geared engine for a while.
Update: I absolutely LOVE this engine. I have repainted it, added a wooden footplate deck and screened canopy/cab like an 1836 B&O engine. See it here: • Victoria BC: Shout out...
My friend Steve in the UK went in a different direction with his Brunel. Such a versatile platform. See it here: • Introducing Horace a M...
Back to the original scree:
I love the options on this engine. Proper sight glass, easy boiler blow down valve that also clears bubbles from the sight glass, cross-tubed flue, but most of all I like that you can re-gauge the wheels for use on 32 mm (O gauge) or 45 mm (G scale) track. The engine came gauged for 32 mm. Many people call this SM32. It was a little generously gauged and so it crabbed quite a bit. Before I use the loco again I’ll shift the wheels to be 1 or 2 mm tighter together. That should take care of the crabbing motion.
I’m not sure what ‘scale’ this thing is meant to be but I imagine 1:19, or 16 mm to the foot.
I was surprised that it was not so straight forward to learn to run as my Accucraft engines have been. There is a sweet spot on the butane regulator. Too much and heat goes everywhere in addition to going up the flue. We are used to a good roar in our engines but it seems with this engine less is better.
Having said that it settled into running at a steady 20 psi. The boiler blows off at 40 psi. I suspect the air inlets in the line could be a touch bigger. The butane seems to be searching for oxygen if turned up more than a few cracks. I will drill a small additional hole in the lead into the burner. At best it should allow me to turn up the fire a bit more. At worst I can plug the hole if it doesn’t work.
Starting it running involved quite a bit of priming and a bunch of manual cranks of the flywheel. It takes some more manual work to get the cylinder and steam line to a good operational warmth than my other engines. That’s partly the nature of the beast - being geared and the steam line not being super heated.
All in all I feel it’s not a ‘beginner’ engine. But close. There is a small learning and operational curve.
I ran it a few hours today. It’s starting to settle in nicely. After 4-6 more hours I predict the gears, all moving parts, the cylinder and the piston will have meshed together and bedded in nicely and this engine will be a fine runner.
My modification to add some teflon string to the cylinder gland was a leaps and bounds improvement in performance. I have included how I did that in the video and you’ll see the difference. I did the same with the glands of my oscillating cylinder Mamod Mk 3 and the running quality of that engine was instantly improved.
All in all I thank Mamod for this wonderful engine. I already really love it!
Cheers,
Terry