Have any of you ever taken an Early Mantua Steam Loco apart?
They ARE BUILT!
I bought one on E bay a while ago , a Mikado, I knew it was somewhat old, still not sure how old. The Hanger for the crosshead guide was broken off on one side, so I got it for a comparative song. I fabricated a new hanger from brass & decided to test it , would not run, really did not expect it would. Took the boiler off & shortly had the motor cleaned up enough to run. Next problem , the connector to the transmission slipped ,got that fixed & then the transmission began to slip , figuring a loose gear or worse yet stripped gear I decided to take a bit deeper look. Now this engine has a big rectangular box that the gears reside in, my surprise came when I tried to open it up!
This Locos frame consists of a sandwich of about 3 layers , nothing like any Mantua I had ever seen EVERY part of the loco is metal , cab included & it is NOT cast as part of the boiler, screws on, the pilot is metal ,2 pieces , screws together & then to the frame . Cross heads are metal with metal piston shafts. The only plastic in the whole thing is the gears, nylon I suppose.
I am quite impressed with the thing, never knew Mantua had that much quality & engineering .
Any one got a clue as to what time frame this loco could have been made in?
They ARE BUILT!
I bought one on E bay a while ago , a Mikado, I knew it was somewhat old, still not sure how old. The Hanger for the crosshead guide was broken off on one side, so I got it for a comparative song. I fabricated a new hanger from brass & decided to test it , would not run, really did not expect it would. Took the boiler off & shortly had the motor cleaned up enough to run. Next problem , the connector to the transmission slipped ,got that fixed & then the transmission began to slip , figuring a loose gear or worse yet stripped gear I decided to take a bit deeper look. Now this engine has a big rectangular box that the gears reside in, my surprise came when I tried to open it up!
This Locos frame consists of a sandwich of about 3 layers , nothing like any Mantua I had ever seen EVERY part of the loco is metal , cab included & it is NOT cast as part of the boiler, screws on, the pilot is metal ,2 pieces , screws together & then to the frame . Cross heads are metal with metal piston shafts. The only plastic in the whole thing is the gears, nylon I suppose.
I am quite impressed with the thing, never knew Mantua had that much quality & engineering .
Any one got a clue as to what time frame this loco could have been made in?