Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Been pecking away at this.

It came to me accompanied by my Serious Boiler:

https://www.officeofsteamforum.com/restorations/serious-boiler/msg10109/#msg10109

My boiler has come a long way, and now the Stuart triple is getting some attention. This was never meant to be a museum quality model, or even a well-made shelf queen, but it was built for actual use.

Turns out that the engine and boiler were used to power a large model boat (but I have no information on the boat,), and it's clear that it has seen a lot of use. Lots of rust and pitting, so it'll never be perfect, but I don't care.

So far since I got it, I have started cleaning and repairing. I have started to restore the steam intake fitting, have ordered new nuts and bolts to replace some really awful hardware, and have begun to prepare for painting, etc.

The pictures show that I have replaced the gigantic non-scale reversing lever with the correct handwheel (made it myself!). I have also polished the rusty flywheel and begun cleaning up the cast iron cylinder block. In a box of junk that came with the engine I have found most of the original lagging; though it is pitted so that I cannot re-blue it, I can paint it a nice shade of green. I have stripped the string lagging from the copper cylinder exhausts and started to polish them.

I've done a few more little things, and when my BA taps arrive from England I'll be able to repair all the intake and exhaust plumbing, as well as the water and vacuum pumps.

I've also found a homemade lubrication system in the box of junk. Looks like it'll work, too.

Here are pictures of what I've been up to. Enjoy!

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