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

This was my first purchase at the Coolspring engine show.  Ervin is one of the earliest of the model hit and miss engines.  I bought it in "as is" untested contested condition, but had it running that evening.  It only took a good cleaning of the points and figuring out that the engine had been set up to run as a vapor engine.  Although it runs fine as a vapor engine, it will only run for 15 to 20 minutes, until the fuel level in the tank drops a third of an inch or so.  I may convert this to a system with a pick-up tube and check valve, so that it runs on liquid fuel and will run until the tank is empty.