About 3 years ago I brought home a fragment of a steam engine from an event at which interested people could show and demonstrate their toy steam engines and models. An elderly gentleman had a large box full of a steam tray in the trunk of his car. With the words: "What do I do with it? Do I give this to the scrap dealer, or do I leave the stuff here?", He turned to a young member of the organizing association, with whom I was talking about the machines on display. The contents of the box consisted almost entirely of parts from Wilesco machines, except for one part in terrible condition, which I quickly recognized as a Doll machine. Since nobody was obviously interested in this, I bought the fragment for a few euros in the club's treasury.
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Someone had spilled some acid over the existing machine parts and the floor pan, so that fingers and hands were blue when touched. The boiler is missing, the boiler house is irreparably rusted through except for the chimney attachment. When I got home, I immediately tried to identify the machine. At
www.fleischmann-toys.de I thought I recognized the machine as model 368/3. The shape of the unit and the 3 round vents on each side of the boiler house indicated this. The dimensions of the foundation (31 x 27 cm) spoke against it. Since the kettle is missing, I couldn't find any further evidence of identification beyond its size. The boiler house, without the chimney attachment, is 15 cm long. A request to Thomas Venter (
www.ventix.pages) brought the solution. Due to the dimensions of the foundation and boiler house, it must be a 368/2. According to Thomas, during production at Doll there were often changes to the model designs compared to the images shown in the catalog.
The 3-hole boiler house was totally irritating for me, as the illustration of the 368/2 in the Doll catalog only has 2 round vents. I then dealt a little more intensively with the condition of the existing parts. The foundation is in good condition apart from the paintwork and surface rust. The boiler house is junk and needs to be replaced. All parts of the unit are in good condition in terms of material. The steam lines are not bent.
The machine fragment has now been dismantled and the individual parts cleaned. I removed the paint by sandblasting, not without first documenting the paintwork that was still there. I would like to restore the machine as true to the original as possible. All screw connections could be loosened without any problems without the use of WD-40. The search for a new boiler house, a suitable boiler with pressure gauge, steam whistle and pressure relief valve began. Oh yes, the chimney and the angled oiler on the piston have to be replaced too. The oiler broke off there. The search for the missing parts has now taken over three years. In the meantime, someone has turned the missing oiler on the cylinder with cover from brass.
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A short time ago I was able to get almost all the missing spare parts cheaply. All that is missing is the chimney, the pressure gauge and the weight of the safety valve. I would never have dreamed that I would get the spare parts in the form of an almost complete machine. The machine is also in a bad condition. But the boiler house is not rusted through, the boiler has no noticeable dents and the unit is technically in good condition. The painting of the base plate is completely over. The burner needs a minor repair. Now I'm spoiled for choice when it comes to restoration. I have to think about it for a while. I will definitely report on the progress.
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