corgi car hits mach 1

[johnthomp]

it was back when i was abbout 11 and been on the flea market with my mates and bought a mamod steam engine for £5 when i got it home and tried it out the first time it ran really slow even while id laced it with wd40 so sat in the shed with a few other old toys i noticed that when i got preassure up the safety valve was spitting steam and water evrywhere so i held it shut with a wooden clothes peg and it sped up rather well
after abbout 10 mins i got tired of haveing to try and keep the peg held on this thing so i screwed the engine down to the bench and wedged a corgi diecast car on the top of the safety valve against the chimney and whistle and set it off again
within 3 mins no leaks from the valve its running abbout 2000rpm and still speading up i began to get a little warey of it so stepped back now at 5000rpm and still no steam out of the safety valve stepped out of the shed and was stood hideing round the shed door watching this engine going round at chainsaw speed screaming like god knows what then BOOOOOM crack thud crunch and saw the corgi car shoot off the top of the boiler and up through the shed roof i looked up and the car was so high up i could barely see it i swear to god that car must have broken the sound barrier to go that high and as i was looking at the devostation in the shed i realised the mortal danger i had just put myself in then saw the hole in the roof it was perfectly square roughly the size of the car and laughed at the comical value of watching it get launched
but i wasnt laughing 2 days later when the old man next door came round with the toy car half melted and battered to a pulp with a stern tone to his voice said i found this buried 6" deep in my lawn earlier is it anything to do with you
i never played with a safety valve like that again but still fascinated with steam though !!!!!!

 

[Antman]

Whew! Adult supervision isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either. It was my Dad’s idea ( and he was considered a technical genius by the neighbourhood kids. He had all these cool toys, 16mm movie cam and projector, hi fi with huge, hot valves he built from a kit … ) to crank up the power by gooi ‘ing the firebox with more Meta blocks (remember those things that tasted like saltpetre, C ate one and me and Lurchi didn’t even dare him. He pegged last year, but I don’t think it was from the Meta. ) than the firebox could handle, of a little Fleishmann, I think, horizontal boiler oscilating engine that my cuzzie lent us to play with.

To get more power for those dumb accessories Dad put more weight on the deadweight/lever safety valve in the form of lead barnyard animals. We tried to put the fire out when the goose melted and when we gave the engine back there were a few little like solder spots on the boiler and the original deadweight was a little melted. He could of used iron weights after that.
In spite of the warning
in the Junior Woodchuck Guide
If The Boiler Leaks: Abandon Ship!
Have a safe one,
Ant

 

[tel]

but i wasnt laughing 2 days later when the old man next door came round with the toy car half melted and battered to a pulp with a stern tone to his voice said i found this buried 6" deep in my lawn earlier is it anything to do with you

Can't help wondering just how he found it down there! ;D

 

[bearcar1]

OK, So there I was, on the flight deck of the Nimitz! I had one a burnin' and one a turnin'. I had a pocket full of nickels and not a Coke machine in sight! What was I gonna' do??? :big: :big:

BC1
Jim

 

[johnthomp]

Can't help wondering just how he found it down there! ;D

my neighbour was a prick he was a half n half victor meldrew and alf garnett he was obsessed with golf and had an immaculate lawn wich he stated was seeded from a putting green and kept over 500 budgies in his shed with a 7 foot high fence round his entire house we called him the bird man of alchatraz he obviously saw a 1 inch diametre hole in his perfect lawn