Look what I found!

I am almost there with the clean up of the workshop, boxes and boxes of 'stuff' have been examined and relocated. Amongst them, I found a box full of Meccano Steam engine parts awaiting refurbishment. Originally I had planned to do full-blown restorations on all of them, but after doing

several of them, the novelty wore off. I have sold all the ones I had completed, and I am not planning to do any more for the time being. Rather than just sell off the bits, I have decided to clean and rebuild as many as I can into shabby but fully working machines.

A box of chassis, fire boxes and boilers...

...and a tray full of more bits and pieces

I have already rebuilt and tested one. A really good clean, and a bit of a polish, makes them look so much better. Lapping and polishing the valve gear and piston, refitting missing or damaged washers and stripping the burner down to remove any debris that has accumulated over the years, soon had it working again.

From scrap to a runner - Serviced and working correctly, if a bit tatty around the edges

That will be my work for the next day or so. Getting them cleaned, serviced and working so that most of them can be sold through my internet shop, RalphsShop.com. I have another idea for some of them. Rather than do a full restoration job on them, but do a bit more than just cleaning them up I am thinking Rat-Rod, well rather Rat-Carno.

A Rod-Rat. Perfectly sound but deliberately built to look in need of restoration... Cool (Man!)

Ratcarno

Rat Rods originated as an alternative to the full-blown and expensive Hot Rods that were more intended to be looked at than driven. Rat Rods are built according to the owner's abilities and with the intention of being driven.The unfinished bodywork is all part of the look. Rust is stabilised but is not removed, dents are, and damage is rectified to a point, but there is nothing wrong with the odd bullet hole being left in place.

A similar concept can be taken with Meccano. There are the collectors, who seek pristine, unused parts and if they do build anything it is adorned with hundreds of brass washers to protect the paint and displayed with 'look, but don't touch' notices. I was always a builder and a great believer in using Meccano for what it was intended for - to build with. The idea of using old Meccano to build with is not new to us. We were doing it for years, albeit using Meccano that was in reasonably good condition. We do own a selection of old pre-war dark red and green Meccano and have built using it to build models from the period. Steam wagon a prime example.

The Steam Wagon from the 1929 steam engine manual, built in period dark red and green parts and in our favoured scheme using more modern light red and zinc parts

This, however, is altogether different. What I am planning to do is put together some pieces rescued from the scrap. Clean them up and try and get a 'uniform' degree of tastiness. Starting with old bent, creased, painted and tatty parts, the first job will be to select a few parts and begin to clean and straighten them out, see what I have, and attempt to unify the finish.

The seed that started all this was a ridiculously bent and buckled plate that had been severely mutilated with all its edges bent along their length as if it had been used as a screwdriver to tighten slotted bolts far beyond what they were designed for. The plate was also severely buckled and twisted. So bad was this plate, I had written it off as being destined for land-fill within days. It was so bad I did not bother to photograph it. Mistake. Below is a picture of the plate after a few minutes of 'percussive maintenance' Nobody was more surprised than me that not only had I managed to get the bends out of it, I also managed to flatten it and remove the twist (spring) without resorting to heating and cooling it.

You would not believe how buckled this plate was before I started to flatten it - I wish I had photographed it!

It may not be the prettiest part on the plaint, but it is now more or less flat and very usable. We have a considerable amount of very tatty scrap Meccano in all sorts of condition and colour. Lots of it is rusty with little original paint left. I think this will be the ideal material to experiment with. I will let you know how it goes.

Going back to the steam engines, what about this for the basis (mock-up made from bits found in the box) of a Ratcarno steam engine?

Hmmm... Has potential?

Have I got you interested in Meccano steam engines on a budget? If so you might be interested in a post I made a while ago showing how to prepare and fire one of these engines - See HERE.

Ralph.