Hi, I’m completely new to model engineering. I’m just starting to rebuild/restore my late father in laws DR Mercer Type 1 model steam traction engine so I’ll probably be asking lots of stupid questions as I go.

All my engineering and restoration experience is on modernish full size aircraft, cars and motorcycles so it’s not like I’m a complete mechanical novice. However, steam is new to me and working on a small scale is a new challenge too.

All the best, David

Thanks for the welcome Howard and Harry. I’ve still got my old Zeus book from when I did proper work for a living. I sit at a desk for the day job these days. I’ve got a small, ancient Myford lathe out in the garage that I only really use for machining bushes and spacers on the bikes. Nothing that needs to be particularly precise. I’ve been in touch with Minsteam and got some small parts that were missing. It’ll be nice to be working on a project this winter where I don’t need to be in a cold garage.

Thanks again all for the welcome. To answer a few questions, I’m based in South Wales just north of Cardiff. I got in touch with Cardiff Model Engineering Society a few months ago (maybe longer now) when we were clearing items from my in laws old house and donated a load of model railway track and items so it could hopefully be put to good use. I spoke to a few of the members about the Mercer engine then and they seemed a friendly and helpful bunch. To be honest though, I didn’t follow up on my initial visit there.

I’m fairly confident I’ve got most of the bits I need for the traction engine now. I bought some small items that were missing from the engine from Minsteam, someone called Phil from Forest Classics emailed me a copy of the assembly instructions and I’ve just ordered a gas burner from them as well because I couldn’t find the original spirit burner anywhere. From what I can gather Mr. Mercer is taking a break from making anything for the engines at the moment so being as the gas burners were in stock and available from Forest Classics I decided to purchase one.

I’ve just slaved it all back together for now and there’s nothing obvious missing so hopefully it’ll be a reasonably straightforward project, if there is such a thing, when I rebuild it properly. Working with such small parts could prove tricky especially as I’m still recovering from an injured wrist after a bit of a spill and gripping anything between my fingers is painful.

Good tip With the search function as well. Thanks for that.