Hi Phil,
this year I made many optimisations in the Jaxon project. I brought the driving distance with 1 Kg propane from ~ 4.5 to 5 Km last year to 7 + 0, 3 Km. And I changed the average driving speed from 4.5 Km/h to 6 + 0,5 km/h. This cost me many work. The engine was changed to a changeable 2 cylinder engine into a compound engine. This save me steam and gave me more distance and driving speed. After 260 km mileage I had some drawbacks in durability in my rear axle setup, some broken spokes and not good aligned chain final drive. This I had all solved.
And I made for the optimisation some special measurements like electronic cylinder indication in normal and compound setup. I was driving at my town roads with the car and the measurement setup and on top of my knees the laptop. The people looked very astonished to see an old car with steam and a guy with a laptop.
The fireking was prepared to drive , but unfortunatly I forced me to work on the jaxon. Next year at our steam rallies I will start to drive alternatively the fire king or the jaxon. With the driving performance of the jaxon I am now 95 % satisfied and I prepared an idea to cover the last 5%. But this is a step for next year.
Both models make very much fun, but I have only the time and transport capacity to drive with one. And with my 5 inch steam locos I have a lot to do by cleaning and maintenace. And on top I am flying model airplanes.
Werner