Like many others I'm building a MW Likamobile, but I have no boiler! I understand There are 11 builders in the same state, with only 4 boilers left at Daventry, for which Traction World require just under £2000 each. I have been in touch with John Goold and he can produce a 14'' conventional Locomobile boiler for the same sort of money. This will do away with all the electrics and the modern burner unit and make it much more like the real thing! He can also supply all the vales required, the only other requirment would be a burner unit which he can produce, but to keep the cost down needs to manufacture a few,as he has never produced a burner this size, so needs to produce the patterns and tooling first.

Fellow builders please let me know what you think.

John Goold can be contacted on 01761 470806

Sorry to hear about your missing boiler. I hope that you were on the installment plan and you hadn't given MW your money for the boiler. I am one of the nine US builders. My car has been completed. I wouldn’t recommend trying to put a fire-tube boiler into this model. Placing a correct round boiler into this car would mean changing the water tanks plus you’d have to add some mechanical fuel pump to the engine since MW relied on the electric fuel pump integrated into the burner. All of the throttle system would need to be changed and the water pumps would probably need to be modified. I think you’d find the 2000 Pounds would be a deal after you retrofit the boiler into the Likamobile configuration. The electronics that MW designed into this car are very functional and aren’t very complicated. If I were you, knowing what I do about this car, I’d work with Steve and Dean and get the boiler from them along with all of the other designed parts. Jeff has a great site here for general steam car related items. There is now a Yahoo group specifically setup for Likamobile builders. Please join the group, there are about 20 of us now on the group and we lots of technical information `and guidance.

Good Luck

Dutch.

Luckily I had not paid MW for the last two kits which was for the boiler and its fittings. Thanks very much for your advice. I know that fitting a different boiler is not just a straight swop job and will require quite a few mods, the fuel system been one of the more major ones! I understand the normal way of doing this is by a pressurised fuel tank, this can be a smaller tank fed from the main tank via a pump driven off the cross head. I still like the idea of trying to make it more like the original if possible, plus its another challenge, yes I'm probably mad!! Why not buy an original Locomobile? Well I would like to one day, but first I would like to cut my teeth with steam cars by building the kit.

Thanks and good luck to all fellow builders,

Ru.

I have just completed a Foden Steam Wagon from castings and plans provided by John Rex Model Engineers. I believe it ma ybe the only one in the US. I am interested in a steam car for my next project but do not want to re-invent the wheel, so to speak. Does anyone think there are any comprehensive plans available to build the Likamobile from castings? Are any castings available from the distributers that supplied them to Modelworks? Is Modelworks completly out of business or might they come back? Thanks Dan Mulderig