Sold May 2008 Back to Archive

A complete and running "Ruby", lesser-known sibling to Maxitrak's ubiquitous "Dixie" (I've got one of those in at the moment as well). This one is an older engine, paintstakingly stripped and painted by the previous owner only to discover on the first steaming that a) the paint wasn't heatproof so the boiler went all horrible looking and b) it didn't go very well.

At this point he threw in the towel and part-exchanged it for the Great Western 14xx I had in a month or two back (which also had dreadful paint, but went well).

The usual (indeed just about the only) thing that goes wrong with Maxitrak engines is the grubscrews slackening off on the valve adjusting collars. Easy to spot, the engine can't decide whether it wants to go backwards or forwards, and lurches along half a revolution of the wheels at a time. David's been into the valve chests, valves are in the right place but open late in forward gear. This is a bit odd, as the return crank is pinned in place at the factory - it means that the engine runs but is a bit choppy going forwards, as if it's constantly on a short cutoff (although in fact it's lack of lead).

Everything else looks sound, boiler is ok, feed by injector, crosshead pump and hand pump, cylinders are gunmetal oiled by a displacement lubricator, valve gear is by Mr Marshall.