Ab Algra John Ericcson

I recently spotted this John Ericsson engine on a dutch auction site. I thought there would be a lot of things wrong with it, since I could buy it for only 41 GBP.


I think I got quite a bargain, because the engine was totally complete, burner, box safety valve,chimney and whistle where all there. The engine is also in a quite good state. Some paint is lost and some pieces are rusted, but nothing major.
This is what the engine looked like when I got it:


It's quite a sophiosticated engine, a lot off small pieces and everything is nice screwed together (no pop rivets),It even has 5 settings on the reverse lever:

I thought the burner was missing, but it's very clever hidden:

The engine is quite big, look at this comparison with a mamod SE3:

The boiler is not spherical like you might think, take look at these pictures from the box:





I have to say that this is a very nice engine, very good build quality and a lot of great details!
 
Update 11-01-2009

I gave this engine a good cleanup:


To be honest, I've swapped some parts with another engine that I got my hands on. I've replace the red and green painted parts with less rusty parts. I've also given all the brass parts a good cleanup.
 
Update 24-01-2010

I've sold this engines, because I was able to buy a much better example.