MAMOD Steam Wagon, 1973

Made in Birmingham, England

A heavily built model of an overtype steam wagon. The body is detachable from the chassis and the reduction gear gives increased traction and carrying capacity. The wagon is fitted with reverse control, whistle, boiler sight glass, and steering expansion.

Mamod is a British toy manufacturer specializing in manufacturing live steam models, founded by Geoffrey Marlins in 1936. The company created models of road rollers, traction engines, steam wagons, and other steam road vehicles. These models were aimed at the toy market, so they were simple to operate and ran at low boiler pressures for safety but were not accurate scale models.

Most Mamod models use oscillating cylinders, usually single-acting. Some of these engines have regulators in either the steam feed or exhaust, but many others run unregulated (in the simpler models) or have a simple reversing mechanism to alter the cutoff, thus controlling the power/speed and direction of the engine. Early models had single or multi-wick lamps or vaporizing spirit burners.

In 1972 Mamod releaseD the steam wagon. It was based on a traction engine but used a short boiler. It came with Foden style wheels, steel chassis and a detachable body with a meth’s burner. It was available in green, black and red at the impressive price of £10.75. In 1973 the burner was changed to solid fuel and the colour changed to blue. 

Condition: Preloved, Pristine. No rust. Looks like it has used at most, once or twice based on the burner tray which has small charcoal residual on the metal (this could be removed with small wire brush). No accessories missing. The box is a bit worn and showing its age.

Price context - Vintage Mamot steam wagons are so rare, there are currently less than six good-condition models on eBay UK and USA combined. Mamot’s new limited edition (100), 50th Anniversary Steam Wagon is £460 (NZ$900)

Box dimensions 450cm x 180cm x 210cm