Hi Bruce,
Be careful what you buy if you have to resort to Ebay. The older ones can have corroded boilers or safety valves which do not work. If you have a suitable adaptor, run it on compressed air from a car footpump first just to make sure that it will be steam tight. any whistling noises from the boiler mean that you could have a problem. Also, as a matter of course, if buying from Ebay, I would suggest that you buy a new safety valve and fit it.
An alternative, which is more pricey, is to buy a kit from Mamod itself. This is what I did three years ago when I came out of hospital. I built it carefully and my Grandson and myself regularly run it. We have fitted it with rubber tyres to protect the wheels and we carefully lubricate it before every steaming and we empty out the boiler afterwards when it has cooled down as per Mamod's instructions. This was my first attempt at building a steam engine and from the outset and still now, it is perfectly steam and water tight.
Regards,
Tom.
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