Sold March 2019 Back to Archive

A finely made 1 1/2 inch scale Marshall portable engine, to W.J.Hughes' highly detailed design published in "Model Engineer" magazine. It's one of those engines where the longer you look the more you see - we particularly liked the minute padlock on the front safety valve and finely proportioned, taper-pinned levers in the regulator linkage.

Machining is crisp throughout, fit and finish of the motionwork excellent.

It's rare we see model portable engines - I've always liked the idea that the basic design survived for eighty years virtually unchanged, Robeys here in Lincoln still turning out new ones for export as late as 1950.

Although the engine has evidence of steaming in the past, in deference to its paintwork it's had a twice working pressure hydraulic test in the workshop and been run on air, but we haven't put a fire in it. Some fittings and a cylinder bolt leak - not unusual in an engine unused for a long time - in all other respects it appears in as-new condition.