Building a Wilesco Accessory Board

Setting up a live steam board with stationary engines and accessories arranged with connected line shafts and drive belts is a standard method of creating a functional collection of Wilesco, Mamod, and related goods.

It can seem simple in theory, but where do you begin? How many accessories is your engine capable of supporting? What kind of hardwood board are you looking for? Hopefully, this post can help answer those questions!

Step 1 - Baseboard

Locate an appropriate wooden board. Wilesco advises using a baseboard that is at least 16 mm thick and made of chipboard or glulam. You can paint this baseboard to improve the look of your layout.

Why not use your imagination? Thanks to advancements in model train technology, you can now easily create an accurate layout using a variety of excellent materials, such as workshop walls and fake grass. However, be mindful of flammability around the steam engine itself.

Step 2 - Fasteners

The right woodscrews for your steam engine and its accessories are required. Miniature wooden chocks can be used to stop mobile engines from moving without the need for screws.

The screws' diameter should be 3 mm. The depth of the engine or accessory base plate determines the recommended screw length. The important thing is that they should be long enough to attach firmly to the board without protruding from underneath.

While the screws used for accessories can range in length from 10 to 45 mm, the screws used for steam engines are typically 35 to 45 mm long.

Step 3 - Belts

Before securing your engine and accessories, make sure that every pulley you plan to connect is in a straight line. The drive belts (Z80–Z827) should be slightly strained but not stretched to ensure the necessary friction.

Every belt has two ends: a blunt end and a tapered end. To create a loop, the tapered end twists into the blunt end.

Belt shortening: All you have to do is trim the blunt end of a belt down to the necessary length. In order to create a smaller loop, you can then re-join the tapered end into the new blunt end.

Belt lengthening: Belts of any length can be joined end to end by twisting the tapered end into the blunt end. Before connecting two belts, be sure they have the same diameter.

To move pulleys along line shafts, gently loosen the grubscrew, slide it along, and then tighten it again.

Now that you understand the fundamentals of actually assembling a board, how do you select the appropriate engines and add-ons? Help is available from the Wilesco Power Rating!

Step 4 - Choosing the Correct Accessories for your Steam Engine 

Wilesco has ingeniously developed a method for owners to plan their setup. The method takes into account the power output of their steam models and compares it to the needs of their accessories.

Wilesco assigns a Power Output Rating to each of their steam engines. This can be found on our website in each listing's specification section. The steam engine's power increases with its power rating.

Each Wilesco accessory has a power requirement, which can be found on our website in each listing's specification section. On a scale of 1 to 4, accessories with a rating of 1 require the least power to operate, while those with a rating of 4 require the most.

According to our interpretation of the data above, the total power needed to run all of the accessories must be less than or equal to the steam engine's power output rating.

The entire setup will not function properly if the total power needed, when added together, surpasses the steam engine's power output rating.

This should help you understand how to use our website and determine which accessories work with particular steam engines.

Step 5 - Have you got everything you need?

The last step is this: you have the ideal accessory setup and the ideal engine, but do you have everything you need to operate it safely?

UK-spec Wilesco engines come standard with 100ml of Wilesco fuel gel and a tiny sachet of oil (enough for one full-length steam-up). Products from Jensen and Mamod also come with the proper gel.

To prepare for upcoming steamings, it is worthwhile to look at our Fuel & Burners section.

To make everything move as smoothly as possible, it is also helpful to have a decent selection of Wilesco or Mamod Drive Bands.

Lastly, remember to read the operating instructions that come with the package. These instructions contain a wealth of helpful pointers and advice to guarantee the safe and effective running of your steam engine.