Just been reading another thread about beatties on pinstone street and it reminded me of when my parents bought me a steam engine from there. I loved it and played with it for years. Lighting the meths under the boiler, waiting for the steam to build up. fantastic. Can you still buy the steam engines from anywhere in sheffield or have health and safety made sure no one can make them.

Just been reading another thread about beatties on pinstone street and it reminded me of when my parents bought me a steam engine from there. I loved it and played with it for years. Lighting the meths under the boiler, waiting for the steam to build up. fantastic. Can you still buy the steam engines from anywhere in sheffield or have health and safety made sure no one can make them.

Yes, they sell them in TAG's! remember my bro having one, it was great but you may have a point about the PC brigade banning them for health and safety.:hihi:

Marcway models still sell them.
Link: http://www.marcway.co.uk/momod.htm

Haven`t marcway models closed though?

Haven`t marcway models closed though?

Marcway is still there, but for how long? The original bloke and his wife are still there, a little on the pricey side but good for model's no longer in production. They get hidden away so you have to dig.

Are we talking Marcway on attercliffe common?

Are we talking Marcway on attercliffe common?

Yes! Next to Hitchens, just through the lights on Staniforth Road, near Banners. Showing my age now..lol

Yes they are still very much available;

mamodonline

The only thing that has changed, is they use solid fuel blocks now instead of the old liquid meths.

Great fun........................

Yes they are still very much available;

mamodonline

The only thing that has changed, is they use solid fuel blocks now instead of the old liquid meths.

Great fun........................

....just make sure you are sitting down when given a quote on the prices :o

Just been reading another thread about beatties on pinstone street and it reminded me of when my parents bought me a steam engine from there. I loved it and played with it for years. Lighting the meths under the boiler, waiting for the steam to build up. fantastic. Can you still buy the steam engines from anywhere in sheffield or have health and safety made sure no one can make them.


You can buy them from a shop in Whitefield, Manchester, that opened recently. The proprietor rents the shop from me. PM me for his telephone number. He also sells on the internet but has the shop for model railway enthusiasts who like to see before they buy.

I remember when I first started working at Beatties on Pinstone Street. I was accosted by an elderly gentleman who was a steam engine fanatic, he held me in a 15 minute one sided conversation about how he preferred using steamed cabbage water for his engines. My workmates thought this was extremely amusing and saw it as a sort of 'right of passage' I have the patience of a saint and always liked to talk to customers anyway rather than just get their money and shoo them off (much to my area managers chagrin) anyway even I was beginning to fall asleep so one of my workmates eventually took pity, he made an internal system telephone call and rescued me. I really loved that place, its a pity the high management were a bunch of idiots who didn't listen to what their staff knew about what the customers wanted. it went downhill from the day they started selling Playstations and trying to compete with the likes of Richard Branson.

Had one for Christmas 1981. Loved the smell of the steam (kinky or what?).

I had the old steam engine with the canopy. It was blue and white (minor drawback) and if you pulled on the little steam whistle you usually burned yourself! It had the little window gauge so you could see how much water was left. The pulley chains didn't last long either (and Beatties were always out of stock).

They were great. What a we looking at for one now?

At a specialist toy auction in August they were going for about £45+ depending on the model, condition and how many people wanted each one.
If you feel the need to re-live your youth then the attached web link will send you straight there. Some of the prices are frightening but there are always some good bargains. THey are probably one of the largest auction houses for this sort of item in the country (except ebay of course)
http://data.bidmaster.co.uk/lsk/Model_dept.asp