page_title: Mamod
section_title: Steamroller SR1 and SR1A
hierarchical_section_title: Mamod / Mobile Engine Range 1961 - to date / Steamroller SR1 and SR1A
caption_attribution_description: English: An shoot taken inside on an attractive wooden table of a mint unfired Mamod SR1 steam roller dating from c1965.
context_page_description: Mamod is a British toy manufacturer specialising in manufacturing live steam models. The company was founded in 1937 in Birmingham in the UK by Geoffrey Malins. The name is a portmanteau of Malins Models. Malins started off making steam engines which were sold under the Hobbies brand name but he soon started selling them under the Mamod brand name. The first models produced were of stationary steam engines. Much later the company also began creating models of road rollers, traction engines, steam wagons and other steam road vehicles. These models were aimed at the toy market, so were simple to operate and ran at low boiler pressures for safety but were not accurate scale models.
  Most Mamod models use simple but effective oscillating cylinders, usually single-acting. Some of these engines have regulators either in the steam feed or exhaust but many others run unregulated or have a simple reversing mechanism to alter the cutoff, thus controlling the power/speed and direction of the engine.
context_section_description: The SR1 steam roller was Mamod's first mobile steam toy. It was introduced in January 1961, designed by Eric Malins. The first rollers were unidirectional and only travelled in a 'forward' direction (at an un-steam roller like speed). The engines featured a modified MM2 steam unit complete with characteristic rolls made of aluminium alloy. Like the early TE1s of 1963 and the stationary range, the early SR1 rollers were of screw construction and also featured a brass vaporising lamp rivetted to the scuttle. They had no tow hook. From 1963, a revised burner was used (as was introduced with the TE1 steam tractor), the handle of which formed a tow hook; although it would be 1969 before it had anything for it to tow, with the introduction of the OW1 Open Wagon and LB1 Lumber Wagon. From 1965 the roller was put together using pop rivets (like all the Mamod range of steam toys) - as a result it is easy to distinguish early 1960s rollers from later ones. In 1967 the SR1 became the SR1a with the introduction of a simple reversing mechanism on the engine unit. The mechanism was similar to the 1965 MEC1 Meccano engine. In the same way, the TE1 became a TE1a. In 1968 the aluminium rollers and wheels were replaced by Mazak items; the same material is used to this day. The roller has remained in the Mamod range for 50 years now and has undergone small incremental changes over this time, with modifications to the burner (moving to solid fuel circa 1976) and sight glass boilers replacing the over flow plug type (circa 1978). The only other changes have been largely cosmetic: paint, whistles, smoke box detailing. Early boxed SR1 engines now command strong prices and are sometimes referred to as "nut and bolt" SRs by collectors. Lately other variations of roller have included limited editions in different colours as well as longer boiler versions and also a kit version. Mamod's first mobile steam toy continues to sell well in the 21st century.
caption: A SR1 roller from c1965, it clearly shows the pop rivet construction.
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