From car to rail loco

[teapot]

Hiya, Teapot here, from theminiforum and other sites. Please excuse my intrusion but I've had a plea for help as follows:

'Hi, my name is John Macdougall, Chief Engineer of the Beer Heights Light Railway at Pecorama in East Devon. We are currently designing a new internal combustion engine to run on the miniature line which I would like to power by a Mini (or Metro) engine and automatic gearbox, for obvious reasons of its compact size, simplicity and reliability and the fact of it having the same gear ratio in 1st and reverse gears.

'We propose to convert the engine to run on propane gas.

'The reason for this email is to twofold; Firstly, to  enquire whether you or any of your members would permit me to measure the physical dimensions of the engine / gearbox unit so I may proceed with the design prior to acquiring a second-hand unit and, secondly, to seek guidance as to where might be the best place to look to purchase a second hand or reconditioned engine and gearbox unit-they do seem to be somewhat elusive in scrapyards and on ebay!

Regards, John Macdougall, CME BHLR Pecorama, Beer, Devon'

If anyone can help John, please email me and I'll put him in touch. I don't know what his budget is.
Thanks in advance. Dave

[shoutforjoy]

I seem to remember seeing an auto engine and box for sale on Ebay that this had previously been done to.

Take a look at this thread: autominiregister.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=selling&action=display&thread=676

Might be worth contacting mini500auto to see if he still has the 998 engine and box. He is in Taunton which is probably close enough to go and view/measure up.

[teapot]

Cheers for that. Have emailed him.
I have also reminded Peco John of ebay.

[teapot]

Things are looking hopeful, so thanks for your prompt help.

In the meantime John the Peco engineer wants to know if drive shafts are the same for auto/manual gearbox cars? And are they (auto ones, if different) easy to get hold of?

[asahartz]

Early autos had Hardy Spicer joints and were different from manual cars. Later ones are the same as manuals.

[teapot]

Thanks, I have passed that on.

BTW John Peco says: "As a point of interest I have found a company
in Exeter willing (in fact very keen) to do the LPG conversion. They claim to be the only ones to have successfully converted a mini without the need to carve chunks out of the body / bonnet."
I might look into that.