Made it into the US before "they" enforced the tariffs!
Here it is, April 2025, nearly 3 years since I started my build. Over the last 6 months I have negotiated with Steam Traction World (STW) to get me a shipment. It has been an arduous process but has resulted in this showing up in my garage:
Troubled times at STW
The folks at STW are working very hard, but there are issues they need to correct. The past owner, Dean, was usually pretty transparent about the production delays and status, but awhile ago he decided (regretfully) to sell a majority of STW to a couple of businessmen. He was "retired" this last January, without much warning, and the new owners are in charge. They are hiding in the background, no direct email or communication, and the office staff are forced to be the "face" of STW, but without any authority
to perform all of the transactions needed to operate efficiently. (Like process refunds) It is looking like the new owners only come in a couple of days a week, and this results in further delays.
STW needs to be more transparent about the production schedule. I know they have a lot of kits in production for a lot of customers, but if they would publish and keep updated a running post of the schedule, even without dates, we could all see what was next to come, and where our kits are in the queue.
My negotiations took a long time to come to fruition. I was treated well, but the 6 hour time delays meant that a question I asked after 8AM would usually not be answered until the next morning my time. Very frustrating. I took to getting up by 5AM to try and have a meaningful exchange before they closed up and hit the local pub.
My kits came in with only a few missing parts. The externally acquired pieces, like the pressure switch, safety valve, pressure gauge, and hand pump are all missing. These took a couple of days to source over here in the US as some where only available in the UK. I have used three major suppliers, McMasterCarr, Zoro, and John Rex Engineering.
In short, I was lucky to get the partial shipments for Kits 21 and 22. I will be forever grateful to Mark Ford and Rosemary Collins for taking the time and effort to pull what was on the shelf and sort it out. I am not bashing STW, they produce a quality set of kits, but I can only hope that the new owners will get themselves organized and make it right for all the other builders.
Finally - The BOILER!
The UK has very stringent regulations over the world of steam. Here in the US nobody cares unless the boiler is in a dwelling, or a battleship, or whatever. There are no regulations in Colorado for vehicles.
I know from conversations with Dean last fall that the BES, British Engineering Services, inspector was running him ragged over getting the Lyka boilers approved. It seems that post-covid the BES decided that the design needed to be re-evaluated and while this has finally been granted, the back and forth took months.
My boiler has not been officially "approved" by the BES. It is just tested by STW and ready for the final inspection. Due to the fact that I was worried about tariffs, I asked STW to ship to me NOW and not in the next month or two when they finally have the complete batch ready to be blessed by BES.
The rest of the bits and bobs are still getting sorted.
STW was kind enough to throw in a handful of the Flare Nuts they use on their pipes. All if the interconnect piping is 3/8 copper. At $5.67 ea from McMaster, this bag is actually a time and money saver.
Another thing I am happy about is that there are two of the most important manifolds included in the partial kits. The one missing is easily created from a pipe and a Tee.
I am still sorting evrything out and snce I have all the parts, I am going to review the blogs from other builders and determine any steps that need to be taken in a certain order.
I remember reading that work had to be un-done in a certain order as a previously completed step interfered with a later one.
So -
More to come as I fit the boiler and heat shield to each other and the Lyka.
Regards,
Jim