I had a leak in my Mikado boiler(now know of three others with this problem) I was hesitant about send it in to Aristo but Tate urged me to do so. Three weeks ago Navin(repair guy there) told me he was mailing back my live steam Mikado , after having it for three months. I had finally written to Lewis about the long delay and he had gotten on him, I guess. Two weeks went by and NO Mike. I called again and he told me he was working on it, after telling me he had mailed it back two weeks ago! I wrote to Lewis again and was told by him it was going out that day. Well, it was a mess when I got it. Cab had a sticker over it that messed up my lettering and was dirty.
I found many loose and missing screws, plus this board laying unattached next to the boiler.
Turned out to be an insulator to protect the wiring under the boiler and the metal plate the throttle servo is connected to. They had test fired it, but had not sealed up the gap between the smokebox and the boiler, so the smokebox was welded together and warped. Here you can see the gap and the smokebox. Note the circuit board, it’s supposed to be in a box under the smokebox, but it was neither screwed together, nor screwed to the locomotive.
I put a flashlight in the smokebox, note the light coming through the big gap on top, the heat coming out there melted the smokebox top and warped it, since it also leaked around the sides, not as easy to photograph though!
They did all the repairs with used parts, since no new ones seem to be available. The used boiler apparently had a broken sight glass, nice repair here also:
Tate seemed to be the only one at Aristo that expressed any concern about this at all.