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to the Archive indexI picked up an Ogden lawnmower the other day and took some photos of it. "Why?", I hear you ask. Well, back in the fifties, the Trojan Motor Co exported hundreds of engines to Oz to be fitted to push mowers, these are listed in the owner's operating and maintenance book as the "Well known British Trojan 49 engine as used in the 'Mini-Motor'". The engine numbers have the letter E as the suffix, some have a plug in the head to fit a decompressor, one has an 18mm spark plug, and they also have a V-belt pulley & flywheel assembly. This unit is fitted with a shock absorber plus a fan and aluminium shroud, de luxe version maybe!
When the Mini-Motors are fitted with larger drive wheels and electronic ignition units out of lawnmowers or chainsaws they become extremely reliable, and start first turn of the wheel and are very fast, and no more problems with points or condensers.
Mini-Mower illustration from the George Denton archive
(with acknowledgements to Tony Denton)