Table of contents for Issue 4729 in Model Engineer

Midlands Show I write this having just returned from the Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition at the Warwickshire Events Centre (‘The Fosse’). For the first time, Model Engineer had a stand at the show, next to our stable-mate the Society of Model and Experimental Engineers (SMEE) who, along with us, were celebrating their 125th anniversary. It was very good to meet so many readers over those four days and I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I did. For me, of course, the main attractions were the various locomotives on display. The most impressive, perhaps, was the 10¼ inch gauge LNER 2001 Cock o’ the North P2 locomotive, which currently lives at Stapleford Park. This is a model locomotive on a huge scale and was built by John Wilks,…

Anoticeable recent trend in the model engineering world is the offering of highly accurate small components to give authentic detail to model steam locomotives. Several suppliers have diligently created various items, usually lost wax castings, that strike the useful balance between being functional, accurate in appearance and not too time consuming to add to a model. Brake valves, manifolds, roller bearing covers, spring brackets, crossheads; the list goes on and, like all apparently infinite lists, one will invariably find that the item really desired for a particular model isn't on it, or isn't readily available at the time it is wanted. So how easy is it to make these things to your own requirements? This article will cover the construction of a couple of drophead buckeye couplings, using some modern…

Continued from p.559 M.E.4728 October 20 Welcome back, enduring Reader. In the first part of this mini-series we were introduced to adaptionism - the author's cheap-skate philosophy of using things for as many purposes as he possibly can - and discovered that his workshop, painting booth and photography studio are more closely linked than may have been apparent. In this, the final episode, we'll take a quick look at another adaptionist creation which was hidden in plain sight all this time. Adaptionist foundations Many years ago, when Jennifer Ann first landed in America, a rolling chassis with cylinders, wheels and not much more, I could still lift her by myself, just about, although it was a struggle and not something that I wanted to do regularly. Clearly, a means was…

Continued from p.578 M.E.4728 October 20 After noting all the details in the Steam Workshop video I put together a work plan to make life easier, giving actual figures to the verbal instructions. This is reproduced below. Note: imperial dimensions follow metric dimensions and are in brackets. References are listed in part 1 (M.E.4728, October 20). Initial work plan Required final dimensions: Outside diameters 38.1 (1.500 inches) Width 4.78 (0.188 inch) Radial thickness 1.65 (0.065 inch) Inside diameter – (Radial thickness x 2) = 34.8 (1.370 inches) Manufacturing allowance = 2mm (0.079 inch) NOTES * Ideally the slitting saw is to be the same thickness as the piercing/razor/jewellers saw which could be used. * A ‘junior’ hacksaw may be thinned by removing the ‘wavy set’ from either side of the…

Continued from p.576 M.E.4728 October 20 Having already built the smaller workbenches in the new building and now that the main area was covered in plywood I could move on to building the larger benches, which will be where most of the work on the locomotive will take place. The other benches will be used for smaller scale models (I have a G1 King kit to build) and also doing some of the finer detail parts such as the backhead fittings when I get to them. This main bench will also take the shape of an ‘L’, one side being 2.1 metres along the back wall and the other along the side wall of 4.2 metres; this is where 4472 will live for all of the remaining work to be…

November 1 Bradford MES Autumn auction, Saltaire Methodist Church, 19:30. Contact: Russ Coppin, 07815 048999 1 Bristol SMEE Talk: ‘Use of Machatronics at the Crofton Pumping Engines’, Begbrook Social Club BS16 1HY, 19:30. Contact: secretary@bristolmodelengineers.co.uk 2 Sutton MEC Bits and Pieces evening 20:00. Contact: Paul Harding, 0208 254 9749 2 Warrington & District MES Projects/natter night, St Mary Magdalene Church, WA4 3AG, 20:00. See www.wdmes.org.uk/events 3 Rochdale SMEE Talk: ‘Garden Railways’, Castleton Community Centre, 19:00. See www.facebook.com/RochdaleModelEngineers 4 Tiverton & District MES Running day at Rackenford track. Contact: Chris Catley, 01884 798370 5 Canterbury MES Public running. Contact: ginapearson@btopenworld.com 5 North Wilts MES Public running at the Coate Water Railway, 11:00-dusk. See www.nwmes.info 5 Warrington & District MES Running day at the club track. See www.wdmes.org.uk/events 12 Canterbury MES Public…

Continued from p.586 M.E.4728 October 20 The safety valve The large-scale Fire Queen had two distinct safety valves, the normal spring type and the Salter type safety valve (photo 151). The working pressures quoted by the ‘internet experts’ range from 60-100psi but the wear marks on the Salter gauge are clearly between 65-70psi. Mr Lander did some interesting load tests on the springs which showed that the actual working pressure was closer to 50psi when aligned to the wear marks on the actual spring gauge (ref 3). The safety valve cover for the Fire Queen’s sister loco, the Jenny Lind, had the hole for the Salter valve closed off neatly. There were two additional holes that looked like the regulator rod went through the safety valve cover instead of around…

Model engineers have wide ranging interests so this fascinating book should appeal to many. Archaeology, historic metallurgy, Anglo Saxon history and military re-enactment are all included in a wide-ranging work. The story starts with pieces of an Anglo-Saxon sword found at Bamburgh Castle in the 1970s. Put to one side, it was years before their significance was appreciated. Careful examination showed that the sword was a prestige item, perhaps given as a gift, demonstrating highly skilled workmanship. The book details some of the metalworking techniques employed. As steel billets were not of consistent quality several were forge welded together, folded over and reforged giving an interesting pattern on the blade. As with Sheffield made scythes many years later, Anglo-Saxon smiths knew the technique of sandwiching a steel edge (for sharpness)…

Nigel Thompson, member of the L&NWR Society and The Erewash Valley Model Engineering Society passed away peacefully on Thursday 28th September 2023 from the terrible disease Alzheimer's and with a chest infection he had caught earlier in the week, which contributed to his passing. Nigel was very well known among the model engineering fraternity of the UK and had served as secretary of The Northern Association of Model Engineering Societies from 1996 until 2006. He had been a model maker all of his life ‘making all sorts of things’, to quote him. His father was a ‘Premium Apprentice’ at Crewe Works from 1915 to 1918 under C.J. Bowen Cooke. He was called up to the Army during WW1 serving in France and completed his apprenticeship upon his return. It was…

York's model engineers are always ready to learn from other societies, so when our colleagues in Bradford MES reported an interesting talk about explosives given by Ian McKay (a volunteer at Bancroft Mill, Barnoldswick) we invited Ian to speak to our members. Ian gave an excellent talk and afterwards several members told their own tales about making explosives and other encounters with things that went bang, such were their misspent youths. Fortunately, all lived to tell the tale, relatively unscathed. So here are stories from York's model engineers involving things that went bang, or failed to do so! One of our members must remain anonymous but his experiences should serve as a warning. ‘I still bear the scars of conflagrations when experiments went wrong. It started at school with my…

Ron Fitzgerald looks at the life of our founder and first editor. Continued from p.556 M.E.4728 October 20 However much Marshall may have been disturbed by Greenly's disloyalty, the Model Engineer was by now firmly entrenched as the world's leading model engineering periodical. Pragmatic enough to know better than to ‘cut his nose off to spite his face’, Marshall continued to accept advertising from Bassett Lowke and indeed, the advertising content of the magazine was a central feature for advertiser, publisher and the magazine's public. Marshall often claimed that the massive growth of the model engineer supplier's market was largely owed to the Model Engineer. This is supported by comparing the first issue's advertising with that of a decade later. Advertising had occupied the outside of the front and back…

Wow! What a difference a year makes. Following last year's rather quiet rally, a dozen complete locomotives and chassis gathered at the Bromsgrove society's lovely setting - a setting further enhanced by the new steaming bay canopy, built by a dedicated group of members, and a fantastic job they have made of it (photo 1). They say ‘never judge a book by its cover’. First to steam up under the new roof was Paul Wootton from Chesterfield (photo 2). With peeling and nonexistent paint, it must be one of the most tatty Rob Roys. But there was nothing shabby about its performance! Trevor stormed around the track, completing lap after lap (photo 3). The author has seen and driven numerous Rob Roys since the first rally a decade ago but…

Continued from p.590 M.E.4728 October 20 Testing the Clock Finally, all the essential components were together in the test frames (photo 21) and the moment of truth arrived – would it work? Initially, the answer was No. After the first few moments of disappointment, some investigation with the pallets removed from the test frames showed that there was too much friction in the drive train for the escape wheel to be driven freely by the spring, except at its fully wound state. Remembering a warning I read in one of the clock books that the fits of pivots and bearing bushes in clocks must be to ‘clockmaker's tolerances’, not model engineer's tolerances, I revisited all the pivot bushes with a tapered broach to ensure that each pivot contacts its bush…

Continued from p.567 M.E.4728 October 20 Introduction Valve gears described in the preceding articles have all derived their outphase component via a vibrating lever driven vertically up and down a slide. The three gears that follow differ in that a return crank at 90 degrees to the main crank gives the outphase component, whose magnitude is then determined by some other mechanism before being added to the inphase component. The first to be described is Walschaerts, probably the most widely used of all locomotive valve gears, both in full size and model engineering. It was invented by Belgian engineer Egide Walschaerts, the earliest patent being dated 1844, but this was not quite the gear as we know it today. It is equally suited to inside cylinders, outside cylinders, or even…

Continued from p.564, M.E.4728, October 20 One thing in my last article that I stressed to you was that if you go about them on the right way superheaters are very easy to make. There has been all manner of bullsh… written about them and the worst possible thing of all is not to fit any at all. I had one chap write to me once about the speed that the steam has to travel to get into the cylinders. I fitted them anyway, and lots of them. I am a big believer of high superheat for a modern engine and thought that we need more superheat not less, even though it isn't real superheat. It might dry the steam a little more than my 4MT does but at the…

Now then… I recently acquired a load of bits and pieces, amongst which was this slow motion drive. I can't identify it but it would be logical to think that it may be off a machine tool or electronic equipment like a radio receiver or transmitter, where precise adjustment is required. There is also a a quick-setting lever, which disengages an internal worm gear to adjust the control quickly over a wider span of the 180 degrees available. It may be of military origin, WWII or even WWI vintage (photo 1). So far so puzzling. Then, the day after I wrote the above, I was watching on YouTube a once-secret Royal Navy Training Film about radar-controlled gunnery and what did I spot, about 7½ minutes in, behind the operators head?…