Table of contents for Issue 4735 in Model Engineer

Martin Evans can be contacted on the mobile number or email. below and would be delighted to receive your contributions, in the form of items of correspondence, comment or articles. 07710-192953 MEeditor@mortons.co.uk Models We generally think of model making as the creation, to a greater or lesser degree of verisimilitude, of a miniature of the'real thing’. So, we take a look at the full-sized article, think ‘I like the look of that’ and then spend a substantial chunk of time creating our own miniature version I of it. It is then displayed on four mantelpiece (or down at the club) for all and sundry to admire. It occurred to me, though, that the traffic is not all one way. Models are also used in engineering and architecture in order to…

The creative solutions that model makers find often amaze me! Jürgen Stein started building models when he was still a teenager. At first, his favourites were ship models. As a schoolboy, he would travel long distances by bicycle to the pond to build them. Later, he became enthusiastic about aeromodelling. As it was still common at that time, a lot had to be built by himself. The remote controls and batteries did not yet have the quality of today and so there were also setbacks but he was enthusiastic about building model planes and creating them himself and success followed. Then he discovered his metalworking skills. A two inch scale Fowler traction engine had taken his fancy. He was able to prove his skills on it. The basement workshop was…

I recently made a set of small clamps for the milling machine. These were thinner than the ones supplied as a set with the machine and I made them that way so as to avoid fouling the milling chuck when I was milling a long, narrow slot in a drill-sharpening jig that I was making. The four clamps are shown in their as-machined condition along with one of the smallest clamps provided with the milling machine in photo 1. I decided to give these new clamps an oil-blackened finish to protect them from rust and make them look the same as the other clamps. I had previously oilblackened some small items by heating them to a dull red heat and then plunging them into a small tin of rapeseed oil…

From the middle ages England enjoyed the freedom to form unincorporated associations without the need to obtain permission, save that of the participants. This freedom perhaps explains why we are such a nation of groups, clubs and societies. Indeed, when Charles Dickens writes of the proceedings of the Mudfog association in Master Humphrey's Clock, he was describing an established aspect of society that in his day was growing fast in both number and variety. So it was that when Percival Marshall, in October 1898, responding to requests from enthusiastic readers of The Model Engineer and Amateur Electrician calling for their own club, he was adding to a long tradition of such beginnings. His actions in calling together a meeting in the Reading Room of the Model Engineer publishing office resulted…

Continued from p.157 M.E.4734 January 12 Reversing valve The reversing valve had previously been cleaned up and had the two pipes that had been soldered to it removed. This had been done when the other parts of the engine had been cleaned (photo 48). This type of reversing valve works well but isn't the easiest to mount and the pipe connections being at 90 degrees to each other would make it a bit more difficult to connect the various components together inside the wooden base. To be able to mount the valve under the engine base plate, a shoulder was turned on the valve body and it was hard soldered into a square of sheet brass bored to accept it. The operating arm was made narrower and shortened and a…

Continued from p.1 59 M.E.4734 January 12 The chassis on the fullsize tractor is a U-shaped casting and on my model is cast in aluminium. For my workshop this is quite a large and complex part to make. The photographs help to explain the process as there is not only a need to make a pattern (photo 5) but also a core for the inside. My casting skills are self-taught and there will be professionals out there who may question the how and why I did it this way but as the song says, ‘I did it my way’ and for me it worked (photo 5). For this casting I used Petrobond for the outside (photo 6) and resin mixed sand for the inside core. The core box is laminated…

run into the Lyon's mouth & afterwards go to dine with the man that they had banished from Cornwall. They afterwards went to Coalbrookdale… Whether this injunction was any more successful than the previous ones is questionable. Captain Samuel Grose offered the following statement to Francis: My first occupation after leaving school was as a young assistant engineer for Mr. Trevithick. In 1802 an engine worked for the Herland Mine which had been erected by Bull junr. and Trevithick about 1798 whose cylinder, 60 inches in diameter, was placed over the shaft; the piston rod attached to the pump rods; it had an air pump and low pressure boilers… Herland must have been one of the last engines erected by Bull who died on the 30th of March 1798 aged…

Continued from p.152 M.E.4734 January 12 Afront view of the 2023 engine can be seen in photo 6 and a front view of the 1946 engine from model engineer issue 2337 in photo 7. The 2023 cylinder is made from cast iron with the steam block and port trunks bonded in place with JB Weld adhesive (JBW). Photograph 8 shows the three parts before assembly and photo 9 the three parts assembled. Figure 3 is a detailed drawing of the cylinder with the trunks and block drawn assembled but also drawn detached. The steam block could be made a little longer allowing for machining the outer face after assembly to 25mm from the cylinder centre line. The 8 and 18 mm dimensions shown for the base could be increased accordingly…

Having spent the last thirty-five years working in industry in a number of different roles within workshops and factories, guarding techniques are accepted and common place. Indeed, they are a legal requirement under the legislation laid out by the HSE under PUWER, the Provision and Use of Work Related Equipment Regulations 1998. All machinery within workshops and factories has to meet the strict and at times laborious standards to make operation of such machinery safe but also practicable. Time and time again the words Health and Safety are frowned upon in model engineering circles and it is my assumption and experience in some cases that the person with whom I am speaking has little knowledge of the injuries that can happen from the machinery we use daily in our hobby.…

This is a significant issue! Not the 100th, or the 25th, but the 4735th. As we humans look for meaning in all things, the supposedly numerically significant are noted, often with a special event. In reality though, one number is no more meaningful than any other. The cabside number on locomotives is only a serial number. 4472 is not famous because of its number, it only became so after the number was allocated, ‘the next on the list’. It was the locomotive which attained fame, not the number. Similarly, 4F No. 44444 had nothing of note about it. Some people believe strange things at times. The Flat Earth, for one. (If the Earth were so, the cats would have pushed everything off the edge by now.) At the doctor's yesterday,…

My visit to the Bournemouth & District SME coincided with a short holiday break in Bournemouth and a visit to the society fitted in nicely with the break arrangements. This well-established society was formed in 1924 and the first track was built at Southbourne, a district of Bournemouth on the east side of the city. This lasted until after WWII when the club made a move to a sports ground at Kinson. It was officially opened in 1958 and operated for four or five years when the land they were on was needed for other purposes. Following an approach to the Bournemouth local authority they were offered a number of different locations before deciding on Kings Park. Here, a track and clubhouse was created in 1965 and officially opened in…

Ron Fitzgerald takes a look at the history and development of the stationary steam engine. Continued from p.685, M.E. 4730, November 17 2023 Boulton and Watt had issued their first injunction against Edward Bull on March 22nd 1794. This seemed to be a firm prohibition but Boulton and Watt's legal justification was not as secure as they might have wished. The matter was complicated by a succession of ambivalent legal judgements. Bull's case was brought to court in February 1795, but the decision was deferred until May. Even then, no clear ruling was obtained as the judges were divided. The injunction against Bull in June 1795 was an expedient made possible by a legal caveat that allowed action to be taken distraining potential infringers pending the patent being validated or…

Continued from p.165, M.E.4734, January 12 Now, at long last I have found someone who has made a vacuum brake ejector but who has also been a great help in designing one for the B1. He is Bob Bramson, who wrote an excellent article in Model Engineer, and I just can't tell you what a great help he has been to me. This is a slightly simplified version as I have tried one or two and on Ballan's K1 the recovery of the vacuum is instant even with just one ejector. You can hold your finger over the last fitted vehicle in the train and then release it and I found it very rewarding to see all the brakes drop down and release. When I put my finger back over…

Chris Walter builds an engine described in Model Engineer 100 years ago. Continued from p.169 M.E.4734 January 12 Eccentrics It was my original intension to have split eccentrics so that they could be removed at any time without having to dismantle the main bearings and remove the crankshaft. The crankshaft was hollow and had a limited wall depth making it difficult to accommodate a key way. Because of this I had also decided to use saddle keys to secure the sheaves or, failing that, just a grub screw of the largest size that could be managed. I did in fact make the four eccentrics to the split design but eventually found that they weren't completely suitable. Although the two halves were joined with two locating dowels in addition to the…

Continued from p.143 M.E.4734 January 12 Brake assembly As I mentioned at the beginning of this mini-series, one of the oddities of the tender is the position of the braking system (fig 38). Design intent is one of the things I look for in the large scale. If you can picture why the designers or builders made a system in a specific fashion, you can almost time travel back to those pioneering days, understanding some of the problems they encountered. Normally there's a reason for doing something a certain way but on the odd occasion it may have been just half chance. I think the position of the braking system was such a case, because the two Dinorwic Quarry locomotives had similar tenders but the braking was on opposite sides.…

February 1 Sutton MEC Bits and Pieces evening 20:00. Contact: Paul Harding, 0208 254 9749 1 Warrington & District MES Projects/natter night, St Mary Magdalene Church, WA4 3AG, 20:00. See www.wdmes.org.uk/events 4 Warrington & District MES Running day at the cLub track. See www.wdmes.org.uk/events 7 Bradford MES TaLk – Derek Rayner, ‘Leeds Engine Builders’, SaLtaire Methodist Church, 19:45. Contact: Russ Coppin, 07815 048999 11 Sutton MEC Track Day from 13:00. Contact: PauL Harding, 0208 254 9749 11 Warrington & District MES Running day at the cLub track. See www.wdmes.org.uk/events 15 Warrington & District MES Talk: Michael Moore on ‘East Lancs Railway’, St Mary Magdalene Church, WA4 3AG, 20:00. See www.wdmes.org.uk/events 18 Warrington & District MES Running day at the cLub track. See www.wdmes.org.uk/events 21 Bristol SMEE Talk: ‘Meccano Model of…