Table of contents for Issue 4736 in Model Engineer

Vale of Rheidol Railway 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 Fire Queen Fire Queen is on the move! I have received the following from the Vale of Rheidol Railway. The Vale of Rheidol Railway is pleased to announce the arrival of Fire Queen for static display. Fire Queen is a unique steam locomotive; it is believed to be the oldest narrow-gauge locomotive in existence, having been built in 1848. The locomotive will arrive in Aberystwyth in late January and will be on public display in the new museum, display and events building when the railway opens for the new season in late March 2024,…

Reverse gear quadrant Unlike a locomotive, a ship’s engine operates largely under a constant load and will have little requirement for continual alteration to the cut off. This simplifies matters as only a neutral, forward and reverse notch are required for the gear lever, the motion of the propeller in the water acting as an automatic clutch. I had not, in the initial planning, given much thought to the position of the reversing lever or how it was to connect to the weigh shaft. So many main components had to be made first before it was possible to even think about it. Thus, it was that when I did get my mind around it, I had problems finding any room for manoeuvre. Once I knew where the weigh shaft would…

Although the mill is close to the Settle and Carlisle Railway the nearest stations are Langwathby and Appleby, some miles away. There is plenty of car parking nearby with access from the A66, one mile away. Take J40 on the M6 towards Brough, then follow the brown signs. Penrith to Appleby bus service, number 563, stops at Temple Sowerby. Take the public footpath from Temple Sowerby to Acorn Bank which is about one mile. (There is presently no service Saturdays or Sundays - when the mill usually operates!) Address: Temple Sowerby, near Penrith, Cumbria, CA10 1SP 01768361893 acornbank@nationaltrust.org.uk The garden and ground floor of Acorn Bank House are open to the public but amenities are limited with refreshments limited to a coffee trader. Gardens and grounds are pleasantly bosky though…

This will be the final part of the cab fittings and the safety valves. I have based these drawings on Dave Noble’s design of safety valves (fig 146). They are a pretty simple design and I have designed them with a circle of dummy bolts round the bases. Starting with the main bodies I would suggest you use a piece of ⅞ round bronze, turn down the central part of the valve to 7/16 inch diameter x ¾ inch long and leave a fillet at the bottom and top. The bottom flange should be 3/32 inch thick. The upper flange is also 3/32 inch thick and should be rounded off at about 1/16 inch radius. The holes in the base should be no. 43 on a 21/32 inch pitch circle.…

The next part was the gearbox and that would inevitably be rather more difficult and complex both in the design and manufacture. After figuring out the outside shape to scale I then had to make sure that the gears would fit into the shape. The patterns were made of MDF, as were the core boxes, and then the mould was made with Petrabond sand, and all was ready for the big pour (photo 18). As this casting is larger than the ability of my home foundry the packed flask was taken to my friend’s house as he has the facilities for this size of work. After the pour, the metal was allowed to cool down as we enjoyed a cup of tea but we were all eager to see the…

It is certainly a common observation that at Australian scale train gatherings there is a lack of scale passenger carriages. There have been some fantastic local examples over the years with Reg Watter’s GWR cars and Phil Gant’s R set as well as some truly exceptional models of Overland cars by Bob Brown, amongst others, but they remain quite rare. There is undoubtedly a large amount of effort required to build a passenger car and the next issue is - you can’t just make one, you need a whole rake! However, having had experience mass producing gauge 1 rolling stock using various methods like laser cutting, resin casting and 3D printing to create a homemade kit of parts to speed production, the task of producing a rake of five-inch gauge…

Introduction Imagine looking at one of the most beautifully finished models at an exhibition. You start at the smokebox; the paintwork is exquisite and the same can be said for the finishing of the cladding, hand rails, running boards and the list goes on. Then you come to the front cab plate or spectacle plate where it meets the boiler and like a sentence without grammar the plate meets the boiler cladding on a sharp corner with no angle. Some prototypes were like this but not this one, and you wonder why the builder would spend so much time on his fine model and neglect that little bit of detail that would add an enormous amount of aesthetic value. Sadly, the reason is simple: to make that rolled angle is…

It has been a long time since I last visited this long-established society during which time the site has matured and had some interesting additions made to improve the facilities. Formed in 1936, the club has developed into a fine example of what a model engineering club can aspire to. At their Illshaw Heath location, which they acquired in 1963, and for which they were able to purchase the freehold, they have built an attractive site with all the facilities needed to operate a model engineering club. At one time they enjoyed having one of the largest memberships in the country but these days with all the changes in society it has diminished somewhat to around 80 members. Like many clubs they would like to have a younger element but…

I write this in Trappist conditions; my all-singing radio transceiver is spatchcocked across my bench for the purpose of rectifying a fault. Heavens preserve us from specialist ICs which become unreliable. In this issue: a fast digger, transport charges, the Bradford Challenge, main spars, not a female chief spy, the ‘front end’ refinements, a costly vice and split pins? The Cam, from Cambridge & District Model Engineering Society reports that member, Steve Hallam has died. His unusual skills included driving an excavator, a very useful tool for landscaping of all kinds. A keen motorcyclist, he restored several old bikes and ran a Honda Fireblade. In view of this last, perhaps he should have labelled his mini-digger a ‘JCB GT’. Andy Phipps is building a 3½ inch gauge Mountaineer. It is…

Working watermills still exist around Britain, displaying both the early use of mechanical engineering and eco-friendly technology. A former corn mill at Mortimer’s Cross, Herefordshire previously featured in this series (Model Engineer M.E.4401, May 2011). Future articles may feature a water powered textile mill and a tide mill. Some mills survived because they adapted their simple technology for other purposes. One such is Acorn Bank near Penrith, Cumbria, restored and run by a charitable trust on a National Trust estate (photo 1). Here, oatmeal milling was supplemented, probably by use as a sawmill and providing power to a nearby gypsum mine. It now mills wheat and bags of flour are sold to the public (photo 2). A simple hand operated rotary quern was displayed during my visit (photo 3). This…

Anew project was needed. I had recently completed and painted a 1 inch scale Minnie traction engine; it had taken five years and towards the end I was becoming disenchanted as it had taken too long. I normally like to make models that can be accomplished in a shorter time. For me, the challenge of choosing and starting a new project is one of the most interesting aspects of model engineering. Looking through my bookshelves I rediscovered a little book called Building the Williamson engine written by Tubal Cain in 1981. I purchased it at a model engineering exhibition in the early 1980s and it had been overlooked. At the time, I possibly imagined that the tools that I owned and my skills were not up to making a good…

The tender tank The frame for the large-scale tender is a little flimsy, or if you like, specifically designed to adjust to the loading and inconsistencies of the tracks in the 1850s. The model frame is a little stiffer because of the additional weight of a very large driver partially loading the tender. The tank (fig 39) was designed to complement the frames further by adding additional strength and stiffness. The connection point for the driver cart is fitted to the tank instead of the frames, again because this is the strongest position on the whole assembly. The tank was TIG welded from stainless steel making it incredibly strong and corrosion resistant. It will also weigh far less than an equivalently strong tank made from brass and even less than…

February 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 16 Rochdale SMEE Auction Night. Castleton Community Centre, 19:00. See www.facebook.com/RochdaleModelEngineers 18 Warrington & District MES Running day at the club track. See www.wdmes.org.uk/events 21 Bristol SMEE Talk: ‘Meccano Model of the USS Missouri’, Begbrook Social Club BS16 1HY, 19:30. Contact: secretary@bristolmodelengineers.co.uk 25 Warrington & District MES Running day at the club track. See www.wdmes.org.uk/events 25 Westland and Yeovil MES Track running day 11:00. Contact: Michael Callaghan, 01935 473003 March 1 Rochdale SMEE General Meeting. Castleton Community Centre, 19:00. See www.facebook.com/RochdaleModelEngineers 3…