Table of contents for Issue 4746 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 Bradford Cup The votes are in and have been counted! Many thanks to everyone who took the trouble to vote. I am pleased to announce that the clear winner this year is Ron Fitzgerald for his excellent series on the stationary steam engine. The priceless trophy will be presented to Ron in due course – watch this space! Midlands Show and Competitions Meridienne Exhibitions look forward to welcoming you to one of the UK's largest model engineering exhibitions, the Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition, taking place from Thursday 17th to Sunday 20th October 2024. There will be over 30…

In the previous dramatic instalment, a brave and mathematically inclined cow narrowly escaped injury and a careless driver discovered the Deceleration Demon and lost his no-claims bonus in the process. We re-join the tale as the author, trailer in hand and bit between his teeth, is deciding how to secure everything in place within. Ermintrude is presently in hiding; I suspect we have lost her trust. A firm anchorage As with the weakest link in the proverbial chain, any system is only as strong as its least-strong component. When considering how to safely secure a traction engine to a transportation trailer, therefore - or anything else for that matter - it is important to ensure that each part of the whole is up to the job. Knowing that trailers are…

For many of you the ‘outings season’ will be well under way and likewise SMEE began its program of visits with a day at the Amberley Museum near Arundel in West Sussex. We do like to spread ourselves around the regions to give all our members a chance to join with us in turn. Best described as a living museum of industrial and social history the museum is housed in an old chalk pit which makes for a very pleasant and spacious site. From the 1840s to the 1960s chalk was quarried and burnt in the kilns at Amberley to make lime for mortar, decorating and agricultural uses. After the final closure of the site as a business, a group of architects, surveyors, planners and museum professionals felt there was…

June 27 Sutton MEC Afternoon run from 13:00. Contact: Paul Harding, 0208 254 9749 30 CardiffMES Open Day at Heath Park, Cardiff. Contact:secretary@cardiffmes.co.uk 30 Westland and Yeovil MES Running the track at Yeovil Junction– Pirate Day. Contact: Michael Callaghan, 01935 473003 July 3 Bradford MES Meeting: Steerage Trophy Competition, 19:30, Wibsey. Contact: Russ Coppin, 07815 048999. 4 Sutton MEC Bits and Pieces evening 20:00. Contact: Paul Harding, 0208 254 9749 4 Westland and Yeovil MES Thursday running afternoon and evening followed by fish and chips. Contact: Michael Callaghan, 01935 473003 5 Rochdale SMEE Members projects/Bits and Pieces. Castleton Community Centre, 19:00. See www.facebook.com/RochdaleModelEngineers 6 Bromsgrove SME Modern Traction Open Day – all gauges are welcomed – 5, 3½, 2½, Gauge1 and 16mm. Contact: Doug Collins, 01527 874666. See www.bromsgrovesme.co.uk 6/7…

Non reverti Would you believe I have recently achieved my century for published articles in model engineering print (most of which were in Model Engineer)? I felt a warm fuzzy feeling when I realised I had hit this milestone, not only for the good innings, but more because I managed to keep most of the articles technical and novel. Over the years I have received some great feedback but my last article ‘demise of the model engineer’ seemed to have hit a chord with some readers. The article dealt mainly with how to promote the hobby, specifically amongst the youth, but I do believe model engineering needs to evolve to cater for the next generation with a different skill set, including modern materials and methods. Innovation is the technical evolution…

Continued from p.672, M.E.4743, May 17 Continuing from the previous instalment I am finally getting something assembled that looks like a Gresley reverser. I'll give a few details on the extra detail items covered in this article first. As stated in the beginning I decided to have the shelf hinged to make it easier to reach the cab floor mounting bolts, which presents a few obvious changes to the prototype. I already mentioned the omittance of the 12 hex bolts to allow for the shelf to be able to hinge up for access. On top of that the shelf sits a little lower as I'm using the pre-cut tabs as the hinge pins. This leads to one other change in that the small angled vertical plate now needs to be…

My colleagues at the Eastleigh and District Model Boat Club are completely sold on superglue. It is, for them, THE adhesive. It is reasonably strong, sets rapidly, adheres to almost anything they use and is almost perfectly impervious to water. The combination of properties is almost unique and ideal for boat-building. My Young Engineers again use the stuff with considerable enthusiasm but from their point of view the possibility of achieving something during a one-hour workshop session is crucial. Superglue is vastly superior to any competitor - furniture glue or epoxy adhesives are just too slow to satisfy a youngster. However, it is not legal for young people to purchase superglue in the UK. We use superglue in the workshop for a very different set of reasons and it is…

Note 1 Locomotives of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. A. Dawson. Pub. Pen and Sword 2021. P. 64. A second Milo was built in 1836 by Charles Tayleur's Vulcan Foundry. This was a 2-2-2 and numbered 36 in the L&MR running lists. British Locomotive Catalogue 1825-1923. Vol. 2B, L. N. W.R and its constituent companies. B. Baxter. Note 2 Alexander Allan was one the first generation of locomotive engineers. Born 1809 he was apprenticed toa millwright named Gibb of Lochside near Montrose. In 1832 he joined Robert Stephenson and Co., Newcastle and in 1834 moved to the Forrester's Vauxhall Foundry. Alexander Allan. F. C. Hambleton. The Locomotive Magazine. February 15th 1941, p. 31. Note 3 The Engineer, February 23rd 1883, p. 150. Note 4 Allan is quite clear in stating that George…

Quite often get embroiled in detailed discussions about the merits or otherwise of painting locomotives either during or after completion. Two things spring to mind here; one is that if I didn't paint things as I made them, they would be covered in red rust within hours even though my workshop is heated and, secondly, I couldn't bear the thought of having to strip the complete locomotive down to paint it and then have to rebuild it when I could be running it. For these two reasons I am definitely in the ‘paint as you go’ camp. I have been in workshops where there are almost complete locomotives looking immaculate and not a dab of paint or a spot of rust on them. I have heard numerous people say that…

W e'll continue with the making of the valve gear for the TTCSE model steam engine (fig 16). The valve chests and covers in this drawing have already been covered in a previous instalment, so it is the other smaller valve parts that have still to be made. The valve spindle guides, valve spindle guide bush and the valve spindle gland nuts are all made from 8 mm (5/16 inch) brass hexagon bar and are straight forward machined parts. Do use plug taps to do the internal threading and note the recesses at the shoulders of the external threads - this is so that the parts screw hard against mating surfaces. On assembly of the spindle guides and the guide bush to the valve chests, it is good practice to…

It is a remarkable business. A cottage industry on remote Scottish islands became internationally famous for a product extensively used by well-known designers. The story of Harris Tweed is an example of how technological innovations transformed an industry, helping it remain competitive in a world market, yet retaining home production by human effort. Harris Tweed cloth is known in Gaelic as Clo Mhor (the ‘Big Cloth’). It is claimed to be the world's only fabric governed by its own Act of Parliament (the 1993 Harris Tweed Act builds on earlier legislation) and is the only fabric produced in commercial quantities by truly traditional methods. By law it can only be woven within weavers’ homes on the islands of the Outer Hebrides, notably Lewis, Harris, Uist and Barra (photo 1). Thanks…

Those that follow what I get up to on the forum will have seen the build threads for my recreations of the Stuart Simplex and Gamages small steam engines as well as a brief description of this engine which is a replica based on the Eclipse that was produced by Bassett-Lowke around the late 1920s to early 1930s. These engines were typically used for pond boats which were very popular at the time. Typically the models were set off from one side of the boating pond and whichever got to the other side first won! The original Bassett-Lowke's catalogue at the time describes the engine, which was supplied ‘ready to run’ and tested, as a High Speed Marine Engine suitable for boats of good lines up to about 3 feet…

When I compiled a song and video with Rob Griffith, a gifted folk singer and fellow member of the Edinburgh Society of Model Engineers (ESME), I didn't realise that it would lead to a request from the editor of Model Engineer to write an article. The song, accompanied by a series of photographs, was our way of recognising and documenting 10 years of hard work by the ESME members and their families, to create the Almondell Model Engineering Centre, near Broxburn on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Fifteen years ago, ESME was like many other model engineering clubs; we had a few acres of land which we ‘leased’ on a private country estate where we had set up a small track. We had moved there in 1976, initially just for a…

Please note -this column was written before any of us had heard the terrible news of the Spitfire crash near RAF Coningsby on 25th May. Whilst engaged in vitally important constructional work in the garage, I dropped a weight on my foot. It hurt! I carried on, consoled by the fact that I could still wiggle my toes and walk about. Later that day I had a look at it and found it was very swollen, red and blue all over, and worthy of some paracetamol. The NHS website suggests that I am correct in believing that it is not broken. I will print a picture of it, unless I receive more newsletters and photographs. An ultimatum, not to say blackmail! In this issue, Galileo? A Hamfest, a ‘Challenger’, another…