Table of contents for Issue 4751 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 Maidstone's 95th On Saturday 17th August I spent a pleasant day at the Maidstone club track in Mote Park at an Open Day to celebrate the club's 95th anniversary. Many other clubs visited and the track was declared out of bounds to Maidstone club members’ locomotives so only guests could run. The Open Day was very well attended and the clubhouse was full to overflowing for the cutting of the club's 95th birthday cake. The club started as a Meccano and model railway club and then developed into a model engineering society. The current track in Mote Park…

Views and opinions expressed in letters published in Postbag should not be assumed to be in accordance with those of the Editor, other contributors, or Mortons Media Group Ltd. Correspondence for Postbag should be sent to: Martin R. Evans, The Editor, Model Engineer, Mortons Media Group Ltd, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6JR F. 01507 371066 E. MEeditor@mortons.co.uk Publication is at the discretion of the Editor. The content of letters may be edited to suit the magazine style and space available.Correspondents should note that production schedules normally involve a minimum lead time of six weeks for material submitted for publication. In the interests of security, correspondents’ details are not published unless specific instructions to do so are given. Responses to published letters are forwarded as appropriate. Butterside Down Dear…

Continued from p.328 M.E.4750 August 23 Once I had the wheels I could turn the axles, disk brakes and bore the wheels. The wheels – as informed by SMR – need to have a back-to-back of 4 11/16 inches (4.6875 inches) or 119.0625mm. Take your pick. 119mm has been drawn – a difference of 2 thou in real units. I can't remember quite what I did - probably fudged it on one side with the relevant 2 thou rather than turn an extra thou on both sides. The internal bearing diameter is 17mm so I went for a 19mm hole diameter in the wheels and as the round stock was 20mm this then left a slight shoulder. I still went wrong on a wheel and had to turn a very…

Continued from p.322 M.E.4750 August 23 Trial engine installation The quite simple engine bearers had been made so the Kyosho GS11 engine was offered up. With it all bolted down, I stood back and admired what had gone without a hitch. The clutch bell gear seemed to mesh with the gearbox input gear. Without further ado the commercial fuel tank was installed on its plates and pillars at the front end of the chassis (photo 35). The engine had been out again to ease the tank installation when the photograph was taken. All the main components had now been fitted into the tight(-ish) constraints of the chassis. Then without any thought of starting the engine, as it needed re-conditioning, all was turned over with the pull starter. The realisation that…

7¼ Society It seems a long time ago when I first ventured into a Parklands Railway Week, some time in the mid 80's, and I still have the video I made that day, pulled round this attractive 7¼ inch gauge track in the village of Hemsby in Norfolk. That day I was pulled by a ‘Jessie’, an 0-4-0 tank locomotive designed by Ken Swann and driven by Norman Atkins. Sadly he no longer has the locomotive but he is still a regular visitor, lately with his fine Warship. I first wrote about the railway in Model Engineer with an article in January 2000 (vol. 184, issue 4112) entitled ‘The Secret Railway’. The railway was built in stages by the late Don Witheridge as a hobby, on the edge of land…

Published byPen and Sword Transport,2023 ISBN 978-1-399048-45-0 343pp, hardback,£25 Ship launches go back thousands of years. The epic of Gilgamesh (circa 2100 BCE), mentions using a runway of rollers to take a boat into water. However, the Bible suggests Noah used a float up method building his ark on dry land and waiting for the waters to rise. Both methods are still employed today. Using a cradle to support the hull under construction before launching goes back to Hellenistic times. Whilst many ships are launched by sliding down a slipway the Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales aircraft carriers were built in dry dock at Rosyth. Historically, the float up method was much used in England where master shipwright Phineas Pett used it for his great warships built at Deptford…

Continued from p.332 M.E.4750 Agust 23 The main drawing here (fig 2) is the frame drilling drawing and I have added the general arrangement drawing of the frames (fig 3) as I thought it might be helpful - well that is if the editor can fit that lot in. As usual, I have included some photographs and these are now all of 76077 as Andrew Meredith sent me lots of them from the Gloucester and Warwickshire railway where the engine is being rebuilt. (However, see the notes in part 1 – M.E.4750.) Photograph 5 shows the frames all painted up. Photograph 6 shows the frame stretcher behind the smokebox saddle. Now, where these two meet up, I have used 8BA bolts to join the two plates together so that I…

Continued from p.315 M.E.4750 August 23 Windscreens and windows The windscreen on many early lorries and vans often split horizontally with a top section that could be opened (photo 34). Even so, wipers were fitted. The visible frames were chrome-plated and on the models I used polished aluminium cut from sheet with a very fine-cut piercing saw. I won't pretend this was easy. It was, in fact, difficult and there were some rejects. Many trucks and lorries offered little weather protection and open-sided vans were common – a boon to model makers as there was no need for windows. Main bodies need a few added essentials. These include a wing mirror, head and side lights, door hinges, door handles and, in some models, an exterior hand-operated horn. Number plates and…

I've been so busy over the last couple of weeks that I haven't had the chance, or impulse, to write a preamble. So, here goes another Club News, naked and unashamed. (Genesis 2:25) Hang on, I've just written a preamble. Well, that's alright then… In this issue, buckets of diamonds, nursery rock, “is it finished yet?”, odd sounds in Donetsk, buses and a Professor. Tom Winterburn sends the Northern Districts SME Steam Lines, July-August and apologises for the late delivery of this missive but he was busy on another project and shunted it into a siding - and then forgot it. (Remaining true to life, yeah? (Ho ho) - Geoff.) The Society's insurers allow visitors and members of the public to drive trains on open days, subject to certain conditions, and…

I visited this long established club - and by long established, I mean some 87 years long - tucked away along the road towards the Mumbles in South Wales. It was founded in 1937 following an advertisement in the South Wales Evening Post. In the years before WWII, the fledgling Society held their meetings in a room above a garage situated behind the Cross Keys Pub. Unfortunately, this building was destroyed during the Blitz in 1941 which resulted in meetings moving to be held in the local YMCA. This too was destroyed, only a short time after their first meeting room, so relocation took place again, this time with a move to the Kardomah Café on Castle Street. During the remaining years of the war, this weekend meeting place enabled…

Continued from p.318 M.E.4750 August 23 With the author's shed-com-office-com-library-com-workshop finally standing two stories tall, we re-join him as he prepares to make the inside both habitable and energy efficient if he can. The thwack of neither leather nor willow “See you in a couple of weeks and please don't forget to water the plants. Oh, and by the way, there's a cave cricket somewhere in the shed. Love you!” Jenny's parting words to me this morning, the 26 September 2023, hurriedly spoken in the drop-off area of Newark Airport as I removed the last of her bags from the car and she waded headlong into the throng to begin another trip to England, reverberated in my mind as I returned to the driver's seat and began threading my way…

LittleLEC LittleLEC is the locomotive efficiency driving competition for small locomotives weighing 50lbs or under, devised by the late Peter Langridge, who was a member of the Guildford Model Engineering Society, as a companion to the larger IMLEC competitions. LittleLEC spotlights those small designs that were once the introduction to the hobby for many but now eclipsed by larger models capable of greater distances and speed. Locomotives are run around a track completing as many laps as possible within 20 minutes, the amount of coal used is recorded and efficiency calculated from this coupled with the weight of the engine, trailing load, track gradients and distance. The locomotive driven the most efficiently is declared the winner. The North London SME's track at Colney Heath was the venue for 2024, the…

September 4 Bradford MES Meeting: ‘Talgo- Rolling Stock Manufacturer’ by Colin Smith, 19:30, St James’ Church, Baildon, BD17 6HH. Contact: Russ Coppin, 07815 048999. 5 Sutton MEC Bits and Pieces evening 20:00. Contact: Paul Harding, 0208 254 9749 5 Westland and Yeovil MES Thursday running afternoon and evening followed by fish and chips. Contact : Michael Callaghan, 01935 473003 8 Cardiff MES Steam up and family day at Heath Park, Cardiff. Contact : secretary@cardiffmes.co.uk 8 Sutton MEC Track Day from 13:00. Contact: Paul Harding, 0208 254 9749 14 Bromsgrove SME Rob Roy Rally and 3½ inch gauge friends. See www.bromsgrovesme.co.uk 15 Bradford MES Public Running Day. Members from 11:30, public from 13:30, whatever the weather, Northcliff. Contact: Russ Coppin, 07815 048999. 15 Westland and Yeovil MES Running the track at…