Table of contents for Issue 4752 in Model Engineer

Midlands show tickets 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 FMES Rally This year’s Federation of Model Engineering Societies rally was hosted by the Nottingham model engineers at their track in Ruddington on Saturday August 31st. The event was very well attended with getting on for about two dozen locomotives in steam, covering a wide variety of gauges. Two presentations were made. The first was the Australia Shield, awarded to Les Brimson for his beautiful 5 inch gauge SE&CR ‘L’ Class locomotive. The second was the FMES Award, awarded this year to Stephen Bennet for his RNLI lifeboat and its trailer, hauled by a ‘steam…

Given the British weather’s well-known tendency not to cooperate on summer bank holiday weekends, you might think that such a weekend would not be a good choice for a model engineering club’s Steam Open Day. The Brandon and District Society of Model Engineers, however, were not to be put off and, true to form, the weather did its best to dampen the proceedings. The Society occupies a field in Weeting, a village just outside Brandon, which lies on the border between Norfolk and Suffolk. Weeting is well-known for its annual Steam Rally, one of the largest in the country, and the Society, with its miniature railway, always plays a prominent part. Although the club’s own Open Day was inevitably not on the scale of the Weeting Rally it was, nevertheless,…

Continued from p.397 M.E.4751 September 6 Having turned on the lights, tested the heating, filled the voids and promoted a radio station – all in one episode would you believe - we return to discover that the author’s double-stacked shed is nearing completion. And about time too. In praise of plywood Now I don’t know about you, broad-minded Reader, but there are some things in life which, while stirring whole multitudes to frenzied excitement, leave me wholly unmoved. Cricket (the game, not the insect, for you know my feelings about BALBs), a sport which achieves the miraculous feat of making even baseball seem thrilling, is but one example and baseball wholly relies on statistics -statistics, for heaven’s sake! – to elevate it to the heady heights of abject tedium. I…

I attempt to explain the very different approaches taken by the engineers behind the development of motor cars and motor cycles – strange because they started together in the evolution of their industries back in the Victorian era. In another article, we’ll describe the efforts of Terry Brown and myself to restore a relic, starting with about half the pieces missing. Why am I writing this piece? The reason goes back about 18 months to the arrival at my workshop of a heap of very rusty iron - see photos 1 and 2 - and the restoration of an ancient Royal Enfield motorcycle. The restoration required a great deal of fascinating research into motorcycling over a century ago. It was another world and I thought you might be interested in…

Model Engineers Laser Age catches up with us. My last model locomotive, that I once thought was manageable, I can now barely lift. It has, too, around 1500 mostly cosmetic rivets in the platework (photo 1). I felt a need to return to making something more basic as well as a lot smaller. In the past I’ve built in 3½ inch gauge and when I run one of my smaller models often someone will say how they wish they had something similar as their King/B1/ monster, whatever, is too heavy now they’re getting old. And what of beginners who are perhaps, after purchasing some expensive tools, more conscious of the costs of a bigger engine and looking for something cheaper and relatively simple that still looks like a real one?…

Facsimile Edition, 1930 ISBN 978-0486600062 638pp, hardback, £30 This book has the most remarkable history. Originally published in Latin, in 1556, it was not translated into English until 1912, by the Mining Magazine, despite being the standard work in its subject throughout that time. It was otherwise translated only into Italian and German. Georgious Agricola wrote his vade mecum after field studies and observation of his subject, mining, making this the first book bearing detailed technical illustrations. It was the most referred-to book in the history of mining, despite the language. Agricola was born in Saxony in 1494 and died in 1555. Herbert Hoover, yes, THAT Herbert Hoover, having made his fortune in mining, was retired and looking for a project to occupy him. Ably assisted by his wife, Lou,…

SMEE August is a quiet month for SMEE as members take time off for holidays. So as a relatively new member I thought maybe I could tell you a little about how and why I came to join the Society and how I’ve settled in. I am an electronics engineer for a living, now semi retired at three days a week. Making things has always interested me, from woodwork and throwing pots at school to a Saturday job swinging a fly press. I began assembling my own workshop 30 odd years ago having made a clock in my friend Barrie’s workshop and have been at it ever since making several clocks, a lot of workshop equipment largely of the George Thomas design, a Quorn and a very slowly progressing 5…

Displacement, velocity, acceleration and time Engineers often wish to predict what will happen under certain circumstances and mathematics is a useful tool for making such predictions. I have known highly competent workshop engineers who were very wary of mathematics but, as I have found with machine tools, practice makes, if not perfect, at least less nervous! This article will examine the equations of motion under constant acceleration, looking later at one of the most powerful tools in the mathematical workshop. The equations of motion under uniform acceleration Most people are probably happy enough with the following expression: However, to treat this subject formally, we note that speed is a scalar quantity (i.e. direction is not specified) whereas velocity is a vector quantity (i.e. its definition includes direction). We should also…

Continued from p.394 M.E.4751 September 6 In part 2, photos 5 to 8 were reproduced by courtesy of Toddington Standard Loco Ltd. We can now get on with something a bit more interesting - the frame stretchers (fig 4). Starting at the front of the engine we need a set of angles to fit inside the buffer beams (fig 5). The problem here is that when I ordered twenty lengths of brass angle from one of the wholesalers last time, none of it was square so I had to put it all through the milling machine and some of it was only 1/32 inch thick at the outside edge, which I thought was rubbish. Couldn’t someone have checked this at the depot don’t you think? - or did they think…

September 20 Rochdale SMEE Auction Night. Castleton Community Centre, 19:00. See www.facebook.com/RochdaleModelEngineers 22 Cardiff MES Open Day at Heath Park, Cardiff. Contact: secretary@cardiffmes.co.uk 22 Guildford MES Open day – charity day, 14:00-17:00. See www.gmes.org.uk 26 Sutton MEC Afternoon run from 13:00. Contact: Paul Harding, 0208 254 9749 28 Bromsgrove SME Open Day – all gauges are welcomed – 5, 3½, 2½, Gauge 1 and 16mm. Contact: Doug Collins, 01527 874666. See www.bromsgrovesme.co.uk 28 Westland and Yeovil MES Track running day 11:00. Contact: Michael Callaghan, 01935 473003 28/29 St Albans MES Club exhibition, Townsend School, St Albans. See stalbansmes.com 29 Sutton MEC Diamond Riding Centre Fete. Contact: Paul Harding, 0208 254 9749 October 2 Bradford MES Meeting: ‘Bits and Pieces’, 19:30, St James’ Church, Baildon, BD17 6HH. Contact: Russ Coppin, 07815…

I have been considering writing this article for quite some tme, and some recent events, coupled with a bit of spare tme, have prompted me to give it a go… I suppose the best place to start is with the origins of the hobby. I will lead on to where we are and what has prompted this article. Now this is where my knowledge is shady at best, however all will have their own memories of what the hobby has been for them, or have talked to others who have longer associations with the hobby. For me, I am a second generation model engineer, with my father having been involved since the late 60’s. With me now approaching 40, between us we have seen the changes over at least 55…

Continued from p.415 M.E.4751 September 6 The cab The space problem for the cab had really reared its head by now. The aluminium alloy footplate so carefully planned previously had be remade to give some extra width, taking the model up to a full 6 foot 6 inches scale width and the front mounting feet of the cab structure had to sit on the front gearbox mounting feet and be all bolted through together. The cab itself is a riveted structure with the sheets guillotined from 1mm brass sheet and the final shapes marked out and cut with a jewellers’ piercing saw (photo 50). A riveting table was knocked up from scrap ply that had the rivet set just clear of its top when sat firmly in the bench vice…

My visit to Newport MES was the third along the South Wales coast which shows just how active all these societies are. The Newport Society is located on the Glebelands Country Park just outside the City of Newport. They have been there for quite some time and have made some real progress over the last few years. The early years of this club, however, were far from easy; a couple of tracks were built but a lot of vandalism finally forced a move to Glebelands where they are today. The first moves to form a model engineering club in Newport started in 1946 when an advert was placed in the local newspaper, The Argus asking anyone interested to get in touch. Nine people showed up at a meeting arranged in…

Roses are red, violets are blue, here is another Club News for you… In this issue: the outburst of doggerel above was occasioned by a fit of enthusiasm, transcending my creativity. (It says here…) Rolling your own, the biggest ploughing engine ever, steam courses and driving tuition, a visit by a steel girder, a black cab in disguise. I’m going to start this time with the dead tree newsletters in my recent letter box. The Stephenson Link, summer, from Chesterfield & District MES, has a picture of an unremarkable locomotive on the front cover. What scale? is the question. Well, it is resting on its wheel flanges for one thing and is pictured indoors. Apart from that… The school that shares the site at Hady Hill with the Society helped…