Table of contents for Issue 4756 in Model Engineer

Kennions 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 Midlands Show I write this having just returned from the recent Midlands Show at the Warwickshire Events Centre. The event was well attended, as evidenced by the number of cars in the car park, and there were plenty of highquality models to see. Myfirst trip was to the EYEs stand to see Freya Hempenstall's Nelly the Coptor (photo 1), featured in Model Engineer (M.E.4753 October 4th). Freya was 9 years old when she made this and it was her first model engineering project. I think it is a very nice piece of work. You can read more…

Continued from p.655 M.E.4755 November 1 The motion plate (bracket) assembly is made from two laser cut parts, silver soldered together, and some small pieces of angle (fig 9). The laser cut parts are the main motion plate and its flange and they are located for soldering using tabs and slots. It should be possible to pop 6BA bolts through the flange and frame without any need to ‘ease’ the holes, such is the accuracy of laser cutting. Both plates are marked for drilling all the small holes but the required holes are different each side; the right-hand side plate has extra ones for the vacuum pump which will be re-purposed to pump water into the boiler. After drilling the holes as appropriate, assemble with the flanges and check to…

Continued from p.597 M.E.4754 October 18 Coal extraction was by the long wall retreat method. For this highly mechanised form of mining typically two roadways are driven from the main roadway to the back of the area of coal to be extracted. A cross tunnel is driven to form the face. Ventilation is supplied down one of the roadways and back up the other with the face roof being supported by hydraulic roof supports capable of ‘walking’ forwards. Coal is removed from the face by a moving coal cutter with a rotating head containing ‘picks’ which break the coal off the face to drop onto a conveyor (photo 4). Once the coal is off, the roof supports move towards the face taking the conveyor with them. As progress towards the…

Continued from p.618 M.E.4755 November 1 Having established that our model engineering creations are especially beneficial if we overcome our shyness, determined that a big-box hardware store is an inappropriate destination for a baby's birth, no matter what your car may tell you, and examined a high-mileage passenger vehicle's door for a surprisingly long time, I am sure that you, bemused Reader, have given up all hope of predicting where we are going next. And I for one don't blame you, for it's been quite the ride, hasn't it? Catching up with old acquaintances You know what it's like: you stand there, waving goodbye as a friend or relation departs and rounds the corner and get a nagging feeling you will never see them again. It's happened to me on…

Published by Atlantic, 2024 ISBN 978-1-83895-752-0 368pp, hardback, £25 Given the number of books about the Normandy invasion it is surprising the role of railways has been particularly neglected, notably those rebuilt in France soon after D-Day. That neglect is remedied in this welcome book. Early invasion planning recognised railways would need reconstructing soon after the invasion. Engineers showed ingenuity, for instance by adapting tank landing craft for railway stock and laying tracks directly on beaches, shown in an impressive photograph. The first train ran just thirty days after D-Day. The book's main focus is on the United States Third Army, commanded by George C. Patton, a general who liked to keep his army moving fast. That emphasised logistics with Patton demanding rail transport keep up with his troops. Incredibly,…

Continued from p.658 M.E.4755 November 1 In the first part of this article on the assembly of a small steam plant driven by an electrically fired steam boiler I discussed my reasons for making the plant and looked at the assembly of the engine. We are now going to look at the boiler and some other accessories I intend incorporating on the plant. The boiler I chose to use is sold by Chiltern Model Steam and is fueled by an internal heating element and sold as a kit of parts. The 3 inch boiler is made from aluminum alloy and has a working pressure of 20psi. The boiler has to be taken apart and, though straightforward, the wiring and installation of the heating element completed by an electrically competent person…

Well, après moi le déluge… In the last fortnight, I have visited several locations, which will become apparent idc - the East Midlands rally, Heckinton windmill, a Radio Club junk sale, National AR Hamfest, Gainsborough Old Hall, a classic car rally, and I took 65 photographs. My ‘Luggie’ ran out of charge, and why do people throw money into fountains? Whatever it is, they pale into insignificance compared to those who treat a mediaeval loo as the Trevi Fountain (photo 1)? In this issue: two windmills, an amateur driver, wheel-less in Welling, a rare car and a Charity Day. Visiting the Broadcast Equipment Conservation Group in Lincolnshire, we also detoured to Heckington Windmill, a Grade I listed building near Sleaford, dating from 1830. Following my assertion in M.E.4747 that we…

Radial Marine Engine It's been very quiet in the workshop lately. The traction engine has been steaming, the drum has been threshing, the elevator has been elevating and the hit and miss engine has been missing and hitting, but nothing has been made. Inspiration arrived, however, in a video on Youtube in the form of a triple expansion, radial marine steam engine (youtu.be/Oh9LpKAodxs?si=PU1Ja57TDmbm_Rbj). Okay, it's not technically radial, more ‘W’ or ‘Broad Arrow’ but still a very interesting engine. The original was made in the early 20th Century, by Charles Ward Engineering Works, Charleston, West Virginia and was installed in a tug boat. What, then, makes it so interesting? Well, firstly the layout; three cylinders at 60 degrees spacing around the crankshaft. The three connecting rods share a common crank…

I am inspired to write this piece by the excellent article in M.E.4752 (September 20th) by Tom Parham where he describes the current and future situation in model engineering clubs. My view of the future of modelling is rather bleaker than Tom's. For at least two generations the schools have not been teaching their lads and lasses how to make things. A declining number of parents are engineering practitioners - plumbers, machinists, electricians, welders - referred to today by the clean hand establishment as TIN BASHERS - especially those who have served apprenticeships. They are retiring and few are being replaced. The result is that the children DON'T MAKE ANYTHING because no one is there to provide tools and workshops and appropriate teaching and encouragement. This doom-laden message is shared…

Some time ago Les Phillips wrote an article on a lathe carriage depth stop (A Simple But Effective Depth Stop, M.E.4642, July 3rd 2020). This is for his Myford which appears to be a Super 7 with gearbox just like mine. I strongly agree with him that a depth stop is an indispensable accessory. I also made one many years ago so I offer this article as an alternative approach. In so doing I hasten to add that I am not critical of his approach, which does the job perfectly well. However before presenting my alternative there is one thing which puzzles me. Les uses two cap head bolts to secure his fitting to the lathe. My lathe bed, though, does not have two tapped holes, as can be seen…

This story begins, 80 plus years ago in Dublin, Ireland. Hello there, my name's Callum Christie and this wonderful story is about my late great grandfather James Christie who was a foreman in the blacksmith shop and the boilersmith shop in the Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) works, Broadstone, Dublin, Ireland from roughly the 1930s until 1957, having served his apprenticeship in the MGWR from 1907 to 1912. One day in the year 1939/1940 my great-grandfather, now a foreman in the blacksmith and boilersmith shop, started building a 3½ inch gauge 0-6-0 miniature steam locomotive in the MGWR railway works. My greatgrandfather continued to build this steam locomotive in the railway works throughout the 1940s and 1950s. After many years my great-grandfather had the locomotive built up to about 99%…

Continued from p.622 M.E.4755 November 1 I think we will get on with the pony truck now, before you lose interest (figs 20 to 26)! I have shown all the photographs I took whilst building my own 4MT and that truck is identical to the one on the 76. I have obviously illustrated all the drawings. All of the castings should be available from The Steam Workshop. Beginning with the laser cut ‘A’ frame, we will first have a look at that. You may be able to buy one of those from the same place. There should be holes in it for the tie bars to the stays. Before you go too much further you will need to do a little ‘brazing’ (I use this expression to save writing silver…

The 51st Annual General Meeting of the 7¼” Gauge Society was held this year at the home of the Rugby Model Engineering Society. The Rainsbrook Valley Railway has expanded considerably over recent years and was an ideal location for this prestigious event. Sixty locomotives were booked in for the weekend which started on Friday 20th September so the members of the Rugby Society were going to be kept very busy for the three days. Such was the organisation of the meeting that everything went off without any serious problems, well none that I saw anyway! The railway itself is a large single gauge ground level track about a mile long on a full circuit. It is well equipped with a large hydraulic lifting table for unloading which has a capacity…

SMEE Forncett SMEE were delighted to be able to contribute exhibits to the Forncett Steam Museum's Model Engineering Day and Steam Up on the 6th of October. This event has been running for a few years now at Norfolk's hidden gem that is Forncett Steam Museum. The museum is the lifetime result of owner Rowan Francis's fascination with stationary engines. Rowan had a career as an anaesthetist but inherited the steam bug from his father who got involved with narrow gauge railways soon after leaving the navy. Wanting to do something a little different, Rowan started collecting stationary engines and amassed a large collection of the great machines that powered the UK into the last half of the 20th Century. Situated in the garden of Rowen's one time farm house,…

Continued from p.83, M.E.4746, June 28 In this update I'll cover the fabrication of the reverser shaft including the extra checks that I took when assembling the parts thus ensuring no issues further down the line. This will be nothing new to most of you who probably do the same checks but is worth pointing out to those new to the game. Reverser shaft Following Don's method of construction the reverser shaft comprises of 4 parts, a 2 inch length of ¼ inch steel rod, a length of flat bar to make the arm, a ⅜ inch diameter collar and a length of bar for the fork. Thefirst job was to make the arm that will connect to the reverser screw, which is simply our piece of flat steel bar,…

Continued from p.629 M.E.4755 November 1 Calculus can be used to derive formulae for various engineering phenomena. Earlier we mentioned the equations of rotational motion, observing that whereas in linear motion the mass of an object is a measure of its inertia, or capacity to resist linear acceleration, for rotational motion the moment of inertia is used, being a measure of a body's capacity to resist rotational acceleration. The moment of inertia depends on which axis of a body is assessed – it takes little torque to twist a drum-major's baton around its longitudinal axis but much greater torque to twist it at around its middle. In the latter case most of the mass of the baton is further away from the axis of rotation and is thus able to…

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Continued from p.663 M.E.4755 November 1 SMEE This series is a transcript of a talk given to the Engine Builder's Group at the Society of Model and Experimental Engineers (SMEE) in May 2024. To remove the entablature I had first to carefully disconnect the parallel motion's radius rods. Once they were off, the main links (the droplinks that connect the piston rod, through the crosshead to the beam end bearings) could come off. I didn't have to remove the back links (the pair of droplinks closer to the beam centre) but I did remove and bag the beam centre bearing caps which enabled me now to swing the beam out of the way and liberate some working space. This would confirm whether anything else was stuckski. Luckily, nothing was. As…