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Model Engineer Issue 4748 (Digital)

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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 Summer Hols Now that the summer is well and truly upon us, and the school holidays have started, you may well be wondering what to do during all those sunny weekends. There are many desirable options beyond mowing the lawn and washing the car. If you live in the South West you could have a fun day at the Gloucestershire Vintage and Country Extravaganza, which takes place on the 2nd to 4th of August at South Cerney Airfield, near Cirencester. It claims to be the biggest and best steam, vintage and countryside event in the UK, celebrating all…

PART 1 Enhanced By Vehicles How introducing road vehicles improved a model tramway

Introduction Although common in the very small scales, display backgrounds are rarely seen in the scales much above 7mm/ foot. However, this article draws on a slightly unusual layout designed for a model tramway in 1/16th scale and the need to provide for some road vehicles in the quest for realism (photo 1). An issue of scale In all the larger scales, model engineers are content to produce accurate scale models of chosen prototypes with results that provide an onlooker with work enabling an understanding of the prototype and at the same time to appreciate the often enormous skills necessary to achieve the finished work. Such models stand alone with no need to incorporate in their display any reference to the environment from which their original inspiration was drawn. However,…

PART 1 Enhanced By Vehicles How introducing road vehicles improved a model tramway

A Dividing Problem

The problem: I wanted to cut a template to use on a pantograph engraver to do the initial crossings on clock wheels finishing with filing etc. These techniques are also equally applicable if someone wants to create, say, wagon wheel spokes – just alter the starting parameters, i.e. the number of spokes (sectors), the dimensions and re-calculate. I commenced a beginner's clock under the guidance of Elliot Isaacs on a course at the British Horological Institute (BHI) in 1988 and thought that it was about time (not sorry about the pun) that I might like to get on with it (I don't like to rush things!). The course gave the theoretical background to a clock (or more accurately timepiece since it does not strike). This included practical work such as…

A Dividing Problem

Part 15: Hauling the Toys - Part 6

Continued from p.160 M.E.4747 July 12 With a half-hundredweight of nuts, bolts and washers holding everything together, the author's trailer is just about ready for use. In this episode, he meets some old friends, adds a handful of hinges and a bushel of bungee cords and single-handedly loads the trailer with a host of railway equipment to prove that he can. Öhrwurm Hello again dear Reader, and once again I must begin with a confession. Many years ago, our wonderful next-door-neighbour, Gudrun, wife of Rainer who appeared behind Ruby Swann in Episode 9 (photo 22), introduced me to the delightful German word öhrwurm - earworm in English – meaning a piece of music which gets stuck in your head and repeats itself endlessly for hours or, in extreme cases, decades.…

Part 15: Hauling the Toys - Part 6

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. Draughting…

SMEE News Drills

As a matter of course SMEE holds occasional auctions over the year to enable members to dispose of unwanted items to other members. Occasionally SMEE is asked by the families of members who have passed on to dispose of the smaller items from the workshops of these old friends. We had such a sale at the end of May and it is interesting to see how the individual is reflected in the tools and equipment they possessed. There is also something quite personal about a tool and it's nice sometimes to have a reminder of someone you knew. As the sale progressed at one point we reached a stage where every other lot seemed to be drills. This led to increasing hilarity in the room and comments about the person's…

SMEE News Drills

PART 9 A Twin Tandem Compound Steam Engine

Continued from p.164 M.E.4747 July 12 The governor is quite a complex little part, with some small parts to make (fig 20). The gear case assembly is the first component to make. The gear case body is shown to be made from 1 inch square brass tube with a wall thickness of 1.2 mm. Steel tube would also be okay with only the input shaft support needing to be adjusted for length, if a different wall thickness of tube is selected. The various parts should be machined with the top bush and the case column holes drilled in line. The side bush hole is also drilled but not the ⅛ inch diameter hole opposite. This hole should be done after the side bush is silver soldered in place, using the…

PART 9 A Twin Tandem Compound Steam Engine

PART 1 A Small Clearing in the Jungle: Phuket's First Railway

When we retired to the island of Phuket in Thailand, we brought the entire contents of my workshop and our locomotives with us on the premiss that we would build a new workshop to be able to continue model making and deal with the seemingly never ending occurrence of domestic maintenance problems. Part of the dream was to build a small track on which to run the trains and entertain the local kids and families, who had no concept of a steam train, whilst of course entertaining myself. Two years ago, our ‘adopted’ Thai daughter and husband purchased an adjacent plot of land in order that - (in her words) “now you can do your dream, Daddy”. The land is at the end of the Soi (street) and is literally…

PART 1 A Small Clearing in the Jungle: Phuket's First Railway

PART 1 Learning to Drive

There are many advantages to being a member of a model engineering club or society and one of those benefits is that you can learn from others. The more wisdom and experience that is spread around, the better, or our skills and our ability to participate in our favourite pastime will vanish with us. Fortunately, some people out there are happy to go out of their way to pass on their knowledge. My chosen society is the London-based Society of Model and Experimental Engineers or SMEE and, like every other society I have come across, the level of combined knowledge and the willingness to share it among its membership and elsewhere is simply astounding. My grounding in boiler and locomotive management was learned at the one-day Boiler Management Course some…

PART 1 Learning to Drive

PART 2 The Leufortin Project

Continued from p.132 M.E.4747 July 12 Making a start I have already mentioned that I had resurrected my elementary drawing numbering system. Whilst not labouring too much over the administration of projects, I am most definitely not a ‘knife and fork it’ person. It irks me I am not good enough, that so many other fellow hobbyists are clever enough and skilled enough to be able to do this ad hoc. Just about everything I try to tackle this way is never right first time around, so basic drawing office practice, no matter how irksome, is a very sound way to proceed for me. I do not run a full engineering change note system but I do ‘up-issue’ drawings with each component having its own dedicated drawing number. This means…

PART 2 The Leufortin Project

PART 2 Boxers to Polkas The Story of George Forrester's Locomotives

Ron Fitzgerald explores the history of George Forrester, a little known but influential locomotive engineer. Continued from p.102 M.E.4746 June 28 It is likely that these D&KR locomotives can be legitimately regarded as the first tank engines. They preceded by sixteen years Fairbairn's engines built for the ‘Little’ North Western Railway which ran from Skipton to Low Gill and for which Fairbairn's semi-autobiography claimed priority (note 22). A recent biography of Fairbairn by Richard Byrom offers a more convincing account (note 23). Byrom points out that Fairbairn had supplied the stationary engine for the atmospheric railway at Dalkey, an extension of the D&KR, in the course of which he would almost certainly have come across the Forrester tank engines. In addition, the consulting engineer for the North Western, to which…

PART 2 Boxers to Polkas The Story of George Forrester's Locomotives

PART 3 Bassett-Lowke Eclipse Replica

Continued from p.150 M.E.4747 July 12 Steam chest and cover I'll describe these two together as that is how I made them, making use of a vice stop so that the two parts could be swapped over in the mill vice for similar operations. Start by machining up two rectangular blocks to the overall sizes needed from cast iron, though steel or brass would do. Mark out and punch the locations of the valve rod gland boss on the end of the valve chest material and the position of the inlet boss on the cover (photo 28). Set the work in the four-jaw chuck so that the punch marks run true and then machine the bosses with a rounded corner tool. The valve chest can also be drilled for the…

PART 3 Bassett-Lowke Eclipse Replica

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a model engineer in possession of Stirling engine castings shall be in want of a displacer. So it was that Tony Simons was seen in his local Asda with a pair of callipers measuring the size of tins. Tony is a member of York City and District SME and previously made a hot air engine as a 15-year-old at school. Inspired by a visit to the Anson Engine Museum, he bought castings to make a Robinson hot air engine from Alyn Castings (ref 1 and QR Code 1). The company makes a half size model of a 19th Century original Robinson No. 4 engine (photo 1) with regenerative displacer. Construction is described in the Model Engineer community website forum (ref 2 and QR…

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Away on our ‘jollies’ again and so, with one great bound, Geoff was in foreign parts, alone on a sea of lava, marooned, yet with only the inhabitants to depend on for my survival. I will return, unlike Capt. Oates, after dodging the ice floes, the grey skies and the rough seas. Good weather seems to accompany us. “How very unlike the home life of our own dear Queen” (Anon, 1892). I was thinking of ploughing by steam a few days ago and got to thinking that the travelling, reversible plough could get a lot of work done, dependent of course on the speed with which it is hauled. The thought entering my head was - Gliders! In the world of STOL aircraft, take off can be almost instantaneous, so…

July 25 Sutton MEC Afternoon run from 13:00. Contact: Paul Harding, 0208 254 9749 27 Cardiff MES Steam up and family day at Heath Park, Cardiff. Contact: secretary@cardiffmes.co.uk 27 Westland and Yeovil MES Track running day 11:00. Contact: Michael Callaghan, 01935 473003 30 Westland and Yeovil MES Running the track at Yeovil Junction – Diesel Day. Contact: Michael Callaghan, 01935 473003 August 1 Cardiff MES Members’ projects. Contact: secretary@cardiffmes.co.uk 1 Sutton MEC Bits and Pieces evening 20:00. Contact: Paul Harding, 0208 254 9749 2 Rochdale SMEE General Meeting. Castleton Community Centre, 19:00. See www.facebook.com/RochdaleModelEngineers 4 Guildford MES Small Model Steam Engine Group, 14:00-17:00. See www.gmes.org.uk 6 Westland and Yeovil MES Running the track at Yeovil Junction – Diesel Day. Contact: Michael Callaghan, 01935 473003 7 Bradford MES Meeting: Evening running…

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