Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2023 i Engineering in Miniature

A recent short series of mine that was published in the December 2022 to March 2023 issues of this journal described the building of my first steam loco ‘Conway', a 3¼-inch gauge 0-4-0 tank engine to a design by Martin Evans. She's a great loco that has given me many hours of pleasure. Virtually every part of her I made myself either from the solid or by fabrication. When it came to the safety valve, Conway has just the one, however I didn't fancy making one. The plans do give details of the safety valve but at the time I had gained no experience of making them and figured such a critical part might be outside of my current skills, so I opted to buy one. The model engineering exhibition…

The attachment shown above is based on the design by the late Rudy Kouhoupt. He describes the construction if this device and many other items in detail in his book The Shop Wisdom of Rudy Kouhoupt – I obtained my copy from Camden Miniature Steam Services (https://camdenmin.co.uk). I made a wooden pattern for the two standards, getting them cast in aluminium at a local foundry – sadly the foundry is no longer there, I was told that the council objected to its smoke emissions. I made the pattern 1/16-inch thicker all round than Rudy's as this greatly increases the stiffness. However as Rudy stated in his account, “the best work is done with tailstock centre support”. I lacked the confidence needed to cut the screw threads of the spindle nose…

The supply of coal for our miniature engines is becoming ever more constrained. Indeed, many clubs are in the process of abandoning coal altogether, as it is no longer available in their area. Even where coal is available, the sources are restricted to either Columbia or China (Russian coal having now exited the market for geopolitical reasons!). We have actually tried some Columbian ‘steam' coal and it is not too bad – it burns to a clean ash with little or no clinker (at least in our 7¼-inch gauge 4- inch scale, ‘Tom Rolt'), but produces a rather pungent brown smoke, which would probably have my local pulmonologist in tears. I do, however, have a problem with buying coal which has travelled thousands of miles to get to me and…

Tank locomotives tend to be associated with light duties on branch lines, shunting or empty carriage movements. The Southern Railway had express tank engines but owing to doubts about stability on imperfect track they were rebuilt as tender engines. The added weight of water in the side tanks makes it difficult to set spring rates and unlike automobile chassis, railway locomotive suspension is only damped by the friction in the component assemblies. Minor track imperfections could set up quite large oscillations which were thought to be a factor in several derailments on the Southern in the 1920s, so the SR took the decision to not only improve the quality of its track but also to rebuild the ‘River' class 2-6-4 tanks into tender engines. Tank titan If, however, we look…

I mentioned in last month's report from the Fairbourne Miniature Railway that our 6-inch scale Darjeeling Himalayan B Class ‘Sherpa' had shed one of its side control shims. So having put the loco's tender back onto its wheels after changing all its bearings, I stripped the brake gear off the loco along with the underkeeps and rods and lifted the rear of the engine enough to get the axleboxes off. This revealed some interesting wear on the crank pins – directly below the grease ways there is a groove worn into the pin, this is both visible and can be felt by running a nail across the pin. On the axlebox however, there is no such grooving, the journal looks pretty good and feels smooth to the touch. This is…

We start this month's packed selection of club and track updates with a photo sent in by regular correspondent John Arrowsmith, which at first glance seems just to be simply a nice bright picture of a double-headed train. John tells us, however, that the shot is somewhat unusual because it represents the first time the Hereford SME has tried running a doubleheader during public opening. The club's Romulus was combined with a member's Peckett and all went very well while creating lots of interest among visitors – so perhaps we can look forward to more such workings, double the value! Last month we included some pictures from awards presentations made recently by NAME, the Northern Association of Model Engineers, and we are pleased to include a couple more this month,…

The annual rally at the City of Oxford Model Engineering Society was held over the weekend of the 14th to 16th July at the Society's immaculate track site in the city's Cutteslow Park, but what a contrast to last year's event when lovely warm sunshine had greeted both visitors and members. This year there were some very soggy spires indeed as the rain dampened the proceedings, but in the way of British model engineers the wet gear was donned, the engines steamed and the drivers just got on with doing what they do, despite the best efforts of the weather to spoil things. To be fair though the early part of the morning was dry but the rain soon arrived to affect the atmosphere of the rally. Visitors had come…

Turning to the transmission of our sub-£500 budget battery locomotives, firstly we will need some maths. Some speeds were suggested earlier in the build so we need to explain them. The speed of the motor, the size of the wheels and the required speed of the loco will require maths to work out the reduction gearing we will need in the transmission unit. Most 5-inch gauge locomotives normally run at between six and eight miles per hour. Some clubs may have a maximum speed on their track and if your club does I suggest you use this as your design speed – I opted for a speed of seven miles per hour. We can always hold the speed down on speed-limited tracks with a method shown later. If your club…

Bristol is known for many things engineering and otherwise. Buses, cars, aircraft and compressors have taken the city's name over the years, and fine examples of Brunel's accomplishments are still prominent. The Bristol SMEE was founded in 1909 and hosted the 2023 IMLEC (International Model Locomotive Efficiency Competition), a contest for 3½-inch and 5-inch gauge miniature locomotives. In short, it is about who can haul the biggest load and use the least coal during a half-hour (hopefully) non-stop run. This is a personal account of my experience in the competition, full details of the event will no doubt appear elsewhere. I have read the reports of IMLEC in the model engineering magazines over the years and also helped with the two competitions that my home club of Bournemouth has organised.…

2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of the London North Eastern Railway, the LNER, (writes Ivan Smith) and being located close to Doncaster, the major production centre for the LNER, a number of our members at the Stockholes Farm Miniature Railway have a keen interest in the LNER. So when it was suggested that we hold a rally to celebrate this anniversary it was enthusiastically welcomed. We decided early in the planning to have a liberal interpretation, to include locos from the constituent companies and British Railways locos associated with the East Coast Main Line and Eastern Region. We chose the 11th June for the event, also my wife and I's 54th wedding anniversary and so a double celebration. Three visiting locos included an LNER B1 4-6-0 built around…