Innehållsförteckning för September 2022 från Engineering in Miniature

To run a steam locomotive at the club track you must have a whistle, an audible means of approach. Electric and internal combustion engine locomotives are sorted in this respect as they have horns (the electric sort not antlers). Looking at page one of the plans, the general arrangement sheet, of my current loco build ‘Chub’, I noticed that it has a nice little bell-type whistle fitted into a bush on top of the boiler just behind the two safety valves (Figure 1). When I built the boiler this bush was clearly shown on the plans so was included. But on page 10 of the plans it shows a tube type of whistle similar to that in Photo 1 which it recommends should be fitted vertically inside the left-hand rear…

For this month's episode describing my restoration of a very tired Gauge 1 model I focused first for some detail that was missing from the acquired model, the cylinder draincocks and their associated pipework – the latter is a prominent feature in photographs of the prototype loco. A completely accurate reproduction of the prototype is difficult as it is quite flimsy once made to scale and vulnerable to damage by catching on things, so I simplified my work to basic draincocks represented by handrail knobs soldered into holes under each end of the cylinder black – a 1mm nickel-silver rod then passes through these and is doubled ahead of the front draincock. The tricky part is making and holding the prototype strap that supports the front end. There were several…

Today was a running day at our railroad museum, and I had planned to run my Ten-Wheeler for five to six hours – but the run was cut short because the feedwater pump suddenly stopped working! It is the very pump I described in the July 2020 issue of EIM – in that article, I specified stainless steel for the shuttle valve stems, but I had just used brass myself. That certainly backfired, as you can see in the photo: the valve stem is broken in two at the O-ring groove! The tiny shuttle moves rather vigorously and the constant pounding had weakened the brass. Now, off to the lathe to turn a new valve stem, this time in stainless steel……

David Maidment continues his seeming ambition to create an in-depth loco class reference library with this new volume on the London North Eastern's heavy traffic locomotives. The book follows the pattern of earlier volumes we have previously reviewed in EIM, firstly focusing on the designers of each class of locomotive before detailed studies of each type in turn, from the earlier Great Central and North Eastern locomotives right up to the renowned Gresley B17s and Thompson B1s. As ever the book scores on its detailed analysis of each type, including tables of runs with all intermediate station times listed. And again the photographs are a major plus factor – a host of well-printed period shots that will be a real boon to modellers striving for accuracy. Our desire from previous…

The Fareham Society of Model Engineers was again the host for this annual rally for exponents of Jack Buckler's popular 5-inch gauge 0-4-0 locomotive over the weekend of 18th-19th June. The society was hosting the event for the fourth time and hoping that preparations would all come together to make for a good weekend. As they say, however, the best-laid plans and such did not quite materialise on this occasion as the attendance at the Rally was down on 2021, the last time Fareham hosted the event. This was likely due to the high cost of travelling and accommodation that is prevalent these days. Those who did attend enjoyed an excellent weekend with plenty of track activity and all the usual good-natured banter that takes place during these events. Pinch…

The Tool in Use Now comes the exciting bit – at least it was for us after many weeks of construction (weekends-only, I hasten to add). We decided to ‘jump in at the deep end’ and try out the ‘sharp bending’ configuration – this is the most challenging thing to do well and we wanted to understand both how accurately we could locate bends and just how ‘sharp’ they would be, along with the general visual impression of the result and the degree of error from 90 degrees of the resulting piece. To set up a bend, a small engineers’ square was used to ensure that the workpiece was perpendicular to the length of the bender (Photo 51). This photo shows a scrap piece of 1mm thick brass to which…

I must start with an apology for the content of my article this month, as it is unfortunately not specifically miniature – however the techniques and components used should be interesting to many a model engineer! Over the past month I have actually managed to take a week's holiday while the railway's peak season timetable has also required me to drive quite a lot. Therefore the only significant workshop work I have carried out has been on the Simplex loco that the Fairbourne Miniature Railway has bought to allow me to take our long-suffering main diesel out of operation in order to give it a full rebuild. The Simplex started out as a 2ft gauge example and that was the first thing to be sorted out – in last month's…

I have just received the latest edition of EIM and reading the description of the restoration of the Gauge 1 Midland Compound, I note that the author is changing the loco's wheel back-to-back measurement to 42mm. Referring to the Gauge 1 Guild website, the G1 standard is 40mm back-to-back of 40.0 +0.5/-0, for standard gauge while for finescale it is 42mm. Perhaps it is worth warning readers as a loco made to finescale measurements will not run on standard track. The Editor replies: Robert is right to be concerned and it's worth reiterating this to readers but in fairness to author Anthony White, he did actually deal with this in some detail in the first part of his series in the June issue, including providing a table of both standards and…

To lubricate the cylinders of my Stirling Single 4-2-2, a Sooty mechanical lubricator (made by Mike Boddy) was installed beneath the footplate behind the front buffer beam. The lubricator is driven via a mechanical link off the axle-driven water pump. Separate oil lines lead from the lubricator to each steam chest and Mike had a suspicion that only one cylinder was receiving oil. To confirm this, we ran the Stirling on compressed air and we discovered that oil was coming from the opened drain cocks of only one of the cylinders. An oily chimney does not prove that both cylinders are receiving oil. Oil was not well A Sooty lubricator only provides one drop of oil per arm movement and is therefore synchronised to one cylinder only. Whilst the cylinder…

Cutteslow Park is the home of the City of Oxford Society of Model Engineers (COSME) and the weekend of the 2nd-24th July saw the Society's annual Dreaming Spires Rally, an event attracting model engineers and their locomotives from all over the UK. With good dry summer weather prevailing I went along on Saturday to enjoy this popular rally. The club site itself looked immaculate and is a real tribute to the members there who keep it in tip-top condition. The clubhouse had been decorated with flags and bunting and a couple of gazebos had been very thoughtfully erected in front to provide additional shading if required. Of course there was also an ample supply of tea, coffee, homemade cakes and cold drinks ready for all the visitors and members to…

“I added to my sense of triumph by tapping the holes without breaking the tap -cue one well-earned cup of coffee and a smug smirk…” My 5-inch gauge ‘Britannia’ 4-6-2 was built in the 1980s and its builder used all the skills that were available at the time. He also did a fantastic job to add the cosmetic detail of a speedometer to his model locomotive. Looking for a different project after finishing the build of my Butch loco, I read an article in my GL5 (Ground Level 5-inch Gauge Mainline Association) magazine, showing how to add a better-looking speedo to a model Britannia loco. Since my loco was built there has been great changes in the availability of more detailed accessories like lost wax castings and now digital 3D…

Welcome to this month's club and track news round-up and with these words being written just as we move into the peak summer month of August, there is plenty happening on the tracks, and among the clubs too. We start this month's selection with news of major changes at what used to be known as the Cleveland Association of Model Engineers – following an overwhelmingly positive vote by members in June, this club has changed its name to the Stockton and Darlington Model Engineers. The Cleveland group was originally formed after an announcement in the Model Engineer magazine in March 1977 and had a meeting base in Stockton-On-Tees. But since 1981, it has been located at the Tees Cottage Pumping Station in Darlington where it runs the Tees Cottage Miniature…