Innehållsförteckning för April 2023 från Engineering in Miniature

Funny sometimes how things turn out. I purchased this kit for a GWR 47XX 2-8-0, new from Barrett Steam Models (www.barrettsteammodels.co.uk) in June 2013, and I managed to get it as far as a rolling chassis. Then due to a house move to Wales (we wanted a bigger garden, as a retirement project) I decided to exchange the loco along with other Gauge One items to a friend of mine for a 5-inch gauge Sweet Pea. The intention was to have a garden big enough to build a 5-inch garden line in it. But the house we fell in love with was on the side of a valley and the garden sloped in all directions, not at all suitable for 5-inch gauge. So, the Sweet Pea was sold on, and…

This idea did not come to light when I was carrying out a model engineering-related task, but while I was working on my 1933-vintage BSA car. However the idea should prove useful for any technical situation. I happened to be working on the back of the instrument panel of said car, lying upside down in a very awkward position. I was trying to insert a grub-screw into its appropriate hole, but could only get one hand to the job. Of course every time I placed the screwdriver in the grub-screw slot and tried to put it into the threaded hole, the screw fell out. How to keep the grub-screw attached to the screwdriver? Well under normal conditions I might have used some thick grease to hold everything together, and no…

From time to time we at EIM have considered that perhaps the smaller gauges don’t get the same level of coverage that do the larger, popular scales, so in a recent edition of the York ME club newsletter we were pleased to see this Peppercorn A1 in 2½-inch gauge. Made by York and Hull club member Tom Barnes, the loco is shown in its December 1950 guise. ‘Boswell’ was a York engine all its life and this model has three cylinders, each with Walschaert’s valve gear, a mechanical lubricator, superheaters, injector and double chimney and is a nice example of what can be achieved in the smaller scales. Moving down the scales is perhaps something that anyone having concerns about handling heavy locomotives might want to consider, as they are…

Recently I needed to put some awkward folds in some sheet aluminium which necessitated the manufacture of a sheet-metal folder. Although what is created is a quick rough-and-ready bit of kit EIM readers may find it of interest. Firstly let me explain the reason for building said folder. On ‘Conway’, my first steam loco build which was the subject of a series of articles starting in the December 2022 issue of this magazine and concluding last month, I used sheet aluminium to make the cab platework (Photo 1). It has survived reasonably well, so much so that I have decided to use aluminium for the cab on my current loco build, ‘Chub’. I mainly made this decision because I had a sheet of aluminium in stock. The cab sides are…

This is the story of the rebuild of a saloon tram car at the 15-inch gauge Rhyl Miniature Railway on the north coast of Wales. As described on the line’s website (www.rhylminiaturerailway.co.uk) the vehicle’s origins go back to the 1970s when two four-wheeled carriage bodies were first combined on a bogie chassis at the Longleat Railway in Wiltshire, the two bodies dating back to the late 1950s. The then carriage found its way to the Axe & Lyme Valley Railway, a planned line at the Dorset sea resort that never got as far as opening - the carriage was sold and in 1979 planned to be used on a line at Weston-SuperMare that also never happened, so was then bought by Norman Haine who ran the Blaise Castle Miniature Railway…

We are sorry to have to report the passing in early February of Colin Tickle at the age of 86, following a short illness. Colin was a renowned model engineer - a member of the Birmingham SME for many years, he produced model locomotives that not only featured in our pages but were medal winners at national exhibitions, including taking the much-prized Crebbin Memorial Cup at the London Model Engineering Exhibition. Colin’s expertise also saw him become a valued member of the judging panel at the Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition for many years. Employed as an engineer in the railway industry, Colin’s ‘off-duty’ enjoyment did not just involve models. After first visiting the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway in 1970, he became a volunteer, quickly progressing to qualify as a…

Welcome to this month’s club and track news round-up, and unfortunately we start on a slightly downbeat note with the continuing frustrations being heaped upon the Leeds SME and their desire to have a track to run on. Regular readers of these notes will recall that the Society was forced to vacate its long-time home of the Eggborough Power station due to the impending demolition of the station. However they were then included in plans for the site as it was redeveloped following the demolition, with the owners of Eggborough proposing a route for a new line circumnavigating a drainage swale, even going so far as rearranging the outline of the planned swale and then producing detailed drawings of the proposals to assist the club’s own planning. Photos: Alexis Johnson…

Hello, I am Dave The Steam and I run the 5-inch gauge Brambles Light Railway in north-east Hampshire. I seem to be attracted to neglected machinery which shows in various ways. The first major such item was a strangely bodged Polly II locomotive acquired from those nice people at Station Road Steam (www.stationroadsteam.com) and this, the latest, is from the same place. The Polly turned out a very nice engine in the end but it was too low for me to drive easily on my ground-level track. The tipper was listed as a Ride-on-Railways tipper truck but after checking with Paul at Ride-on-Railways (www.rideonrailways.co.uk) it appears that the chassis is an escaped ‘semi-prototype’ from the company but the bucket and the rather agricultural mounting frame were probably freelance-built by a…

Regular readers of my adventures at the Fairbourne Miniature Railway will recall last me describing in last month’s edition how the year had started with a lot of disruption due to a need to re-roof the workshop of the mid-Wales 12¼-inch gauge line. Unfortunately delivery of the new roofing material was delayed even further until late February, so I was without proper workshop facilities for most of this month. This did mean I could go and pick up the boiler of our 6-inch scale North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway 0-6-4T ‘Beddgelert’ from the Boston Lodge works of the Ffestiniog Railway, where it has been undergoing refurbishment, though this did then lead to some electrical work on the trailer as I discovered that the lovely sea air had corroded just about…

The water taps make use of readily-available quarter-turn ball valves. These are somewhat awkward to use, unless the ‘Loctite’ method is employed (tap a suitable thread onto a control rod and Loctite this in place). We don’t like this method for many reasons, not least because Peter has become unstuck (quite literally) when driving a friend’s loco with just such an arrangement. It is all too easy to attempt to rotate the control more than qurter of a turn (anti-clockwise) resulting in the glue bond breaking and the rod coming unscrewed. We therefore didn’t want to rely upon glue in this design. It is also not possible to silversolder (or even soft-solder) to these valves, as the seal is, in part, based upon a plastic seat within which the ball…