Innehållsförteckning för July 2023 från Engineering in Miniature

Moving on to the cylinders of my previously acquired part-completed 3½-inch gauge locomotive, this is one area in which I wanted to follow the prototype closer. I have always enjoyed reading about the efforts of steam engineers to improve the efficiency of what are basically very inefficient users of energy. The last-ditch efforts by people such as David Wardale brought significant improvements right at the end of the development of the steam locomotive - efficiency could be achieved in the high teens of percentages with major mechanical modifications. A miniature locomotive that can consistently hit three per cent on the track will be guaranteed a podium place at IMLEC! Unfortunately the efforts of these last steam engineers were not able to stop the global trend to diesel and electric traction,…

Early locomotives hold a fascination all of their own, maybe because they are less well documented than later designs due to there being less original source material to refer to. Therefore when a detailed engineering study of such locos comes along it is all the more welcome, and this book certainly fits the brief. Produced only a year after the ‘Rocket’, Robert Stephenson’s Planet design is regarded as the world’s first true mainine express steam locomotive. Its design included many features that would soon effectively become standard fitments such as a multi-tube boiler and separate frames. With its derivative the Samson it became the first proper class as opposed to one-off design, used across several railways and exported. This is a highly detailed work that has clearly required a great…

Welcome to this month’s club and track news round-up and we start on a nice positive note courtesy of Donald Brooks, an occasional contributor to these pages but a regular in our sister magazine Narrow Gauge World. Since the mid-1980s, (Donald writes), the Moss Bank Park ME has been running trains along its 3½/5-inch gauge elevated track through a wood in the middle of the north Bolton park. Services were abruptly curtailed in early June 1922, however, when thieves stole all of the club’s aluminium track, causing an estimated £20,000 worth of damage and creating considerable media interest as a result. By mid-August the club’s dedicated volunteers had restored enough track to allow services to resume over a short section and in 2023, following much hard work, trains are now…

My plan for the build of my Foden steam wagon was to concentrate on getting the mechanical side completed and running before starting on the bodywork. This was partly to be in a position to play sooner with an operational vehicle albeit as a skeleton. The primary reason, however, was because access to the mechanics is considerably more difficult with the bodywork fitted. I had therefore hoped to introduce this part of the series with news that the Foden has successfully run on air, subsequently been steamed and gained a steam certificate. Unfortunately none of this has happened due to a number of significant setbacks described below. In order to maintain build momentum whilst waiting for various parts to be returned from Steam Traction World (STW) I have been assembling,…

Readers who get their copy of EIM immediately on publication will just be in time to enjoy this year’s Gala at the Littlehampton Miniature Railway, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the seaside 12¼-inch gauge line which opened over the Whitsun weekend of 15th-17th May 1948. The line is set to welcome two impressive visitors to its event on 24th-25th June. The 0-6-2T+T ‘Rosemary’, built by the Exmoor Steam Railway in 2001 for the Exbury Gardens Railway in the New Forest, will be running on the Sussex line, as will ‘Mad Bess’, the Penrhyn-style Hunslet that normally runs on the 12-inch gauge Ruislip Lido Railway (the two lines have been working closely with each other for some time and the quarter-inch difference in gauge is not an issue!) The two visiting…

Oil had been collecting in the mud-hole of my 4 ¼-inch scale Foden wagon, and I wanted to stop that happening, as that oil was likely to get into the boiler when removing the door, and no one wants oil in their boiler, it can lead to all sorts of problems. After a little investigation I found that there appeared to be three sources of this oil: 1) The trunk guides 2) Overflow/spillage from the crosshead lubricators running down the sides of the trunk guides3) Oil being flung from the crankshaft/big ends. I decided on a two-part solution. To deal with the drips from the trunk guides and flingage from the crankshaft, I wanted shields/guards, which would be attached to, but easily removable from, the trunk guides themselves, directing the…

“How do you put a large smile on the faces of a group of men? Give them a locomotive to play with.." Before cutting up our nice new shiny bits of frame steel we decided to make a mock-up of the frames in 6mm MDF to check our measurements (Photo 28). We were using 8mm pitch chain to drive the axles so the axle spacing needed to be correct - too far apart and the chain wouldn’t go on, too close and the chain will be too slack. In practice the chains did stretch a little but with the short pitch of 8mm we found that fitting a half link would take out any excess slack. Initially we used one of the many chain/sprocket calculators on the internet to find…

North Bay Railway Engineering Services, which has produced new-build railway locos in a number of gauges including a run of Bagnall ‘Sipat’ 0-4-0STs, is launching a new limited edition run of 6-inch scale boilers for the Burrell Devonshire road locomotive. The boilers are being produced in partnership with Adrian Nutting’s AN Engineering, which offers castings and drawings for the Burrell. Each boiler will be fully UKCA or CE certified. Boilers ordered now will be ready at the end of October or early in November and the cost of each will be £6995 including VAT, collected from North Bay’s Darlington workshops, though delivery is also available at cost. David Humphries of NBRE told EIM that five boilers have already been ordered, adding that the company can produce any boiler from 6-inch…