Innehållsförteckning för Issue 4698 från Model Engineer

Continued from p.197 M.E. 4696, 29 July 2022 Hotspur may be contacted on 01600-713913 or hotspurengines@gmail.com Designing the boiler Some years ago I responded to an advertisement in Engineering in Miniature which offered a kit for a vertical test boiler. The cost was not enormous but when it arrived the materials had been worked upon and some of the workmanship was poor, to say the least. In addition, there was no drawing and I felt somewhat aggrieved by this deceitful act but kept the materials as I was sure I could do something with the parts at a later date. So, having brought the build of the new oscillating engine to a successful conclusion and demonstrated it on air, I decided to unpack the boiler parts and see what I…

Jeremy Clements John George Robinson is one of the less studied locomotive engineers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries so this book about his most influential design is welcome. Although built for the Great Central Railway his 2-8-0 influenced other railways including some abroad. Robinson came from a railway engineering family and was apprenticed on the Great Western in 1872. Then he worked on the Waterford, Limerick and Western Railway where he achieved his first locomotive design in 1892-93 before moving to the Great Central Railway in 1900 as Locomotive Superintendent. The author gives helpful background to Robinson’s work there. It was an illassorted railway suffering from former chairman Watkin’s over ambitious plans. Working with the enterprising General Manager Sam Fay he had a hard task to equip…

August 25 Guildford MES Open Day, Stoke Park, Guildford 10:00 – 13:00. See www.gmes.org.uk 25-29 Great Dorset Steam Fair Tarrant Hinton, Blandford Forum. See www.gdsf.co.uk 28/29 Bristol SMEE Public Running, Ashton Court Railway, BS8 3PX, noon – 17:00. Contact: secretary@bristolmodelengineers.co.uk 28/29 Cardiff Model Engineering Society Public running, Heath Park, Cardiff 13:00 – 17:00. See www.cardiffmes.co.uk 28/29 North Wilts MES Public Running, Coate Water Country Park, Swindon 11:00 – 17:00. Contact: Ken Parker, 07710 515507 28 York Model Engineers Open Day. Contact: Bob Polley, 01653 618324 September 3 Southport MEC Small Gauges Day, Victoria Park 10:00 – 16:00. Contact: Gwen Baguley, gwenandderrick@yahoo.co.uk 3/4 Sutton Coldfield MES Federation of Model Engineering Societies Rally, Little Hay, Lichfield. See www.scmes.co.uk/rally or contact: Martyn Cozens, scmessec@gmail.com 4 North Wilts MES Public Running, Coate Water Country…

Continued from p.271 M.E. 4697, 12 August 2022 We now move onto the cooling system, where my first attempt at manufacturing a radiator proved interesting. I’m reasonably confident that I can come up with a machining process to produce most components that come my way; my fabrication skills, however, could do with a little more polish in certain places and when it came to my first attempt at manufacturing the radiator, soft soldering proved to be one of them. The last time I can remember doing any serious soft soldering was back on day release at college, well before the advent of electric soldering irons but when there were gas ovens on the benches to heat the solid soldering iron to the correct temperature, which was indicated by the colour…

This annual event is held at the City of Oxford Model Engineering Society (COSME) site in Cutteslowe Park in Oxford. I went on the Saturday of the three-day event and on a lovely warm summer morning the site looked immaculate; they must have a very dedicated team to keep this large area looking as it does. The club was already a hive of activity when I arrived and continued to be so throughout the day. The event was well supported by visiting clubs and members and, although it was not open to the public, the passing park visitors were able to see all the activities taking place. Of course, part of the main ground level line does run out into the park itself so visitors get to see the locomotives…

Continued from p.274 M.E. 4697, 12 August 2022 The existing windings The windings for the 2-pole speed had been arranged such that the main winding for the first pole used slots 1,2, 3, 4, 5, and 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 for one pole and a similar pattern for the second pole. This is shown in fig 11 as the blue coils. This gave the pole pitch as 16 slots (32 slots split over 2 poles) and the coil span as 11 slots. The coil span is defined as the average number of teeth enclosed by the coils – in this case the outer coil embraces 15 teeth and the inner coil embraces 7 teeth, giving an average of (7 + 15) / 2 = 11 teeth. This type…

Continued from p218 M.E. 4696, 29 July 2022 Initial thoughts on the split axle boxes As I mentioned previously, on the prototype, the bar frames and their associated wheels, axles and axle box bearings could be removed from the locomotive as an assembly, simply by removing four pins, and the locomotive could then be hoisted clear of the assembly for maintenance. Carrying this forward into the model would mean that the whole locomotive would have to be assembled in a similar way and, whilst it isn’t ever going to need to be carried out, it became apparent that the assembly would have to be assembled upside down, unless I could lift the locomotive up in the workshop to assemble everything! Therefore, it is easier to turn the locomotive upside down…

Continued from p.211 M.E. 4696, 29 July 2022 Well, we now come to the main event, the locomotive. The two different frame plates appeared in the 13 January issue of Model Engineer so we will now get on with the buffer beams (fig 25). The problem is that some have all the snap-head rivets showing but some are devoid of visible rivets. I haven’t noted the details of which have and which have not. However, as you can see in the photo of 61002 (photo 57), Impala is without, and so is Klipspringer, so I would suspect none of the first ten B1s had visible rivets. I also have a good photo of 61376 which is also devoid of any rivets on the buffer beam. However, lots of the B1s…

Continued from p.253 M.E. 4697, 12 August 2022 Sunday On Sunday bright and early in the steaming bay was Dave Mayall with his 5 inch gauge ‘Speedy’, preparing for the first run of the day. His locomotive has the Don Young valve gear modification and a coal wagon for water that has extension rods from the regulator and steam valves and a neat slotted rod coming from the pole reverser so the locomotive can be notched up on the run with ease. A ‘Speedy’ with its bunker in place is not an easy model to fire, hence the coal wagon. I first met Dave and his wife Frances at the 1995 IMLEC when he was running a Torquay Manor. He hasn’t changed much – still some laughter In his voice.…

Continued from p.231 M.E. 4696, 29 July 2022 Inside connecting rod I now made a start on the inside connecting rod. My thinking is to get the inside motion done first as it’s relatively easy – well, not in as far as the components are concerned but in relation to there being far fewer parts when compared to the outside cylinders. You may recall that Malcolm High (Model Engineers Laser) laser cut my blanks for me. I am in two minds as to whether this makes life easier or not – it certainly involves a lot less swarf but needs more care in setting up as you have no flat datum to start with. Forming the tonaue and strap I began by splitting the two parts, scribing a line down…

Continued from p.283 M.E. 4697, 12 August 2022 At the end of Part 1 of this article I suggested that there were two fundamental flaws in the metric system, one of which is down to the French surveyors who invented it and the other is down to human anatomy. In this part I will explore these issues and muse about what might have been. The flaw that is due to the French surveyors is their choice of their basic unit of length which is, of course, the metre. It is a most inconvenient length in terms of day to day use. I find that if I try to pace it out I look like someone from the Ministry of Silly Walks made famous by John Cleese. Its preferred subsidiary of…

Continued from p.259 M.E. 4697, 12 August 2022 Making the side panels For the side panels I wanted to capture the style of a five plank wagon so I used five strips of 12 x 30mm hardwood for each side. Figures 18 and 19 show the base side planking; the first row is dowelled to the birch ply base with hole positions shown on the drawing. Transfer the holes from the sides to the ply base board. It’s a good idea to number the parts front and back to identify where they go so the dowel holes fit to their respective sides. A small hand plane was used to prepare the edges of each plank adding a bevel, then cleaned up afterwards with sandpaper. Each plank was dowelled to its…

A long time ago, before the emergence of slot cars, there existed another phenomenon, the tether car or ‘spindizzie’ as Americans like to call them. For over a century, toy companies produced model cars to scale to resemble their 1:1 equivalent. Sometimes these toy cars were also made to promote the sales of the real car and of course how nice would it be if these model cars could be motorized. Often these first model cars used a clockwork or some electric accumulator as a powerplant. When however the first miniature internal combustion engines were built in the 1920’s-1930’s period, to power model aeroplanes, some people in the USA, tired of picking up damaged model aeroplanes, started to look for an alternative use of them in model cars. Small model…