Innehållsförteckning för Issue 4700 från Model Engineer

Introduction It’s tradition to take a gift when visiting someone for the first time and, like any gift, if a little thought and time goes into making it, it’s all the more welcomed. I asked my beautiful wife to bake a ‘melk tert’ for the upcoming master builder visit. This is a traditional South African dessert made from thickening cinnamon-infused sweetened milk – our tea-time treat. I have yet to meet a South African who doesn’t like ‘melk tert’ so it was bound to be a winner! I have met up with Leon many times at his first and second homes (Centurion Society of Model Engineers – CSME – and Rand Society of Model Engineers – RSME) but never where he lives! This abysmal oversight needed correcting and writing a…

Following on from my Urmston visit (M.E. 4694, 1 July), I made my way to the Stockport & District SME which is located in Cheadle Hume at South Park on Grove Lane. The club was first formed in 1946 so 2021 saw them celebrating their 75th Anniversary which, these days, is quite an achievement. Their first meeting was held at the Dyers and Bleachers Club in Tiviot Dale, Stockport on 30 August 1946 where twelve founder members formed the club. There are 57 current members (photo 1) and they have a good working relationship with their Local Authority which again is a very welcome situation these days. Today the club have an excellent set-up in South Park where a usefully sized members’ clubhouse has been constructed from a secure shipping…

Ron Collins offers an alternative copper boiler for Luker’s Ballaarat locomotive design. Continued from p.391 M.E. 4699, 9 September 2022 The second part of this series provides the details of the boiler flanged plates. There are a total of five flanged plates but fortunately the backhead and throat plate are identical in shape, and likewise the firebox throatplate and firebox backhead are also identical. The smokebox tube plate is a simple round flanged plate. The fabrication of the flanged plates will therefore only require three formers (fig 2). The former sizes are detailed on the drawings and it is noteworthy that the formers are 1mm smaller each side than the inside dimensions of the flanged plates. The reason for the smaller sized formers is that annealed copper will grow slightly…

Continued from p.321 M.E. 4698, 26 August 2022 Continuing the boiler construction Both parts of the boiler assembly were thoroughly cleaned and the inner fire box and tube assembly was fitted from the top and the rivet holes for the fire hole ring lined up so the spacer could be pulled up tight with bolts and nuts as shown in photo 70. The rivets were now added starting with the upper ones first, so the heads could be supported with a strong rectangular bar on the inside. This meant that the lower rivets would not get in the way but a couple of bolts could be left till last to maintain the alignment. I left the rivets slightly loose so they could move endways as this would encourage the silver…

Atmospheric Railway Roger Backhouse looks at the history of a fast, silent - but short-lived - Victorian railway. Concrete Sleepers Stephen Wessel updates us on the use of concrete sleepers in his garden railway and extends his methods to include pointwork. Annie Robert Knox constructs a 7¼ inch gauge version of the Lister petrol electric engine. Two Stroke Engine Patrick Cubbon takes two incomplete two stroke engines and uses the parts to create a single engine. Scotsman Sanders Peter Seymour-Howell continues the production of a set of steam and gravity sanders for his 5 inch gauge Flying Scotsman locomotive. Content may be subject to change. ON SALE 7 OCTOBER 2022…

Continued from p.400 M.E. 4699, 9 September 2022 Having given this some thought, I decided that the next job that must be done is to make the sandboxes as these will get rather difficult to fit as the build progresses. As these are fully working sandboxes and of two types – steam and gravity – I shall need a couple of ‘episodes’ to describe them. Sandbox bodies First, I cut up some wood to make dummy boxes to check for the fit and also to use as templates. These boxes were scaled allowing for my chosen materials to fit around them. The boxes were then made by folding up the sides of the boxes from brass sheet and silver soldering them to their backing plates. The angled faces to the…

Continued from p.339 M.E. 4698, 26 August 2022 We will carry on with some more of the frame stretchers and make a start on the steam brake stretcher (fig 30 and photo 65). This consists of two side plates which are 2.5 mm plate and the rest is all cut out of 16 swg CR4 steel plate. On the top plate is a little triangular piece of angle plate which is for the front damper and it also has a slot through the front flange to accommodate the rod which passes through it. The only photographs I have of the brake cylinder stretcher (fig 31) are from a colleague of mine who took some of it when it was in pieces being overhauled but they a bit blurry. Whilst you…

Continued from p.395 M.E. 4699, 9 September 2022 We’re now getting to the point where all the jobs I’ve been putting off for one reason or another now have to be tackled. I stressed at the outset that all the machining needed to be as accurate as possible and here’s a good ‘for instance’ as I set about drilling the fixing holes in the rocker covers and the corresponding 10BA tapped holes in the cylinder heads. There are seven radial relief features in the side of the covers that allow the screw heads to enter the clearance holes in the base. Once these have been machined the resulting web thickness between the inside of the rocker cover and the outside of the radial relief is only 0.0075 inch – that’s…

Continued from p.379 M.E. 4699, 9 September 2022 Item 1 - Base (Fig 5) Preparing the blank * Lay the blank on a suitably sized piece of good quality plywood about 6 mm thickness or similar manufactured board (I find laminate flooring ideal for the purpose) to protect the table. Clamp to the table adjusting the position if possible so as to allow a long edge to clear one tee slot and still be able to work on both long surfaces with an end mill of at least 08, with the best long edge parallel to the table edge. * After clamping, remove only enough to clean up the entire long surface edge. Machine the opposite edge to 120 ±1. * Remove the clamps from the end having the best…

Back in 2015 a gentleman called Colin Edmondson was in the process of designing and building a small petrol electric locomotive called Scamp to be used on seven and a quarter gauge railways. As it turned out his design was very successful and to date there are over a hundred happy owners out there, of which I am one. I own number 63 which I named Annie in memory of my late wife. Scamp can be obtained in either of two ways; it can be bought from CMD Engineering (I have no connection to this company other than as a satisfied customer) ready to run, in a colour and finish of your choice, or you can buy a kit of laser cut parts and a shopping list for the rest…

It now seems a long time ago that this series started. Mike Chrisp was editor of Model Engineer at the time and he published an article about Darlington’s Tees Cottage Pumping Station in 1999. Subsequently, four successive editors have indulged my taste for engineering travel writing. I am grateful to them all. The series reached the hundredth subject with the Centre for Alternative Technology. Some readers have been kind enough to say they’ve enjoyed articles and have suggested places to visit. Sadly, I’ve not been able to follow up all their ideas. Readers have asked how I can travel to so many places but my trips often fitted in with family or holiday visits taking in many places en route like the Forest of Dean and Papplewick Pumping Engines. Scotland…

This article describes the construction of a 1.4cc two stroke petrol engine utilising Milford Mite model aircraft diesel engine components, combined with parts from a second engine, both owned since the late 1950’s. Selected parts are shown in photo 1. The result of this project is shown nearing completion in photo 2. ‘Mite’ is stamped on the cylinder block flange and a Hall effect sensor is in place. The Milford Mite is described by Adrian Duncan in great detail (ref 1) and seems to have been judged as England’s worst ever. Its capacity is 1.409cc with a bore diameter of 15/32 inches and a stroke of 1/2 inch. The project incorporates the Milford cylinder block, cylinder, piston and cylinder head. Photograph 3 shows a production version of this engine. Crankshaft,…

Graham Astburylearns a lot about single-phase induction motors and describes ‘The long and winding road that leads to a 2-speed singlephase motor’. Continued from p.405 M.E. 4699, 9 September 2022 Sizing the capacitor: eight-pole speed The original 16-pole speed used a 10µF capacitor which provided 0.92 A to feed the auxiliary winding. Similarly, it provided 1.49 A to the two-pole auxiliary winding so, as it is now required to provide 1.30 A to the new eight-pole windings, it would appear that the original 10µF capacitor might be acceptable. However, Trickey (ref 13 – see M.E.4697, August 12) gave a method of determining the impedance Z of the capacitor as Z = V/ (I x Cos φ) where V is the supply voltage, I is the phase current and Cos φ…

Continued from p.371 M.E. 4699, 9 September 2022 I think that working lights add a little extra to a model of this kind and I considered using the later type lamp epoxy moulding, drilled out to take an 8mm red or warm white LED, worth doing. I took data from a recent article in Model Engineer about using LEDs and calculated the resistor required, which was soldered into the wiring and covered with heatshrink. They were fastened to the body carefully and the dummy conduit – a piece of 3mm brass tube – fitted into a hole drilled into the lamp side. The number, type and position of the lamps varies considerably from locomotive to locomotive so working from a photograph is a good idea. I could have powered these…

September 23-25 East Somerset SMEE Open Weekend at the Bath and West Railway near Shepton Mallett. See openweekend@essmee.org.uk or contact: Michael Malleson, 01747 860719 23-25 Llanelli and District Rally Pembrey Country Park, Llanelli. See llanellianddistrict modelengineers.wordpress.com 24-25 St Albans and District MES The Big St Albans Model Show, Townsend CofE School, St Albans. Contact: Mike Collins, 07774 125870 25 North Wilts MES Public Running, Coate Water Country Park, Swindon 11:00 – 17:00. Contact: Ken Parker, 07710 515507 25 York Model Engineers Open Day. Contact: Bob Polley, 01653 618324 October 2 Bristol SMEE Public Running, Ashton Court Railway, BS8 3PX, noon – 17:00. Contact: secretary@bristolmodelengineers.co.uk 2 Guildford MES SMSEG Open Meeting, Stoke Park, Guildford 14:00 – 17:00. See www.gmes.org.uk 2 North Wilts MES Public Running Coate Water Country Park, Swindon 11:00…