Table of contents for Issue 4711 in Model Engineer

Martin Evans can be contacted on the mobile number or email below and would be delighted to receive your contributions, in the form of items of correspondence, comment or articles. 07710-192953 MEeditor@mortons.co.uk IMLEC 2023 Entries are invited for this year's International Model Locomotive Efficiency Competition, to be held this year at the Bristol Society of Model and Experimental Engineers at their Ashton Court track from the 7th to the 9th of July. Organiser Rob Speare provides full details of the competition and how to enter on the next page. Skegness In this issue, Mark Smithers begins his exploration of the history of the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway (LCLR), which ran from 1960 to 1985, providing a means of travelling from the bus station in Cleethorpes to the nearby Humberston Fitties…

Mark Smithers features a light railway that recently celebrated its 60th anniversary. The Lincolnshire coastal town of Skegness may be best known by most readers for the pioneering Butlin's Holiday Camp of 1936 and its Jolly Fisherman mascot of 1908 but it is also home to one of the gems of British narrow-gauge railway heritage. The story of this line goes back to 1960 when a group of enthusiasts rented a strip of land from Grimsby Rural District Council to construct a railway in North Sea Lane, Humberston near Cleethorpes from the local bus station to Humberston Beach Station, near to Humberston Fitties holiday camp. A ready source of rails, locomotives and rolling stock was available in the form of the lately-closed Nocton Estates Railway which had some ex-WWI War…

HIT AND MISS Continued from p.262 M.E. 4710, 10 February 2023 Flywheels The flywheels are straight forward. One hiccup was a defect on the rim of one of them (photo 56), which was too deep to machine out. It was promptly replaced by the suppliers (all businesses have problems. I rate them on how well they respond to them. Full marks here). I machined them on the face plate, which stops a lot of ringing, which often occurs when turning flywheels (photo 57). They are held in place on the crankshaft with gib keys, which work well if everything is a good fit. There's no drawing for it but there should be a pulley for a belt. This is what I came up with (photo 58). It's bolted, with three…

February 26 North Wilts MES Public running at the Coate Water Railway, 11:00-17:00. See www.nwmes.info March 2 Sutton MEC Bits and Pieces evening 20:00. Contact: Paul Harding, 0208 254 9749 2 Warrington and District MES Natter night, St Mary Magdalene Church, Appleton Thorn, 20:00. See www.wdmes.org.uk/events 5 North Wilts MES Public running at the Coate Water Railway, 11:00-17:00. See www.nwmes.info 7 Taunton Model Engineers Meeting, Stoke St. Mary village hall with Dave Morris, 19:30-21:30. See www.tauntonme.org.uk 10/11 National Model Engineering Exhibition Harrogate show ground. More details to follow. 11/12 Midlands Garden Rail Show Warwickshire Event Centre. See www.meridienneexhibitions.co.uk 12 North Wilts MES Public running at the Coate Water Railway, 11:00-17:00. See www.nwmes.info 12 Sutton MEC Track Day from noon - 16:00. Contact: Paul Harding, 0208 254 9749 15 Bristol SMEE…

Last year saw the inauguration of the Bradford Cup, to be awarded to the author of the best article or series, by popular vote, published in Model Engineer during the previous year. Last year’s winner was Mike Tilby, for his series on steam turbines, who was presented with the cup at the National Railway Museum, York, by Graham Astbury, representing the Bradford Model Engineering Society.The organisers again invite nominations for the award of the trophy, to be submitted to the editor of Model Engineer by the end of March 2023, which should relate to articles published in Model Engineer during the year 2022. Readers will then be invited to vote for one of the top three nominations. Submissions should include the following: The author’s name; The title of the article…

Continued from p.291 M.E. 4710, 10 February 2023 If you are keeping up with things, the author, having completed Bluebell with his dad, began building Rob Roy as a solo project and discovered that a lathe was an essential tool for the job. Purchasing an elderly round-bed machine from Bob Douglas, together with a host of tools and accessories, he was invited to drive Bob's traction engine and discovered their three-step plan in the process. Receiving an invitation from Nick, his stool-fighting friend, he began to attend the weekly gatherings of the Uckfield Model Railway Club, where a big announcement was about to be made. A positive result July 1983 and the long school summer holidays had finally arrived. For the past few Monday evenings, I had accompanied Nick to…

The idea of a Gauge 1 layout at the Birmingham SME was first conceived in around 2000 and consisted of just two basic ovals. Over the years this has been extended a number of times, into what you see today. We now have the original ovals supplemented by steaming bays, sidings and a long loop of approximately 90 metres going out into the 'countryside', which we know as the 'Forest Loop ' extension. All this has required the addition of a total of 18 points, to control the various routes and, given the walking distance involved and in deference to the age of most members, some thought was given as to how we might remotely control them. We looked at point rodding (but the distances involved were too great), 12V…

Continued from p.229 M.E. 4709, 27 January 2023 Now, did you know that the first forty B1s were built on Gresley V2 wheels? As far as I know they were on those wheels for the rest of their lives so if you want to be getting on with your B1 you can use the V2 wheels - well, that is if you want to build one of the first forty. The thing is that the V2 wheels have a small 'V' rim so I had a word with Phil at Blackgates to ask him if his V2 wheels had that little 'V' rim but he said no, so you will have to choose which you want - either the ones without the ‘V' rim or build an engine from 61040…

Published by Faber, 2022 ISBN 978-0-571-35421-4 £18.99, 344pp, hardback Fundamental to science and engineering, measurement is essential for understanding the world. Its purpose was summarised by Lord Kelvin: 'when you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers you know something about it'. This is not a book about measurement in engineering - for that see Simon Winchester's Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World (2018). Instead here is a fascinating account of measurement evolution, its uses and sometimes abuses. Measurement began at least 30,000 years ago. The importance of measures was shown in the burial of the Egyptian architect Ka around 1400BCE whose funerary possessions included a folding rule. Babylonian legal codes heavily punished those giving short measure. Bronze Age weights showed remarkable consistency…

FLYING SCOTSMAN Continued from p.259 M.E. 4710, 10 February 2023 Outside rods On to the outside connecting rods, which start as laser cut blanks. These are the longest of all the motion parts and they are fairly slim too so I needed my trusty jig (block of solid steel) again plus another 1/2 inch thick section bolted to it to give me a large enough supporting platform. Using the jig means that I can do all of the machining exercises without needing to reset/ clock the part. Once bolted to the jig via its little/big ends (6 mm and 8 mm respectively), for which the points on the jig have been plotted square to all axes, life becomes a lot easier. The first machining job was to drill both the…

Being amongst the beautiful scenery of southern Lakeland it is hard to believe this was once an important industrial area. Lovely Tarn Hows exists largely as the result of a dam built to provide water to a sawmill. Many woodlands were coppiced, providing wood for charcoal burning. That charcoal fuelled local iron smelting and gunpowder manufacture while local water powered woollen mills and wheels that provided blast for furnaces. Now, almost nothing remains of those industries. The last charcoal iron furnace at Backbarrow closed in 1921. Just one bobbin mill, Stott Park (photo 1) survives of nearly a hundred once working in the Lake District. Unlike many English Heritage properties, this one has retained its atmosphere and visiting now it's possible to imagine that the workmen have just left. It…

This year is the 50th Anniversary of the Bristol Society of Model and Experimental Engineer’s track at Ashton Court. As part of our celebrations, BSMEE is hosting this year's International Model Locomotive Efficiency Competition (IMLEC) across the weekend of the 7th to 9th July. We are looking forward to this event and anticipate a good turnout, including welcoming many friends who regularly attend the IMLEC venues. This will be the seventh time we have run the event; the last time was 2009. Drawing many top drivers and locomotives, the premise of the competition is to haul a chosen load of passengers on a continuous run, lasting roughly 30 minutes, as efficiently as possible. A coupled dynamometer car, newly constructed for this event, will record the drawbar pull and distance covered,…

Continued from p.269 M.E. 4710, 10 February 2023 The tender was designed to be as faithful to the full size as the locomotive itself. There was no provision for a hand pump and no axle pump on either the engine or tender. As designed the only way to feed water into the boiler was via the two injectors, as for the full size. To certify the engine to run in public it would need to have at least three ways to feed water into the boiler, so I decided that rather than spoil the appearance of the tender I would provide a separate water tank and pump with a copper through pipe under the tender for a pumped feed, while the water in the tender would supply the injectors. Photograph…

GRASSHOPPER All dimensions are in mm Tolerance for all parts in the article unless otherwise stated: Non-functional (i.e parts that do not fit all match) ±0.1mm Functional (i.e parts having to match) ±0.02mm Continued from p.279 M.E. 4710, 10 February 2023 Item 26 - Connecting Rod - (fig 44) 12 × 12 6082 Aluminium * Face off the ends of the 12 × 12 square blank, bringing it to 92 long. Centre drill one end. * Scribe lines around the four sides of the square 12 and 62 from one end. * Hold 8 length of the plain end, either in a four-jaw independent chuck setting to run true or if you're lucky a four-jaw self-centring chuck, supporting the overhang with a running centre. * Grind up a tool in…

Roger Brown says forget clockwork radios - steam is the way to go. Imagine squatting in the belly of an un-armed small plane or a lone bomber one dark night as it droned slowly over the English Channel towards enemy occupied France, or crossing the North Sea to enemy occupied Norway; ultimately knowing that the ground beneath the aeroplane would be occupied by enemy troops and alert anti-aircraft guns. A flashing light from the ground would indicate that it was time for the agent to jump; often into the unknown. Descending with the agent would be another parachute with essential supplies for the Resistance and, at the last moment, the agent would glimpse the trees and bushes or rocks and ice rushing up to him in greeting. Quickly avoiding the…

Progress on 4709 has been steady throughout 2022 so we thought it time to give an update on some of the items that have advanced. Following the successful casting and machining of the new cylinders for 4709, the next operation was to start the front-end assembly. The extension frames from donor engine, 4115 have been refurbished and machined and are now ready to be assembled with the cylinders. In August a small group of the 4709 team attended Tyseley Locomotive Works to check on current progress and to enable them to plan the next steps. The fully machined cylinders have been turned upside down and bolted together, following in the traditional Swindon method of assembly. This makes the job of fitting the extension frames easier. A full set of CNC…

Incoming! This missive, or billet-monde, has been brought to you, Dear Reader, by TheasPub Artificial intelligence Writing Systems of Sheffield, Tomorrow's Technology oday, oday, oday, oday… Error! Emergency, Shut Down, Restart in safe mode… In amongst the China tea services, furniture and clocks of the onion patch that is Sheffield Auctions nestled a lonely little Petunia, a Bowman stationary steam engine (incomplete), guide price £2030. Bowman produced these machines between 1927 and 1936 (www.tcawestern.org/bowman.htm). My own stud of 'locomotives', the Bolide and Deborah the shunter, will shortly be joined by another form of transport, a bogie powered by my Luggie mobility scooter. The idea only exists in my head at the moment but I have almost all the parts required to make a start. It shouldn't take long. (Hollow laughter…