Weymouth and District Model Engineering Society

   The Newsletter   June 2008

 

Bird’s-eye View

Okay, so I confess that the ‘Bird’s Eye View’ is a little hazy this time as other commitments have kept me away from most of the events and steam ups in the past few months. However all is not lost as – miracle of miracles – others have had their eyes wide open and pens poised, just waiting for the chance to fill this newsletter. Neil Edwards, now an old hand at this game has provided the ‘In Steam’ report on the Budmouth open day and Robert Oldfield has written part one of his adventures down under – and just to get you in the mood, here is his picture to inspire our next turntable (Gordon take note!).   Len Watts has kindly provided me with the recipe for converting a pile of scrap into an amazing traction engine ….in a mere 28 years.  And last (but not least of course), Steve closes the action with his own unique brand of one–UP-manship.

  Well all this talent is good news, not only because it makes for a great newsletter, but because it means that this job will be a doddle for the new secretary when I give up this chair in the Autumn. Would all candidates form an orderly queue please!

 As I write, the rain is hissing down so it must be Garden Fete season – and Neil has asked me to remind you to check the events calendar and show up to help if you can.

In Steam by Neil Edwards

  Having two potential steam ups a month and a successful day at the Westham celebrations (with a nice photo in the Echo), we could fill the whole newsletter, but Neil has focused on on the Budmouth college open day  - so over to Neil:

With the feeder schools due to arrive soon, a prompt start at 9 was called for and enough of the regular members arrived to get everything set up. Little did we know what we would be letting ourselves in for….

 Until Robert arrived to steam the Wren, I was left flying the flag for the club using my Class 08. Our ‘patio’ area was soon swarming with older Budmouth pupils and we were able to give them rides until the first of the junior schools arrived. With a trainload of 10 older Budmouth kids plus Freddie acting as guard on Gordon’s driving truck, I set off and made many a circuit. I think all the kids preferred to be on the train than in lessons. Fairly soon the first of the junior school hordes had arrived and were wanting their turn. At one point I had just started off with a full trainload when Keith started waving the red flag in my face while laughing his head off. Having stopped the train, my quizzical look got no immediate response from him. When he had composed himself enough, I discovered that somehow Freddie and his truck had become detached from the rest of the train and was still sat in the station. Was it mischievous schoolboys or a phantom shunter at work? Who knows? Of course this caused much hilarity amongst the schoolchildren and red faces on our part. Safely attached again, we set off once more unto the breach dear friends (apologies to the Bard).

 This constant heavy loading soon meant the batteries were taking a hammering and after an hour or so, I gradually had to start reducing the load, eventually soldiering on with just 4 passengers. Robert finally arrived at 10 – he thought it was the normal steam up start time. Within half an hour the Wren was ready and I could take a break and recharge the batteries (literally).

  Both locos then ran continuously for the rest of the morning, apart from having to stop to recharge batteries or squirt some oil into the Wren’s cylinders every 2 laps as the lube pump wasn’t working. It has to be said that some schools were better organised than others, some just swarmed all around our ‘patio’ area while others were kept in a more orderly fashion on the grass and then led up in small groups when ready to have a ride. Thanks must also be given here for the assistance of some of Steve’s Sixth Form who were very useful at crowd control.

  Midmorning soon arrived and with it lesson changeover, for which we had to take a temporary break. Ants have nothing on that lot. One minute all is quiet. Then whoosh, where did they all suddenly come from? Mowing down a few dozen kids on the top bend would not have looked good. Then, as quickly as they appeared, they all vanished again and we could carry on running.

Lunchtime brought another forced halt in proceedings for exactly the same reason. The local seagulls certainly know when to appear – a thousand plus potential meals!! Then the fun started. I was approached by a student who wanted to borrow my driver’s hat. Knowing what kids are like and thinking I wouldn’t see it again I refused, much to her chagrin. She then approached Robert. His hat was then seen disappearing amongst a group of girls the other side of the school field. Oh dear. Robert somewhat sheepishly admitted that he never thought she would keep it ! Said hat was then seen being proudly worn amongst the throng. How he got it back is a mystery to some, but Steve made a timely appearance and Robert and hat were soon reunited.

  While all this was going on we were provided lunch – sandwiches and biscuits were eagerly devoured. The afternoon session then continued much as before, with both locos in near constant use. I became somewhat concerned as to how quickly the batteries seemed to be draining, even with small loads, and despite frequently stopping to recharge. Eventually we discovered that the old club charger wasn’t putting out enough juice and I was only charging one battery at a time. Gordon went home to collect his charger and after that I was able to fully charge both batteries without problem. Pity we never checked the charger earlier. I could have done much more running.

The highlight for me (and I think everyone else) was seeing the faces on the nursery children every time they had a ride (3 sessions in total). Their happy smiles said it all. They also presented us with a ‘Thank You’ card at the end of the day – it’s pinned on the club notice board. 

Eventually, 4 o’clock came and we were able to wind down and pack up. Tired at the end of a long but successful day. If only we could have charged……..

Coming Events

School Fetes

  It’s SHOW TIME! Please ‘show’ up to help if you can on

                                Sat 14th June – St Andrews School                     Fri 27th June – Beechcroft School

                                Sat 21st June – The Grove                                     Sat 12th July – Radipole County Primary School

                                Sat 16th Aug – Chickerell Carnival

 

Club BBQ

Please note that the original plan to hold this on the 5th July has been scrapped due to pressure of other events. We hope to set a new date in August.

 

Down Under! By Robert Oldfield

Look down. That's it, 8,000 miles below your feet, Model Engineering and full-size steam are thriving - in New Zealand!

  Having been lucky enough to make visits in both 2006 and 2008, I thought you might be interested in a snapshot of what's there, what's different to the UK - and, possibly of greatest interest, what ideas we might wish to ...err... "borrow".

  Now, there's an awful lot more that I missed. Trying to "engineer" being in the right place on the right day can only be taken so far - even with a wife as accommodating as Jenny! Main-line steam is a good example. There's an excellent enthusiast-run organisation with a representative fleet of locomotives, including several mighty J-class 4-8-2s certified for main-line use. British-built, I might add. Incidentally, when the loco alone weighs 108 tons and the track gauge is only 3' 6" (the same as South Africa, but for very different reasons) you've got a pretty impressive beast. Just think of a 'Merchant Navy' on steroids.

  But if main-line steam proved elusive,  branch-line steam is alive and kicking in the form of the Kingston Flyer, operated commercially by NZ Railways from the 1890s through the gold-rush of the 1930s right up to 1957 and now a "must see". Despite the quaint name, which conjures up images of the wild west and spindly 4-4-0s, this is a fully-functional railway. Motive power is from a pair of NZ-built AB-class 4-6-2s dating from 1925 and 1927 respectively hauling wooden-bodied steam-heated coaches dating from 1898. One of these coaches still has its travelling post box - "late surcharge - one penny".

 

  Now, those of you familiar with the WDMES turntable will know the effort required (before Gordon's latest mods!) to turn a 2 hundredweight Wren. The weight of an AB is 87 tons, give or take a shovelfull of coal. And the turntable at Kingston has no power assistance at all. Yet between them, the driver and firemen managed to turn Number 778 in just a couple of minutes, start-to-finish with nothing more than muscle power and a long plank. It must be the Kiwi grease they use on the bearings...!

  Fortunately,  'elf-'n'-safety hadn't taken hold to the extent that we couldn't take a look behind the scenes. There were a couple of nice Burrell traction engines peeking out from under tarpaulins, a Bedford lorry that had become a rest-home for spiders and a Heath Robinson style hydraulic crane with a huge cylindrical bucket for coaling the loco's rather impressive Vanderbilt tender. As the driver told me, ABs used to perform much better on NZ coal that the stuff they now import from China (sounds familiar!).

  Track maintenance was tended to with a small Suzuki 4x4 fitted with rigid bogies front and rear and linked to a pair of small flatbed trucks which carried the equipment. The bogies ensured that the whole thing stayed on the track while the Suzuki's road tyres did the propulsion!

  The route itself is spectacular, with a backdrop of mountains and a track which undulates (i.e. it is pretty rough!) from Fairlight, now in the middle of nowhere, to the hamlet of Kingston where the train used to meet the steamers on Lake Wakatipu, bound for Queenstown. The steamers no longer dock there - the quay is deserted save for a heap of rusting metal and a forlorn USA-built "portable" engine. But the challenge of keeping these two locos in working order means the spirit of adventure is very much alive.

  Smaller in scale, but not in spirit is the miniature railway. The geography of New Zealand means that they are pretty spread out, but this said every town of reasonable size seems to have a track, with some 25 or more organisations listed. Public parks and heritage museums seem to be the favoured locations and ground level the preferred format, sometimes triple-gauge - 3½", 5" and 7¼". Of these, 3½" ground-level may seem strange, but when you consider the large size of some of the prototypes perhaps not...

  We were lucky enough to meet up with the Eastern Bay of Plenty Model Engineers Society, who in terms of hard work & innovation really have a story to tell, especially since their membership is only 25 or so. Their site, now part of a public park, was reclaimed from a swampy area of the River Whakatane, which still flows alongside it. Imagine our track alongside Chesil Beach and you get the idea. The track itself is dual 5" & 7¼" gauge and is open to the public every Sunday morning. Given the small membership, it comes as little surprise that everything has been designed and built for low maintenance. The trackbed is cast concrete in a shallow U-shape (with drainage slots!) to which the continuously-welded track is directly fastened. In spite of the significant temperature variations, there is just one expansion joint. Being close to the sea and to save maintenance, exposed steel is either painted or stainless in the first place!

  The configuration of the track is a sizeable oval with a passing loop to the covered concrete & steel station/clubhouse building. There is also a tunnel which doubles as a carriage shed, with heavy steel doors at both ends. The radial steaming bays are raised for easy loco maintenance, with a massive beam turntable and ramp to the main line. There is no electricity on-site. Gas is used for catering and anything that really must have juice is battery-powered.

  But none of that is what really impressed. There are several points on the circuit, all to the most curious - and ingenious - design I've ever seen. There are no frogs or check rails. The dual-gauge track is welded at one end and simply slips into position at the other. I'm told that the design is Canadian and although it needs careful setting up, once installed it is maintainence-free. This simplicity means that points can be operated remotely with a small  geared motor and local battery.

  As at Weymouth, a normal "ride" is two laps of the track, and with several trains operating at once some method of diverting trains onto the station loop is necessary. But how, without the need for a signalman? The driver of an approaching train simply waves his shovel over a stainless steel post containing a proximity switch, some 50 feet before the points and the system does the rest, altering the points and confirming their setting with a connected colour-light signal showing the proposed direction of travel...

  As for the trains, well the first thing you notice is the very low footboards on the carriages, made possible by the cast concrete track base. The locos themselves are very large for their gauge and use commercial fittings and metric fasteners. BA fasteners and the like would need to come from the UK and would be expensive, so "use what you can get" is very much the order of the day. Same applies to machine tools, with a Warco being a more cost-effective choice than a Myford - and much better suited to the large components to be machined. But looking at the workmanship of, for example, the "little" 0-6-2 tank (bottom of page 2) doing the business it is clear that our colleagues "Down Under" are every bit as talented as the "Best of British".  Incidentally, this loco is based on a prototype which used to work at the Whakatatane paper mill if you fancy building one.

  Finally, having rambled on about land-based steam, I have no time left for the steamboats, of which NZ with its fjord-like coastline has quite a few. Subject to the Editor's approval, I'll cover them in the next issue. (Approved! Ed.)

 

Members’ Projects No 2 – “Watts” it made of?

  Last time I included a photo of the amazing Len Watts converted “brengun carrier” – well this time Len has given me the recipe that was used in its manufacture. Thousands will have seen Len and Milly’s “Miss Jodie Brown”, the freelance 3” scale Showman’s Road Loco at the Dorset Steam fair and other events. And some, like me, will have remembered some of the ingredients. But here, in print for the first time (I think), is the definitive shopping list!

  I’m not sure which bit came first, though I suspect it was the rear wheels – these are Bren-gun Carrier track bogies mounted on a Leyland back axle shaft. The front wheels were easier – though the chicken house they came from is not too easy to move now. And the farmyard yielded a lot more besides. The front wheel treads were from an old combine drive belt. The front axle from a tractor implement drive shaft, the steering gear once strained an electric stock fence and the smoke box door was a tractor pulley blanking plate. Even the farmer’s dog had to give up his choke chain for the steering gear!

  What about the boiler and fittings, I hear you ask, they can’t be scrap too. Well some, like the pressure gauge, whistle and water gauge are new, as are the lubricators and pumps, but the boiler itself is part of an old steam boiler scrapped at Herrison Hospital. The safety valve is from an old compressor, the fire grate is from an old Parkray, the main steam valve is an old ¼” ball valve tap and those drain taps are old Calor Gas valves.

  The electrics – this is a Showman’s Loco after all – are powered by a 12v car dynamo. The problem was that this didn’t look right so Len disguised it in …you guessed it …..a Hoover washing machine motor shell. And finally, Len’s unique tender is, of course, part of a quarry sand hopper – but you will have to come to a steam up or a local steam rally to see that!

  Without a doubt, Len deserves a medal for ingenuity and persistence and Milly Watts deserves a medal for patience – it did take nearly 28 years. But then, as Len pointed out, he did take time off for work …..and for restoring a few cars and lorries as well .

Bits & Pieces

Vive la France!  Here is a picture (left) of John Marks driving his Hunslet “Lady Jane” on a private railway in northern France. Just look at that amazing bridge! I gather Lady Jane behaved beautifully until the very end when the ash pan clogged up. I know the feeling!

 

An Invitiation: And you thought I was going to manage and entire issue without mentioning the Bath & West (where we carried 6,500 passengers in four days last week – see www.essmee.org.uk )! But this is and invitation to the club open days on the 19th July and the  4th  October. There is half a mile of dual 5” and 7 ¼” track and the new bowstring bridge (right) to try out -  it really is a fantastic drive. So if you want to bring a loco and try out the track, or bring a traction engine to drive round the showground roads, then let me know and I will book you in.  

Scrappy Jackson: Rumour has it that a certain member is thinking of giving up his work in defence systems to become a full time scrap man after lugging the contents of the late George Ellis’ might-come-in-useful metal collection up to the Granby!

Google Images: Most of us are used to Googling for references on the internet, but have you tried Googling for images? Go to www.google.com and click on images at the top of the page – it will find pictures of your favourite loco, railway, boat etc. etc. Amazing!

Allgood things….come at the end…

  The word UP is a great one to be used in a suitable context.  For instance:-

  Steam UP.  We have had some really great ones recently and I would like to thank all for their support and friendly chat. The weather could have been kinder on occasions but the sight of a loco in steam in the rain is so much more “atmospheric” – the exhaust steam appears so much “whiter” and with twice the quantity.

  Clean UP. The clean up at the back and around the garage was extremely successful and what we didn’t take to the scrap-yard, Weymouth tip or Bones’ tip, got neatly buried under a pile of sand.  It’s a bit like sweeping it under the carpet!!!  (psst  if you don’t tell anyone – I won’t either.  Mum’s the word).  Anyway it looks so much better – thank to those that helped or made the tea or just watched and added moral support by adding comments such as “you missed a bit there Steve” – I always find that so helpful!

  Had the turntable UP.  What a difference!! ‘nuff said.  Thanks Gordon (and anyone else - I am not sure). Brilliant job - well done!

  We are building UP to a move. Still not sure of any major details but I am told that we really WILL see things happen over the school / college summer holidays.  I believe the plan is to move and realign the tennis courts and the netball courts within the six week break. I guess we will just have to wait and see - but it will then give us a very clear idea of what land becomes available over on that western boundary.

  Please help to bolster UP our funds by supporting the weekends in June / July at the various Junior School steam ups.  They should be a good mixture of hard work, setting up followed by hard work packing away.  Oh I almost forgot the serious bit in the middle - giving exciting steam rides to hundreds of screaming little kids for a few hours.  Sounds a bit like my day job!!!!  Call this a hobby?

And finally - being UP all night recently with a severe dose of “deli belly”. I am sorry I missed the last steam UP but I was UP all night with a very UPset stomach.  I don’t know what I had eaten but my insides were churning Upside down.  To miss Saturdays steam UP was a great Upheaval to my plans but such is life…you have to take life’s UPS and DOWNS!!

  We have a great little club and thanks for putting into it what you do. If you didn’t there would be nothing to take away from it each time we all meet!

  Meanwhile back to the workshop…….I have some cleaning UP to do……!!

Keep making the swarf.

Steve (chairman)

 

 

Club website:      www.weymouth-dmes.co.uk

Secretary and Editor         chrisbird500@btinternet.com