A High Precision Sundial – by Peter Rigby Introduction Prior to the development of the railways, different regions of the country kept their own local time, often different from Greenwich Mean Time. Although GMT had been established as early as 1675 for astronomical and navigation purposes, there was little incentive for this to be adopted Read more about A new Design for a Heliochronometer….[…]
They really do….! Member Roger Speirs asks ‘When you’ve stopped groaning, just consider this…. On miniature railway vehicles we need brakes and while steam engines usually have pretty adequate brakes of their own and lots of weight there is something satisfying about piping up to carriages and having a fitted train that will stop dead Read more about Vacuum brakes suck….![…]
Peter has been seen recently scampering around the track on a little blue ‘Firecracker’ which goes under the official title of a Scamp Mk4 (Lister Autotruck style). Our Roving Reporter managed to collar him long enough to get the story behind the build. Here in Peter’s own words is the background: Why did I decide Read more about Scampering Around…..[…]
Member Maurice Popplestone has been busy over the past few months building this nice vertical boiler & steam plant shown in the accompanying photograph. Our Webmaster took an immediate interest in this model as he has built his own compact steam plant some years ago & from time to time it has been seen in Read more about A Compact Steam Plant……[…]
Dave S. dropped the Newsdesk a line to say that he had worked out a solution an interesting challenge set (unintentionally!) by member Trevor: ‘Trevor asked me if I could help him by tapping out a steering bush to M8. When it arrived Trevor hadn’t mentioned that it was a series of different bends with Read more about Twister Tamed…..[…]
The Bathgate Locomotive Works Manager sent in this report on the progress with the boiler for ‘Maude’. The design is based primarily on the ‘Hermes’ with some detail from the ‘Dart’ & ‘Glen’ boilers. The wooden backhead was used to check positioning of firebox between the frames & the siting of the fittings. Read more about Boiler Progress….[…]
We left the Bathgate Works Manager mulling over how to put the flare onto the dome & safety valve covers. After considering a number of options it was decided to use a car body filler. This would allow the correct shape to be achieved through a mixture of filling & sanding. After extensive trials of Read more about A Flare For Domes?[…]
A recent digression into making a new set of front gates for the Bathgate Locomotive Works has meant that work on ‘Maude’ took a back seat for a short while. However, the Works Manager has been busy getting production back into full swing dealing with completing the design of the regulator fixing within the dome. Read more about Devil’s In The Detail…..[…]
David N. contacted the newsdesk the other day with progress on the cosmetic side of model engineering, namely the distinctive look all Swindon designed locomotives have on the top of the boiler. Get that wrong & the model will not look the part! ‘I attach photos of my Safety Valve casing for the Manor. The Read more about A Shiny Bunnet…….[…]
Last year David N. updated us on progress with his Martin Evans designed 5″ Manor class. At that stage it was ready for a tentative outing on the track having been successfully test steamed at home. The second lockdown meant track outings were curtailed, however now that things have eased our Roving Reporter spotted David Read more about Track ‘Manors’……[…]
