December 2014 - The Hutt Valley Model Engineering Society Inc

Blast Pipe
December 2014
From the — HUTT VALLEY MODEL ENGINEERING
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SOCIETY INC.
6 Marine Parade, Petone, Lower Hutt 5012, New Zealand
Email address - editor@hvmes.com
Website - http://hvmes.com
Patron
- Ian Welch (Mainline Steam Trust)
President - Claude Poulsen
Ph 568-8507 cnpoul@xtra.co.nz
Secretary - Gavin McCabe
Ph 567-4487
Treasurer - Chris Gousmett
Ph 526-3705
Editor
- Peter Anderson
Ph 232-4533
pjand@inspire.net.nz
and the
MAIDSTONE MODEL ENGINEERING SOCIETY INC
c/o 95 Holdsworth Av, Trentham, Upper Hutt
5018
President - Nathan Reynolds
Secretary - Bob Begbie Ph 976-9114 rbegbie@paradise.net.nz
Treasurer - Brian Hawke Ph 528-4938
Patron - His Worship Mayor Wayne Guppy.
Location - Maidstone Park, Upper Hutt
Blast Pipe is printed with one or two pictures in colour. A Pdf colour
version is available on the website (per courtesy Charlie Lear) or e-mailed
direct to members on request.
Christmas Greetings
We, together, extend our regards and our
best wishes for Christmas and for the
festive season to members of both
Maidstone and Hutt Valley Societies, also
to members at Maidstone MES UK, to their
families, and to ALL our readers. We wish
you all health, happiness, success and
good cheer at this time.
Maidstone MES Notes
- Bob Begbie
In view of problems currently facing
our hobby in obtaining coal fuels for
miniature steam locomotives I have been
interested to read of a new company
CarbonScape, seeking to raise finance to
build a pilot plant for manufacture of clean
coking coal for supply to the NZ Steel mill
at Glenbrook, Auckland. The report I read
was in the Wellington “Dominion Post”
newspaper for 27th October, page B7.
The report reads “CarbonScape uses
microwave technology to turn the carbon
in waste wood, such as that from the
forestry industry into carbon products in
just minutes. That technology has been
refined and developed in Carbonscape’s
Marlborough laboratory to the point where
the company can make high-quality
coking coal, the type essential to the steel
making process, in minutes.” We will need
to watch that space!
On Saturday, 1st November we
managed a very successful day run for the
local “Doris Nicholson” Kindergarten. All
locomotives used on that day were steam
Notice of Meetings
Hutt Valley MES
Meeting on the first Wednesday,
3 December 2014
at the clubrooms, Petone at 7-45pm.
Murray McKenzie on
‘3D Parametric Design’
We look forward to a few ‘Bits & Pieces’
on the table too.
Hutt Valley MES Committee
On the third Tuesday,
20 January 2015 at 7-30pm
(Not in December)
Maidstone MES
There is to be a BARBECUE on
Thursday 11 December from 6pm
at Maidstone Park Upper Hutt
Earlier this year William Taylor was taking photos on David Turner’s
camera. Here David is taking the Case on another leisurely circuit at
the Beach with some interested youngsters.!
Photo - D. Turner
*2*
powered. They were 7½”G Vale of Rheidol engine,
Owain Glyndwr owned by Peter Carr, 7½”G 2-6-0
John Henry owned by John Antliff, and 5”G Martin
Evans Springbok design
4-6-0 Gazelle owned by Bill
Philips. Those engines all
operated well and coped with
the traffic available. They
were a delight to the children
and were appreciated by the
parents who visited. We
achieved the best rides tally
we have managed for some
time. We are very grateful to
Peter, John and Bill who
brought in the locomotives
that were used, and to the
members of our society who
helped make the day a
success.
We did not operate on
the regularly scheduled
running day, Sunday 2nd
Nov. The weather that day
was not suitable.
We ran again on
Sunday 17th November
using our club TR 107 with a
reasonable number of rides
given.
1/10th scale, battery electric powered, radio
controlled. They are raced at speedway clubs around
NZ are full-on contact in the stockcar tradition. There
is a lap-scoring system to count the
laps and determine a race winner.
Future plans For December we plan 2 scheduled
Running days,
Sunday 7th Dec, (team 1), and
Sunday 21 Dec, (Team 2),
A special run from 10.30 am either
Monday 8th December or Tuesday
16th, the first fine day, for a children’s
group, Tiny Tunes, for about 50 under
5 year olds having a picnic in the
park.
Please note; PORSE will not be having
their special run until March.
Running sessions in January &
February 2015, scheduled before the
next newsletter are:Sunday afternoons 1.0 to 4.30pm
each day, weather permitting.
Sunday 4th January,Team 1.
Sunday 18th January, team 2,
Sunday 1st February, team 1.
We do not plan a formal club meeting
for December. We will have a
barbecue in Maidstone Park instead,
commencing at 6pm on Thursday
11th December, with rail running for club members
if required. The club will provide basic BBQ food,
sausages, bread and bread rolls, sauce, tea and
coffee. Members are welcome to bring any
supplementary items they wish for their own use. We
hope all of our members and their families will be
able to participate in that activity. Will club members
please confirm their intention to attend to Bob by
Monday 8/12.
No club meeting is planned in January 2015.
We, The President and Run Managers, Nathan,
Bob and Brian thank members of our society for
Top - The strange ‘arrow through the bottle’ by Ross Hardie to be
explained later - perhaps. Puzzlers aim to keep you guessing.
Left - Campbell’s model stock car.
Below - Lineup time before race commencement.
The Club Meeting was held on
14 November where we were shown
another of Ross Hardie's puzzles, a
wooden arrow passing through a
glass bottle. We will tell you how it
was done in the next newsletter.
(See photo at top of page.)
Campbell Rollo’s Photo
Contribution
The photo shows the car I
built and raced at the NZ champs a
few weeks back, on Sep 25. The
other is of the line up of cars before
the racing at the Horowhenua RC
Speedway Club. There were over 60
entries for the day with competitors
from Hamilton to Christchurch and
everywhere in between. The cars are
*3*
their courtesy, co-operation and
assistance in the year just past. We will
be grateful if that is continued. We thank
Hutt Valley MES and editor, Peter for
including our news in their Blast Pipe
newsletter. We do appreciate that
assistance.
Please all drive carefully and enjoy
the Christmas/New Year Holiday Break.
We will need you all fit and well for
2015.
Hutt Valley MES Notes
Guy Fawkes night did not spoil
our meeting but rather enhanced it with
the occasional flash and bang out on
the beachfront.
We commenced our meeting with
a moments silence for three of our
recently departed members, Ted
Barnes, and Charlie Oxley who were
noted in our last Blast Pipe, and Peter Wood who had
since passed on.
Roy Hamilton reported on the working bee held
the previous Saturday and stated that the Safety
Documentation is to be looked at for any portions that
need revision before an audit is arranged early next
year. Anyone with comment on this should be in touch
with Roy.
It was revealed that our big arc welder, required,
and not found, on the working bee day was found
carefully stored under one of our extra tables by the
filing cabinet. We are now looking for the chuck key for
the small drill press and some drills that are a whole
lot smaller so any help in locating them will be
appreciated.
David Grant-Taylor showed another one of his
prizes, an Ainjest high speed threading attachment for
lathe saddle control. A complex block of gear to set for
engaging and disengaging the saddle when doing high
speed thread turning.
Ross Johnson had a demonstration of his
experiment with a gas burner for the small firebox he
has in his Invicta. Early attempts to gas fire were
unsuccessful but the current version (about MkXV) is
showing promise as it is producing more radiant heat
Above: Ross Johnson’s photos of his experimental burner setup
explained in the text.
Below: This neat model in the NRM York, is of the broad gauge
2-2-2 for the GWR. It was commissioned by Gooch and built by
London craftsman John Clement (1779 -1844) about 1840.
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Photo - Claude Poulsen
from the gauze surround on the burner element.
It comprises two layers of stainless gauze
which he had sourced from the kitchen from a baking sieve. Ross lit the burner
up and showed how sensitive the setup
was to the gas/air mix, and the risk of
blow back when the wrong parts heated
up! (the reason for the protection sheet
below the gauze burner). He
acknowledged the help of Peter Targett,
David G-T, and Google in the
development of the current vertical poker
burner.
(In an email Ross advises - I am now
building a new version without the
“box” underneath and with heat sink fins
to reduce the likelihood of blowback at
the gas jet. With a bit of luck it might
be the one that ends up in the loco.)
Claude provided the main inside
presentation showing us how to cope
with a laptop that had a mind of its own,
giving warnings to spend up on the virus checker,
and to ‘plug in’ as battery is down to 14%. In fact
it was already plugged in, but the lesson to be
learned is that some of the new 3pin plugs with
anti shock plastic sleeves half way down the pin
do not always make contact in old sockets.
Back to the real power point, we got into
some of his pictures from this year’s tripping in
England, EU and Australia.
Claude was rather taken by the historical
Perth Mint, which is now a tourist trap in the city
and the exhibit of a ‘Million Dollar Coin‘
containing 1012Kg of gold.
A visit to the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage
Centre focussed on the Lancaster Bombers and
‘Just Jane’ is used to give booked customers a
taxi ride on the tarmac.
Blast Pip December 2014
*4*
The sawmill layout on its first belting up at the Beach. The pile of
reduced size timber is on the left.!
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Photo - D Turner
One featured picture of the statue ‘Gry’ (meaning
Dawn) Claude claimed everyone took a photo of, then
we did get onto photos of fire hydrants, model to full
size locos at the National Railway Museum at York,
including the ‘Rocket’ (replica), and a Chinese 4-8-4
KF7 #607 displayed in immaculate condition. Trevor
Heath was at the meeting and able to tell us it was built
by Vulcan Foundry and presented back to the NRM by
the Chinese Government.
We then got onto ‘The Savannahlander’ in
Queensland and some of the side trips associated with
the journey. The trip leaves Cairns on a Wednesday
getting to Forsayth at the end of the line on Thursday
and returns to get back to Cairns on Saturday. Claude’s
trip was one of the first for the season and there were
only a few people on the trip so they had personal
attention from the crew and hosts.
At the Track
Saturday Nov 1 saw a good sized group on the
site carrying out various servicing jobs. Roy Hamilton
was in charge and with Toby Wilkinson, Chris Gousmett,
William Taylor and Peter Anderson got all the window
grilles off for regalvanising and to allow painting of the
wood work. Ross Johnson got the yellow lines painted
at the station while Gavin McCabe, David Turner, and
Claude Poulsen renewed two short sections of track that
had serious dips in one rail where previous joints had
been welded. A water blaster kept William busy later,
cleaning the track
bed around the
station area.
Another small job
to make it less
damaging to the
fingers when
fitting the points
operating rods
was completed
too.
Sunday
afternoons have
been reasonable
over the last
month but there
have not been
crowds of people about, and traffic has been quiet,
but enough to still give us good reason to be down
there running our trains.
I was up at Maidstone on 16 Nov for their “3rd
Sunday” run and they do not have crowds to deal
with either. They do not have the advantage of a
playground immediately adjacent to their track and
the public cannot get their cars close to the track
now either, which makes it more difficult for them.
Pinehaven Sawmill
Sunday 16 November saw David Turner
running his Case TE belted up to his sawmill (named
by D T as above) and reducing 300mm lengths of
square timber into thinner boards. He now has
plans to lengthen the saw bed so that he can deal
with twice the present length of timber. This will
give longer demonstration times and reduce the
setting up and clamping time.
David explained that the sawmill design was
drawn up by Brian Rupnow in a much smaller scale
to be driven by a small ic engine. David scaled it up
to match his 3”scale Case TE and it is a good solid
construction.
On Sunday 23 we had a large visitor on the
track in the form of Ian Welch’s 7½″G version of
J1211, Gloria. (photo below) It has been on
survey, and this was the first outing since 2008.
Trevor Heath and Phillip Drummond were giving it a
trial run, and finding the injectors to be sluggish it
was only on the track circuit for a short time. An
*5*
Trevor Heath took these two photos of J1211 while it
was in steam at the Beach on Sunday 23 Nov.
Whangarei convention, and has also
bought the 7½″G Tagus from John
Heald.
It is surprising how many
people get busy and build themselves a
track at home as it is a big project for what
may be limited use. Great if it can be
shared with other enthusiasts.
More of Claude’s Tripping.
impressive sight never the less. The photos
supplied by Trevor show how well it looks as a scale
model. If it were not for the ‘unscale’ track in the
photo, it could be the 12”/ft version.
The Case traction engine had another sawing
session that day too.
Thanks to all who turn up on duty to keep the
wheels turning, and to those who visit and do a
spell to relieve the rostered members.
Railex
Everyone must have been aware of this event
as their advertising boards were on the side of the
road where ever you went in the weeks prior to
15/16 Nov. Murray McKenzie had nothing positive
to report, and William Taylor was attending with the
HV Model Railway club and may give a report at
some time.
I was advised that Alan Spinks
was there with his Brynglas on
display but had an unfortunate
incident when the loco was dropped to
the floor while moving it. The cab and
superstructure were considerably
damaged.
One of Claude’s visits in Western Australia
was to the Railway Museum at
Bassendean, Perth.
The electric staff instrument struck him as
something different as here in NZ we are
more familiar with the electric tablet
instrument for operating the token system
on stretches of single line. The machines
at each end of a section were stocked with
a number of ‘tokens’ and the collaborating
operators at each end could only release one token at a
time for the section. The driver had to have a token to
authorise his entry onto the section.
On these machines the staff had to be configured
to only fit the instrument at either end of the section it
was identified with. Having a stock of staffs at each end
allowed for a number of following trains and imbalance
of traffic over time.
The brass plate on the front is labelled
‘Parkeston’ which is a suburb 3km East of Kalgoorlie
and was the station where the gauge change from 3’-6”
to standard gauge was in place prior to 1970.
A WAGR loco preserved at the Railway museum
also caught his eye. Fs 460 4-8-0 was built in 1913 by
North British and withdrawn 1972. Initially classed as
‘F’ and the ‘s’ was added as they were superheated
about 1923. It is of 3’-6” G
Electric Staff instrument at the
Railway Museum at Bassendean,
Perth was something new for Claude.
October Steamers & Dreamers
The Manukau Live Steamers’
newsletter has an interesting article ‘A
History of Con’s Railway’ filling in
some points of interest to me as
Colin’s father, Russell Batt, bought the
5”G F class loco Henrietta built by Les
Fitt. I had run it on Les’s behalf for
several years in the early days of the
Auckland track. Colin has the loco
now as Russell has passed on.
The story is about the railway
Colin established near Cambridge
(where he was also involved with the
Cambridge Rotorua Live Steamers).
He has now shifted North and is reestablishing near Te Kauwhata.
Besides Henrietta, Colin has a 5”G Dx
petrol loco which we saw at the
Blast Pipe December 2014
*6*
too and shares some of the style found in
our NZR steam locos of the era.
Model Torque - Hawkes Bay MES
They report on a busy month in their
November issue as they have events on in
the adjacent park that brings the public out.
A Gypsy Fair on the Sunday of Labour
weekend and then a Teddy Bear Picnic early
November. They get country members and
visitors from other clubs helping with these
big events.
Our Claude Poulsen was up there for
a philatelic event and called by on 16 Nov
and experienced a ride on their track. He
reported on it at our committee meeting
the following Tuesday. He was also
mentioned in the Model Torque dispatches
Fs460 at the Railway Museum Bassendean, Perth.
as having made the visit.
highest ranked award for a persons' contribution
Claude was rather impressed by a swan nesting in
to the Meccano hobby and is awarded annually.
the middle of their boating lake and he was not phased
The Generator also features a substantial
by the fact that the track was ground level 5”G. and only
battery electric loco that has been purchased by
realised later that he was wound up a bit more on the
Robert Edwards from Grant Alexander. Robert is
lower seating level.
another person building a track at his home
The club Maid of Kent is reported as having
returned to service after more work being done on her by
Penfield Invitation to AALS Convention.
Graham Leabourn.
As there is no NZ Convention in 2015 it
They state, “This engine is now over 50 years old
might be your opportunity to travel overseas to the
and still performs her duties well, it is amazing that after
AALS event in South Australia over Easter all these years and miles that she has travelled she still
Thursday the 2nd of April to Monday the 6th of
looks the part and goes well.”
April 2015.
Helen Bates and Graham have been doing the
An Invitation has been sent to all NZ clubs.
Model Torque ‘Editor’ job and have been trying to get a
“Greetings from everyone at the Penfield Model
new editor -- to no avail.
Engineers Society. Convention fever is once again
rapidly increasing as everyone prepares for the
59th Annual AALS Easter Convention in 2015.
The members of Penfield Model Engineers
Society are again hoping to welcome as many
visitors as possible during the Convention. Why
not come along enjoy the hospitality for which the
Penfield Model Engineers Society is renowned.”
Correction Ross J has pointed out to me that in the
report about the 17 year old lady train driver at the
Riverside Railway in the November Blast Pipe I
mistakenly gave her the wrong name.
Her name is Ashlie McIlroy-Brown, and the
actual article in the Women’s Weekly was written
by Aroha Awarua.
Waitangi Weekend 2015
‘Generator’ Featured Model
The October issue featured the 1/12 scale D8
Caterpillar built by Bruce Geange with the above photo.
An article on the construction detail is being serialised
with more detail on the originals being added by Doug
Chambers.
In the next issue Bruce had his photo with the
Meccano Golden Spanner award he earned this year and
explained in the following information from the web - The
Manawatu Wanganui Taranaki Meccano Club Member
Bruce Geange has won The Golden Spanner Award. In
the Meccano world, The Golden Spanner Award is the
The 6 Feb next year is a Friday so there is
going to be another long weekend and it is our
intention to make it an event for our club with
extra track running and hopefully some exhibition
of models in the clubrooms.
We are not the only ones to be making use
of the longer break as the Manukau Live Steamers
have listed some special events for the weekend
including ‘Needy Family Day’ on Friday, and a
‘Phantom Day’ on the Saturday, with all comers on
the Sunday.
There has also been an invitation from the
Marlborough Club for that long weekend, not that
we want to encourage our members to go away at
that time!
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