March 2016 - The Hutt Valley Model Engineering Society Inc

Blast Pipe
March 2016
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. Webmaster - Peter Targett
Notice of Meetings
Hutt Valley MES
Meeting on the first Wednesday,
2 March 2016
Petone at 7-45pm.
A Ride on top of John Henry around the Mana
Ariki track, and some video of English Tracks
per Gavin McCabe.
And remember your contribution
for the ‘Bits & Pieces’ session !!
Hutt Valley MES Committee
On the third Tuesday, 15 March
at 7-30pm
Maidstone MES
The next Meeting will be on Thursday 17 March at 7.30pm
Maidstone Park, Upper Hutt
After 4years Gavin McCabe’s #66 was back for a run on our BEACH
track on Waitangi Weekend. A young enthusiast sits on the front of the
lead trolley. - Photo - Anderson.
Waitangi Weekend at BEACH
Thank you to all of you for what
ever part you played. With out
the camaraderie and effort
week ends like this would not
succeed.
I needed to go to the
Wairarapa on the Saturday and
I apologise for that, but, I trust
I kept your inner man satisfied
on Sunday and Monday. To
those who stayed for dinner on
Sunday evening, thank you. It
was a pleasure to do
something useful for you all,
and the very few leftovers was
also appreciated.
Being inside I may have
missed meeting visitors from
other Clubs, but again, I feel
sure they would have been
made welcome. There is not
much more that I can say and
Peter will have covered the
event well with his photos, So
once more WELL DONE CHAPS!
WHAT A WEEKEND!
We had a cracker of a weekend for Waitangi Day.
The wind was a bother on the Saturday but it was fine
and sunny and the public came. Sunday turned out
calm and sunny and even more public arrived. Monday,
Waitangi Day, still fine and sunny, and even a greater
number of patrons to take rides. So the weekend
turned out to be our second best Waitangi Week End
since we have run them.
Three things made this happen. One the
weather, two the excellent coverage in the "What's On"
section of the "Hutt News" and three, the effort and
time you all put in to make the week end a success.
With running on the three days between 1000
and 1600 we catered for a good number of
passengers but at no stage did we feel pressured.
Thanks to all members who committed to help on
the roster and to Murray McKenzie and his helpers,
who organised a display of model engines in the
clubhouse.
One of the highlights of the weekend was the
first appearance of Gavin McCabe’s #66 since its
boiler repairs reported earlier in Blast Pipe (August
and December 2013). My last photo of #66 was at
Claude Poulsen.
*2*
the convention in Whangarei in January 2012 some time ago. It is running well again, is a lovely
engine to drive, and certainly enhances our track
operation.
As usual there were some influential kids who
talked their carers into riding behind each of the
locos in service, and had them waiting for quite
some time. A steamer getting steam up could be
up to an hour. We were aware of one young lad that
was there for hours on the Saturday while mother
waited patiently in the car most of the time. On the
Monday it was father’s turn, and all the trains
including the jigger, were patronised again.
The jigger is Brian Hawke’s, and he brought
down to help with the show. Several of our
members did a round or two between trains as a bit
of a workout. My effort was a real effort as I had my
foot on the delicate footbrake pedal for most of the
circuit and wondered why the grade was affecting
the free running vehicle so much.
On the Sunday Peter Targett’s Dart and Paul
Barnes’ Florence had some more running. I have
been told that Dart’s water supply is basically not
held in the side tanks as they are just about solid, to
provide extra adhesive weight for the loco. No
wonder we never hear it slipping.
David Turner had some more good timber
cutting and riding sessions with his Case including
an instruction ride for a young guy who looks pretty
pleased in the photo.
The raised track did not see much use but
Chris Gousmett had Emma out for a spin and Elva
had a turn out too though its steaming was not up to
scratch. Speedy had a special outing too with Bruce
Edney trying it out for the first time, and finding it
very satisfying.
Hutt Valley Meeting Notes
- Editor
There were over twenty members present at
our February meeting and many were ready to share
information on their activity over the summer break.
David Turner had a series of photos of the
Tauranga Convention that were shown on the screen
and provided the background to his impressions of
David Turner monitoring his
trainee driver on the Monday.
Speedy with Bruce in charge is
in the background.
John Antliff’s laser cut sign and
Peter Moyes’ assembled leaf spring for
his Asia tender.
the event and others who were there helped with
some of the detail. Before we got onto that show we
saw, and heard, about some of the members’
workshop adventures.
John Antliff has fitted a laser unit to his CNC
router and had experimented with burning the surface
of wood to make signs. We used to do it with a
pokerwork machine but nothing like getting the CNC
going. To get the laser focus on the optimum he
burned a pattern on a strip of wood packed at one end
by a few mm. Bringing it closer to the laser head. The
clarity of the burn marks over the
length gave him the best setting for the
wood surface. The resulting sample
sign was neatly done on a piece of old
venetian blind as in the photo.
Peter Moyes had been busy on his leaf
spring production and had one of the
six assemblies to show us. A special
spring steel strip purchased for the
leaves came in a coil in a workable
state, and only had to be heated to a
moderate degree (250°C for 30 min.) to
correctly hold its harder state. The
illustration in the Dec 2015 Blast Pipe
showed the application for the springs
Paul Barnes with Florence stands in the North
Loop while Alan Spinks brings Dolgoch through
on the Mainline.
The shrubs have been decimated so the area will
look desolate for a while - particularly with the
parched grass as at present.
*3*
The 150mm dia.
Flywheel as at
the meeting and
installed on the
engine by the
weekend.
Photos - Edney,
Anderson, and
McKenzie.
James Fitzsimons’ photo of his engine as
it was at the meeting.
Left - Murray’s photo of one of the two
tables in the clubhouse displaying some
of the members’ work. The flywheel
spokes are blurred on the engines that
are running on compressed air.
on the sides of the six-wheeled tender for Asia. The
spring buckles have been fabricated as discussed
then, with the top of the buckle being silver soldered
in position.
Bruce Edney showed us a flywheel he had
milled and turned for an engine he was building for
the following weekend - our Waitangi Display. He
found that cast iron weights, generally sold for weight
lifting, were not machinable, having hard spots that
ruined the tools. Murray McKenzie had supplied him
with the material for the flywheel shown, and it did
many revs over the weekend.
Murray McKenzie had a Kemenche, (a small
bowed stringed instrument- coming from the Eastern
Mediterranean or Black Sea area) that he had made.
Murray has had a go at constructing every manner of
article, and this is ‘just another string to his bow’.
Ross Johnson had been preparing for his shift
and reassessing all his gear including two non
operational mantle clocks. He was given the advice
to boil the works in water, dry, then lubricate with
kerosene. A degumming process that could be an
answer to your problem.
David Turner recommended the local rifle
store as a source of a suitable brush for cleaning
boiler tubes. Various sizes are available for different
bores and calibre so have a sample bit of tube to try
them in.
Peter Targett had some more illustrations on
the screen showing the work done on Dart.
James Fizsimons had the aero engine he has
been working on to show the progress since last
meeting. He has been detailing his
experience of the construction on
the web and has given us the link
to his build diary.
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/
showthread.php?t=25022
It has been good to see Peter Carter and Toby
Wilkinson about at the club again after improvement in
their health, however, Toby had wisely tendered his
apologies for this particular meeting as it was his
wedding anniversary.
Maidstone MES Notes - Bob Begbie
We wish the best to our members, to members
at HVMES, to members at Maidstone MES, UK and to
our readers. We have had a good spell of weather lately
and have managed successful completion of both runs
scheduled in February. Takings were good, and we
thank the members who assisted with those runs.
We completed a good meeting to start our year,
with most members present. We established a good
practical list of changes we want to make and jobs we
want to complete as the year progresses. We will
monitor progress with that list throughout the year.
After the formal part of the meeting Campbell
Rollo showed some more more steam powered toys
that have been in his family for a long time. Items he
brought in included a Wilesco spirit fired horizontal
boiler, with an oscillating steam engine and separate
models of floor mounted workshop equipment that
could be driven by cords from the engine. Those
models included a hack saw, a dual wheeled grinder, a
table saw and a shears grinder.
He also brought a pair of No 1 gauge, (1¾”G)
two axle, enclosed rail freight wagons. Those certainly
Blast Pipe March 2016
*4*
added interest to the meeting. We thank Campbell
for that contribution.
In the last few days I have called in to see the
crew near now to finishing the laying of the new
tennis courts in Maidstone Park, just slightly North
West of our track layout. I reckon they have made a
great job. Five doubles courts, are being laid with
Astro turfed playing surfaces over a carefully
levelled concrete base.
The astro turf being used on this job consists
of 12 to 14mm long polypropylene fibre tufts
embedded vertically in an adhesive or hot melted
base skin about
2mm thick. After
laying the court
linings are painted
on the turf and the
turf pile tufting is
filled with sand to
within a couple of
mm of the top of
the pile.
I was told
the sand will be
vacuumed out
from the pile
periodically,
cleaned and
returned to place.
The courts have
been very well
finished with nets
and high netting
perimeter fencing
in place. The
literature I have
seen describes
the astro turfed tennis courts as
an excellent playing surface,
wear resistant and not subject to
water logging. I am sure those
courts will be a splendid asset to
Upper Hutt.
On Sunday 14th February
there were two fires on the
hillside behind our track.
Swathes of native plants and
small trees were burned in each,
from near park level well on up
the hill. The fires were
controlled by local Fire
Brigades, with assistance of a
helicopter with a monsoon
bucket. I understand that one
fireman suffered minor burns.
We hope no harm was caused to
any of the native birds or small
animals in the area.
Sunday, 14th was not one
one of our running days. So far as I am aware none of
our members was on site.
Track running sessions planned before the next
newsletter are, Sunday afternoons 1.0 to 4.30pm each
day, weather permitting:Sunday 6th March, Team 1
Lachlan Clark has a look at the
drive train on Brian Hawke’s
jigger when we had it out on
Sunday 14 Feb.
Note that he can still smile after
completing a circuit. He was
warned to keep his foot well clear
of that little metal strip near the
starboard bow.
Bill Phillips had a run at Petone
on Sunday 21 Feb with Gazelle,
a Springbok built by our late
member Les Burney. The
passengers are pleased when the
trains run in parallel. - and so was
the photographer (Anderson). It
all adds to the interest.
Sunday20th March, Team 2
Sunday 3rd April, Team 1 again.
Our Society meeting for March will be held
from7.30 pm on Thursday 17th March in our meeting
room in the Maidstone Park amenities building. We
hope to see you all there and hope to be able to
report progress toward some of the jobs on our list.
*5*
Derailing on our track - David Grant-Taylor
From time to time we have complaints of
derailing of rolling stock on our ground level track. The
majority of these events occur at the eastern end at the
entry to our “yard”. The events include, but are not
restricted to, one or other of our trolleys at the trailing
end. The derailing patterns occur in a curious pattern;
there are several events on a day, and then often no
more complaints for some time. We have not been very
good at logging the circumstances surrounding the
events, so it is not clear if the pattern is related to civil
works, rolling stock, or driver. Some time ago I worked
on the bogie of one of the trolleys that had been
involved, and found that the wheel profile was pretty
well correct, but the back to back (and therefore the
gauge) was a little wide. This defect was corrected and
the work logged in our system. After all that effort I was
somewhat surprised to find similar complaints levelled
against the same rear bogey of the trolley following a
new series of minor derailments. Although I am by no
means a perfect engineer, I judge myself to be
competent, and my measurement gear is checked
against very good standards. This suggests that the
problem lies in the track, or the driver. An inspection of
the track shows some damage to the nose of the
crossing indicating contact with either the tread or the
flange of the wheel. At this point I had a good look at a
full sized specimen (thanks to Silver Stream Railway),
and it shows clearly that the nose is pretty much
undamaged, and the wing rails shows the wear of the
tread occupying the full width (and a bit more) of the
railhead.
Bruce Edney taking water on Speedy at the station. Note the
feather of steam indicating no shortage. - Photo - Gerry Walker
the damage is that the back to back of the rail might
be a little low allowing the wheel set to shift across,
and the flange to strike the nose. This sort of
damage is more likely to be one sided as the flange
strikes the side as well as the head of the rail, and
there is no clear evidence of that. To attempt to clear
this up I measured the position of the guard rail. It is
a little too close (about 0.8mm) to the crossing, and
should be moved to its correct position at the same
time as the nose is repaired, but the error is too
small to account for the general wear of the nose.
At the moment then, I can’t really decide what
is broken, as none of our equipment seems to be far
enough off specification to account for the problems.
I judge the issue unresolved.
Above photo. Even a heavily worn rail preserves
the nose. And if you are worried, yes, the traffic on this
rail is out and return, so it is not a case of trailing or
approaching causing uneven wear. On the other hand,
a photo of our points suggests a somewhat different
course of events
Right photo. The nose is knocked down about
3mm below the railhead (and swaged outwards on both
sides), but the wear on the railhead shows the proper
pattern of wear on the wing rail, (across the whole
railhead). Gavin McCabe pointed out that a loco with
narrow treads (such a s a smaller locomotive simply
built to a wider gauge) would likely drop into the gap
and the tread will strike the nose. The picture of
damage is consistent with this. This is a little reminder
to you all to check that your wheels comply with
generally accepted standards. An alternative cause for
Blast Pipe March 2016
*6*
5.
The last hoorah by their
President, Peter Jones as
we gathered for the
winding up barbecue.
Below - Phillip Drummond,
Robert Edwards, John
Stent, David Turner and
Jack Still, appreciate some
of the finale goings on.
Photos - Anderson
Awards Listing From TMM&EC “Wheels &
Floats” news letter.
NATIONAL MODEL ENGINEERING CONVENTION
TAURANGA JANUARY 2016 .
The following is a list of awards, winners and
sponsors presented at the TMMEC National Convention
Dinner held at the Tauranga Rowing Club on Saturday
night 9th January 2016.
1.
First to Register Award
Presented to John Shugg of Perth, Australia, by
Murray De Lues, TMMEC webmaster, sponsored
by Trevor Chapman Life Member of TMMEC.
2.
Gumboot Award
Presented to TMMEC by Barry Glover of
Australia.
3.
Most Popular Locomotives.
Voted for by registered convention attendees.
Sponsored by Altex Paints Tauranga.
Most popular 3¼” /5” gauge locomotive.
3¼” gauge “Rob Roy” Michael Gibb
Most popular 7½” gauge locomotive
“Southern Belle” Mike Treloar
Presented by Bruce Harvey Vice Pres. TMMEC.
4.
Les Moore Challenge
Presented to Palmerston North by Shane
Marshall $1000 sponsored by TMMEC
Runner up TMMEC, - $500 donated to Nelson
Society Model Engineers. (a noble move - Ed)
Colin Burleigh. Best Non Steam Loco
“Galloping Goose” - Rob Wilson of
Canterbury
Presented by Mike Treloar Convention Sec.
sponsored by TCC Concrete Cutting and Core
Drilling.
6.
Best Electric Locomotive
#8 2-8-0 - Grant Alexander
Presented by Shane Marshall Convention
Coordinator, sponsored by Ingenious
Engineering Solutions.
7.
Best Diesel Locomotive
#4850 “Oakland” - Russell Prout
Presented by John Stent TMMEC Track Manager,
sponsored by Edmonds Marshall Lawyers
Matamata.
8.
Best First Effort in Model Engineering
Allan Foster of Auckland, freelance V8
engine. Presented by David Proctor, sponsored
by the Australian Model Engineer Magazine.
9.
Gough Cup. Best Road Vehicle
4” Showmans Engine - Wyn Hollaway of
Blenheim.
Presented by Peter George,
sponsored by
Sentinel Inspection Services Ltd New Plymouth.
10. Altex.Best Paint Award
4” Showmans Traction Engine - Wyn
Holdaway of Blenheim, Presented by MEANZ
President, Richard Lockett, sponsored by Altex
Carboline paint manufactures of Tauranga
11. Best Phantom Award. Ikon Engineering .
“Southern Belle” - Mike Treloar Tauranga,
presented by David Giles, sponsored by Ikon
Engineering.
12. Best Model of the Show, Canterbury Award
Model Bulldozer - Bruce Geange of
Palmerston North. Presented by Rob Wilson,
received on behalf of Bruce by Richard Lockett
General Comments -There were 15 light hearted Crunchie awards.
The Shunting competition was not held, wet
weather Friday caused a time restriction of activities.
Judges were selected using the reference from
the Award list supplied for Biannual model
engineering conventions. I am very grateful for the
willing assistance given to me by judges Richard
Donavan of UK. John Shugg, David Proctor, and Barry
Glover of Australia also Peter Anderson and Ian Welch
of Wellington.
-
Peter Jones Pres TMM&EC
Dates to Note
27 - 28 February Thames Open Weekend
5 - 6 March Palmerston North ‘Locomotion’
19 - 20 March Great Manawatu Steam Fair
23 - 25 April Hawkes Bay MES ANZAC weekend
The HVMES run at the track at Petone 1300 to
1600hrs on fine Sundays -- Welcome
Maidstone MES, Upper Hutt, running on the 1st
and 3rd Sundays of the month.
- Welcome there too.