Member postings for Diane Carney

I have received the following notice from Rochdale SME:-

I have, unfortunately, to report that a member of Rochdale Model Engineers has had a model stolen from his garage on Saturday night /Sunday morning

The details are as follows:-

Model Butch
Gauge 5 inch
Colour Midland Red
Boiler Number 625/759

The crime has been reported to Greater Manchester Police and the Crime number is 041488T/16

At the same time an unfinished tender for Virginia was also stolen. This was awaiting painting and was in bare brass.

Please be vigilant. If you would prefer not to contact the police please contact the editor in the first instance.

Thank you for your help.

Diane

It is Michael - and isn't it an interesting piece of history?

Thanks for that but it was more the model by Mr. Jarvis I am interested in finding.

Diane

This is an enquiry about a model made by a retired electrical engineer, Mr. R. Jarvis that was featured in the 'Engineering Science and Education Journal' (no longer published) in December 1996.

Mr. Jarvis had done some research and made a model of Robert Davidson's primitive electric locomotive 'Galvani'. Davidson was a chemist and yeast manufacturer in Aberdeen. No patents were taken out for his inventions as he believed people should benefit from the power of electricity. His locomotive was tested in Scotland in 1842, running at 4mph, but was subsequently broken up by workers fearful for their jobs.

Ahs anyone any idea of the whereabouts of the model of 'Galvani'?

Any assistance will be welcome.

Thanks
Diane

We might start a new feature: 'One Man and his Quartering Jig'

Duncan, we don't 'insist on redrawing everything' for the sake of it, I promise you! Drawings are redrawn to bring them up to publishable standard. In fact, 'redrawn' probably isn't the correct term; 'copied' or 'traced' would be more correct. Original drawings are hardly ever changed in essence unless we spot an obvious error. As proof readers we tend to check primarily for faithful reproduction.

I will ask TH to have a look at this and report back.

Diane

It was nice to see that having a lathe in the living room is nothing new then...

Diane

In reply to Ketan:

So why are these articles increasing in the ME? Does that magazine not have enough articles to stand on its own?...

'These articles' are not increasing. As you acknowledge later in your post, there has always been a scattering of Workshop Topics in M.E. Model Engineer readers practise the craft in their workshops and are interested in advice and tooling that will help them along. They may find MEW unpalatable (no disrespect inteded, Neil) because their passion is for making models but would be interested in anything that may improve their tool grinding capabilities, for instance. There is room for such features in M.E and there always has been.

As a side note: There happens to be an article on a CNC machine in the latest issue of ME..another beginners experience. It is in the wrong magazine, and it could have done with a bit of editing.

It isn't in the wrong magazine. Very few MEW readers are at the level this article is aimed at. This is very clearly written for model makers who have heard about CNC - maybe even read about it - but found it to be completely alien and yet they are interested in finding out what it's all about from a complete standing start. As the article develops it describes how to use CNC for ... model making.
Similarly, John A Stewart's new (occasional) series is written for model makers rather than those who want to master CNC for its own sake. That's why his article is also in M.E.

... which needed clarification, correction in certain places as there are mistakes, and shortening in certain areas (this bit is matter of opinion).

The editor's decision was to leave it more or less as written simply because the readership for whom it was written are those who know nothing about CNC and what goes before it. If it needs correction the editor (who knows nothing) would be happy to recieve it.

I would respectfully request that editors try to consult effected seller/s of such products (such as me) for clarification of facts, before publishing.

Hmmm. Shall I send you the next instalment for proof reading? By all means send me your comments and if there are serious concerns, Ketan, I am happy to publish them. (I have already had an ear bashing from JS!!)

I am aware that when David Clark was running the show, he was overwhelmed with a variety of duties, and inundated with emails in addition to his illness, which resulted in a lack of or haphazard response to many potential responders to the call to action. I would suggest that such responsibilities are better shared now, so that the response - yes or no will be there from the editors concerned.

Believe me ... the editors have a lot more on their plates now than they ever did - but that's just the way of the world, isn it? It is certainly working better having one editor responsible for each title but the workload is ever increasing. (There's a clue on the contacts page at the front of the magazines. How many phone number do you see?)

Diane

The little Pacific looks lovely, Dave. Did you manage the lining okay?
Have you got any nice photos for the Gallery pages of Model Engineer, perhaps? And a bit of background to the model? Was it quite old?

Diane

Beautiful workmanship as always Jason. A lovely engine, nicely photographed too. I very much look forward to seeing it at Brooklands and to starting the series.

What's next?

Diane

I love it when people are perfectly happy. Thank you

Diane

This must be about the most unscientific science there is becasue LNER Apple Green (or whatever) only exists in a few people's memory (and getting fewer!). The pigments no longer exist, the colour photographs of the day are extremely rare and are now not at all representative and, as others have stated, there were many different Apple Greens. If I were painting an engine in LNER Apple Green I would paint it to look how I think it probably should have looked and if I liked it - it'll do.
Very fortunately we have to locos here (Clarkson's original V2 and B1) that were painted (and beautifully lined and lettered by hand) in LNER Apple Green by a gentleman who owned them for a while before us who was old enough to remember what the colour looked like so they are probably as near as anyone is ever going to get. But there is no RIGHT colour. It's all just round the corner of our minds ...

Why do you ask, can I ask?

Diane

An opportunity, perhaps, to remind everyone that we pay £50 per printed page for your designs and ideas. If you have designed/ made something that has not been published before or is an adaptation of an existing design - be it a small item of tooling or an unusual attachemnt for a machine tool - why not share it with Model Engineer readers?

Diane

I have just received an communcation from BBC Two. They are researching for a brand new BBC Two series called Britain’s Most Spectacular Backyard Builds, which is celebrating Britain’s most passionate inventors, makers, engineers and tinkerers.The text of the email is copied here:-

We’re looking for a variety of people to take part. This is a programme for anybody who loves to create their own inventions, whether that be an 8 year old science fanatic, or an 80 year old hobbyist inventor, we want to find the most passionate and creative backyard builders.

Up and down the country, extraordinary things are being made, from back garden rollercoasters to homemade helicopters. They are built with passion and created with purpose and now BBC Two are delving into their world to document the most passionate and most magnificent makers in the UK! This is a celebration of engineering, invention and innovation and this is a great opportunity for hobbyist inventors, engineers and makers across the country to take part in something magnificent.

Do you have a friend who is always tinkering away in their garden shed, developing and making unique creations?

I would be very grateful if we are able to help us spread the word as our casting period is only open for one month. Filming for the series will take place between January - March 2016 and those who take part will only be required for between 1 to 4 days.

---

As always, I'm not sure the BBC quite understands real model engineering and that might not be quite what they are looking for - but it might be an opportunity for someone to showcase some real craftsmanship. I would encourage anyone willing to give it a go to contact them - or if you would prefer to go through me, drop me a line. I would be happy to help.

Email the team on [email protected]
**LINK**

Diane

Following some research today there will be a comment about this in Smoke Rings, issue 4521 (30th October) but in light of this discussion I may post something earlier than that on this thread.

Diane

Without a doubt this engine will be featured in the pages of Model Engineer! We will let you know, on this thread, when it is due to start.

All Stew's models are a great asset to the magazine and are appreciated by many readers.
Why stop at three...?

Diane

There has been a lot of interest in this article and I am please to say that there will soon be a follow up article that will, we hope, give more of the details you are looking for.
I also found the article thought-provking. I did have disussions in the past with another contributor on the same subject but, for copyright reasons, it was not possible to go ahead with the article as presented so it was 'grate' that it raised its head again.

It led me to thinking about the possibilities of a full size Rosebud grate for a Sentinel ...

Diane

John's excellent article is still with me. There are several options availalble to us regarding publication - these may involve publsihing some of the drawings in PDF format on the website - which I still have to discuss with John.
In general I think there is sufficient interest in this article, due to the versatility of the machine and the quality of John's work but, even by M.E. standards, it is a huge project that isn't a model. For this reason I am presently considering options other than publishing everything in the magazine.
As others have pointed out, even though relatively few readers will decide to follow the series and complete the machine, there will be many aspects of its fabrication that will have value in other contexts.

There are currently eight multi-part construction series running in Model Engineer plus three further multi-part series not dealing with construction - and several waiting in the wings - so I will defer planning the start of another until some of these are complete.

Diane

I have sent Geoff an email. Hope this helps.

Diane

The person who writes the cheque.

Diane