John Stevenson Trophy

In October 2017, one of the best known characters in our hobby, John Stevenson, passed on. Although John professed to be a ‘bodger’, the self-styled Sir John, Earl of Bridgeport & Sudspumpwater. MBE [Motor Bike Engineer], had amassed a lifetime’s engineering skills.

Model and hobby engineering is a field full of many colourful characters, but John was unique. He combined almost effortless skill in the workshop with an instinct for good design. Despite a reputation for being forthright and not always the most diplomatic of posters online, John always had time and respect for anyone interested in engineering as hobby. He helped a huge number of beginners and more experienced folk with advice and often practical help, bits of tooling or good deals. He was a well-known face at the model engineering shows. as well as being a prolific poster on many of the online engineering forums. A huge number of tributes and stories about John have been posted online, and its clear that his passing will leave a big hole in our community.

A number of people have suggested that it would be nice to remember John with a trophy. That said, while John appreciated the skill that went into what you might call ‘glass-case models’ he worried that sometimes these could put mere mortals off having a go. An award that went to the best-finished or most complex piece of work wouldn’t fit with what he would want to encourage. The things John liked to see more than anything else were well-made, practical tools that showed a bit of ingenuity, good design and weren’t over finished.

The John Stevenson Trophy will be for just that, a well-made and practical bit of tooling, a modification to a machine or an accessory for a tool where the fact it works well is more important than scraping every visible surface. Actually, over-finishing should result in immediate disqualification!

Award of the cup should be judged by a popular vote. As he was such a mainstay of the Model Engineer Forum, we propose that users will vote on the best tool featured in MEW, ME or the forum each year, from a short-list of nominees. Voting will be via a poll on the forum and open to all. This will allow the cup to be awarded every year.

What was formerly the ‘Harrogate’ and now the ‘Doncaster’ show was John’s favourite event in the calendar. The organisers of what is properly called the Northern Modelling and Model Engineering Exhibition (NMMEX), have kindly agreed that the award can be made at the show. We will invite the nominees to exhibit their entries at the show.

In order to make sure all donations are accounted for properly, we are using JustGiving to collect them. If you would like to make a contribution towards the trophy, please visit the JustGiving page at:

www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/johnstevenson

Many thanks,

Neil

Well done Neil, a splendid idea

Brian

Thanks Brian,

It's not my idea alone, though.

Neil

I think it would be helpful to think, at this stage, what exactly counts as 'Best' for this competition. On its own, it means quite a different concept to a display judge, or a production engineer. I suggest it would help to give marks to the particular features which would have appealed to John. Perhaps -

Simplicity of home manufacture

Ingenuity in using parts or tooling intended for another purpose

Robustness and fitness for the job intended in amateur hands.

Just a thought - you don't want arguments on award day about what the rules were.

Cheers, Tim

.

Tim,

May I say that "what exactly counts as 'Best' for this competition" was, I think, clearly stated by Neil.

[quote]

Award of the cup should be judged by a popular vote. As he was such a mainstay of the Model Engineer Forum, we propose that users will vote on the best tool featured in MEW, ME or the forum each year, from a short-list of nominees. Voting will be via a poll on the forum and open to all.

[/quote]

i.e. the 'Best' is the one that wins the popular vote.

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 17/11/2017 13:01:20

We have thought about and discussed this. The rules will be formalised and shared in due course.

Neil

We have thought about and discussed this. The rules will be formalised and shared in due course.

<edit> Having now read Michael's comment, the rules will be used to decide what gets nominated by a small group of people who knew John. In other words, a list of entries it is thought John might have particularly liked or admired will be put forward for a popular vote.

Neil

Nice one Neil

Must have at least one bit sawn of and welded back on again.

;0)

Martin

(No, seriously a trophy is a really good idea,well done.)

Nice idea.....

Hi Neil, a excellent idea, I'm sure John would approve.

Regards Nick.

John was well known for his "Bodgers lodge" postings, although his bodges were engineering marvels. A 'runners up' category should be for the best bodge of the year ??
BobH

I hope the trophy itself will be appropriately designed...

But an excellent notion altogether.

Hope this does well, he always lent an ear, a hand and his 2 pence on things.

Michael W

A fitting tribute to a really practical and inventive Engineer, so that he will not be forgotten.

Howard

A truly encouraging award for innovative utility, perfectly in the spirit of dear-John`s memory; thank you, Neil.

I always read Johns posts first, he always had a useful relevant comment and stirred in a bit of humour about armchairs and moleskin trousers. A bit of factory floor humour obviously wasn't to every ones taste but it made me laugh. Workshop humour can be harsh but it is not usually malicious, usually everybody has a good laugh.

Mike

"Like" button pressed. Excellent idea.

Old GHT (bless him - and i'm a big fan) would not have been able to enter the competition then... and if he could, JS would be turning in his grave.... the correspondence we shared, JS always appreciated GHT's good friend and nemesis JA Radford more...

One additional criterion that could/should be considered by the selection committee, and picking up from the White Elephant thread, is that the items should also be judged on is usefulness, i.e. is it something that will be used/implemented on a regular basis or, in the case of a machine modification, installed by a number of model engineers.

From my reading of John's posts (I never had the privilege of meeting the man) I believe that something that would be put away in the cupboard never to be seen again would not appeal.

Just a thought.

Pero

Just bumping this up so that it is visible again.