Traction engine

Hi I am new to this forum, and the problem I have is where to obtain quality drawings for a traction engine in 1" to 1/12" scale. I have a small lathe and mill but my problem is heart failure so cannot lift heavy objects hence small scale, any advice would be aappreciated

What about the 1" Minnie from here or the 11/2" (is that your second specified scale?) Allchin from here

Many thanks for your suggestion .I will contact Blackgates Monday with regards to the 1" scale mini , as checking my lathe I could machine the wheels myself

thanks again

If you buy the Minnie book then you don't need to buy the drawings as its all in the book. It also shows many machine setups and details how to make every part and well worth hunting down a copy.

Maxitrax also do drawings for a 1" burrell which is moer scale that the freelance Minnie and the also do the Greenly drawings for his 1" scale engines.

J

Thanks new to this didn't realize the mini wasn't scale. Will look into your suggestions

If you buy the Minnie book then you don't need to buy the drawings as its all in the book. It also shows many machine setups and details how to make every part and well worth hunting down a copy.

Graeme.....this advice from Jason is spot on. I also have heart failure and found that 1" Minnie was plenty heavy enough to manage especially when the build starts to come together. The Minnie book is by L.C.Mason and often appears on e-bay from about £20 upwards (some asking prices are very optimistic in my opinion). I have just had a quick scan on e-Bay and there is one on sale for £65 although there are also some castings which appear to be good value. I think that I am correct in saying that going to 11/2" scale would quadruple the weight as compared to a 1" model which would be far too ambitious for me. Good luck whatever.

Mick

I had a spare Minnie book which I gave, for free, to aother poster on this forum. I have never had acknowledement of receipt or even a thank you. I would be happy if I still had the book to give to you.

An alternative and possibly cheaper option to buying the book is to try and acquire the relevant Model Engineer volumes. The words and music (construcion serial) for Minnie began in January 1969 ending in September 1970.

Graeme, The 1" Minnie is still proportionally a 1/12th scale engine, it is just not based on any particular full size prototype and the construction of some parts have been somewhat simplified to reduce the use of castings.

It still builds into a very nice engine and there is scope to add extra detail such as running boards, gear guards, dummy rivits to hornplates, etc. Although this one has been built to 2" scale it shows what can be done. And this album shows my Minnie, as you can see they are far nearer to scale than they are to Manod/Wilesco.

The other thing that the minnie has going for it is that castings are still available unlike the other options I listed which would require fabrication of carving from solid.

J

Thanks for all the help, I think it's the mini for me, and yes sandy I have done similar with tools etc, it destroys your faith for a while . Jason there seems to be two traction engines in your links what is the model which isn't painted.

The unpainted one in the videos is my minnie before painting.

The single picture with the red background is "Modular" which was in ME at some time and is about 3/4" scale (model not by me)

Graeme

if you search on eBay at the moment there is somebody selling the 12 model engineer issues that feature the Minnie build

they are very cheap at the moment

mike

Thanks mike but I do not have an account with E Bay and when I tried to create one it just didn't work, waiting for my son to help on next visit.

Hi Graeme,

I noticed MyHobbyStore sell reprints of the Minnie articles here (£20-£24, not a giveaway I don't suppose but not a bad price for the convenience):

Digital Version (PDF)

I bought something similar for a loco a short while ago, nice crisp photocopies on A3. Very pleased (and no risk of stinky magazines ).

Regards,

Mike.

Once again thanks for all the help , I have just ordered the mini article from hobby store, thanks again

Looking at some of these engine is really inspiring. Would these be suitable for a raw beginner though?

regards

Brian

I'd suggest you try a couple of stationary engines first like the Stuart 10 series or S50. I did that minnie after a 10V and Stuart Beam and it was all done one the lathe, no mill. But you could start with some of the simpler bits and once you get into the stride of things tackle the cylinder, motion and gearing.

J

I have been in engineering for a lot of years, this doesn't make me a expert , or a master model maker but I can turn and mill to a high standard. But as far as steam I am a novice. Thanks anyway.