Gazette No. 362 February 2004

Model Engineering Society ·

I Gazette No. 362 February 2004

TID TUG22 ALLAN HAWKES AND HIS WORKING MODEL OF ONE OF THESE HEROIC

SECOND WORLD WAR BOATS Page 1

St Albans & DMES Gazette

ST ALBANS & DISTRICT MODEL ENGINEERING SOCIETY

CLUB WEBSITE-WWW.STALBANSMES.CO.UK CHAIRMAN

MICHAEL DYER SECRETARY

ROY VERDEN

GAZETTE JOINT EDITORS ALAN HARMER

& TONY MASON

TREASURER MIKE GROSSMITH

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

NP (BAZ) BUTCHER JEFF CARTER DAVID SAUNDERS MALCOLM BEAK DAVE BATCHELOR

From the Editors-Tony Mason

January has been a busy month, with three shows to cover. No apologies then for a piece this month on the Model Railway Exhibition itself. It seems to me that scale has little to do with excellence in engineering and there should be no demarcation here. The 4mm fine scale live steam layout had the saine quality that Allan Hawke's TID Tug has; an ability to stir the imagination and move one into a sort of conscious dream of a time gone by- youth recaptured perhaps? Great stuff, and what ultimately this hobby is surely all about. Many thanks to all the contributors this month, especially those from the membership, so please keep them coming, as your stories and opinions provide much freshness to the Gazette. I have to say I enjoyed the 'Engineers' trip to Tower Bridge and I hope you enjoy the article on a fascinating evening. Many thanks to Peter Haycock for his contribution. We should repeat this kind of activity as often as possible-I am sure as a Society we have a passport to all sorts of interesting places and events not normally open to the Public.

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I hope you are not getting too bored with my 'Manor' class locomotive, but this month's feature on the class was born from an almost complete lack of any material in December. I promise a 'Manor-free' Gazette next time! March's Gazette will contain a slightly 'geeky', highly topical and brilliantly researched article about a Routemaster bus discovered in Paris.

Now the Lake update. The Civil Engineering firm commissioned to carry out the feasibility study on the Lakes is called the Halcrow Group, and their hard-hatted, theodolite wielding surveyors have already been spotted by the Lake.

Finally thank you to my wife Hilary, who helped proof read this edition in Alan's absence.

Chairman's Letter-Michael Dyer I would like to thank all our members who were involved with providing models, setting up and organising the two exhibitions in which the Society has recently been involved. Our attractive display at the CMRA show in the Arena at St Albans provoked much interest and some enquiries about our Society and certainly right that the 'larger' scales should be represented at such a show. Our stand at Wembley looked good and our member's exhibits were well displayed; in particular Guy Ellerby's traction engine caused a lot of comment. The feature of this exhibition that impressed me most was the large number of other clubs and societies that were represented, featuring many engineering interests, from sailing yachts to rockets.

I am certain that every member who attended last month's Club Night will remember the hilarious chase sequence in the last film. We are grateful to Frank Banfield, who seems to have an unending supply of rare and interesting films. Our speaker at the February Club Night is Bill Davies, who will be giving an illustrated talk entitled 'On and Off the Footplate' which I understand is not exclusively about railway matters. I am sure the talk will be of interest to everyone.

Secretary's Letter-Roy Verden Hello to all members. Now, I am sure you have all paid your subscriptions for this year, haven't you? If not please complete the form which was in the January edition of the Gazette and either bring it to the next Club Night, or send it direct to Baz Butcher who will be very pleased to receive it, as it makes his job easier. If you are unable to renew your membership due to hardship please talk to the Treasurer directly. This will remain a completely private matter between anyone in this position and Mike Grossrnith. We would hate to lose a member just because they find themselves in a difficult financial situation.

We had an encouraging start to this year's first Club Night and I know we can all look forward to some varied and interesting evenings in the coming months, especially with your Chairman and Treasurer at the helm. Can I remind you that the club auction has moved from November to May so that it does not follow so soon after the club exhibition .

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Secretary's Letter- continued

I spent some time on our stand at the Alban Arena Model Railway show and thoroughly enjoyed it. Our stand was set lower than the average layout and small boys were able to get a good look at everything. The Wembley Model Engineering Exhibition was well attended and we should feel we made a good contribution with the models on our stand. This event did not take a lot of effort to organise and following on from our own exhibition made the choosing of exhibits easy. So, next year I hope we shall have a volunteer (or two?) from the

membership to manage the club stand.

Getting Guy Ellerby's tractor up on to, and down from the display table was

. My newsletter is an exercise in itself, needing at least four 'fit' members. usually written just No hernias this time but it after the monthly

, committee was a close run thing! Dave meeting, however Saunders' monster Dodge . this time we had to pick-up proved invaluable in

postpone the moving the tractor and

meeting due to the another two models to and

. adverse weather from the exhibition.

and subsequent road conditions. I

think it must be my age or something but I was annoyed to see T.V. presenters talking of "blizzard" conditions when the camera shots showed them clearly and a good distance beyond as well! See you at the February meeting, regards to you all Roy.

The Society's pitch at Wembley was well

located close to both Trade and other Society stands. Mike Grossmith

was especially pleased to be able to secure a "bargain" milling

machine and your editor longed to see some

'working' steam

Overheard by Alan Harmer at the St Albans Model Railway Exhibition Dad .... "Don 't touch" Son ... "Why? ls it dangerous" Dad ... "No. You 're dangerous!"

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THE T .I.D Tug (Tug, Inshore and Dock) - By Allan Hawkes

Building and Construction

I built my TID Tug, 'TID 22' about ten years ago from a SIRMAR semi-kit, which comprised a very good fibre-glass hull, a one-piece superstructure and some small fittings. These fittings were, in my opinion of very dubious quality. Most of these fittings were discarded and replaced with better ones either made at home or purchased. Being a semi-kit, much interior work was left to me to design and construct. The engine is a CHEDDAR in-line oscillator, the boiler is a return flue type fired by gas. Radio control is to the rudder and engine regulator. I also installed a device called an attenuator, which balances gas-flame height against the boiler pressure. This is a CHEDDAR design now but evolved some years ago by committee member Malcolm Beak, using the innards of car-tyre valves! The drawings for this device were published in 'Model Boats' along with our secretary Roy Verden's design for an electronic boilerfeed device. This maintained a constant water level automatically. It is worth mentioning Malcolm's boat 'Cyril', which was fitted with both these clever devices and could sail serenely round and round the Lake at Verulamium Park seemingly for ever.

I sail TID 22 regularly at the Lake in Verulamium Park regardless of .....

7th December 2003 at the Boating Lake in Verulamium Park. Allan Hawkes' steam driven wartime tug-TID 22.

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THE T.I.D Tug (Tug, Inshore and Dock) - (continued)

.... season and weather. Certainly it begins to look rather weathered and work-worn. This, to my perverse mind, enhances its appearance. Doubtless the original TID, after a few months wartime use, would have looked similar.

History " .... DESIGN, ORGANISE AND SET TO WORK IMMEDIATELY TOWARDS ACHIEVING, IN THE SHORTEST POSSIBLE TIME, THE DELIVERY OF ONE TUG PER WEEK USING, IN THE PROCESS, LITTLE OR NO SHIPYARD LABOUR .... II These were the orders that came from Churchill's government in the dark days of 1942. The shortage of small tugs was indeed desperate.

To comply, meant hulls would have to be con-structed in sections and then assembled by welding. No complicated curves could be permitted as few small engineering works had the equipment to achieve this. As a result a design of mainly straight lines was produced and tested against conventional hulls. Eleven foot models showed, surprisingly, that at low speeds the new angular hull had less drag and was less inclined to roll badly; perhaps the sharp angles of the hull acted as bilge keels. The odd shaped stern maximised propeller thrust.

Richard Dunston Ltd., on the canal at Thorne were appointed as principal contractors and their specification required that each of the eight sections did not exceed ten feet in length or weigh more than ten tons so that transport to the launching spot could be effected by ordinary and readily available road lorries. Delivered sections were complete with superstructure, pulleys, shelves etc. For simplicity oil lighting was standard.

The first tug, TID 1, was launched sideways into the canal on 26th February 1942 and less than one year later TID 60 was launched and handed over to

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the Ministry of War Transport. Production continued to TID 183, but in true maritime tradition there was no TID 13.

Allocation of finished TID tugs was spread across civilian firms for ship handling in docks, while others went to the Royal Navy and the Army, where they were crewed by Royal Engineer or Royal Army Service Corps personnel. Photographs show TID tugs busy off the D-Day beaches.

The first ninety TID tugs were coal-fired but thereafter all were oil-fired so they could more easily be used further afield, where coal would be unobtainable. These oil-fired TID tugs were all fitted with hinged funnels so that, if needed, they could be transported bodily as deck cargo on heavy-lift ships to the Far East of Mediterranean war zones.

None of the TID tugs in war-time carried names or had covered wheelhouses. A few have survived and there is one at Chatham.

Allan Hawkes.

(TID 22 is one of several boats which Allan has built and he is a regular at the lake in Verulamiwn Park. He lives at Rabley Heath, Codicote.-Ed)

Could be the real thing! Allan Hawkes' TID 22 tug, complete with British 'Tommies' at the helm and at the stem. This picture shows just how realistic good model making can be.

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To the Manor Born

7835 Durlston Manor-5" gauge

There are at least three Manor class 5" gauge locomotives belonging to Society members. 7818, Granville Manor was built between 1976 and 1980 by the late John Hart and is currently with his son Phillip Hart in Hertford. 7804 Baydon Manor was purchased by Clive Reynolds in 2002 and was built in Rotherham, and is currently undergoing running repairs in Dave Saunders' workshop. Dave is also fitting a working crosshead water feed pump in place of the dummy air pump. 7835 Durlston Manor belongs to Tony Mason and is further described below.

The engine was built to works drawings by L H Watling of Hackwell Heath. With brazed superheated copper boiler fitted with water and pressure gauges, blower, by-pass injector, whistle, clack and blow-down valves. Full brake gear is fitted. Chassis details include Stephenson's link gear, ratchet operated lubricator, footplate controlled drain cocks and cross-head driven water feed pump. The engine was purchased by Tony in 1987 and remained a static decorative item in his hall, at home until the summer of 2003. The engine's first outing for at least 16 years, was at the society's track at Chipperfied in June 2003 , when it steamed freely and comfortably hauled the driver and six passengers.

r Mi~hael Dyer and tTony Mason enjoy

l~nt o.f the Great W estem atthe Puffing Field in leafy Chipperfield

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Thirty Manor Class locomotives were constructed between 1938 and 1950 by the GWR and the nationalised British Railways. They were intended for mixed traffic work over the GWR system in the West Country and Wales. Their most high-profile working being the Cambrian Coast express, often double headed. The entire class was withdrawn during 1964 and 1965 but several remain in preservation. 7835 would have been part of a final lot to be built by British Railways in the early fifties. The order was cancelled as the development of the Standard Classes of British Railway locomotives was now underway. Had the final ten Manor Class locomotives been built they would have been liveried in lined black. It is the owner's intention to return the model to this correct livery.

Right 7808 at Didcot in the eighties. 7808 was built at Swindon in 1938 and was the last of the class to be withdrawn in 1965. (Photo AH)

Below 7835 at Chipperfield 12th October 2003.

- AMystery

Left Driver's view of 7835. The reversing lever, although a copy of the original, can be

Right The crosshead water pump which replaces the air pump on the full size engines.

The unbuilt ten locomotives would have been numbered 7830 - 7839, with 7835 to be named Standen Manor. Tony has been unable to discover why the builder used the name Durlston Manor. (Any information on this would be welcome. Ed)


Tower Bridge "Engineering Tour"-20th January 2004 Tony Mason and Peter Haycock

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Our tour was by special arrangement and fifteen of us were hosted by three Guides, one of whom was a member of the maintenance team, so any technical questions could be answered. Peter Haycock and Michael Dyer had already visited the Belfast by the time the tour started at 5.00pm and were relieved to hear that the ascent of the North Tower to the upper walkways was by lift! When built these lifts were hydraulic powered and the public had right of way; the idea being there should be no delays to pedestrians when the Bridge was open. As the average opening took around 5 minutes the walkways were rarely used and they became the haunt of Edwardian 'ladies of the night' and petty criminals; they were closed to the public in 1910! The views across the City and West End on this clear winter' s night were awesome and the masonry and engineering detail was impressive both in design and construction. It came as no surprise to learn construction had taken eight years and over 2 million rivets had been used. We then moved to the South control cabin to see the original steam and hydraulic lever controls. The past and present operation of road closing was fully explained and our Guide confirmed the incident in 1952, where a double-decker bus jumped the gap in the opening Bridge, was true. The driver's courage probably saved lives and the only damage was to the bus's underside! We then descended into the bascule chamber (bascule comes from the French meaning see-saw), where the huge counterweights could easily be seen and where the locking bolts secured the open Bridge. Mystery 'grooves' in the supporting walls were discussed and we were told that nobody is sure what their original purpose was. One of our members suggested that they may have been connected with the construction and installation of the bridge counterweights. The Victorian engineering is so good that only a 15hp engine is now required to lift the Bridge! We then climbed an iron spiral staircase to the engine house, where we found the original double expansion steam engines, in full working order,


although they ceased to be used in 1976 when it was decided the savings in labour costs justified their replacement by oil and electricity driven engines. Before this, over eighty men were employed in the operation of the Bridge; now just fifteen employees run the Bridge seven days a week, 365 days a year. Some interesting facts • Shipping always takes priority-it is always road traffic which waits for navigation • The southern side of the Bridge always opens first • In spite of the pounding the City took during the Blitz, the Bridge was never seriously

damaged, even though it was hit by a German rocket, which failed to explode • The bridge is financed by Bridge House Estates, which is part of the Corporation of

London

Right: One of six of the original accumulators.

The two mighty double expansion steam engines (not illustrated) were used to pump high pressure water into each of these accumulators, so the energy could be used on demand. The high pressure water from these accumulators powered the bascule engine (above) so the finely balanced Bridge could be quickly raised.

The accumulators gave the Bridge almost instant power, necessary when any moving ship or boat, however large or small, could simply signal from either Rotherhithe or the ports of London that it required passage through the Bridge. It took one minute to raise each side of the bridge to a maximum of 86 degrees. Apart from the new engine all the basic engineering is 'as built' and there are no plans to replace it.


Sandown Park 2003-Michael Dyer By the number of cars already in the car park when I arrived it was obvious that the organisers were going to be happy with the attendance figures. In fact, when I met Mike Crisp later in the day he told me there had been over 3000 visitors through the door on the first day. It is good to think that interest in the Model Engineering Exhibition has increased again this year. Trade stands took up most of the ground floor of the hall and judging by the crowds they seemed to be doing a brisk trade. However, there were some notable absentees. Amongst the interesting exhibits and club stands were the Gas Turbine Builders Association, who always

draw a large gathering, especially during a demonstration of one of their engines. An escalator took me to the first floor where I found the competition models, loan exhibits and more club stands. I felt there were more models, more attractively displayed than last year. Certainly there were some really excellent examples and the general standard was higher. As a locomotive man I must start by mentioning a superb King Arthur Class which was presented in it's ex-works condition, without smoke deflectors. The Duke of Edinburgh award was,

-------------. once again, awarded to Cherry Hill. Her models

In the foyer was the electric powered 'racing' car built by our Treasurer's charity

'DEMAND', which designs and builds appliances for the disabled. (photo PH)

are always superb and I understand she has now won the coveted cup 7 times! It was a shame all the Duke of Edinburgh Award entries were not displayed together. Dave Abbott had a number of his static ship model conversions on show and

there were some interesting clocks. Aircraft were well represented by some large-scale flying models. One club had come all the way from Antwerp and were showing models with a 'continental' background. From the home counties the Buckingham Garden Railway operated their attractive working layout and our friends from the North London Society had a stand along with the Guildford Society's impressive display. I noticed scheduled lectures on subjects ranging from injectors to robot wars, capped by our very own Peter Haycock talking about his Robey traction engine. I thoroughly enjoyed this, the 73rd ME Exhibition and perhaps next year our Society will be there. After all this is the oldest model engineering show in the world!

Contributions - technical stuff from the Editors Ideally contributions should be computer ready in 'Word 200()" and with any pictures, each as a separate file in JPEG format. These could come as a floppy or CD, by hand at a meeting or by post or by email to Tony Masonsee inside front cover for addresses. Plain 'old-fashioned' photographs are also very welcome! Of course for those of you without computers the above will appear to be gobbledygook, so written or typed contributions are equally good. Any pictures should have your name and address on them so they can be returned.

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Frank Banfield's January Film Evening Meeting-Tony Mason

54 members attended Frank's presentation ofrare movie footage from yesteryear.

The first piece was a 1979 advertisement for "The Great Austin Range" starring The Two Ronnies. The range included the Princess and the Marina, both notorious products from Longbridge. Ronnie Barker played the salesman and Ronnie Corbett the pinstripe suited wide boy, who with some insight, recoiled from Ronnie Barker's offer-"care for a trial".

The Burton Wood Park 7 114" private garden railway, belonging to the jeweller H Samuel, at Walton-on-Thames, looked epic. A train load of delighted children, hauled by an elegant Pacific with a Great Central feel flew by. (Does anyone know what has happened to the line? Letters to the editor please)

Two ominous clips from the 1950's showed the Brabazon on its first, and possibly only flight; and the prototype Comet, described as "the latest example of the use of Yorkshire's special steel" - Oh dear!

The only known footage of the narrow gauge Jersey railway system was sadly all too brief. However the Trallee and Dingle film by P B Whitehouse was a good 10 minutes of delight, capturing the last moments ohhis 3' gauge railway which once ran through some of the most beautiful countryside in Southern Ireland. Running double headed along the spine of the Dingle peninsular, the rusting Hunslet locomotives hauled monthly cattle trains from the Dingle cattle fair back to Trallee. The film showed clearly the pitiful condition of the track and locomotives as they tackled 1 in 30 gradients, during the closing years of the railway. The line opened in 1891 and closed in 1953. (Anyone thinking of modelling the railway should get David G Rowland's book, The Trallee & Dingle Railway published by Bradford Barton)

Hunslet 2-6-2 tank number 2T as running on the Trallee and Dingle

Railway in the 1940's. The locomotive was withdrawn in

September 1952 and scrapped in 1955

The evening came to a rip-roaring climax with a W C Fields film called 'GIVE A SUCKER A BREAK'. Most of the footage involved a hair-raising car chase around the streets of 1930's Los Angeles, with stunts more hair-raising than seen in many modem films. The atmosphere was more like Saturday Morning Pictures than a SADMES Club night!

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CMRA-St Albans Model Railway Exhibition-10/11 January 2004

As usual our stand attracted much attention and models from various gauges and scales were on display. Les Johnson's collection of North American narrow gauge logging locomotives included some Backman models and his own scratch built, live steam Clan Climax Class. All are 16mm scale running on gauge 1 track on his garden railway in Hemel Hempstead. In addition Les was showing an evocative Ffestiniog Railway gravity driven scratch built slate train, in ..... ......, __ _ the same scale but on 'O' gauge track. Other models included Mike Grossmith's 5" gauge

Baz Butcher stands proudly next to our stand and was pleased some recruitment and much interest had resulted

Prairie Tank, now 70% complete, Tony Mason' s 5" gauge Manor and Alan Harmer' s Wisbech and Upwell tram and train, which he describes as having "little power, little speed and little range". So much so it had not arrived when this picture was taken!

The exhibition primarily featured various smaller scale model railways of an extremely high standard. Your editor makes no apology for featuring here some of the best at the exhibition as all captured brilliantly, but in different ways, the sense of an age sadly gone by.

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Cromford Wharf-0 gauge 7mm finescale 32mm gauge

The setting is the Cromford and High Peak Railway in the Derbyshire Pennines, while under IMS ownership during the thirties. In this picture the light tank engine, the 0-6-0 tender engine hmlling the goods train, the canal boat and, an out of picture van, were in motion simultaneously -stunning stuff! The scenery and track effects caught the moist and semi-roral mood perfectly.

Brian Caton Main Line Steam 4mm Finescale--16.Smm and 9mn:i gauge

To your EdiJor's mind the most remarkable layout at the exhibitum. Bui/J to a scale which cha]lenges. model builders anyway, Brian Caton has engineered live steam into both the standard gauge and narrow gauge models. The much modified etched kit bui/J standard gauge locomotives are powered by a single cylinder steam engine fed from a gas fired boiler. The really clever piece of work is a servo operated regulator, powered from the track, which provides realistic acceleration, including wheel slip! The realism is further enhanced by exhaust from the chimney,just audible, with a clearly visible 'puff'.

The narrow gauge locomotives are freelance saddle tanks and steam trams. Their diminutive size means they are spiriJ fired and have no servo •

The track itself is fine scale and looks good, the lack of scenery and line side features help to focus the mind on the engine and its train. The imagination was stirr~d and suddenly one was looking down

·onto the Great Western main line fifty years ago!

Tolcarn Engine Shed 0 g~i.ge 7mm rme scale 32mm gauge

!Essentially a model of a thirties country town engine shed on the GWR. The generosity of locomotives gives the scene much realism- presumably iJ was a Sunday or very early in the morning; the locomotives preparing for a busy day. How iJ wanted to be down there amongst them!


DATES FOR YOUR DIARY 2004 Feb 11th Feb 14th March 10th April 11th April 14th April 17th-18th April 26th May 9th-June 6th May 12th

Club Night-Bill Davies 'On and Off the Footplate' East Beds MRS, Stratton School, Biggleswade Club Night-Dave Abbott 'Materials and Adhesives' Club Regatta at Verulamium Club Night-AGM and Models In Progress Large Scale Model Rail WEC Leamington Spa Public Meeting on Ver River Park Project 1804-2004 Rail Bicentenary York Railway Museum Club Night-Club Auction

Club Nights are every 2nd Wednesday each month at, Christchurch Centre, New Greens, St Albans at 7 .45pm.

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Documents

Gazette No. 362 February 2004