Sept. 2014
Bluewater Bulletin
Bluewater Model Engineering Society Sarnia, Ontario
Vol. 30 No.0 September 2014 Editor John Lovegrove
The first Meeting of the New Season will be
Monday, October 6th 2014 @ 7:30 pm
Northern Collegiate Machine Shop (Rm. 146), Indian Road, Sarnia.
The Meetings Next Season
In previous years there has been discussion about
whether we should have a meeting in September.
Meetings early in the month have never been very
well attended, probably because some people are still
away on vacation. A further issue is that one cannot
start booking school facilities until September 1st and
then has to wait 2 -3 weeks for the bookings to be
confirmed. After discussion with Neil Blackstock it
has therefore been decided to try the first Monday in
October for our first meeting. (The second Monday is
Thanksgiving.). Meetings for the rest of the season
will then be on the second Monday in the month as far
as possible.
For the 2014–2015 season I have therefore applied
for the following dates:
2014
October 6th
November 10th
December 8th
2015
January 12th
February 9th
March 9th
April 13th
May 11th
(June 15th)
I have booked the date in June in case we decide to
have a meeting then to make up for not having one in
September – it has to be the third Monday because
the school calendar shows the second Monday as a
PD day. If my requested dates are not approved I will
let everyone know ASAP.
Events during the Summer
Once again the club displayed at Hobbyfest. We had
a good selection of models on show and the new club
air compressor had its first outing. (I was amazed at
how a few model “steam” engines can soak up the
output of a 2 hp compressor!) Bruce Mannerow, Mike
Clark, Neil Blackstock, Todd Michel, Murray Bennell,
Rick Nickels and I all brought along items to display.
Unfortunately no one brought a camera along so I
have no pics.
Other items that may be of Interst
We had another vacation in the UK this year and once
again tried to take in as many places of engineering
interest as I could (or was allowed to.)
In the May newsletter I did mention the visit to the
Harrogate ME Exhibition so I will now write about a
few other things we saw: We spent some time in
Devon and went on a steam train ride from Paington
to Kingswear. This is the Great Western tank
locomotive that pulled the train we were on.
In Kingswear, on the river Dart we saw paddle
steamer Kingswear Castle – this appeared in the
television series; the Edwardian Farm (if anyone saw
the programs) picture on the next page:
The next place of interest I went to was the Museum
of Internal Fire at Tan-y-groes, just north of Cardigan
in Wales. I have been there before but the collection
continues to expand. It is run by Paul and his wife
Hazel and they have a wide variety of (mainly
stationary) internal combustion engines. There are a
few gas engines but oil engines of various kinds
predominate.
The Kingswear Castle
Apart from normal diesels they have quite a few hot
bulb or semi-diesel engines. For me, making a
working model diesel engine is the “holy grail” of
model engine building and starting with a semi-diesel
could be a stepping stone in that direction.
Before the development of good injection systems
and when design/materials technology were really not
up to the task of reliably dealing with the high
pressures of a true diesel, semi diesels were very
popular. They were used for stationary work and
were also very well suited to marine use. The heavier
fuels were relatively safe in a boat and there was no
electrical ignition system to give problems in a damp
environment.
Compared with a true diesel, fuel injection is not so
critical: Fine atomization is not required because the
hot bulb serves to vapourize the fuel so that it will mix
with the air. Relatively low compression ratios were
used (3:1 up to ~8:1) and the heat of the bulb in
conjunction with the heat from compression brought
about the ignition. Because making a satisfactory
injection system and developing enough compression
heat to ignite the fuel are the main problems in getting
a model of a true diesel engine to work, a semi-diesel
should be an easier starting point.
Although the early Ackroyd engines were 4 stroke, 2
stroke versions with crankcase compression
scavenging seem to have emerged as the preferred
form. Below is a twin cylinder engine from around
1927 that was originally used for pumping water.
In the last newsletter I put in a picture of the Bayer
Garrett type locomotive used to haul the train we took
on the Welsh Highland Railway. This has been
restored after many years of disuse and runs from
Porthmadog to Caernarfon. It is a really beautiful line
with mount Snowdon off to one side, unfortunately it
rained quite a lot the day we were there. The gauge
is 2 ft and the locomotive we had was originally built
for the South African Railways by Cockerill Seraing in
Belgium. I thought that the South African Railways
were all 3’ 6” gauge but apparently not. The line is
operated by the same organization that runs the
Ffestiniog railway and Porthmadog is the main
station.
Trains on the Ffestiniog line are operated by the
classic double ended Fairlie locomotives. The last
time we were there they made a big “thing” about
them being oil fired but apparently both these and the
ones on the Highland line are now coal fired. I asked
why and the reason is just the lower cost. I also
asked where the coal came from and the answer was Russia. (Better be nice to Mr Putin; I was told that
Welsh steam coal is no longer mined!) Looking at the
layout, there is not very much space for the fireman to
operate.
The Fairlie locomotive
John Lovegrove