Model Engineer – 31 August 2018

John Arrowsmith visits the Model Steam Road Vehicle Society’s rally at Tewkesbury on a glorious weekend in June. Graham Sadler explains how to read a micrometer and introduces readers to the Vernier scale. Our ‘Man in a Shed’, James Wells, ruminates on a question which appears to divide opinion – what is model engineering? Terence Holland subjects his Barclay well tank to a steam test. Mike Tilby looks at the first use of steam turbines in power generation. DAG Brown reviews ‘On The Right Lines’, an autobiography by Chris Rayward, who is well-known to many as a model engineer and as former editor of Engineering in Miniature magazine. Martin Gearing drills the tubeplates for his boiler and offers a tip for improving silver solder penetration. Les Phillips reports from the Wandong Live Steamers’ bi-annual run, held at their track in Victoria, Australia.
The first of three reports from Stephen Harrison on IMLEC, the locomotive efficiency competition held at Birmingham in July, gives an account of the runs held on the first day of the event. Doug Hewson begins a short series demonstrating how easy it is to make very authentic looking semaphore signals and our front cover features the end product.