volume 21 issue 4, november...

Volume 21 Issue 4, November 2019

Newsletter of The Leeds Society of Model and Experimental Engineers

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In this Issue

From the Chair 3

August Barbecue 4

Christmas Meal 5

904 - Lancing 6

Working Party Update 11

Society Officers 12

LSMEE Diary Dates Back Cover

Front Cover

Storing the Club’s Infrastructure at Gale Common

Eggborough Track in Storage at

Gale Common

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From the Chair Jack Salter

After 41 years we have left the Eggborough site following closure of the

power station. A decision was made at an EGM to continue running the

Society and seek an alternative site and with this in mind the committee

has approach three councils, looked at dozens of potential sites, found one

that would be suitable and are now seeing if we can do a deal.

The Club track infrastructure is now safely stored at various locations

following thousands of man hours work. The workshop equipment, which

could easily be replaced later, was sold rather than trying to find suitable

storage. The working party still meet socially on Mondays for breakfast.

Other areas of the club’s activities continued to thrive with speaker eve-

nings being well supported at their temporary new location.

The Boxing Day run and May bank holiday ‘final running days’ were very

well attended. A social event at Topham was also very successful.

Portable track events were more popular this year, with the track being

used most weekends and in some cases two or three events were attended

in one weekend.

Several visits to other societies have proved to be popular and a chance

for members to run their locomotives while we are trackless.

This year the society lost two very well respected, long term members,

Tony Wall and Edwin Hugues. They were both involved with the develop-

ment of the society over many years and will be sadly missed

In his Presidents address Arthur echoed many of the themes already dis-

cussed by Jack but also thanked the committee for their leadership and

hard work in what had proved to be a difficult year for the club.

Nigel Bennett presented the club accounts which were accepted by the

meeting and the subscriptions for 2019-2020 were reduced to £20 for

adults while junior members rates remain unchanged at £2 per annum.

The committee were re-elected for another year with Geoff Midgley con-

tinuing as a co-opted member, and David Brown being added as a second

co-opted member. Other posts remained unchanged with the Web master,

newsletter editor, boiler inspectors and accounts validators agreeing to

continue for another year.

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August Barbecue

Jack and Jill played host to club members at a well attended social

event. Two portable tracks were available to those wishing to run a

locomotive but most chose to enjoy each others company and the

other entertainment on offer. Once again the catering team did

little to help the waistline by making available a seemingly end-

less supply of burgers, sausages and a large variety of delicious

home baked cakes. Nigel managed to part members from their

cash by running a stall full of items seemingly ripe for repurpos-

ing. Thanks must go to Jack, Jill and the helpers who set up this

most enjoyable gathering.

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This year’s Christmas Dinner will be at the Drax Sports and Social Club

on Thursday 5th December 2019 7pm for dinner at 7:30pm in the Green

Room.

The attached menu is for your reference as you do not need to pre-book

starters or desserts – you can choose on the night! We do need your book-

ing for the main course if it is anything other than the carvery i.e. Medi-

terranean vegetable wellington , braising steak or fish mornay (they have

* next to them on the menu).

Please contact Nigel or Karen Bennett on Tel: 0113 2870565 or e-mail on:

[email protected] as soon as you can please.

We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

Thank you. Karen

mailto:[email protected]

6


904 ‘Lancing’. Ian Macdonald

You might recall from ‘LeedsLines’ in 2015 that the late Herbert

Clarkson’s final modelling project was to realise in 5” gauge the

principal variants of the class, by building four Maunsell* V,

‘Schools’ 4-4-0s. Although he had done his research, nearly fin-

ished one and made many parts for the others, Herbert came to

believe that he had probably over-reached himself and would be

unlikely to complete all four locomotives.

It must have been this that prompted a series of enigmatic ‘phone

calls to Alan Macdonald, who was instructed to report to Barmby-

on-the-Marsh with his van. In due course both Alan and Ian rolled

up at the Clarkson Locomotive Works and after the customary cof-

fee, chat and banter were told that, if they would accept the gift,

they were to be the recipients of ‘Schools’ number two - as far as it

had got.

‘If we would accept it.’

- Sharp-intake-of-breath-and-try-to-be-properly-appreciative-

without-snatching,-running,-or-spinning-the-wheels!

‘As far as it had got.’ -

Gulp!!

Herbert’s preferred approach to loco. building was to finish the

tender before embarking on the engine, so what we loaded includ-

ed a completed low-sided tender, hand pumps, loco. frames, valve

gear, bogie, footplating, ashpan with grate and dampers, boiler

cladding, cab, smokebox with chimney, and a good many fine scale

embellishments.

What he couldn’t give us was plans, because Herbert had been con-

sulting the Eastleigh drawings, and the most taxing consequence

was that his cylinders were intended to be fabricated rather than

cast. But much of what you see is Herbert’s work.

When the frames, cladding, ashpan and formers weren’t with Tim

Taschimowitz at Cheddar Valley Steam being measured for a boil-

er, the incomplete kit of parts waited in Abingdon for a couple of

years, during which time Alan explored options to join the other

dots.

7


Among favours received was a big one from Ian McHugh who ma-

chined, fitted and quartered the driving wheels. Alan made the

coupling and outside connecting rods once John Simon had pre-

vailed upon cast cylinders from Polly Models to fit where they

wouldn’t normally have been expected to. Drawn to the loco., the

challenge and Herbert’s workmanship, John powerfully followed

through with the rest of the fabrication and fitting.

John’s wisdom, resourcefulness and refusal-to-be-beaten

have propelled the project to completion.

Another favour was the spray painting, done by ‘Daz’ at the Bel-

mont Lawnmower Centre, but Alan took on the lettering, lining-

out, and brush-painting of wheels, and frames, inside and out,

while still assembled.

‘Good game! Good game!’

8


‘Lettering and lining-out’:

Like the LMS and LNER, the Southern left behind the polished

brass details, multicoloured panels and Edwardian fairground

elaboration of pre-grouping days, but had yet to reach the near

monochrome simplicity of the Bulleid* era. Its passenger locomo-

tives were typically green and black, with plenty of black and

white lining. Alan learned a lot and wrote down many new words.

One serendipitous piece of knowledge was not to turn one’s back on

a semi-tame blackbird! While proving his system for lining boiler

bands – paint them white before putting a broad black line up the

middle – he was enjoying a few minutes ‘r&r’ in the garden, literal-

ly watching the grass grow and the paint dry. Blackbird arrived

demanding food, Alan moved to fetch food and returned to find

blackbird balancing on the freshly painted boiler band.

‘D’oh!’

Maybe a magpie would have been better suited to the colour

scheme that now adorned Mrs. Blackbird’s feet . .

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Prompted by a pressing need for publicity in its early days the

Southern Railway named even its second string passenger locomo-

tives, which thereafter boasted elaborate gunmetal plates. Howard

of Effingham, Lord Nelson Class, anyone? and what price, Sir Har-

ry le Fise Lake?! The ‘Schools’ would prove to be anything but

‘second string’.

A Scots proverb pronounces, ‘A cock aye craws best on his ain mid-

den-heid,’ and Alan gained home turf when he made the name-

plates for Lancing.

Why Lancing? Eton, Westminster and St Paul’s are rather predict-

able, and Winchester was already taken, but we were confined to

the 1930 batch because Herbert had cut the cab windows in Maun-

sell’s* original, lower, position. (Would one have expected other-

wise from someone born and brought up in Raven and Worsdell

territory!)

This and the absence of smoke deflectors also decided the livery:

not ‘sage,’ (aka ‘Parsons Green’ after the original paint supplier),

nor ‘malachite’, nor ‘Dover Green’ nor yet ‘Bournemouth’, but ‘Dark

Olive Green’. The colour dictated a profusion, nay, a myriad, yea,

verily a plethora of lining: and some readers will remember (see

above) that, musing over the finish of his first ‘Schools’, Herbert

memorably described the highly embellished effect as being ‘like a

tart at a wedding!’

With 904 on rollers outside John Simon’s workshop, on May 29,

2019 Alan and Ian lit the first fire. In due course and with very

little fuss Lancing’s wheels turned under steam power.

Given the Society’s current lack of a track, perhaps we could devel-

op Herbert’s simile and conclude with yet another quotation, this

time from some surprisingly well-known century-old song lyrics by

Silvio Hein and Benjamin Burt:

‘All dressed up with nowhere to go’ – yet!

ooOOooo

*We have to thank HAV Bulleid (‘Bulleid of the Southern’ pub. Ian

Allan, 1977, p.46) for the mnemonic:

“Maunsell rhymes with ’cancel’ while Bulleid rhymes with

‘succeed’!”

10


Working Party Update – November 2019 Geoff Shackleton

In the last Newsletter I reported that we were at the stage during the

deconstruction of the track at Eggborough of preparing to remove heavier

items such as the structural steelwork of the station building and the

track concrete support beams and columns. The deconstruction of the

beams and digging up of the support columns was completed and a plan

was drawn up to move the items off site. It was agreed with Eggborough

Power Ltd., that we could store the heavy items in a secure storage com-

pound well inside their Gale Common Ash Disposal Site. The concrete

beams and pillars are very heavy and so lifting machinery and an articu-

lated lorry were needed to remove the items the few miles to storage.

Suitable risk assessments and method statements were drawn up and a

contractor was engaged to lift the heavy items onto an articulated lorry.

The lorry with two trailers was provided by member Malcolm Barlow to

whom we are most grateful. Having two trailers meant that one could be

loaded at Eggborough whilst the other was being off loaded at Gale Com-

mon. Those members at the Gale Common end cast a pretty picture in

their hard hats, high viz jackets, safety spectacles and toetector boots!

The removal of the items took three days and went smoothly. There were

still a few working parties at Eggborough after the big move in order to

do some final tidying up. The last remaining ‘desirable items’ were forced

upon members for home storage.

The Eggborough site is now closed to us and we have commenced Monday

‘breakfast socials’, the first of which was at Lumby Garden Centre which

not only attracted a good number of members but also some nice model

engineering ‘work on the table’!!!

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E-Newsletter

Articles from members are always welcome and can be sent to me by email

[email protected]

To ensure continued delivery of the newsletter and announcements please let me

know if you change your email address.

If you currently receive a printed copy of the newsletter and would like to save

the society printing and distribution costs, while at the same time doing a little to

preserve some of the planets resources, simply email me using the above link and

a PDF version will be sent to your inbox.

The Society web page can be found at

http://www.leedssmee.btck.co.uk/

Society Officers and Committee

President: Arthur Bellamy

Chairman: Jack Salter

Secretary: Geoff Shackleton

Treasurer: Nigel Bennett*

Committee: John Hunt

Steve Russell*

Peter Smith

Nick Morley

Geoff Midgley

Newsletter Editor Geoff Botterill

* Denotes Boiler Inspectors plus

Martyn Chapman


http://www.leedssmee.btck.co.uk/

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LSMEE - Dates for Your Diary – November 2019

Monday Working Party (Excluding Bank Holidays)

The Working Party is to continue by meeting socially for breakfast.

Currently meeting at 9:30 am.

Lumby Garden Centre

A1 (M) Junction 42,

LS25 5LE

If you intend to come along it would help if you would e-mail David

Brown . David can also provide up to date venue and time information .

[email protected]

Thursday 7th November Bonfire Run From 15:30

Portable Track at Drax S&SC

Thursday 21st November Meeting Night 19:30 - 21:30

Advanced Steam in Miniature'

Nigel Bennett

Thursday 5th December Christmas Dinner From 19:00

Drax Sports and Social Club

Monday 16th December Quiz Night 9:30 - 21:30

The remaining speaker evenings in the above programme are to be

held at Drax Power Station Sports and Social Club YO8 8PJ.

Note that all but one are Thursday evenings.

This a temporary arrangement with Drax following on from our

agreement with them to use Eggborough SSC for meetings.

The venue for talks during 2020 has now been agreed by your

Committee. The 2020 talks will be held on Wednesday evenings at

the Mid Yorkshire Golf Club, Havercroft Lane, Darrington, WF8

3BP which is just off the A1 at Darrington. The 2020 Programme of

Events is being prepared and will be sent to you before the end of

the year.


volume 21 issue 4, november...

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