www.stalbansmes.co.uk Page 1 Gazette No. 386 February 2006 Children often find it difficult to control their excitement at the sight of our members’ brilliant marine models. After a long period of inactivity, on Sunday 17th January the Small Lake in Verulamium Park once again hosted many of these miniature boats. Page 2 St Albans & District MES Gazette St Albans & District Model Engineering Society Club Website—www.stalbansmes.co.ukwww.stalbansmes.co.uk www.stalbansmes.co.uk Chairman Michael Dyer 01442 219024 Secretary Roy Verden 01923 220590 15 Juniper Grove, Watford, Herts., WD17 4RZ Gazette Editor Roger Stephen 01442 832213 2 Jubilee Cottages, Whelpley Hill, Chesham, Bucks, HP5 3RW E-Mail [email protected] Gazette Deputy Editor Tony Mason 01727 830607 E-mail [email protected] Treasurer Mike Grossmith 01923 222135 E-mail [email protected] 92 King’s Avenue, Watford. WD18 7SA Committee Members NP (Baz) Butcher 0208 9507068 Jeff Carter 01923 770188 David Saunders 01727 762848 Malcolm Beak 01923 672341 Dave Batchelor 01923 447058 From the Editor - Roger Stephen To my surprise we had more than enough material to fill this month’s Gazette so the next instalment of Mike Collins’ experiences of building a Maxitrak locomotive has been held over to next time. If boating members think there is still a bias in the Gazette towards railways they know what to do: get writing! All contributions will be gratefully received. Chairman's Letter - Michael Dyer The January edition of our Gazette was the first under the sole command of Roger Stephen our new editor. I am sure that all will agree that the very high standard continues, and that we should thank Tony Mason for all his work as editor over the past two years. We should be extremely proud of our excellent Gazette. Mick Bell has passed over the running of our library to Tom Keleher, and we thank him most sincerely for all his efforts. We shall miss his naming of miscreants at our monthly meetings! Your Chairman has had one of those ‘senile moments’. Recently I was speaking about gold medals awarded to members at the ME Exhibition and I completely forgot about the medal won quite recently by Francis Fearn. I apologise for this omission. I was impressed by our stand at the Model Engineering Exhibition at Alexandra Palace, and when I was there on Saturday it certainly attracted much interest and quite a few enquiries about our club. Once again there was a wide range of models representing the scope of our Society’s interests, and our thanks to all those involved in the setting up of our stand. www.stalbansmes.co.uk Page 3 Secretary’s Letter—Roy Verden Hi everybody, and congratulations to all who contributed models and helped at the club stand at Alexandra Palace. We had a long stand, 24 feet in all, with the same number of tables but in a single row. This was because the club on the adjacent stand had to pull out at the last minute. It made the viewing much easier for visitors and the presentation of the models looked much better as you did not have to lean over other models to see the middle of the stand. There are already thoughts for improvements next year! A certain person will remember the exhibition very well as he was the competition winner for a lathe which may well be in the auction. We also enjoyed two days at the Alban Arena on the previous weekend, with the Chiltern Model Railway Association show. At the last minute Les Johnson was asked to supply a ‘tinplate’ layout as another club had pulled out. I spent several happy hours on the Saturday playing electric trains. Baz organised the stand and it attracted a lot of comment. It seems that the bigger the trains are the more that little boys like them! I was ‘talked out’ by the time I left. This month we have our annual auction with Dan Keen presiding. We now have the auction in February to be as far as possible from the Society Exhibition and the club shop in September. All done on your behalf of course, so that you can save up your pennies and have two big spends every year! I explained the general rules last month so won’t mention them again but if members have items that they wish sold on their behalf, rather than donated, then they must put their name on the item to be auctioned together with a reserve price, if any (see also the advertisement on page 5 – Ed). Settling up is at the end of the auction with Mike Grossmith and myself. So come early and spend, spend, spend but also enjoy the evening. Club subscriptions for 2006 were due last month. If you have not yet paid your subscription please do so as quickly as possible so that we can clear up all the paperwork. By the way, I used my membership card to confirm my identity when showing my stewarding ticket at Ally Pally. At the last meeting we asked if any members would like to have a club badge. Enquiries have been made and the price of new identical enamel badges is horrendous. They work out at in excess of £14.00 each, even if we ordered 50 of them, as the cost of re-tooling is 50% of this amount. It is therefore unlikely that we can afford to go down that route. However we have been sent a sample of a less costly acrylic badge. Our Treasurer has this and we shall seek your opinion as to how we should proceed. In the meantime we have 3 of the old type badges available for club members. I have spoken to our Treasurer and we are going to put them into the auction. But so that we are not seen to be profiteering from this, they are first going to be donated to WorkAid and the proceeds will go to the charity. Look forward to seeing you all at the auction, Roy. Page 4 St Albans & District MES Gazette DOWN AT THE LAKE Sunday 15th January saw the first real return to boating activity on the small lake for many months. Even though the sky was grey and overcast the rain stayed away and wind condi- tions were “almost perfect”. The water level was about right with just a a few inches of ‘beach’ showing on the opposite side. One member remarked that it was the first time he had seen the bottom of the lake for may years. The boats sailed and motored merrily alongside the ducks, who squawked happily too. John Cook, Allan Hawkes, Vic Driscoll and Alan Holt were all in attendance, providing much interest for the many visitors to a busy park that day. Vic Driscoll’s small ‘Pocahontas’ class is chased by Alan Holt’s ‘Panache’ as they sail into a steady wind on 17th January. Meanwhile Allan Hawkes’ steam launch ‘Tinca’, cap- tained by a sailor who bears a remarkable resemblance to Allan, plods steadily through the waves; even the dog is enjoying the trip! All the modes are radio con- trolled. www.stalbansmes.co.uk Page 5 January was a quiet month at the track. Den Blazdell has paid a visit and made the mistake of walking across the middle of the car park - he says the muddy water came over the top of his carefully polished shoes! The purpose of his visit was to re-cover three of the passenger car seat pads in a tasteful shade of ‘briar brown’. He reports that they now tone in splendidly with the new GWR Pullman paint scheme. Thanks for all your hard work on these Den, and the editors apologise for pointing out the clash of colours. We understand the fourth passen- ger car remains in red and green to match the club electric loco. Meanwhile, Roger has braved the cold of his shed and completed the supporting structure of the new water tower. He is now preparing to paint the structure with green fencing preserva- tive and to do the necessary plumbing on the ‘new’ tank. Installation of the new water tower at the track is expected some time in February. CLUB AUCTION Please bring along any items you wish to dispose of. If you want to put a reserve on an item, and if we are selling on your behalf, please put your name on the item and make sure it is clearly marked. The Society will take an auction fee which is normally 20%, or you can say what you want for the item and the club will take the rest. Needless to say all electrical items must be safe to use and any items unsold must be removed at the end of the evening. Club Night - February 8th - 7.30pm DDDON’TDON’T MISS THIS LOT! Good news from Ally Pally: Malcolm Beak won the draw for this Chester ‘Conquest’ lathe worth £350! Even better news for a Society member is that it will be put up for sale at the February club auction with a reserve of just £250 - that’s a 29% saving!!! The Society will also benefit from a healthy share of the sale price. The specification is: Centre height 90mm, 325mm between centres, variable speed 0 - 2,500 rpm, spindle bore 20mm with No3 morse taper. Page 6 St Albans & District MES Gazette ew boiler testing arrangements: further details for small boilers – David Saunders Following last month’s article on the new arrangements for boiler testing we have clarified the requirements for small and low pressure boilers.