Blast Pipe June 2015

From the — HUTT VALLEY MODEL ENGINEERING ! ! ! ! SOCIETY INC. 6 Marine Parade, Petone, Lower Hutt 5012, New Zealand Email address - [email protected] Website - http://hvmes.com Patron

- Ian Welch (Mainline Steam Trust) President - Claude Poulsen

Ph 568-8507 [email protected] Secretary - Gavin McCabe

Ph 567-4487 Treasurer - Chris Gousmett

Ph 526- 3705 Editor - Peter Anderson

Ph 232-4533

[email protected]

and the MAIDSTONE MODEL ENGINEERING SOCIETY INC c/o 95 Holdsworth Av, Trentham, Upper Hutt

5018 President - Nathan Reynolds Secretary - Bob Begbie

Ph 976-9114 [email protected] Treasurer - Brian Hawke

Ph 528-4938 Patron - His Worship Mayor Wayne Guppy. Location - Maidstone Park, Upper Hutt Blast Pipe is printed with one or two pictures in colour. A Pdf colour version is available on the website (per courtesy Charlie Lear) or e-mailed direct to members on request. Webmaster - Peter Targett

Notice of Meetings Hutt Valley MES Meeting on the first Wednesday, 3 June 2015 at the clubrooms, Petone at 7-45pm. The Annual General Meeting And "Pop Safety Valves" (David Grant-Taylor will cover the finer points of the Ross pop safety valve.)

Combined with your contributions to the ‘Bits & Pieces’ session. Hutt Valley MES Committee On the third Tuesday, 16 June at 7-30pm Maidstone MES The next meeting will be The Annual General Meeting Thursday 11 June at 7.30pm Maidstone Park, Upper Hutt

Hutt Valley MES Notes

- Editor

There were 21 of us at the May meeting and the weather was not that bright either. Claude started off by telling us that he had made contact with the Vintage Machinery Club and wondered who would like to visit their site at Mangaroa A table full of member’s talking points, and a DVD programme on a mega ship followed. The mega ship chosen was the Vasco DaGama suction dredge launched 5 Nov 2000,

The Club Speedy in the hands of Adam Harrison on Sunday 24 May. Quite a number of adults thought it was magic to be behind a small steamer and introduced their children to the experience. Photo - Anderson Below - The suction dredge Vasco Dagama

intended primarily for use on large scale land reclamation jobs. It was shown working in Malaysia about 2003 (and it is presently in the Singapore area). Quite apart from the size of the vessel and its equipment it was great to get an insight to dredging techniques and the discharge methods they use. This was dredging and reclamation on a huge scale. In fact our view was ‘enhanced’ by the fact that the projection equipment was on the 16:9 format whereas the DVD provided 4:3 . Even the crew were on the mega size !! Never mind, we know the wide screen is with us to stay, and some folk never move off it. The setting could not be changed on the equipment that night. Now for the bits on the table. Murray McKenzie made a start by demonstrating a Jaycar kitset adaption for a level crossing warning device we require for our pedestrian level crossing for the public accessing the station area. He found four suitable round red halogen lamps and had mocked up a suitable arm to demonstrate the flashing warning which worked admirably when he finally turned the kit on.

*2* Murray also had a purpose made slotting tool to go on his cross slide to cut an internal keyway. Peter Targett had the bits for Dart, as illustrated in the last Blast Pipe. Seeing them helped me understand why he made a new chimney. The old one was of flimsy construction, and the bottom flange of had room for only two small screws to secure it to the smokebox! Peter Moyes had what he called a ‘sculpture by chance’ - obviously a by product of his silver soldering practice. We look forward to seeing the same flair and style in the locomotive he is building. This one was titled “Flee Pompei” Bruce Edney demonstrated his completed horizontal steam engine, ‘Potty’ under air and it looked and sounded well. Roy Hamilton wanted to know how to seal rubber tube onto a copper tube as normal worm drive hose clips were not good enough. A similar hose clip with wire in stead of strip metal was a recommendation, also fuel hose clips of the correct size gave better circular form. Stephen Sandford had a Bore measuring kit in its nice original box. It was not for modellers use well not for my size cylinders! The instructions in the lid indicated the minimum bore size to measure would be 2”and the maximum was not stated. Claude Poulsen had another solid bit of gear in a Calculagraph. “The "Calculagraph" was invented by, a New York watch smith, Henry Abbott. He was issued with patent No. 58332O on May 25th. 1897. It is thought that the first usage was in Pool Halls to time the usage of the tables. It was very quickly put into use by telephone companies to accurately

Bruce Edney’s brand new mill engine. Some ‘weathering’ needed to make it into a ‘real’ mill engine! Photo - Anderson Below - The clockwork Calculagraph displayed by Claude. The handles operate the time stamping of the card slipped under the plate below the clock face. (Sample card from the web.) Photos - Claude Poulsen.

time toll calls. It became a standard piece of equipment up to about the 1980s here in NZ. “I do not know the date of introduction. Its obvious advantage was the positive nature of the timing. It recorded the time of commencement and at the finish the elapsed time. Leaving no manual recording error margins for tired operators. Modern, electric powered, units are still manufactured and in use for various purposes today' “My example predates Model 11O which is driven by an electric motor and not a clock spring as my model is. I have yet to gather both the purpose printed card and the correct key for this unit “Henry Abbott took out some 38 patents, over the years, covering a wide range of items. Mostly associated with clock like movements.” -- Claude

At the Track The last few Sundays have been clear weather, after some rough patches, and we have had some good runs with happy passengers and staff. May the trend continue over the cooler Murray McKenzie’s tool post slotting weather to be expected tool and Stephen Sandford’s bore measuring kit.! Photos - Anderson with the onset of winter.

*3* Thanks to all those who shoulder the responsibility of running a safe and pleasurable operation for our fans. On 17 May the Cross Creek Dc had another run on the track and as can be seen it is looking a bit more like a locomotive now, but it still had a lot of the body detail to be installed. Jack the driver did not turn up with it, so we had to do with David Brownlow and our locals to fill the job.

Jack was not available to drive but William had the first round on the Cross Creek Dc when run at Petone on Sunday 17 May. . Photo - Anderson

Andrew Holt, a Maidstone member who has been at our club events fairly regularly advised that he lost his father on 17 May. Our sympathy goes to him and his mother on their loss. Andrew’s friend, Kristine Gibson, has also suffered the loss of her father who lived up Auckland way so we express our sympathy to her too.

Maidstone MES Notes - Bob Begbie Flee Pompei There was some activity on the clubhouse the same day as the last grill was finally bolted back up on the toilet window by Gavin McCabe and a team of helpers and bystanders including David Grant-Taylor and Tony Cowdry. It took more effort than anticipated as the drill was blunted by some hard stuff and the last bolt had to be left until later. Repair work is never straightforward! Thanks again to the workers. Vale! The next weekend Adam Harrison was the Run Manager and he had the news that it would be for the last time. He has got a job in the Waikato and is leaving his Wellington Rail job behind. We thank him for his, and Rowan’s, involvement with us, and wish him well in his shift up to Hamilton. Speedy had another run that day and we hope that Adam’s clothing retains some of the Welsh coal smell for the transfer North. I guess he will soon find a source of more smoke when he gets up there. That same day Murray McKenzie and Bruce Edney installed a pair of good sized speakers on the South wall of the meeting room and Gavin is making a suitable amplifier available so we will have better sound for shows in the future. Thanks men for getting that project under way too. We are hoping to have a MEANZ auditor with us on the first Sunday in June to check our systems, and compliance with the requirements. Again, weather dependant.

We wish the best to our members, to members at HVMES, at Maidstone MES, UK. and to our readers. We have had an exciting few days, including one of truly diabolical weather. Heavy rain and high winds in the afternoon and evening of that day forced closure of all local public transport services, road and rail, in the Wellington area. The extra volume of private transport forced onto the roads reduced all vehicle movements, at most, to crawling speed. All of this happened in the afternoon and evening of Thursday 14th May, the evening on which we had scheduled our Annual General Meeting. The AGM was cancelled that evening and is rescheduled with our regular monthly meeting for June. In spite of the high winds and thorough soaking there was no damage to our track or buildings. The thing most noticeable was that the big tree near our station was completely stripped of leaves overnight! We were able to clean up quickly and were able to manage a pleasant and profitable track running session on Sunday, 17 May. We also managed a good running day on

Blast Pipe June 2015

*4* Sunday, 3rd May, despite that there was little other activity in Maidstone Park. As seen in the photo supplied by Brian Hawke we were visited by our local MP, Chris Hipkins who took a real interest in our activity. He rode one of our trains and had a turn driving, with just himself and an experienced club member/driver aboard. Both Chris and we enjoyed the time together and appreciated his visit. It appears our operation is becoming better known again and that the sign we are using on Park Street is attracting good custom. Brian certainly made a very good job of the new signs. The remotely operated points that were installed on our ground level, 7½” gauge track are working well and add touches, both of realism and convenience, to our activities. We have also piped water supply to a tap stand at the passenger loading station and are able to top up water tanks of steam engines on both our ground level and elevated railways while trains are being loaded. Activities scheduled for June include:Railway Running Days, 1.0 to 4.0 pm each day, weather permitting. • Sunday 7th June, Team 1 • Sunday, 21st June, Team 2 • Society June Meeting, Thursday 11th June. That June meeting will be held in our meeting room in the amenities block in Maidstone Park, (weather permitting of course!!) It will comprise both our Annual General Meeting for 2015/16, a short general meeting to deal with any matters that have arisen in May and June and a bit of a chat session. We will appreciate your attendance.

a break of 15 months.” - Grant Anderson. (with his permission). It will be noted in the photo that the station loop and other refinements still had to be completed.

Failures of Silver Soldered Joints in Stainless Steel Fitments -David Grant-Taylor

A while ago in our general discussion during a club meeting I commented on the risk of failure of silver soldered joints in stainless steel fitments, especially in wet conditions, and this comment was met with surprise, and apparent disbelief. I met this failure a good deal in my work in a high-pressure lab. These joints were all well designed, brazed either by flame or in a furnace with 2% hydrogen argon shield. When a new joint was sectioned it showed perfect penetration. The shear stress was very low at 620 PSI or 4.2 MPa, less than 5% of the rated shear stress for Easiflo No1, and yet in wet conditions these joints would fail by interfacial corrosion leaving a very slightly matt but shiny surface with no trace of silver solder on one of the joint faces. I eventually found a very early reference to this failure, in “Industrial Brazing 2nd edition by H R Brooker and E V Beatson, Newnes-Butterworths 1975”. In 1972 Jarman et al looked at this failure, and decided that it was due to the preferential dissolution of a copperzinc-iron phase at the joint interface. I also note that this text book shows a photo provided by Johnson Matthey of this type of failure. In view of this and of my own experience, I find it hard to accept their current statements that this group of silver solders are appropriate for use joining stainless steels. However help is at hand. There are a few Auckland Track alloys, including the 56% silver-copperConversion nickel-indium alloys, The ASME and the 3%nickelnewsletter back in March copper-boron alloys. noted -But my all time “To mark the refavorite is from the opening of the entire group known as track for Sunday running Nicrobraz by Wall and a huge milestone in Colmony. The one I the progress of Stage 1 of used was Nicrobraz the track conversion to LM, composition ground level with the Fe(3) Cr(7) Si(4.5) addition of 7½”G rail, B(3.1) Ni(bal), Grant Anderson downed although there are tools and celebrated with many others available some circuits of the now. Although completed track behind furnace brazing is his steamer Hotpot. He specified, I used sent in these photos and a Grant Anderson at the station of the ASME track at Panmure Basin. flame and flux to Hot Pot is taking water on their first run on the completed circuit. brief explanation. get very sound “I attach some joints, and a major advantage was that remelt representative photos taken on Hotpot’s first session temperature was higher, perhaps 1200 C compared of runs around the fully altered ASME mainline after with 1100C for the original braze making it possible work was completed on Saturday 31st January. I to sequence assemblies. As with all good things it is steamed up about 6.30pm and Jan and I made 8 runs expensive. around the full 650 metres using Greville's new 7½″G trolley (note the seat back-rest), the last after dinner Tauranga Convention - Peter Jones being a twice-round non-stop run (1.2km) in the dark With just over 6 months to go to the MEANZ at 9.15pm - headlight (and cab-light) on as National Model Engineering Convention I thought it appropriate. It was most satisfying to be able to run timely to make contact to all MEANZ registered clubs on the whole track again from Waipuna Junction after

*5* in New Zealand to clarify a few issues that some club members seem to be concerned about. The first is our system of fail safe braking, I have explained how our system works through our newsletter Wheels and Floats and also stated that no matter what system other clubs used for train braking, provided they do have an effective braking system, they will be able to run on our ground level tracks. We are in the final stages of developing a ride car that will have a stand alone fail safe braking system that can be used in conjunction with any of the conventional miniature railway braking systems, so visitors do not have to have any concerns whether they can run or not. Trains will be limited during public running to three ride cars, working within the MEANZ guidelines of one braked car per three cars. The rear car will have a guard as required, he will ride on what we will call a brake car and will have control of a braking system if required. So come along, bring your locomotive and enjoy the Tauranga hospitality. We are upgrading our raised track services, no concerns here with failsafe braking. Our club raised track ride cars have mechanical brakes and we encourage those who want to use the raised track to bring their own trolley if that is practical, otherwise we have 6 trolley’s that can be used and I’m sure that those who are able to bring one would not mind sharing. We really want to see our visitors 3¼”gauge and smaller 5” gauge locomotives on our raised track during the convention and hauling the public. In an effort to get public participation during the convention, we are promoting the event as a convention and hobbies EXPO. This increases our workload of course, but we have the facilities to put on a great exhibition of all hobbies focusing on those that involve hand skills. We want the best display to be model engineering so we are asking model engineering clubs in New Zealand to please support this concept by bringing completed and not so completed projects of anything to do with model engineering to Tauranga. This is an opportunity to promote our hobby and remember during the summer months people from all over New Zealand

come to Tauranga/Mt Maunganui for their holidays so this is an opportunity to lift the profile of our hobby and get new members interested. There will be people attending the hobby display who have an interest in engineering but don’t know the details of model engineering clubs in their area, so this is an opportunity for clubs to increase their membership. A display also gives our members and visitors incentive to get on with building something, or even completing a project, and for meeting other model engineers. We have received some feed back regarding the waiver and indemnity clause in the registration form. If you look closely and compare it with the registration statement for CANMOD 2014 you will find that ours may have a few more words but in essence is much the same. This is standard form for events of this type. Our convention committee is really working hard to make the event enjoyable for everyone, direct any queries to our convention Secretary Mike Treloar who will refer them on to the convention committee Email [email protected]. See you at Tauranga in January 2016. Kindest regards, Peter Jones, President TMMEC.

Stopping under Power A recent thread on the ME list referred to what appears to be an occasional experience that we need to be prepared for on our miniature railways. The example was on a battery electric drive model having a 4QD controller. It has been known for a fault condition to occur and the loco goes to full power that cannot be corrected with the throttle. The answer was to ensure that there was some way of cutting power. A “kill” switch of some sort should be provided whether direct, or by circuit breaker relay of some sort, independent of the throttle control. The circumstance is a bit like the throttle jamming open on a steam loco. In that case you have the chance to control with the reversing lever and in either case application of the brakes is a possible remedy. It pays to know what to do in the circumstance and the action needs to be tested. Any driver should know what has to be done in such a case.

More on Coal Manukau report on further tests they have made with a bag of Giles Creek coal that has often been advocated by the Nelson Club. Bill Krippner tried it out on his Ab and his #1 Phantom and seems to have a preference for the Welsh coal. They have however ordered a ton of the SI coal to try out over Queens Birthday weekend. It is supplied by Birchfield Coal Mines and contact details were given in their May issue of Steamers and Dreamers. How many frogs in a turnout? This layout is at the Canterbury Steam Preservation Society McLeans Island site. The track accesses the loco depot. Real bush tram style, without the worn out look. ! ! Photo - Anderson

Blast Pipe June 2015

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For Sale Jim McLean from the Manukau Live Steamers club in Auckland is retiring from building steam locos. He is also selling this latest Scottish looking PHANTOM  tank engine, Scotty, shown with Jim in the photo, taken on the top bridge on the Manukau track. The price on Scotty is $25,000. Trollies extra. Jim is also selling off his workshop,  A list of what is on offer is on a supplied flyer, a copy of which is in the clubrooms..  Call Jim if you want any details . Ph 09 2744811

Ben Davidge Contact Jimmy McLean with his Scotty on the Manukau track

Canterbury Relief

“I've had quite a significant change since we last caught up. In October last year I accepted a job here in Lund, Sweden where I moved in January this year. I'm now working as a design engineer for an organisation called European Spallation Source (ESS) which is jointly owned by the Swedish and Danish governments and has 17 other contributing countries. It's a €2b project to build a facility containing the worlds most powerful neutron source and will also have the worlds most powerful linear particle accelerator! Pretty serious stuff and felt it was an opportunity I just couldn't pass by. “Being on this side of the world makes trips around Europe considerably cheaper! For my recent birthday I decided to spend 9 days in the UK with family and managed to fit in a day at RH&DR! While not planned for, my visit actually coincided with their annual Steam & Diesel Gala Weekend! It was my first time visiting a 15" gauge railway - talk about motivation for my project!” -- Ben (Perhaps his project has turned into a 15”gauge Ka935, ‘935’ being part of his old email address!) Ben was a junior HVMES member last century.

Their Bulletin No.37 stated -“You will be pleased to hear that the fire ban is lifted and in the last couple of Sundays steamers have outnumbered others! Well done, and let’s hope that continues. It’s also great to see the raised track being used. A good display of boats on the pond last Sunday and the water level is back to normal.” #7 Typhoon and #8 - - It refers back Hurricane stand on their to last month train ready to depart on the but we hope the RH&DR. recent cooling Photos - Ben Davidge off has not been too drastic. They have also welcomed Glen Martin, CEO of Jetpack NZ as their patron. #9 Winston Churchill & #10 Dr. Syn on the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch showing the bleak countryside at the end of the line at Dungeness.

Dates to Note 24 - 26 October Labour Weekend ! Havelock North and New Plymouth. 7 - 11 January 2016 ME Convention Tauranga. The HVMES run at the track at Petone 1300 to 1600hrs on fine Sundays -- Welcome Maidstone MES, Upper Hutt, running on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month. - Welcome there too.