What is the finest model engineering you’ve seen?

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

As per the title, What is the finest model engineering you've seen? Specific examples please rather than "the work of Cherry Hill".

I would like to volunteer Pierre Scerri's Ferrari 312.

**LINK**

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

[Dave WoottonParticipant @davewootton]

There's a few I can think of

Barrie Hares Merlin engine, absolutely superb. Even a locomotive enthusiast like me loved it.

Dennis Evans Capriotti valve geared Duke of Gloucester in 3 1/2" gauge

Dr Bradbury Winters LB&SCR Como , a wonder today and even more so in its time of construction.

Chris Vines B1 , beautifully built and painted and it goes well too.

I look forward to other suggestions, there have been so many superb models over the years.

Dave

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

Dave has beat me to it ! Bongo (B1) by Chris Vine ! Noel.

[BazParticipant @baz89810]

I would like to say the work of Cherry Hill, all her work, but seems I am not allowed to say that so I will go with Bongo by Chris Vine

[Ramon WilsonParticipant @ramonwilson3]

The eighteen cylinder radial engine made by Gerald Smith – a simply awesome example of machining skill and especially so when it was made on a treadle powered round bed Drummond.

I've only seen it the once and never had a camera but it's etched on my memory. Seen many fine examples of the art over the years including the superb models of Cherry Hill but none eclipses that for me though Peter Southworth's Agnes tandem compound stationary engine comes a very close second.

 

Tug

Edited By Ramon Wilson on 19/08/2022 11:04:53

[derek hall 1Participant @derekhall1]

If we are discussing models actually seen face to face, at the SMEE 100th anniversary some years ago, which had a disappointingly low attendance, I was able to see almost the entire collection of Cherry Hills models and Dr Bradbury Winters model "Como".

I witnessed prof Chaddock starting and running Lew Blackmores 9 cylinder rotary engine.

I also went to the Liverpool maritime museum some years ago and was able to see the fantastically detailed marine steam engines by (I think?) a certain Commander Baker – I stand to be corrected on the name though….

Regards

Derek

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

As I rarely get to see models in the flesh (it's all wallabies and sugar cane around here), I would have to say the recent thread Doc posted HERE (see page 19) about the model of the engine room of the Deutchland is the best example I have seen pics of. Seen at the Hamburg maritime museum, the workmanship and detail is boggling and the subject, a six cylinder quadruple expansion engine is unique. But it is surrounded by the full engine room full of equipment with details like a Stuart V10 driving the condensor cooling pump etc. Just awesome in both extent and quality.

From Doc's thread:

Also some Stuart Sirius engines there I think:

I can now appreciate the skill and time that went into this amazing model.

I have been looking at ME mags since I was a boy in short trousers and this takes the cake.

Edited By Hopper on 19/08/2022 11:33:11

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by derek hall 1 on 19/08/2022 11:25:11:

If we are discussing models actually seen face to face, at the SMEE 100th anniversary some years ago, which had a disappointingly low attendance, I was able to see almost the entire collection of Cherry Hills models and Dr Bradbury Winters model "Como".

I witnessed prof Chaddock starting and running Lew Blackmores 9 cylinder rotary engine.

I also went to the Liverpool maritime museum some years ago and was able to see the fantastically detailed marine steam engines by (I think?) a certain Commander Baker – I stand to be corrected on the name though….

Regards

Derek

Barker (not Baker.) No relation to the current MEW writer of the same surname but much more mediocre talent though!

Edited By Hopper on 19/08/2022 11:32:04

[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

For me it’s armour like this. Made without anything in the way of advanced tools. Made to fit the men like a second skin. Plates formed by nothing more then a man’s hammer and skill. Not only did this need to look great by the use of the skill of the finest artists of metal and design. But the metal craft in getting the correct temper of steel took a depth of knowledge long lost.

[Brian Baker 2Participant @brianbaker2]

Greetings, I agree that SMEE centenary exhibition brought together the finest collection of Model Engineering Exhibits that I have ever seen, but I think "Bongo" takes some beating. Well done Chris.

Regards

Brian B

[derek hall 1Participant @derekhall1]

Posted by Hopper on 19/08/2022 11:30:22:

Posted by derek hall 1 on 19/08/2022 11:25:11:

If we are discussing models actually seen face to face, at the SMEE 100th anniversary some years ago, which had a disappointingly low attendance, I was able to see almost the entire collection of Cherry Hills models and Dr Bradbury Winters model "Como".

I witnessed prof Chaddock starting and running Lew Blackmores 9 cylinder rotary engine.

I also went to the Liverpool maritime museum some years ago and was able to see the fantastically detailed marine steam engines by (I think?) a certain Commander Baker – I stand to be corrected on the name though….

Regards

Derek

Barker (not Baker.) No relation to the current MEW writer of the same surname but much more mediocre talent though!

Edited By Hopper on 19/08/2022 11:32:04

Thanks Hopper,

Yes I agree those pics you reposted of that engine room…..magnificent!!!

Regards

Derek

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Far TOO many to list!

Stan Bray's OO gauge live steam Crampton, John Bertinat's collection of engines, Tony Meek's Gold Medal winning "Princess Royal", Roy Darlington's many hot air engines; to mention but a few that come immediately to mind in addition to those already mentioned.

Howard.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Very much on the same general theme of Cherry Hill's work, Ron Jarvis' collection of early and significant engines built to quite small scale but fully-working, to highlight their historical significance in engineering.

These included models of:

– The strange steam-powered bus built by Church (Apparently the prototype was built but proved a disappointing failure without ever entering its intended long-distance service.)

– Newcomen's 'Atmospheric Engine'. Standing perhaps two feet high, the details extend to correctly-bonded actual bricks, to scale size; properly-sqaure nuts and bolts on the timber frame etc, and real lead pipes made to right size and correctly soft-soldered to join them. Ron admitted he could not use coal firing reliably in a 2psi gauge spherical boiler about the size of an orange – and with orange-peel finish to represent 18C manual plate-forging – so it contains a discreet electric element controlled by concealed thermostat and microprocessor. He joked about this being unique as an 18C CNC steam-engine!

– a diagonal paddle-steamer engine, in timber hull section. I think this was the one competing for Gold with another's work of equal merit, but had to be content with Silver because the judges were unsure if the castings should have been painted. Errr, they had not realised the model's iron castings were actually mild-steel fabrications treated in a home-made grit-blaster with the correct size grains, to emulate castings….

.

Outside of model-engineering, Mr. Jarvis spent his retirement from an MoD Science career, gardening, teaching himself computing when you needed know programming to use a computer, and bee-keeping. It seems in the last, he was the one who probably cracked the insect's curious 'kamikaze' myth – it fatally injures itself only when stinging an animal with a tough skin such as a horse or human, not fragile ones like other insects.

I do not know what happened to his models after his death – already a widower. I do hope they and the awards they garnered at the major exhibitions, are available for others to admire; preferably in a museum run by curators who understand their subjects, not just how to fill the premises' private store-room behind the gift-shop.

.

I shall now admit bias! I knew Ron Jarvis as a fellow-member of our local model-engineering society.

These memories raise another….

I helped take his collection back to his home after a local exhibition; and carried the Newcomen Engine from a car, across crazy-paving, and up three steps into his house. It is (I nearly wrote 'was' )  a heavy, bulky but very fragile arms-full, and I was very nervous; thinking afterwards as relief took over that if I had tripped and dropped it……

Even now, years later, it still makes my blood run cold that by a single slip I would have destroyed Ron Jarvis' Newcomen Atmospheric Engine. Breaking his heart; and my being whispered about, even pointed out, in clubs and exhibitions up and down the land to this day.

. . . .

Incidentally, though not a leading exhibitor, another and earlier club member, Reg Dawson, was a consummate craftsman who overhauled the 5" g. 'Maid of Kent' that was the club's locomotive. He might even have helped build it originally. It was with this that I learnt to drive miniature steam locomotives in my Junior Membership years, back in the late-1960s.

When I knew him he was constructing an exquisite triple-expansion engined tug he told me he had willed to the Science Museum. Not for hiding behind the gift-shop, we hope.

This character moved away c.1970, with the loco….. And neither were seen since. As he was in his 80s, then I think it safe to name him!

I would love to know if the locomotive, bearing the 'Maid of Athens' name-plates for a reason I long forget; and I think fitted with Joy Gear, still exists and despite my novitiate handling, hopefully still sometimes romps around some club's track somewhere….

 

Edited By Nigel Graham 2 on 19/08/2022 13:06:20

[Dave WoottonParticipant @davewootton]

That engine room is absolutely stunning, this is the best thread for ages, a reminder of some of the fantastic models that have been seen at exhibitions over the years, and an opportunity to find out about some other masterpieces.

And not a moan in sight……….

Keep them coming.

Dave

[oilcanParticipant @oilcan]

One deserving of a mention is the 1/30 scale horizontal Corliss engine of Jerry Kieffer of the US. Deceptively simple looking, until you realise that everything is scale, including the 1/4 diameter bolts on the original. How you go about making taps and dies to produce a 0.009" diameter functional bolt I have no idea!

Clem Tomlinson's Deltic Engine deserves a mention. i would love to see it close up.

Plus one for the engines of Commander Barker. I always made a point of visiting the Merseyside Maritime Museum to view them, but I believe they are no longer on display. Even more impressive when you realise they were made with treadle operated machinery.

[Richard MarksParticipant @richardmarks80868]

Really impressive was a Very Large version of the BIG BOY locomotive I saw at the model engineering show at Alexandra Palace a few years ago, I have not seen or heard of it since as I would like to see it running.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Other people's work is well out of my league, so not an ego trip, but the most satisfying models I've seen are the ones I made myself.

Can anything made by someone else ever beat the joy of a home-made engine or clock firing up the first time?

Dave

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Seeing one's own tooling or model functioning has to bring a vast amount of pleasure, although in my case, tempered by the knowledge that it is NOWHERE near the standard of the many items already mentioned here.

It is in awe of the skill and patience of the makers that I stand.

Howard

.

[lfoggyParticipant @lfoggy]

I really like Barry Jordan's machine tool models, particularly the Bridgeport….

Great model but also unique.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Cherry Hill stands out for me because she deliberately researches unusual machines from the past, often poorly documented, and reverse engineers the design which she builds from scratch to an extremely high standard.

Done it several times too, and every model is a high-grade multi-layered achievement. Much harder than building a well-known type from a decent plan made by someone else. Quite a few brilliant Model Engineers have produced impressive quantities of superb work, but I can't of anyone who beats Cherry Hill for volume, difficulty, workmanship, and originality.

Last thing I made was a washer…

Dave

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

The many examples quoted just go to show the immense range and magnitude of the skills within the Model Engineering environment.

Howard

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Dave (SOD) –

Tank you for reminding me. I should have highlighted the same fact of detailed research into unfamiliar machines, by Ron Jarvis. In their attention to fidelity to rare or long-extinct prototype, detail and exquisite skill he and Cherry Hill were equals. I believe they did know each other, through the major exhibitions.

Howard –

I could not agree more! As well as the various types of engines in those examples, we could add clock-making and ornamental-turning, which even if not strictly "model"-making are certainly brother hobbies using much the same principles.

Ornamental turning has had Royal approval too: it was a hobby of King George III.

.

While admiring the creme-de-la-Brasso at the shows may inspire we lesser mortals, as others have said the real satisfaction is completing successfully one's own handiwork, however sophisticated or modest.

There is a rumour I may finish my own project one day / year…. It will never win awards, it's not much less rough in quality than the original full-size ones appeared to have been (from old photos), but it is almost unique in miniature and the only 12-inch-scale existing is a modern replica…. but it will still be all my own efforts, save for the 'Western Steam' boiler and some other bought-in parts. (Oh, all right, and the ex-BMC Austin differential I modified for the traction-engine pattern live axle.)

[MortyParticipant @morty]

https://www.warbirdsinmyworkshop.net

Static Warbird modelling with some great engineering by David Glen.

Cheers, Pete

[Sam StonesParticipant @samstones42903]

There are far too many, and how unfair of me to mention Miniatur Wunderland having only seen it on video …..

However, two models that impressed me the most and remain in my memory were very different from each other. Regrettably, as far as I'm aware, there are no photographs of either.

The first was a railway, modelled on an actual village in Scotland.

It was different to a typical railway model in several ways. The majority of the layout was just the coastline of the village with a single track following the contours and gradient. For portability, the two chaps who built the model had managed to fit all the sections into three banjo cases.

The rolling stock was tiny. With room to spare, an engine would easily fit into a matchbox. The gauge was perhaps even smaller and almost certainly predated N scale. They had to wind their own electric motors too, since nothing that small was available.

Holding an engine in the palm of his hand and peering closely at the detail, my toolmaker friend and mentor Bill asked them, “How did you make the spokes of the driving wheels?”

“Oh! We just made a tool and bashed them out.” came the reply.

The other very different model was of a weaving machine. Built by a dentist to a scale of about 1:6, it measured roughly 12" (30cm) wide, and looked as complex as an old Remington typewriter.

The unique feature was that it actually worked producing a strip of woven cloth some 6" (15cm) wide.

So, what else was unique?

It was c1950 and my first ever visit to a Model Engineer’s exhibition. On that occasion, it was in the Corn Exchange, Manchester.

 

Edited By Sam Stones on 20/08/2022 03:06:07

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