What is (Traditional) Model Engineering?

[PlasmaParticipant @plasma]

Personally I left comprehensive school with an O level grade B in metalwork,  having been taught workshop practice and very basic machining in the 1980s.

Schools no longer have metal work or wood work shops as far as I’m aware.

But my passion for mending things came from well before then,  a grandfather who had me help him repair bits of his old cars because his hands were too big and a father who was a Hydraulics fitter at the pit who brought home Gullick Dobson brochures for me to read.

I can’t say if it was born into me or sparked by my exposure to tinkering, but I have always been fascinated with machinery and especially miniatures.

After a six year apprenticeship as a motor vehicle mechanic I changed horses for 30 years of law enforcement.  When I retired I went back to engineering and taught myself how to operate lathes.mills, etc.

I tried several model clubs but the be honest found them pretty closed and unwelcoming. We also have a full size heritage railway nearby and I approached them to ask if I could volunteer and help with engineering work. I was told to grab a shovel and start shifting ballast, my skills as an engineer were not needed as they had all the experience they needed. The whole place is now shut down due to mismanagement and misappropriation.

I don’t have kids but from my limited exposure to them I don’t see a great deal of awe when they see machinery. They seem to relate only to things they see on tik tok and the like. Things that would have grabbed my attention when I was young leave kids cold these days.

All told, I don’t think that loco building will sustain the hobby. I can’t answer the question of how model engineering will carry on. But having driven through Sheffield on Thursday and pointed out all the derelict and demolished engineering firms to my wife I can’t see a bright future for hobby engineering when this country has so little actual engineering going on.

We are supposed to be getting a new engineering facility in south Yorkshire,  building artillery and shells. Looks like if we want to progress engineering we need good war……

Which unfortunately looks more likely than ever in the current climate.

[Plasma]

On Plasma Said:

[…]  Looks like if we want to progress engineering we need good war……

Which unfortunately looks more likely than ever in the current climate.

Even the war-mongering has become increasingly ‘Cyber’ over recent years

MichaelG.

[PlasmaParticipant @plasma]

Even the war-mongering has become increasingly ‘Cyber’ over recent years

 

Yes Michael you are correct. Cyber warfare can hurt us without any bloodshed or even boots on the ground.

But we still insist on killing each other to settle our differences.  So machines to do that will be required until we find another way.

There is nothing that drives progress better than conflict. Most of our major innovations came to improve our chances of winning wars.  Didn’t they spend more money on the manhattan project than on the whole automotive industry to achieve the huge bang?

We live in perilous times, from conflict to climate change. Quite how the next few decades will unfurl I cannot imagine. I’m just glad I didn’t have kids, as I don’t think the future is particularly secure.

 

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