Our Members' Activities and Interests

As in most model engineering societies, live steam and operating a miniature railway is at the forefront of operations, but our membership has a very wide variety of other interests as well - most model engineering activities are solitary endeavours in a member's workshop and the results are only seen by the public at exhibitions. Whilst some members have engineering backgrounds and/or have built several successful working steam models, many members join as absolute beginners and are encouraged and assisted by the more experienced - that's the true benefit of being in a society like ours - knowledgeable help is always at hand. Here are a few of our members' activities and interests:

Locomotives Members have built all kinds of steam locomotives and rolling stock in 7¼", 5", 3½", 2½" and smaller gauges, as well as 'diesel' hydraulics, battery electrics and other i.c. powered setups. Some of the locos currently under construction are:- 7¼" Britannia, 5" Gert, 7¼" Holmside, 7¼" Leek and Manifold, 7¼" 'U-Boat' diesel, 7¼" freelance n.g., 7¼" 14XX, 7¼" Hunslet, 5" 14XX, 5" Britannia, 5" Midland Railway 0-6-0, 5" Type 2 'diesel', 3½" 'Netta', 3½" 'Boxhill', Gauge 1 Himalaya & Darjeeling, Gauge 1 Midland Compound etc etc.
Traction Engines Models are being built in several scales, e.g. a 1½" Allchin, a 2" Fowler showman's, a 4" scale Garrett (seen in the photo), and others up to half full size. Some members also operate a full size steamroller and traction engine. A 4" scale Foden steam lorry is also under construction.
Stationary engines Our members have a substantial collection of stationary steam engines of all sizes and usually each year a special event is organised at which they are run under steam or compressed air. Some of these can be seen in this photo of one of our exhibitions.
Ships and planes and clocks and other things... We have members who build ships - steam or electrically powered, aircraft, and clocks. Steam engines constructed for full size launches are also classed as model engineering. One member is constructing a working miniature jet engine. Another has built his own sports car.
Tools and machines Many model engineers are interested in the construction of special tools and engineering machinery, such as tool and cutter grinders, or making lathes and milling machines.
Professional expertise Some members undertake model engineering as their full time occupation, whether locomotive and traction engine design and construction (up to 15" gauge and half full size), production of kits for machine tools, or the design and installation of complete miniature railways.