Exhibition & Competition 2010
Rubber Powered Loco Competition 2011
Exhibition & Competition 2011
May Meeting 2012
Monthly Meeting – Ron Fitzgerald – Development of Textile Mills
Wednesday 2nd May 2012 – 19:30
Saltaire Methodist Church
August Meeting 2012
Steam Up and Social
Wednesday 1st August- 19:30 onwards
Northcliff Railway
Northcliff Railway Training Day Aug 2012
Wednesday 22nd August 13:00 – 16:30 in the Northcliff Clubhouse.
This event is only open to members and their families due to insurance restrictions.
Building on the session last year we will be running a few separate sessions covering the different areas of the railway.
The first session 13:00-14:00 is for everyone and will go over the clubs operating rules followed by any questions. Details are still being worked on but topics for following sessions will cover ‘The Club Loco’, ‘The Signalling System and Roles of the Signalman’ and possibly a talk on ‘Boiler Testing’. Obviously these later sessions might not be everyone’s cup of tea but a timetable will be available on the day for you to plan what you want to see and give you time to ‘play’ outside.
The practical side of this event does rely on a selection of different locos being available for members (young and older) to have a go. If you own a loco and can spare a few hours from 14:00 onwards then please let me know. Your help will be much appreciated.
If you have any ideas and suggestion for topics then please leave a comment and I shall try and work it into the day.
Russ Coppin – Track Superintendent
2012 Exhibition and Competition
Our annual exhibition and display was held on Saturday 1st December at Saltaire Methodist Church.
We had a wide selection of models on display and some very close competition in the Railway section. One table that took my attention for quite some time was Nicholas’s Lego crane and even more impressive his Brio signalling system with track circuiting!
Have a look at the photos below.
March Meeting 2013 – AGM
Bradford Model Engineering Society Annual General Meeting
Wednesday 6th March 2013 – 19:45 start
Saltaire Methodist Church
We thank Richard, Ian and Andrew for their years of service and all they have done and continue to do for the society. We also thank Rebekah who is standing down as Publicity Officer, thankyou for all the work you have done.
We welcome David Bedding as our new President and I’m sure there will be some fresh ideas coming forward this next year. We have two other fresh faces this year with Peter Nurse flying the ensign as Boating Commodore and Richard Smith as a general committee member. Jonathan Cherkowski (Junior Rep) and Stanley Ashworth are both now full committee members. Sid Ashworth is taking on the role of Publicity Officer.
On behalf of the Society can I welcome you all and I look forward to working with you over the next year.
Visit to Bancroft Mill 2013
Sunday 18th August – Bancroft Mill Visit and Exhibition
Bancroft Mill, Gillians Lane, Barnoldswick, BB18 5QR
Quite a number of members took the opportunity to visit the Mill and see the engine in steam. If you are in the area I would certainly recommend you pay it a visit. The selection of photographs below should give a idea of some of the equipment on show.
Also many thanks to Richard Randall and the family for opening up their workshop for a few of us to look around. Some impressive pieces of machinery!
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- Bancroft Mill Engine 1
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- Bancroft Mill Engine 2
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- Bancroft Mill Engine 3
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- Bancroft Mill Engine 4
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- Steam Barring Engine
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- Drive Pulley
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- Governor
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- Condenser and Air Pump
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- Cornish Boiler 1
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- Cornish Boiler 2
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- Water Pump
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- Crossley 1.5HP Petrol Engine
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- Auxiliary Engine
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- Loom
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- Tandem Compound Engine
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- Miniatures
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- BMES Stand
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- Welland Jet Engine 2
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- Welland Jet Engine 1
Annual Exhibition and Competition 2013
Saturday 7th December 2013 – 13:00-16:30. Open to the pubic from 14:30.
Saltaire Methodist Church
Mince Pie Steam-Up 2013
Members winter running day
Thursday 27th December 2013 – 12:30 start
Northcliff Railway
January Meeting 2014
“Bits & Pieces” evening.
Wednesday 8th January 2014– 19:30 start
Saltaire Methodist Church
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- Godfrey’s ‘Guess What!’
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- Two oilers
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- Geoff’s Ice yacht
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- Godfrey’s collection of TIG welding experiments
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- Godfrey’s Stirling engine found on the internet
BMES AGM 2014
Bradford Model Engineering Society Annual General Meeting
Wednesday 5th March 2014 – 19:45 start
Saltaire Methodist Church
If any member would like to raise an item at the AGM or stand for a Committee post please inform the Secretary in writing before the February Committee meeting on 12th Feb.
There are a few areas where the committee need some help. These don’t have to be full committee posts if you do not wish to be a director but attendance at committee meetings might be useful from time to time:
Events Coordinator – All of our events require some forward planning, it might be a simple as making sure someone is bringing the tea/biscuits to meetings right through to do we have enough engines and staff for the gala day. The basic template for ‘who does what’ is already in place so this role is just about getting people to commit their availability to do a certain job and then passing this info on to whoever is running the event on the day, we are not expecting you to run all the events! The president and section reps. will always be there to support if you can’t fill a job.
Publicity Officer – We are all very good at what we do but what the Society lacks is someone to go out there and shout about it! We need someone who can:
Design posters to advertise our events and our Society
Share this information and build on the links we already have with other societies
Occasionally write up reports for external publications (T&A, Model Engineer etc.)
Archivist – Michael Gray did an outstanding job of collating the history of the Society from the last 105 years but we now need someone to keep up with this legacy and give it a home. This website does keep its own archive but it does not capture everything so we need someone with a spare filing cabinet, some spare time and some scissors/glue!
Junior Representative – The Society needs someone to keep our younger members active and keen and also to encourage more. Junior members are the future of our hobby and we need them! Specifically they can play an important part at the railway but they need someone to keep an eye out on busy days and make sure they are safe. This has normally been left to the Track Superintendent but with increasing numbers this now needs to be split off as a separate role. This could be a challenging but highly rewarding post and support will always be there from the president and section reps for this vital role.
Track Superintendent – The railway at Northcliffe requires a person to be responsible for the safety of the site and oversee all the societies activities that take place there. This doesn’t mean you have to be at every event as responsibility can be delegated for each running session to one of the members present. A report is given to the committee each month stating any problems or concerns along with sharing any news and achievements. The main requirements for this role are common sense along with good observation and people skills. Due to the responsibilities of this role it is a Committee/Director position.
If you wish to discuss any of these roles then please contact myself (bradfordmes@outlook.com) or any other committee member.
Annual Exhibition and Competition 2014
Saturday 6th December – 13:00-16:30. Open to the public from 14:30.
Saltaire Methodist Church
January Meeting 2015
Wednesday 7th January 2015– 19:30 start
Saltaire Methodist Church
Talk and demonstration of 3D printing and Laser Cutter programming by Bob Gledhill from Keighley Model Railway Club.
The Society’s Library – AGM Discussion
Filed under: Meetings
Discussion document to members as prepared by our Archivist, Ron Fitzgerald:
In 2014 the Committee commissioned review of the Society’s library at Northcliffe Park. A report was prepared by the librarian which was submitted to the November Committee Meeting and discussed in the course of the following December Committee meeting. A full version of the report has been deposited in the library for the inspection of members. It was also decided to circulate the Recommendations via the website and to request members to consider these recommendations with a view to a brief discussion of these and any related issues that the membership consider appropriate at the Society’s A.G.M. on the 4th March 2015.
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The library consists of a substantial collection of books and periodicals, the centrepiece of which is a nearly complete set of the Model Engineer from 1898 to date. We also have a less complete but still extensive run of Engineering in Miniature, a run of the American model engineering magazine, Live Steam from volume 12, no. 1, January 1978 to volume 23, no. 1, January 1989 and several other broken runs of other magazines such as the National Traction Engine club’s journal Steaming.
Books and booklets make up the bulk of rest of the collection. The Percival Marshall/M.A.P. Workshop Manuals series is well represented although with one exception we have nothing later than 1975. We also hold copies of some of the well known guides to model, tool and component making by such authoritative figures as Henry Greenly, L.B.S.C., Martin Evans, Lawrence Sparey, L.C. Mason and Edgar T. Westbury. Again the holdings tend to be older copies and there is nothing later than the earlier edition of Evans’ Manual of Model Steam Locomotive Construction (1983).
From time to time individual volumes of engineering textbooks have been donated. The subjects range from the general to the highly specialised, typically Odham’s General Engineering Workshop Practice, Adam’s The Engineer’s Handbook, Ripper’s Steam Engines, Low’s Heat Engines Youngson’s Slide Valves and Valve Gearing, Morley’s Strength of Materials, Jones’ Production Engineering and Tool Design.
Finally there is a considerable deposition of railway and other enthusiast interest books. These are of variable quality. The best are of obvious value for research purposes, but much of the remainder the majority might best be described as publisher’s makeweights. A brief visit to any second-hand book dealer will show the same titles recur with monotonous regularity and with same unlikely prospects of sale. It is a particularly unfortunate characteristic of such books that they are of a large and often non-standard format and thus occupy a disproportionate amount of shelf space in addition to often being of awkward format.
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The Northcliffe library is potentially a major asset to the society but a detailed analysis of usage from 1995 to 2014 showed that less than 10% of the members regularly drew upon its resources. A number of reasons have been put forward to explain this. The book collection is of very variable quality. The Model Engineer magazine attracts by far the greatest number of borrowers with Engineering in Miniature the second but considerably less popular focus of attention. Of the rest of the books a small number had intermittent use but many never left the shelves.
The central question has to be that of how closely is the content of the library aligned to the wider member’s interests? The Model Engineer and Engineering in Miniature have an obvious value but it is felt that even the most attractive parts of the rest of the collection are dated and suffer from the absence of a systematic current acquisitions policy. The collection is heavily biased towards the railway element of the society; other sectors of interest are under-represented. It has to be said that there is a lack of coherence in the collection resulting in a questionable occupation of valuable shelf space. With this in mind the following recommendations are advanced for discussion by the membership.
- Accessions to the Library collection have been almost entirely a matter of serendipity in the This has endowed the Society with outstanding runs of periodicals and a number of other items of value. Against this, there has been a reluctance to turn material away and the beneficial affects have a counterpart in the accumulation of a great deal of useless junk both in the form of books and otherwise. Little discretion has been exercised in accepting material with the result that the shelf space is now fully utilised often with material of questionable or no interest.
- The random dumping of books and other items in the library should cease immediately. A library sub-committee should be formed to formulate an accessions policy, to control additions to the collection and to advance the library generally. The sub-committee should be restricted to a maximum of five members, including the librarian and should attempt to span the range of member’s interests. Any offers of material in future should be made only to members of the library sub-committee. The sub-committee reserves the right to reject material (without offence) that does not meet the accessions policy.
- A review of the content of the library should be carried out by the above sub-committee and disposals should be made with a view to freeing up shelf space.
- An effort should be made to fill gaps in the two main periodical runs. The first line of action might be to appeal to members for the donation of specific missing items. If this fails then perhaps a wider appeal and possibly purchase might be appropriate.
- It is suggested that a significant omission in the range of periodicals is the absence of Model Engineer’s Workshop. A partial run could be readily assembled and an appeal to members might fill other gaps. A subscription could then be added to the current Model Engineer and Engineering in Miniature, possibly asking the publisher’s of the former for terms.
- The Journal of the S.M.E.E. has published major articles of interest in the past. Professor Chaddock, George Thomas and Jim Ewing’s articles immediately spring to mind. It is understood that the Society is not currently affiliated to the S.M.E.E. but it might be worthwhile considering this and more particularly considering the acquisition of back copies of the Journal.
- As far as the book collection is concerned it is important to know what the members feel would be appropriate emphasis. Should there be an active purchasing policy to acquire more up-to-date material such as the current Workshop Special Practice Series? Would Martin Evans’ The Model Steam Locomotive be worth purchasing? What of the members whose interests lie outside steam locomotives? We are notably deficient in traction engine material, in tramways and stationary steam engines.
- The best general engineering textbooks are usually still available at public libraries (despite the efforts of “modern” librarians to purge books from libraries). The society’s acceptance of further books of this nature needs more careful consideration and the potential usage should condition acceptance.
A printable version of the above is here.
Keighley Model Railway Show 2015
Saturday 21st March 10:00-17:00
Sunday 22nd March 10:00-16:00
Victoria Hall, Keighley. BD21 3JN
Boating Evening and Pop-pop Competition 2015
Boating Evening
Wednesday 17th June – 19:30 onwards
Wibsey Park
The regulations governing the different classes of the competition can be found here:- Pop Pop Boat Regs
Rubber Powered Loco Competition 2015
Rubber powered loco competition and running evening
Wednesday 1st July – 19:30 onwards
Northcliff Railway
September Meeting 2015
Workshop Techniques/Bits and Pieces Evening
Wednesday 2nd September – 19:30 start
Saltaire Methodist Church
BMES Dinner 2015
I should just like to say a big thank you to all the members and guests who attended this year’s Dinner at Oakwood Hall, it would seem everyone enjoyed it.
Also a special thank you to Richard Ashworth for his really interesting and enlightening presentation on how we see things, “Can you believe your eyes” is a very appropriate title.
Best regards Ken Shipley.
Annual Exhibition, Competition and Social 2015
Saturday 5th December – 14:00-16:30
Saltaire Methodist Church
January Meeting 2016
Bits and Pieces Evening
Wednesday 6th January 2016– 19:30 start
Saltaire Methodist Church
February Meeting 2016
“16mm Railways – Narrow Gauge Modelling” by Michael Bastow and Keith Parkinson
Wednesday 3rd Feb – 19:30 start
Saltaire Methodist Church
Loco Competition 2016
Rubber and electric powered loco competition and running evening
Wednesday 6th July – 19:30 onwards
Northcliff Railway
Random Photo
