We V i s i t t h e Pickering Experimental Engineering and Model Society

John Arrowsmith visits another club in North Yorkshire well-known for the quality of its work.

My visit to PEEMS - the Pickering Experimental Engineering and Model Society - was an eyeopening experience in as much as I have never before had such a wide variety of engineering ar tefacts and equipment presented to me by club members as I did here Indeed, I had a veritable model engineering exhibition put on just for me, such that I did not know what to look at first t as an incredible display of everything from full size vintage motor cars down to small oscillating engines,

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all presented in the most professional way Before we get onto the details, a little about the club itself would be appropriate. PEEMS is a club that does not own any land or buildings or have any sort of railway track on which to focus its operations It was started about 20 years ago with a group of like-minded individuals who were interested in engineering but not railways as such Located in Pickering itself, the members use the workshops and facilities provided by Mike Sayers and with 40 members at the moment they have a very wide range of skills and interests The workshop spaces available are on a par with a good sized engineering works. Simply, there’s just about everything that might be required to build quality models from, as I said, full size to small oscillating engines, but more of that later

For more formal events and meetings the club has use of a large room in the Hungate Centre in the centre of Pickering, not far from the North Yorkshire Moors Railway station It was in this building that they had put on a mini exhibition just for me and I have to say it was an impressive display of work which I enjoyed tremendously Members hale from different parts of Yorkshire, as well as the local area, with one member travelling up from Surrey to attend events arri ed on a fine, sunny morning to find a small selection of exhibits, all set up to show how they operated, along with some static models under construction or full size examples of their type just for ie ing he first specimen on show was a new steam powered motor cycle engine block under construction by Paul Windross This beautifully machined piece of work has all been made in his home workshop using a Myford lathe as his main machine tool (photo 1) It is intended that this power unit will be installed in a two or three wheeled vehicle to hopefully power a

UK record attempt machine

The engine itself is a full size version of Paul’s 129 33 mph tethered Hydroplane At the moment the engine is only fi ed together for testing and running on air The steam generator and burners are currently under construction

Next in line on this display was the half size replica, built by Mel Doran, of a Gardner ot ube as ngine built from castings supplied by the Anson Engine Museum (photo 2 Mel also had a finely built example of an Atkinson cycle engine on show (photo 3) alongside his example of an Atkinson differential engine (photo 4 rolific builder, rian Rees demonstrated his self designed and built example of a stationary cc , t in four-stroke I/C engine - another high quality machine (photos 5 and 6) The late Tom Pascoe was a great friend of Mike Sayers and on his passing the family wanted Mike to have one of Tom’s models and this four cylinder I/C engine just shows the sheer quality of Tom’s model making skills (photo 7)

Moving on from the outside demonstration area I was shown into one of the club’s display rooms where an amazing selection of work was on show. Much of it was the tooling for the well-known 4½ litre Bentley engine built by Mike Sayers (photo 8) including the wooden former for the radiator (photos 9 and 10) ome of the igs and fi tures were works of art on their own, for example the engine to supercharger coupling (photo 11) and the little blower rotor test rig for use with the Bentley engine (photo 12); superb or manship n the ne t table were some of the patterns and formers used in making the radiator (photo 13 ther exhibits in this room included a fine three cylinder n ani ero engine (photo 14) and, made using a modern 3D printer, an example of a gearbox, produced to see how it would loo and fit hen made for the engine (photo 15).

I then went into the workshops and here was an almost complete manufacturing plant capable of facilitating the most complicated and accurate work Lathes, milling machines, grinders, sheet metal work machines, welding equipment and a host of all the necessary associated small tools and fittings collets and muffler furnaces etc It’s no wonder that the members here can produce such fine or to such high standards with all this equipment available When you have models like the 1929 4½ litre supercharged Bentley engine in one-third scale built by Mike Sayers standing in the adjacent showroom, how can you not have the incentive to produce top class work? It is probably the finest model engineers’ workshop I have ever had the pleasure of visiting I have shown some of the smaller models that were working outside but to then be shown the full size examples that have been refurbished or built in this space was another revelation The two seater, three litre Bentley motor car circa 1924 (photos 16 and 17) had just 4 or 5 pieces available to start the re-build This process started in 1987 and took 10 years to complete Since completion t he car has toured widely including the West Coast of the USA It has also graced many rallies and shows in the UK with its presence. Next to this was an equally impressive Riley Lynx This again had been rebuilt from just a collection of bits Although the chassis and engine was sound, all the body work and wings have been made here and this took 15 years to complete Today it looked an absolute picture (photos 18 and 19) If that was not enough perhaps the twin cylinder 1928 1000cc Ind ian motorcycle would take your fancy It was described as a box of old bits and pieces when it arrived; no loo at it t ust oo es quality (photo 20) Alongside these exceptional examples were three more motor cycles that have been ‘through the or s he first of these was a 1937 Rudge 500 which was bought at auction with a broken frame and worn out engine It has a bit of history in that in 1990 it was ridden at the Royal Tournament by the

Motor Cycle Display team

(photo 21) Next in line was a 1962 Norton 650SS which was bought as a wreck and threw up many other problems during the refurbishment (photo 22) Both these bikes were rebuilt by Jonathon Milner The third bike in this collection was a 1957 elocette aliant hich has been restored by Rob Davey t is fitted ith a ater cooled elocette engine obtained from a Police LE bike enquiries are still ongoing It also has various additions and works to get to this standard (photo 23)

I m u s t m e n t i o n a m o d e l e n g i n e t h a t w a s r e s i d i n g i n t h e w o r k s h o p T h i s i s a m o d e l o f t h e e n g i n e f r o m t h e c a r w h i c h w o n t h e v e r y f i r s t B r i t i s h G r a n d P r i x M i k e h a s b e e n g i v e n f u l l a c c e s s t o t h i s e n g i n e w h i c h h a s b e e n s t r i p p e d d o w n c o m p l e t e l y A f u l l s e t o f d r a w i n g s h a s b e e n m a d e a n d n o w t h e e n g i n e i s s l o w l y c o m i n g t o g e t h e r I t l o o k s l i k e l y t o b e a n o t h e r m a s t e r p i e c e t o a d d t o t h e c o l l e c t i o n ( p h o t o 2 4 )

So where do we go from he re, having exhausted all the models, tools and equipment at this location? The group, including my wife and I, were then taken into Pickering where another display of models and equipment had been set out for us It was like a one man model engineering exhibition, but all that will be revealed in Part 2 in the next issue of Model Engineer