178^th Meeting of the Transvaal Meccano Guild

(Saturday 28th June 2003: Fuschia Room, Jabula Center, Sandringham)

Model report

Fred Konig

Demag Floating Crane

Fred brought along his almost completed Demag floating crane.

Fred saw an article on the Demag cranes in a Meccano magazine.

3 Demags were manufactured by the Germans.

After World War II they were reallocated to the allies.

The Russians and British each took one which are now missing.

The last surviving one was taken by the Americans and it now resides at the Long Island Naval Shipyard.

The scale of these cranes is absolutely massive.

The gearbox is a multi direction gearbox incorporating all the drive functions. Multiple functions can run in

reverse or forward at any time without the motor having to change direction.

Fred used miniature thrust ball bearing built up from cup washers and miniature ball bearings as well as

fiber washers to reduce friction in the gearbox.

Chris Els

Tug Boat

Chris built this model designed by Jim Picton from plans he downloaded off the internet.

The boat is on a base that lifts the tug up and down to simulate wave action.

Steam Engines

Chris fired up his Wilesco T90 steam turbine and Mamod SE3 steam engines.

The Wilesco runs a simple Pelton Wheel Turbine.

A member noted the high inefficiency of the design, being high speed steam hitting a slow speed wheel!

Anthony Els

Racing Truck

Anthony's work in progress lightweight delivery truck is built from a 1993 NMMG newsmag.

The truck has 5 x MO MKII motors running a multi groove pulley, as seen on the far right photo.

The truck needs 3 Amps to run all the motors and Anthony recons you can spin the tyres!

To handle all the power, Anthony added the following beefed up solutions:

- Torsion bars on the rear suspension.

- Powerful springs for the suspension.

- A helical spur differential.

- CV joints built up from double angle brackets and collars. (See middle photo).

Anthony recons he is going to use a motorbike battery as the power source to run the truck.

Tanks

Anthony brought along 3 tanks built in Army multikit parts.

2 of the tanks were built from the Army Multikit plans.

The third tank was built from a 1976 Meccano Magazine. It is motorized with an MO motor and

2 x "square" 4.5V batteries

Dave Heathcote

Blocksetter

Daves brought his work in progress Blocksetter based on a design by Fred Koenig.

The crane looks splendid in its resprayed red and green parts.

Dave must be a marathon man as he tells us he spent 4 nights on the boom and 1 week on the base.

All that needs to be done is add the gearbox and motor.

Mini-mini-mini Meccano Graph

Dave showed us his ultra small Meccano Graph. This one is even smaller than Peter Feathers then mini-mini Meccano graph

Clock

Dave brought his rolling ball clock in again with a few improvements.

The last time he could not get it running properly due to no perfectly flat table in the hall.

He built in an adjustable base using a worm gear actuating cams to level out the base.

The clock ran better than last time due to the modifications to the base leveling as well as spring loaded pawls.

Stuart Marr

Copy of Eric Baldwin's design with modifications. Stuart tells us this is meant to be the economy version.

Built in refurbished green and silver it is hand operated at the moment.

Stuart pointed out an interesting modification in the gearing to work around a lack of helical gears.

Peter Mathews

Traction Engine

Peter Mathews originally built this model for Bill Steyn a number of years ago.

Recently Peter bought the entire collection from him as well as the engine he had originally sold to him!

Bill added a generator and canopy to the engine. Peter tells us that this was wrong for that design and period and plans on removing them.

Traction engines were workers and had no glitz, glamour or creature comforts, unlike showman's engines!

Pieter Gouws

Weight Lifter

Pieters model is a copy of the Samson weight lifter designed by Les Nightingale.

The motor in the base of the model pushed the rod up and down, causing the weight lifter to rise up and down.

Sieger Lampen

Mini Gearboxes

Our Cape Town member was up for a visit in Johannesburg.

He brought along a couple of gearboxes using the 6V MO motors and metal gears he built from a NMG #90 newsletter.

The ratios achieved on the gearboxes are 98,14 : 1 and 343,605 : 1 respectively!

If you try to stop the shaft, you literally cannot stall the motor and there is no slipping of gears either.

Werner

Mini Steam train and Prototype monster

Junior modeler Werner's mini steam train was built from plans on the internet. It is neatly modeled and proportioned.

His prototype monster on the right is, well, a monster!

Bill Steele

Terrier Loco

Bill brought in his 0-6-0 "O" Gauge Terrier loco.

Bill built the loco based off a Hornby "O" Gauge Terrier loco.

The axles are isolated with elektrikit bush wheels so that current can be picked up from the track.

The Bogie Whale Wagons are based on designs by Peter Mathews.

Bill also modeled hydraulic buffers for the track based on Hornby "O" Gauge as well.

Andries Botha

High speed ship coaler

Andries demonstrated his high speed ship coaler built from super model plan No2.

The E20R motor was used to power this monster, as well as lots and lots of sprocket chain!

Graham Coombe

W.I.P Main Beam Engine

Graham brought his work in progress W.I.P main beam engine, modelplan number 93.

Graham comments that it is taking forever to build and hopes to have it completed for the November exhibition.

Notable features of this model is the well braced beam pivoting on socket couplings seen in the lower right of the photo.

The flywheel is 20 1/2 " in diameter!

Tony Gane

SARACEN Armored Vehicle Chassis

Tony's partially complete armored vehicle chassis has some innovative ideas built into it.

The features of this model to date are:

- Shock absorber suspension.

- Drive to all 6 wheels.

- Front 4 steerable.

- 3 Paul Wright differentials.

- 6 soft tread tyres.

Tony told us that he acquired the Fluid shocks from a hobbies store. They are used in off road radio control cars (1:10 scale)

O&K V80 Fork Lift

Tony's partially complete Fork Lift.