Inspired by the enthusiasm of a veteran engineer...

W elcome to the October edition of EIM - October already! The traditional club running season should soon be coming to an end when this year for many clubs it’s only recently started… As you will read in this issue I had a day out at a club recently, the Elmdon Model Engineers, a group that runs the Wythall Miniature Railway at the transport museum of the same name close to Birmingham. As you will read a bit later it was an enjoyable day but the best bit was without doubt meeting Dennis Herbert, a career railwayman and lifelong model engineer.

We are constantly waving the flag for next-generation model engineering in our pages and indeed in this issue we include a feature on that very subject by our roving reporter and enthusiastic advocate of young engineers John Arrowsmith – he’s been to see the superb work being done with the school pupils running the Downs Light Railway in Malvern.

At a mere 87 years Dennis is, in contrast, one of the oldest model engineers in our pages but during my visit to Wythall it soon became clear how much effort he makes to pass on his experience and knowledge to the next generation, as well as physically helping the Elmdon club in so many ways. I heard the phrase, “Dennis did that,” and “that’s thanks to Dennis,” many times during the day...

As you can see in the picture on page 15 Dennis’s workshop is both tiny and very traditional, but that does not really matter as it is surrounded by the evidence of its effectiveness and the skill of its use, in the various locomotives and clocks that he has either built or restored over the years – it certainly was an inspiring day.

As ever we’ve tried hard to ensure we bring you a wide variety of interesting features in this month’s issue, from clever workshop tools to 50-year loco build projects to restoring a 6-inch engine to revenue-earning service. We hope you enjoy the read and don’t forget, if you have done or built something model engineering related that your fellow readers would find interesting, please get in touch and help me address the perennial problem of a feature bank with far too much space in it! Andrew Charman – Editor

The November issue of Engineering in Miniature publishes on 21st October.