[modeleng] Re: New Member - Rod Clarke

Rod & Marie Clarke wrote:
> Thanks for your welcome note Alan.
>
> I served a "Sandwich" apprenticeship in Instrument and Control Engineering 
> with Negretti and Zambra Aviation in London, in 1959-1963, which gave me 2.5 
> years at the workbench and machine tools, but sadly ;-) led to an 
> engineering degree which meant that I was unable to use any manual skills at 
> work for the next 40 years.
>
> With a growing family and limited space, I compensated by scratch-building 
> locomotives in 4mm and 7mm scale until I retired as Chief Engineer of 
> Pickering A Nuclear Generating Station in 1998. I only mention this because 
> I used to be amused at the reactions that my hobby caused among professional 
> engineers responsible for huge pieces of equipment, who had rarely seen a 
> machine tool, let alone used one.
>
> After I retired I got some of my skills back by working for 8 years on the 
> volunteer restoration of the Handley Page 'Halifax' aircraft at Trenton, 
> Ontario,  where we worked with antique machine tools which had been 
> generously donated by the local Native Indian trade school. The aircraft had 
> spent 50 years at the bottom of a Norwegian lake and was badly corroded. In 
> many cases we had to reverse engineer fragile corroded remnants for which we 
> had no drawings, and then machine the replacement parts. Lots of fun!
>
> For the last 10 years I have also been writing the history of the Ontario 
> narrow gauge railways in the 1870's, "Narrow Gauge Through the Bush". With 
> publication done and more spce in the house I am at last free to get into 
> live steam modelling in Gauge 1.
>
> I have only a small lathe (TAIG Micro Lathe II Model 4500) with a home made 
> milling attachment, which is certainly suitable for 7mm modelling, but will 
> be challenged by Gauge 1 work. Accordingly I am making my start by building 
> a Great Central Railway Jersey Lily 'Atlantic' from a parts kit based on the 
> Paul Forsyth drawings. Once I have got that completed and running, I shall 
> see where that takes me in terms of new tools and projects.
>
> Rod Clarke
> Whitby, Ontario
>
>  
>
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>   
Hi Rod,

Welcome to this band of misfits!
Check out my website, and especially the four book pages, which has 100 
ds of volumes, free of copyright
for all your engineering needs!
The site is not finished yet, and I should give it some urgent 
attention, but hey! Rome wasn't built in one day either!

 http://www.steammechanic.net/

Cheers
Patrick
Flanders, EU




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