What is model engineering?
MODEL ENGINEERING as a hobby is concerned with the making and operation of working miniatures of engines and machinery of all kinds. It tends to focus on the artefacts of history, but modern machinery often has appeal for the model engineer too. The hobby embraces locomotives and railway equipment, road vehicles, stationary engines of every kind, marine engines and equipment, clocks, machine tools, hand tools, jigs and fixtures, production machinery, in fact just about anything that has moving parts and “does something” is a potential subject for the model engineer! Steam is the favourite motive power, but petrol engines are popular too, ranging from simple two-stroke engines to precise working models of the Rolls Royce Merlin and similar engines of wartime fame. Even pulse jets and gas turbines have been made and successfully operated in model form by amateurs. Hot air engines working on the Stirling cycle have also become popular in recent years. A certain amount of skill is obviousl