Model engineering

Model engineering is the pursuit of constructing proportionally-scaled miniature working representations of full-sized machines.

[4] Other popular subjects are Stirling engines,[5] workshop equipment, miniature machine tools and ornamental turning.

Increasingly, 'modern' technologies such as Computer aided design, cnc (computer numerical control) equipment, laser cutting, 3D printing and embedded systems are becoming part of the hobby as more and more of its practitioners have developed skills and familiarity with these techniques through their work, whilst younger people familiar with newer processes discover the potential of traditional machining, narrowing the gap between 'model engineering' and 'maker culture'.

[6] Steam Punk, a post-industrial sculptural art style picking up on the aesthetic and kinetic qualities of old machinery, shares some overlap.

However, the historic meaning of 'engineer' is one who constructs or tends engines, and as such is a fitting epithet for those who make working models as a hobby.

The larger gauges are usually found on club tracks or miniature railways, and are intended to haul the driver and passengers.

However, for many the joy of the hobby lies in the manufacturing process, ending in the great satisfaction of a running engine of any sort, which can be immense.

They were also produced as commercial props to support a patent, to visualise a proposed capital venture, or to advertise a manufacturer's trade.

Many museums in the old industrialised countries house original collections of mechanical models stemming from the earliest days of the industrial revolution.

In Britain, the establishment of a broad middle class by the late nineteenth century, an associated widening of leisure pursuits, and the rise of the Arts and Crafts movement that valorized handicrafts, saw a new constituency of amateur model engineers and experimenters interested in metalwork as a recreation.

Articles and advertisements relating to model engineering began to appear in Amateur Work Illustrated magazine in the mid 1880s.

However, a tradition that still persists is the use of pseudonyms in the model engineering press, as it was once considered inappropriate for professional gentlemen to contribute to "amateur" journals.

Another reason was to disguise the fact that one contributor was single-handedly writing an entire edition of a journal on occasion, notably Edgar T. Westbury, who used no less than four noms de plume.

Among these changes have been the elimination of steam power (still the most favourite subject for model engineers) from rail transport and industry; and the widespread de-industrialisation of Western countries beginning in the 1970s, along with a shift to consumer society and the introduction of a wide new range of competing leisure pursuits.

[23] Model engineering clubs and societies now number in the hundreds across the UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Netherlands, Switzerland and elsewhere.

These tracks are often run publicly and form part of community recreational and tourism infrastructure in their local area.

Due to the inherently dangerous nature of live steam, clubs and societies are responsible for administering safety regulations, insurance and specialist boiler codes that cover both members and the public.

To this end, model engineering clubs and societies often affiliate into national bodies that can lobby government to maintain the historical privilege they have to self-regulate their own safety standards.

In the UK, the Duke of Edinburgh Challenge Trophy, awarded annually at the Model Engineer Exhibition, reflects some of the best of the hobby.

Ian Bradley and Norman Hallows wrote individually and together under the pen-name of Duplex on a wide range of topics, notably finely finished and ingenious tooling.

[30] More recently, Kozo Hiraoka has authored several series of logging locomotive articles in the U.S. magazine Live Steam.

[33] Until the introduction from Asia of relatively cheap machinery, beginning in the 1980s, UK or US made machine tools produced by Myford, South bend, Bridgeport and other now-defunct Western companies were fairly ubiquitous in model engineering.

Unmachined kits usually consist of drawings, castings, stock metal, and possibly fasteners and other fixings necessary to complete the model.

Magazines such as Model Engineer and Live Steam remain the main source of detailed designs and plans (in addition to carrying news items and discussion of products and techniques).

The largest exhibitions are held in London, Doncaster (previously at Harrogate), and Bristol in the UK; York, Pennsylvania in the US; and Karlsruhe in Germany.