New Member

Tony Bird · New Member

Hi,
I guess I should have done this before. I joined the Forum on the 6th. of this month and have just found this area.
My name is Tony Bird and I live in South Wales UK. I retired from working in the retail trade 3 years ago. As some members will already know from my postings that I am building a copy of a Bowman Steam Launch. All my life my major hobby has been model making. Having covered mosts areas of model making for the last 30 years my main interest has been in making steam models. I belong to a local model Engineering Society and to a Vintage Model Yacht Group. The only hobby resoration I have done is with Dinky Toys of which I have round 100. I am in the process of designing and building a garden railway which with a little alteration to the points should be able to accomodate some of the toys mentioned in the forum. I have a couple of Mamod locomotives which were bought many years ago and now very modified. I have been looking through the files and found articles which have helped with my construction of the steam launch and I'm sure that I will have questions on parts of it that I am not familier with.
Regards Tony.

Les

Hello and welcome to the forum, I am enjoying immensely your steam launch build.

steamyjim

Welcome to the forum!

logoman

Welcome Tony. I would love to see some of you vintage yachts, I've been thinking about a buying an old yacht for a while and I don't know where to start.

benchmark

Welcome to the forum Tony, do post pics of your projects they sound marvelous.

Little Bandit

Hello and welcome to the forum

Greetings Dennis

jakesm

from johannesburg, south africa

STEAMPROPULSION

STEAMPROPULSION

Hi Tony,
why don't you show us your Bowmanesque boat?
You are most welcomed!

Tony Bird

Hi,
Thank you for the welcomes.

Welcome Tony. I would love to see some of you vintage yachts, I've been thinking about a buying an old yacht for a while and I don't know where to start.

I am no expert on vintage model yachts. Many years ago I was given a 6M model racing yacht which probably had been made in the 1930's. It was in reasonable condition and only required a paint job. I live close to a park which has a lake and sailed her there occaisionally. About 8 years ago I bought a broken toy model yacht at an Antique Fair for a modest £7. It was repaired and I tried to find something about it and ended up joining the Vintage Model Yacht Group via their web site. The 6m which weighed 25/30lbs was getting a bit on the heavy side for me to handle so I sold it about six months ago to another member of the YMYG. So other than a few old toy yachts I had no boat to play with. At a show while on the VMYG stand I heard about an old yacht that was for sale. It was a pond yacht which fitted into the 36R class. It was in good conditionand was light enough for me to handle so I parted with £125 and I bought it. The more knowledgable VMYG members seemed to think that it wasn't a commecial product and could have been made between 1930 and 1950. Without altering the boat I have fitted a rudder only R/C and have yet to try it out as the lake has its annual growth of weed on it. We visit our daught that lives in Central London soon so I hope to try it on the Round Pond. If you are interested in finding out about Old yachts and toy boats of all descriptions join the YMYG. members often buy and sell their models via the Turning Pole which is the VMYG magazine.
Regardfs Tony

Tony Bird

Hi,

Hi Tony,
why don't you show us your Bowmanesque boat?
You are most welcomed!

I have been posting photographs and text in the boat section. Today I had unexpected time in the shed (it was raining so couldn't go to our model club to cut grass for an open day tomorrow) so made a bit more of the metal work for the Bowman Eagle that is being made.
The first two photographs show the hull which has all its wood work finished.

The last photograph shows all the metal work made so far: rudder and skeg, propeller its shaft and flywheel, engine base plate, stand and port block They are mounted on a test rig to check how every thing will fit into the hull.

It was the port block that I made this afternoon.
Regards Tony.

STEAMPROPULSION

SPLENDID WORK!!!!!

boxman

from West Yorkshire

dampfmaschinenjoe 1967

Hi, Tony, welcome from northern Germany!
As you might have seen we have a big boating and locomotive/railway section here on this forum and a lot of the members posting there are real experts! They are willing to answer any question that comes up. There is no limitation and best of all: If you want it, you can get all the advice you need in a very friendly way ! I like it here, it´s one of the best places on the net and i hope in the future you will share this opinion with me !

cheers Joe

Atticman

Hi Tony, and welcome.

Ive been enjoying your threads on the building of your eagle very much indeed

johnreid

Welcome aboard

roller_matt

Hi there!

Titan

Hi Tony!

Long time No see!

I guess I should check out the model boats/ new members section more often! Must be nearly 15 years since I was in South wales! Would I be right in thinking that the Mamod locos have had the M.G.M. treatment?

In any case, Welcome to the forum!

Tony Bird

Hi,
No they don't use any of Mike Moores products but the green Mamod has a copy of a boiler he used to sell. The cylinders etc are my copies of Deryk Goodall's improvements. I know both Deryk and Mike very well Deryk still lives in Tiabach I think the last I heard of Mike that he was in London. I haven't seen either for many years.
Regards Tony.

Bugsy

Hi Tony!
Big welcome from Sweden!

Titan

I visited Mike a couple of times in London, still have his address from there. Rumour has it that he moved back up to Yorkshire.