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From the Editor - December 2020
I must begin by apologising for the lateness of this edition - it’s the first time that I’ve been late in quite a while. In fact, I don’t believe that I’ve ever been this late previously. My excuse may not resonate with some of you, but it’s all that I have to offer. Fact is, I’ve been so deeply disturbed by a number of recent issues, including (but not limited to) the political goings-on south of the border (which have implications for all of us wherever we live) and the COVID pandemic spiral caused by far too many people refusing to do their part to help contain it that I just haven’t been able to get into the mood to work on the engine research, testing and writing that I normally love doing so much. In a word, I’ve been depressed…….. hopefully things will eventually improve, but meanwhile the price is heartbreakingly high on a number of fronts. I must also apologise to a number of you who have tried to contact me over the past month. The truth is that I haven’t been paying as much attention to dealing with my incoming model-related correspondence as I should, resulting in some very valid and sincere inquiries going unanswered. I invariably read every message that comes through, but I've fallen well behind in my responses. I’ll do my best to catch up over time - don’t give up on me! Although things continue to be rather discouraging, I have knuckled down to it to get another edition out - model engines don’t do politics, and they have nothing to do with COVID either! I’ve made a special effort to complete a couple of articles that I’d got to the draft stage before all of this hit, so at least this has turned out to be the usual Christmas bumper issue with multiple lead articles. More of them below ……………. One thing that has refuelled my determination to get back to it has been the amazing outpouring of expressions of support that I received at the beginning of December after I announced the delay to this edition and the reasons for it. The level of support and understanding that I’ve received is truly astonishing, and it means far more to me than I can say. I’ve tried to send personal thanks to each individual - hope I didn’t miss anyone. If I did, y’all know who you are, and my thanks are just as sincere!
These figures confirm that despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the current political distractions, a good number of folks are clearly remaining very much engaged with our hobby. Further confirmation comes from the fact that the mail box has remained quite active. I heard from quite a few of you during November, including (in no particular order) Luis Petersen, Dave Jones, Peter Valicek, Maris Dislers, Dave Causer, Kevin Richards, Miles Patience, Ken Croft, Tim Dannels, Andrew Longhurst, Phil Williams, Andrew Boddington, Ingemar Larsson, Peter Rathke, Amadeus Kurtz, Allan Brown, Andrew Coholic, Michael Rehmus, Peter Gain, Neill McRae, Peter Scott, Chris Ottewell and Chris Coote. Apologies to anyone whom I The blog site has continued to justify its existence by contributing a small but steady flow of relevant traffic - thanks for that. I've been doing my best to keep that site up to date, although I have admittedly been a bit slow to approve some posts. Sorry about that! During my period of effectively going AWOL from my normal “post of duty”, there’s naturally been less reportable activity than usual. However, I do have another Wotizit to bring to your attention, as pictured at the left. This one was sent in by Peter Rathke and Amadeus Kurz of Germany. It’s a fine-looking rear disc valve rear exhaust twin ball-race diesel of 2 cc displacement - very high tech for its seemingly early date! It looks far too professionally made to be a home-built one-off. But what is it?? I’ve added it to the Wotizit page to see if anyone knows………..this one intrigues me!
A recent inquiry from reader Peter Gain drew my attention to the fact that there were no references on this website to the delightful series of 1.5 cc engines produced in late 1970’s England by Kingshire Products under the Kingcat and Glo-Cat brand-names. I have examples of all their products in my collection and have flown a self-tuned example very successfully in the past. However, for some reason I’ve never got around to writing about the range despite the many worthy qualities of the engines.
I should take this opportunity to clarify the function of the Gallery for the benefit of newer readers. It can be accessed at any time by clicking on the "Gallery" button in the top toolbar. Once opened, it consists of what amounts to an alphabetically-organized pictorial listing of every engine or manufacturer about which I've written or which has been the subject of an authoritative on-line article by others. It includes very basic information for every entry. This may be sufficient for some readers, but in every case a link is provided to take you directly to a source of more detailed information. Bottom line is - if you're looking for info on a given engine, search the Gallery! If it's included, information is readily available. If you don't see it, I have no authoritative information to share!
Although I listed most of the more significant Russian engines which appeared during those years, I presented no detailed reviews or test reports on any of them. I have since started making up for this deficiency. I thought that my readers deserved not one but two new articles for Christmas, so for this month I’ve managed to finalize my previously-drafted reports on two of the more significant Russian diesels of the 1950’s - Oleg K. Gajevski’s 2.5 cc MK-12S and Vladimir I. Petukhov’s 1.5 cc MK-16. Thankfully, I’d already completed the required testing prior to embarking upon my recent “leave of absence”.
The other subject for the month is the 1.5 cc MK-16 diesel designed by Vladimir Petukhov. Again, this is a simplified production version of Petukhov’s outstanding MK-16K prototype design. It appeared in 1955 and was produced in substantial numbers at a series of production facilities in the then Soviet Union. In various guises it survived for many years, its most famous direct descendant being the well-known MK-17 diesel. A full review and test of this engine will be found through the link provided above. A test of the MK-17 is included in this report by way of comparison.
The fact that we’re talking about updates of existing articles rather than completely new texts greatly reduces the amount of work involved, so I hope to have the revised pieces ready on schedule for January 1st, 2021 despite the intervening demands of the festive season and the somewhat compressed time-frame due to the lateness of the present edition. I think that about does it for this somewhat belated edition. All being well, I'll be back to you with another issue on or about January 1st, 2021, although I can’t guarantee that I’ll get it out on time, things being as they are. All I can say is that I’ll do my best! Meanwhile, please accept my best wishes for managing to rise above the present pandemic situation and political dysfunction to enjoy the best possible Christmas with family and friends within your ”bubble” (and not beyond, please!). The heady aroma of diesel fumes, sparkie smoke or burning nitro may be competing with that of roast turkey or glazed ham at this time, but I hope that at least some of you find an opportunity to get your fume fixes! Take care and stay well - pay attention to the doctors and scientists rather than the politicians and their uninformed self-interested supporters!! Cheers, Adrian Duncan British Columbia, Canada ___________________________________ Note regarding material to be found on this site - unless specifically otherwise noted, all images and text which appear on this site are my own work, and I hereby assert my right to be recognized as the originator of this material. For the record, this material is made freely available to all upon two firm conditions:
Adrian C. Duncan British Columbia, Canada
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Belated greetings to all for December 2020! At least I’m in time to extend my best Christmas and New Year’s wishes to all of you! 
The site usage stats show that many of my readers are continuing to take an interest despite other distractions, perhaps using this website to help them fill the hours of isolation forced upon many of us by the COVID situation. The numbers for November 2020 showed a very significant increase in activity on this site. The total of 507,351 hits for November was way up from the October total of 384,850, as was the number of visits at 4,465. More encouragingly, these visits came from 2,470 unique visitors, quite a bit up from October’s figure of 2,197. However, the really big news was that these visitors accessed a total of 40,915 pages, a HUGE increase from October’s figure of only 14,954 pages. In fact, I haven’t seen a number like this since May 2020! 
The arrival of another issue of “
For the next issue, I hope to complete my existing draft articles on a couple of English classics from the late 1940's - the 5 cc | |