|
|
From the Editor - January 2022
Here on British Columbia’s West Coast where I live, winter now has us firmly in its grip. We woke up on Christmas morning to a winter wonderland, with snow falling quite heavily. The Great White North in all its glory! Shovelling snow off the sundeck isn’t my idea of a great way to spend part of Christmas day! In the bigger picture, the snow is hampering ongoing efforts to deal with the fallout from the severe flooding which British Columbia experienced only a month earlier. Climate change continues to bite deep. The pace of our Covid-19 infection rate in British Columbia has now skyrocketed through the roof and completely out of control as a result of far too many people surrendering to the pandemic by refusing to behave in a responsible manner to prevent the spread of the virus and the inevitable evolution of further mutations to go along with Omicron and Delta. The Christmas/New Year’s gathering spike has yet to come - infections take a while to present themselves following acquisition. It’s now clear that as societies we lack the discipline and sense of shared responsibility to deal effectively with issues of this sort. The massive explosion of new infections reflects the fact that many vaccinated people are now becoming infected (breakthrough infections), all too often to the point of requiring hospitalisation. Without the vaccine, those people would almost certainly be dead. However, the drain on our medical resources is unsustainable.
The worst effect of this surrender attitude is that it guarantees that the virus will continue to circulate among us and evolve into new strains which may or may not be controllable. The Big One could emerge at any time, and we’ve shown beyond any doubt that collectively we won’t be able to deal with it when it does come. The only way to beat this virus was to reduce its spread and hence its opportunities to develop mutations, but it’s clear that this is not going to happen - people appear to be focusing their concerns entirely upon themselves rather than on the interests of the community at large. As societies, we’ve lost something …………..
However, the best news of all was the fact that these visits came from a further increased 3,450 unique visitors - the fifth straight month in which the number of unique visitors has exceeded 3,000 individuals! Between them, these visitors accessed a slightly reduced total of 23,013 pages (still an average of over 4 pages per visit), but that takes nothing away from the other numbers. I seem to be attracting a high level of ongoing reader interest - a good sign for our hobby! These figures confirm that despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing societal dysfunction, a significant number of folks are clearly remaining very much engaged with our hobby. Further confirmation comes from the fact that the mail box has remained extremely active. I heard from quite a few of you during December, including (in no particular order) Luis Petersen, Tim Dannels, Gordon Beeby, Sheldon Jones, Peter Valicek, Peter Rathke, Peter Scott, Chris Murphy, Maris Dislers, Chris Stoddart, Andrew Boddington, Dave Zwolak, Bill Wells, David Burke, Michel Rosanoff, Merrill Elliott, Michael Noakes, Geoff Peacock, Dean Clarke, Alan Strutt, Larry Davidson, Pat Hardy, Bob Christ, Bob Beaumont, Ron Hiltz, Bob Watts, Richard Bould and Neill McRae. Apologies to anyone whom I may have inadvertently missed in the crowd, and apologies also to anyone whose message(s) went unanswered - things do slip through the cracks, and time is limited. The blog site has continued to justify its existence by contributing a small but steady flow of relevant traffic - thanks for that.
A new and greatly valued colleague entered the picture during December in the shape of Tim Dannels’ son-in-law Sheldon Jones. Sheldon is a genealogical expert, seemingly having a number of A more immediate application of Sheldon’s efforts already appears on my site. Sheldon was able to unearth an impressive amount of personal information on Al Salonen, manufacturer of the Queen Bee range from my hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia. Thanks to his painstaking work, I’ve been able to add a great deal of Al Salonen’s personal history to my existing article on the Queen Bee engines. This information is to be found in the “Overview” section near the top of the article. At my request, Sheldon is now pursuing a number of leads on different individuals which will greatly enhance the human interest factor in several of my other articles. I can’t thank him enough for his outstanding efforts! For me, the human interest side of these stories is every bit as important as information on the engines themselves.
I’ve also been chipping away at an article on the Ouragan diesels from mid 1940’s Paris, France. Michel Rosanoff has been most generous in providing comments, while my valued mate Peter Valicek is making an immense contribution by restoring a couple of variants of the 3.36 cc Ouragan model for me to examine and test in due course. This looks like turning into another very interesting article on a relatively obscure French model engine range - look out for it!
What many readers may not realise is that the Gallery doesn’t only present introductory information on engines for which reviews are already available to be read - I also add such information on engines which have attracted my interest to the point that I intend to write about them in the future. Hence in addition to providing a quick guide to what’s already available, the Gallery serves as a crystal ball allowing the reader to get an idea of some of the subjects which will be covered here in the future. In that category, this month saw the addition of Gallery entries on the Ouragan, M.E., Merlin Super “B”, Hurricane (Canada), Perky “Supercharger A” and Dragon 16 engines. So you now have access to some basic preliminary information on these models, with the promise of further details yet to come! A careful perusal of the Gallery listings will reveal a number of other engines in the same “future coverage” category. I was Turning now to this month’s all-new lead article, we head back across the Pacific Ocean to Japan for a long-overdue look at one of my all-time favorites - the Enya 15D diesel which first appeared in late 1956. I covered the competing 2.5 cc O.S. Max-D 15 diesel in an earlier article - time to level up the playing field! Saburo Enya's 65-year old masterpiece had a major impact upon the thinking of model diesel designers of the mid to late 1950’s, being copied directly by MVVS and Dremo as well as pointing the way towards the Schnuerle porting system which was to dominate model engine design from the mid 1960’s onwards. To me, it represents one of Saburo Enya’s finest accomplishments. I hope that you’ll agree when you read the article.
Next month’s feature articles will have a more “international” flavour! The all-new article will see a return to the former USSR to have a good look at the RITM (or However, by 1962 when it finally entered series production, the RITM had fallen behind the ever-improving team race engine designs from other sources. Even so, it was a far better engine than its one published test would suggest, being a very acceptable “clubman’s” team race diesel with which an aspiring competitor could gain valuable experience. Next month’s article will set out its entire start-to-finish history along with a far more representative test.
I think that about does it for this edition. All being well, I'll be back to you with another edition on or about February 1st, 2022. Meanwhile, please accept my best wishes for continuing to steer a safe path through the present pandemic situation and accompanying societal myopia to get the best of what life has to offer under present circumstances. Take care and stay well - pay attention to the doctors and scientists, watch the numbers, minimize your contact with the Covidiots, get vaccinated to the max, continue to exercise caution and trust your own informed opinions rather than those of the Covidolts. Their focus is entirely on themselves, not on you - ignore them and make up your own mind based on authoritative current information! 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 |
Happy New Year - welcome to 2022! Another festive season survived, and yet another new year starting! We can only hope that it’s an improvement over 2021, which was surely one of the weirdest years on record - one to forget in so many ways. 
In part, the ongoing irresponsible behaviour is driven by a commonly-expressed view that once you’re triple-vaccsed, the virus is reduced to the seriousness of a common cold, so it’s no longer a concern. Not by any means true in all cases - having had a triple-vaccsed acquaintance almost die regardless (admittedly an exception, but he would have died if not vaccinated) and given the continuing drain on the economy of the medical and other costs associated with this virus and its long-term health implications, I can’t share that view. Nor can I ignore the fact that there are many unvaccinated people among us to whom even triple-vaccinated people (of whom I’m one) can still pass the virus. They may be idiots, but they’re still my fellow citizens - I can’t share the attitude that “they get what they deserve”. Stupidity isn’t a crime ……………. 
Thankfully, life goes on at various levels even in the face of such crass stupidity and irresponsibility. For my valued readers, this very much includes a continued interest in model engines! Indeed, the site usage stats for December 2021 show that the increase in the level of interest which I've reported over the past few months has continued unabated! The 583,275 total of hits in December was significantly increased from the corresponding November figure of 548,966, with the number of visits rising equally significantly to 
I was delighted to hear once more from Ingemar Larsson of Sweden, who advised that the next issue of the wonderful 
very effective search options at his disposal which he has shown himself to be very willing to use in assisting my research. Already he has done much to clarify the antecedents of Sammy Crystal, who was responsible for the Merlin Super “B” sparkers from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The results of his efforts will appear in a forthcoming article on Tim’s invaluable “
Maris Dislers has been his usual supportive self during December, conducting some tests on examples of the M.E. range from the Isle of Man. Beginning in 1960, these very well-made and rather under-rated model diesels came in two displacements - the 1 cc Heron and the 1.5 cc Snipe. Maris’s efforts are in support of an article which I’m working up on the history of this range - one of the few “popular” British ranges which I haven’t yet covered. I’ve also received some invaluable assistance from Maris’s fellow Aussie Gordon Beeby, who has done a great deal to clarify the advertising history of the M.E. range. It’s turning out to be a more interesting and complex tale than I had been expecting - watch for the finished article’s appearance here in due course! 
The MEN transfer article stays in Japan, focusing on one of the most enigmatic model engine ranges ever to appear in Japan - the 
The MEN transfer article for the month will take us back to England for a detailed look at an often-overlooked gem - the superb little 0.55 cc A-S 55 diesel from Milton in Berkshire, England. This was the final model engine design to come off the drawing board of | |