THE DOXFORD ENGINE
FRIENDS' ASSOCIATION
September 2009 Newsletter (No. 17)
Here's our first 'proper' Newsletter for about a year. To be honest so much has happened that it's been a daunting task to put it all together, but also a very gratifying one. So here it is - a written record of another year in our Association's life, along with more fascinating emails and other contributions.
While assembling an account of a whole year's activity it becomes apparent just how many folk have been generous with their time, knowledge, skills and personal contacts in support of the Association. Whatever your contribution has been it's gratefully acknowledged and very much appreciated.
Finally, you will find a flyer from the production company The View from the North either enclosed (printed distribution) or also attached (email distribution). I've been asked to make this appeal known as widely as possible; if you would like to find out more by all means get in touch with Kathryn Hall direct. I brought the Memorynet website to their attention.
John Clayson
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Forthcoming Activities
v Social Meetings
Social Meetings are held in the Lounge at St Joseph’s Parish Centre, Rutland Street, Millfield, Sunderland, beginning at 7:00 for 7:30pm.
Directions: The centre is on the east side of Rutland Street, and has been converted from school premises. Travelling along Hylton Road from Millfield Metro, turn right into Rutland Street at Thursby’s garage. Go past the RAOB Club and soon after, on the right, you will see a low brick wall topped by metal railings. Turn in through the double gateway, where there is a car park, and enter the building through the door in the corner. When inside turn left, then right into a long corridor. The Lounge is at the far end of this corridor.
· Wednesday 7th October
Sarah Leach of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums and Association member Jim Duncan will explain two initiatives which support the activities of the Association - the Heritage Cubes project and a new programme called Culture Shock.
· Wednesday 2nd December
Annual festive buffet supper for members and guests.
Events and Meetings since the last Newsletter
· 4th to 7th September 2008 - Visit to South West England: the Dorset Coast and Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
HM Coastguard Station, Weymouth – a fascinating insight into the work of this vital service.Cheddar was just Gorgeous. / "If you end up here, you're sunk!"
Coastguard Rescue helicopter at Portland (an Agusta Westland AW139). / "Hilary, if I'm good can I have one for Christmas?"
HMS Warrior at Portsmouth Harbour. Warrior was restored at Hartlepool between 1979 and 1987. / Aboard Lydina leaving Weymouth.
"We didn't go as quick as this on trials in our day!"
photographs by Terry Whalebone
A marvellous time was had, despite some rather mixed weather. Hilary and Peter organised the entire programme and did us all proud – highlights included the Weymouth Coastguard Station, the Coastguard Rescue Helicopter Base at Portland, the control room and mechanism of the Weymouth Town Bridge (a twin bascule bridge over the harbour, which opens several times daily), a day at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, and an exhilarating cruise aboard Peter and Hilary's boat Lydina to Lulworth Cove. Not to mention some great meals out and on board!
Lydina passing through the Town Bridge in Weymouth Harbour to embark the waiting passengers. Earlier in the trip we visited the bridge control cabin, on the right, and looked at the machinery beneath.Thanks to the wonders of modern electronic navigation we avoided the rocks at Lulworth Cove.
photographs by Keith Halliday
We are especially grateful to the following people for a warm welcome to their premises and for laying on some really special visits and tours:
· Simon Palmer (Operations Manager, Maritime Rescue Control Centre, Weymouth)
· Glen Stracey (Helicopter Pilot, Portland Coastguard)
· Brian Samweys (Weymouth Bridge Controller, Dorset County Council)
· Enzo (Enzo's Restaurant)
and, for crewing aboard Lydina, Peter and Hilary's friends Hayley and Andrew Killingback.
A little bit of Sunderland discovered in Weymouth was this patent stockless anchor by WL Byers & Co. Ltd., outside the Brewer's Quay 'Shopping Village'.The swastika was used as a trade symbol by Byers many years before it became tainted by association with Nazi Germany.
Quiz champion George receives his prize.
photograph by Terry Whalebone / photograph by John Clayson
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· September 2008 - Sunderland East End Heritage Tours
Maurice arranged tours for groups of members and friends on several days to historic buildings including:
· the Donnison School which opened in 1798, a newly restored Georgian schoolroom that has become a community heritage site.
· Holy Trinity Church, built in 1719 and once used for meetings of Sunderland Town Council. Jack Crawford's grave is in the churchyard.
· Queen Street Masonic Temple, the oldest Masonic premises in the world still standing
The groups were made very welcome at the headquarters of Sunderland Maritime Heritage, and enjoyed a splendid buffet lunch at the Heart of Oak pub, which was built as a merchant's house in 1711. The tours were brilliantly organised and very well supported.
· Wednesday 1st October 2008 – Social Meeting
Andrew Clark described how he has worked with members of the Hendon Young People’s Project to produce the book and DVD River Tales – a story of Sunderland shipbuilding. Several of our members were involved in the programme with Andrew and the young people.
We celebrated two of our members' 90th birthdays with a special buffet supper. Charlton Innes and George Jackson were presented with gifts and certificates by our President, Hilary Doxford.
/ Hilary with Charlton and George, having presented them each with a certificate - and a tall box with something special inside!photographs by Maurice Clyde
· Wednesday 3rd December 2008 – Social Meeting
This meeting was another very relaxed, convivial occasion, attended by around 60 members and friends. We enjoyed an excellent buffet, and tested the grey matter with a quiz.
Special thanks to Carole Atkinson for all the administrative work distributing the tickets, and to Jim Duncan for organising the food. Thanks also to Bill Forrester for regularly arranging the raffles which help to cover the costs of our meetings.
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· Wednesday 4th February 2009 – Social Meeting
John Jordan and Rodney Cartridge presented an illustrated talk about some of the risks and challenges of engineering design work.
This was the kind of insight into the work of the design and development team at Doxford's that could only be delivered by people who had been part of the team themselves. Not only that; it was evident that all the experience of Doxford engine designers right back to the 1920s had been imparted to later generations, so that there was an appreciation of the fundamental Doxford design principles to use as a foundation for adapting the design to meet the new challenges of the 1960s and 70s.
Developments discussed included:
· Lubrication System for the Centre Crosshead Pin
· Cylinder Liner Cooling System as applied to Tangentially Drilled Holes
· Scavenge Air Swirl, Fuel Injection and Piston Thermal Condition
· Fuel System
· The Contribution of Test, Measurement and Research performed during development of the Engine (particularly in relation to crankshaft torsional vibration and detuning)
· Some 'weird and wonderful contraptions' tested on the 67P single cylinder engine
Several members of the audience were heard afterwards to remark 'So that's why they did that!' It was a real eye-opener for all of us, no matter how much we already knew.
John and Rodney have subsequently written up their presentation, along with some supplementary material, and it is available to anyone who would like a copy at a cost of £5 to cover printing and a small donation to the Association.
This was the latest in a series of talks from members who have volunteered to stimulate interest and discussion at our meetings. We are always open for more – just let us know and we'll fit you into the programme.
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· 3rd March 2009 – Visit to Tyne & Wear Archives Service (TWAS)
This was a further specially arranged visit to enable Association members and their friends to see historic documents and photographs relating to the Doxford engine works. Archivist and former marine engineer Colin Boyd has been working on the shipbuilding records at TWAS, and he keeps discovering more items of interest all the time. So far as Doxford material is concerned, yet more has come to light since we visited last year, for example there were some recently re-discovered photos of Doxford engines being installed on the Tyne.
Thanks, Colin, for yet another fascinating visit to the Archives.
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· Wednesday 6th May 2009 – Social Meeting (including the Association’s 6th AGM)
Full information will be in the AGM minutes; four members of the Committee who had each come to the end of their three-year 'stint' were re-elected.
The AGM is an opportunity to express our gratitude to the Committee for their commitment through the year. Our meetings are fairly informal, but they are absolutely essential to the running of the Association - without them the programme of events and activities which is evident from reading this Newsletter just would not happen. We have several places open for co-opted members of the Committee, and I would encourage anyone who's interested to give it a try. I think the facts that all four retiring members stood for re-election and the committee meetings are always well attended speak for themselves.
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· Saturday 16th May - BAFM North East Area Conference
The British Association of Friends of Museums (BAFM) is a national group to which our Association is affiliated. The North East Area conference on 16th May was held at the Regional Resource Centre, Beamish, and the principal speaker was the well-known historian, author and broadcaster John Grundy. John is passionate about the history and identity of the North East, and we enjoyed his entertaining and provocative illustrated 'journey' through Beamish.
In the afternoon there was a visit to the Regional Museums Store and other 'behind the scenes' areas, including a guided tour of the Doxford engine led by members of the Association.
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· Friday 12th to Sunday 14th June 2009 – Cheshire Weekend: the Anson Engine Museum and the Manchester Ship Canal
Around 25 members and friends met in Cheshire for the second year running to enjoy a two-day break. Once again we were made very welcome at The Holly Bush Inn at Little Leigh, and Andy Thomson organised the sunshine.
Anson Engine Museum
With the aid of a superb 3-D model of the historic landscape including pits, roads, waggonways, canals and railways, Geoff explains the relationship between 'now' and 'then'. As you can see, sunbeams have been falling on Cheshire for well over a hundred years!photograph by Maurice Clyde
Saturday centred on a visit to the Anson Engine Museum in Poynton, Cheshire. The museum opened in 1989 and they have built up a fascinating collection of gas and oil engines. Geoff Challinor, the museum’s chairman, is a member of our Association, and he provided an excellent guided tour of the highlights of the displays. These include
· the amazing Crossley free piston atmospheric vertical gas engine
· an 'Atkinson-cycle' engine which has an intriguing mechanical arrangement – it's a 4-stroke in which the intake, compression, power, and exhaust strokes of the four-stroke cycle occur in a single turn of the crankshaft. Due to the unique crankshaft design of the Atkinson, the expansion ratio differs from the compression ratio. By designing the linkage to allow a power stroke that is longer than the compression stroke the engine can achieve greater efficiency than the conventional Otto-cycle engine
· an impressive four-cylinder Gardner 4T5 engine which was warmed up for starting by playing blow lamps onto part of each cylinder head.
In 2007 the Anson Engine Museum became the custodian of the single-cylinder former Doxford test and development engine from South Tyneside College (see Newsletter No.14). The museum is currently working on the design of the new building that will be needed to house it. This is just another step along the development path for Geoff and his colleagues; the museum was established on a completely cleared former colliery site. A fine array of buildings and facilities now greets the visitor, and its respected standing is demonstrated by the many historic engines that they have on loan from museums up and down the country.
There's more on the Anson Engine Museum in Newsletter 16. The museum's opening times can be found on the website www.enginemuseum.org or by phoning 01625 874426.
Manchester Ship Canal Cruise
Arriving at Salford Quays in good time, the Mersey ferry mv Snowdrop awaited us. She was built in 1959 by Philip & Son Ltd. of Dartmouth as mv Woodchurch. Although many of our group had travelled on the ship canal before, it was usually below decks in a vessel's engine room.
We set sail in glorious sunshine for a six-hour trip, during which we learned about the history and operation of the Manchester Ship Canal and the towns and communities along its route, took in the surrounding scenery (both industrial and 'natural'), and spotted both wildlife and the occasional ship. Mv Snowdrop was smartly turned out, and the crew were attentive throughout.