August 2026 Club Night Report.
It was hot as we were in the middle of a heatwave with a hosepipe ban and even the steam train operation was suspended due to the dried grass around the Puffing Park track and the possibility of sparks from the engines.
Electricity suddenly came into its own.
Our Chairman called the meeting to order and went through some club business and after 10 minutes handed the evening over to me.
This particular evening talking shop was suggested by a club member and seemed like a good idea which we had not done before. It was to be about early commercial 'toy' boats also copies and some developments. I volunteered to host it and had a small gathering of owners and experts to talk about their models. I had hoped for six or seven boats including three of my own. We had 24 boats on show!
Now I also belong to another club with their own lake and we can safely sail smaller boats as the water is only about 15 inches deep with easy access all round.
One of my favourite commercial models was the 'Sea Jay' which was a steam / electric boat about 34 inches long, I had made a copy called 'Celia May' from plans currently available. At a lake meeting another member brought in an original 'Sea Jay' in its original box for us to see. I was totally taken by this and I persuaded the owner, Anthony, to come to the club evening to show off his model, which I am glad to say he did. I had also put word around that any older boats would be welcome.
I had prepared a few slides to show from my laptop, I had rehearsed it and it all went well at home. Come the evening, I sat up front and the laptop definitely took against me! One key depression produced five windows of content and the file itself would not load, it was a mess. On advice I did a restart, fortunately my laptop had used the WiFi before so logged in easily, the re-start also triggered various Windows updates but the time was marching on, so I decided to start the evening off with my Celia May.
I had seen Sea Jay on view in the Bassett-lowke shop in Holborn and I went once or twice as an early teenager to just look at it in the window. I explained how it was originally to have a steam plant but this proved to be too heavy so I went electric.
Anthony then opened the box and displayed his Sea Jay with its beautiful little two cylinder steam engine and boiler and spirit burner. The model has now become a rather valuable item so there was no question of running it. The camera, being operated by Tony Ashgrove, was displaying the internals of the model on the screen for all to see.
Afterwards I went back to my laptop and it worked perfectly, I silently cursed the gods of the performing arts and wondered if it was decided that I had been punished enough.
So, striking while the iron is hot I went through the pictures, nearly all were from advertising at the time. Most of the models were from Bowmans based for much of their life in Luton. With so many models in front of me I went for various types of model and asked the owners to do a bit of explanation of what they were and where they came from. Ian, a very new member, showed us the three models left from his father's larger collection. Some older members may remember Peter Elliott who passed away about a year back. Ian, on a chance meeting with us, has now become a keen member and we meet regularly at sailing etc.
I worked through the various models with the owners joining in to detail the ones they had brought in to show us, some bought in auction others collected over the years or retained from boyhood. We had our break for refreshments, again organised by Neil and Jack.
Afterwards we resumed and I showed the electric motors of the time from my own collection. Then Brian came forward to show some very modern copies he had made of Bowman Snipe model boat with its simple oscillator driven model, but Brian's version had a faux oscillator and an electric drive with controls concealed in a plastic boiler! Yet to be seen on the water.
To bring us up to our own times I asked Malcolm to bring in his copy of the Bassett-lowke model of Streamlinia and his options on the steam plant which he hoped would take the model up on the plane. The adverts showed Streamlinia with a decent bow wave, but having seen Peter Elliott's original one it was a rather disappointing pootle through the water.
Many years ago Malcolm and I had collaborated on updating steam operation using electronics to keep the water in the boiler at the right level. Included was Malcolm's own design of controlling the gas burner so that when full pressure had been reached the gas was be turned down to save gas and water. This was all happening in my own copy of Streamlinia around the late 1980's, with detail published in a National magazine.
The article triggered copiers in Switzerland and as far away as South Africa. I know this for a fact as when we had our exhibition at The Marlborough school I had just relieved the ticket sellers for lunch when a healthily tanned chap arrived, on holiday from S.A. with family, locally, and paid for a ticket. He then said he had this magazine article on the water level controller but it did not work and could anyone help him! I said you are not going to believe your luck. I pointed my finger at one of the joint authors and said "that is me" and I will introduce you to Malcolm as well. The transfer from my electronic circuit drawing to the article had a wire missing and we soon put the chap straight on the error.
Malcolm went through the building of his model now involving glass fibre strengthening and then onto his steam engines and described the rather unique way the twin cylinders were connected that also enabled a simple way of obtaining reverse for the propeller.
There was some general discussion but time was up and it was time to leave on our homeward journeys.
Thanks to all who made the evening happen and bearing with me when all seemed lost.
Check the web site for next month’s offering and until then, stay safe.
Roy Verden Aug 2026