Ok thanks Graham for that gen.

You could try Aloprep followed by Alodine, but it’s not really nice stuff to use, you don’t want to get it on your skin or anything.

I was there last week and had a similar experience to Pen Pusher, I was looking at the engine of the Douglas tug under the Vulcan and I had only put my hand on the seat to stoop a bit and put my glasses on to see the engine better, when this over zealous female security person came up to me and told me not to touch the exhibits. Must say it angered me quite a bit as it would have been obvious to a complete nincompoop that I was doing no harm.

A mate of mine did the welding on it. Looking forward to seeing it

Wow that was good that you could clarify that mix up Mark12, otherwise it would certainly have put the cat amongst the pigeons. Very interesting though.

But I would suggest the Stephenson ladies did. And at that point their feelings were considerably more important than yours.

Moggy

I think you may be reading more into what 1batfastard said in his post. I didn’t take it in the way you did and at the end of the day it wasn’t their fathers aircraft was it ? It was an excellent representation of it, so there is lots of angles to look at it from if you want to be pedantic. You mention about their feelings, it could be taken that they were being “toyed with” by the dream that this was their fathers actual aeroplane. Lots of different ways of seeing things I would suggest.

Yes I can see what you’re saying Tony and the flange has been sawn off the actual crankshaft. Maybe one of those that were scrapped about 25 years ago when that AD was in where you had to remove the Hubbard plug and check for internal corrosion. Looking at it again those markings around the outer edge would be the mag timing marks. I believe you are correct.:)

Agreed, Flying Legends usually has the best collection, we had 7 engines in 2013.
There is also an “Enginefest” at the Halfpenny Green airfield fly-in, but I don`t know if it could work as a free-standing event, much as I would personally love to attend a show consisting solely of engines, I think it will always have to be an offshoot of an existing show.
I tried to make inroads into the 1000 engine rally in Cheshire, for stationary engines, but that came to nothing.
Lord March expressed an interest in having the Merlin at the Goodwood Revival, and I`m sure that would be a perfect venue, although it is usually a sell-out.
Forgetting the aviation connection for a moment, the Anson (not Avro!) engine museum in Cheshire, or the Internal Fire Museum in Cardigan would both be good venues too.
When the question has been raised in the past, we have got as far as suggesting it should be a central location, but that`s about it. The engines attend a whole range of events, plus the owners are naturally not always free, myself especially, and so it can be difficult to organise.
I know of at least 7 Merlins and 3 Griffons on trailers in the UK which run, plus 2 or 3 under construction, plus another 3 we are doing at work for customers to ground run, but at present, you only see 2 Merlins and 1 Griffon regularly in public.

Pete

That would be a brilliant venue at the Museum of internal fire. I was up there earlier in the year and the owner is a real enthusiast, I’ll bet he’d be up for an enginefest if it could be arranged.