The Model Engineering publications clearly shows that the manufacture and use of small internal combustion engines has been part of the hobby for well over 100 years. This branch of the hobby therefore has just as an illustrious history as that of making model steam locomotives.

In the year 1898 the Model Engineer and Amateur Electrician publication carried an advertisement for the supply of sets of castings and parts for the manufacture of a 1/6th brake horsepower Gas Engine.

An article was also published which demonstrated that the engine was suitable for home construction and was reliable and capable of doing some useful work. Indeed, the cost of the casting set was £3 i.e. almost three times the average weekly wage, would suggest that the engine was intended for practical use rather than merely as an hobby item. It is also possible that this engine would have appealed to the experimentalists who were very busy in the late 19thC trying to develop the latest technology - the internal combustion engine!

Model i/c engine building received a tremendous boost during the immediate pre and post war years by the work of Edgar T Westbury who published many designs over a period of some 30 years. His first engine was the Kestrel: a 5cc air cooled 2 stroke engine. The last design of the late 1950s was for Sea Lion a 30cc 4 cylinder OHV marine engine.

The expansion in scope and depth of this branch has continued apace over the recent years. Today we have the model gas turbine engine and there are several model engineers who have mastered the art and science of making models of rotary aeroplane engines.

Some photographs of club members 'Internal' Combustion Engines