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Cherry Hinds Hill is a well-known name to those in the model engineering world and her creations are considered remarkable for their quality. She has won the Duke of Edinburgh Challenge Trophy and the Championship Cup nine times. Yet she has always maintained a low profile, allowing her work to speak for her.
Hill’s models are based on both historic working engines and designs that never got off the page. Part of her success is down to the level of research that she does to get her models to look how the real things did – or arguably how they would have looked if they had been built. Indeed, she is more concerned with this than with creating something that operates as the engines did. But all Hill’s models are made to work – she builds them, runs them and videos them, and then paints them, at which point they become static. The scale she usually works to is 1:16 or ¾in to the foot.
Almost all of the thousands of parts in each machine are fabricated or machined from solid metal; castings are not used. Nothing is bought in, and even the rivets are handmade. Details of her machining techniques are hard to find but she employs conventional methods, and makes extensive use of jigs and fixtures.
The key to her work is in the research, design and decision making. For example, when making sled blades she machined the runners from solid using conventional machining, rather than fabricating them from sheet and angle. She has often modelled vehicles for which no model design, drawings or castings exist. Besides exhibiting superb craftsmanship, her models show rarity, complexity, difficulty, and even obscurity.
Hill was born into an engineering family. Her father, George, was of the firm McConnell-Hinds, which made innovative hop-picking machinery. He taught her in his workshop at home. She followed him career-wise and became a machinery designer. Hill has had several patents awarded to her, including for a full-size gear for the Crypton Synchro-check carburettor balancer, produced commercially by AC Delco.
Hill’s first exhibited model won bronze and her second silver at the International Model Engineering Exhibition. Since these early examples, her creations have won every model engineering exhibition competition they were entered in.
Hill’s model of an 1863 Blackburn traction engine won her a ninth Gold Medal and Challenge Trophy. The project shows how critical research is, as there is no evidence that the original was built. Hill searches patent records, and publications such as The Engineer and the Mechanics’ Magazine. Where information is lacking, she looks for components from other comparable contemporary designs.
In the case of the Blackburn traction engine, she had to use her own ingenuity on some major components, including the boiler, crankshaft, suspension and steering. Parts not shown at all on patent drawings included the injector and water gauge. To aid the design process, she makes a high-quality mock-up.
When built, the model engine’s operating speed was equivalent to a full-size speed of 6.1mph. After running the model, it was painted – this took five months.
In total, it took two years to research and sketch the model and seven years to produce full drawings and to build it. It contains 7,400 parts and took 7,500 hours.
Apart from her earliest projects and the Grew Ice Locomotive, all Hill’s models are on view at IMechE headquarters or online at http://bit.ly/2kcANk5.
Contact archive@imeche.org for details about visiting for a viewing.
Did you know? The Ice Locomotive
Hill’s latest project is a model of a Nathaniel Grew Ice Locomotive (pictured). Everything is made from steel, and some of the pipework is just 1/16in diameter. Grew came
up with the idea of the steerable steam locomotive with sled runners at each end of the engine. The locomotive was used in Moscow to transport goods across frozen rivers and lakes. During the 1860s it conveyed passengers and goods between St Petersburg and Kronstadt. Unlike many of Hill’s models, this one is based on a vehicle that was manufactured.