Building Dancer

摘要

The story of Dancer, shown under way in the heading photograph(photo 1) really began back in the 1950s when my father had subscriptions to both Light Steam Power and Model Engineer. As a child, I was fascinated by the steam launches often featured in LSP. My father was always a bit sceptical about the idea, but thoughts of constructing a steam launch stuck in my mind. Then during the 1990s, with a small workshop of my own, I made a minor start on patterns for the A. A. Leak compound engine (ref 1) which was featured in the Model Engineer during the 1980s. Life intervened for a bit then, with two years spent working in Germany, I had a very small workshop in the 'Keller' of our apartment, with my Unimat 3, a small drill press and a belt sander for sharpening tools. Crammed into a space about 8 feet by 4 feet, along with a spare washing machine and the family bicycles, this was obviously not going to be the place for any large projects. However our time in Europe did give us plenty of exposure to canals including a very pleasant week cruising on the Rhine-Marne canal, again featured in an article in the Model Engineer (ref 2).