From the Editor – October 2026

Welcome one and all to October 2026! Somewhat to my surprise, and greatly to my personal gratification, I’ve somehow managed to make it all the way to the grand oldish age of 79 – the mountains, caves and motorcycles didn’t get me, and neither has our mutual friend Agent Orange (AO), at least so far.

Consequently, I’m still on deck and in a position to bring you yet another edition of this ever-expanding website! How many more I’ll be able to bring you is an open question - the instability in international affairs continues, leaving me with no alternative other than to try to make each day count while living life to the fullest extent possible under the circumstances – what else can any of us do?!? Happily, I still seem to be holding my own on the health front – something to be thankful for. Only another four months to go before I’ll qualify for being declared cancer-free – YAY!!! 

American Dictator Agent Orange (AO) continues to drag America’s reputation as a progressive freedom-loving nation down into the mud. His latest proposal to authorize the spending of $2.8 billion dollars of taxpayers’ money to send a massive cache of powerful munitions to Israel guarantees the continuation of the genocidal assault on the people of Palestine, with the overt support of the American people who will foot the bill. In defence of his formalizing the status of the USA as a knowing and willing partner in genocide, AO has once again fallen back on equating opposition to Israeli genocidal violence with anti-semitism, trotting that lame argument out at every opportunity while also touting his proposed Gaza Beach Resort.

As usual, AO is talking through his ass! The truth is that opposition to the ongoing American-funded Israeli genocide against the people of Palestine has NOTHING to do with anti-semitism! To suggest otherwise is to equate adherence to the Jewish faith with the right to commit acts of genocide, a deeply repellent viewpoint which insults the moral integrity of the Jewish people. Those opposed to these actions would say the same things about them if they were being perpetrated by Christians, Muslims, Hindus, militant Bhuddists or Atheists! What people are very rightly opposed to is the process of genocide, regardless of who’s carrying it out! Can you imagine what AO’s tune would be if the same actions were being carried out by Muslims?!?

A recent high-profile expression of the degree to which this malaise has infected American society was the furor surrounding the Ed Sheeran tour following the politically-motivated removal of rapper Macklemore from the tour following his on-stage expressions of support for an end to anti-Palestinian genocide. The subsequent voluntary withdrawal of all Sheeran’s supporting acts (including his own back-up band) mirrors perfectly the views of a large segment of the population. Genocide is abhorrent, regardless of who’s carrying it out, and people need to be free to say so! Sheeran's spinelessness on this issue speaks to a woeful lack of integrity.   

The overt US-based AI-backed effort to influence the outcome of the Brazilian election in favor of the Far Right speaks yet again to the views of AO and his Big Tech billionaire cronies regarding the principle of democracy. How transparent do Americans think the upcoming US mid-terms will be? We’re talking about the guy who invented the idea of the “stolen election”! Now he has the tools to steal one himself…………..

At home, AO’s depredations on the US environment continue unabated. Having gutted Big Bend National Park to build his ridiculous wall, he’s now stripped protections from nearly 3 million acres across Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah. Around 90% of each monument is being handed over to the mining and fossil fuel industries. These are highly-valued picture-book landscapes of the Southwest, also having deep cultural significance to American native people. Clearly, they mean nothing to AO………….

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule prohibits timber harvesting and new road construction on some 45 million acres of federal National Forest lands, including vast areas of the critical Tongass National Forest in Alaska. AO’s proposed rescinding of this Rule opens the door to unrestricted encroachment upon and development of these lands, which have hitherto provided critical wildlife habitat, maintained clean and reliable water supplies and produced a sizeable proportion of the oxygen that we all breathe (even A.O.) in addition to providing hunting, fishing, and other outdoor recreation opportunities for the public. They also include places of deep cultural importance to indigenous communities. AO’s claim that this move is necessary to manage the ever-increasing number of wildfires is grossly hypocritical – his own anti-climate change policies are actually at the root of such problems. How stupid does he think we are?!?

As if this wasn’t enough, his shameless use of his position to enrich himself personally through such measures as selling advance notice of his public pronouncements to wealthy insiders through his “Truth API” platform reduces the so-called President of the USA to the status of a barrow boy. It’s also a deeply-corrupt misuse of Presidential authority.

His threat to punish the European Community if they allow Canada to join that community is almost beyond belief. First, since he has rejected the US’s long-time friend and ally Canada as a trading partner, what is Canada supposed to do? Answer – look elsewhere, naturally! America is becoming economically and ideologically isolated, a problem that he created! Second, so he’s going to ban imports from Europe?!? Whoops, there go leading-edge pharmaceuticals, advanced electronics, high-tech industrial equipment, optical glass, olive oil, Paris fashions, BMW’s, Ferraris, Bailey's Irish Cream, Cognac, Spanish and Italian wine, Brie cheese, Scotch whisky, Belgian chocolate, etc., etc. The guy’s a moron………..and all to punish us “nasty” Canadians!

You’ve probably seen a number of cartoons associating AO with the iconic dinosaur T. Rex (Tyrannosaurus Rex). But that’s merely an association - my valued friend Paul Smigelski has suggested that AO deserves his own scientific name, a viewpoint with which I strongly agree! He clearly belongs to the genus Tyrannosaurus (Tyrannical Reptile), while everyone recognizes him as a complete ass into the bargain. Hence, I give you his official scientific classification – T. Rump (Tyrannosaurus Rump - tyrannical reptilian ass)! 

Moving on, I’d like to remind my readers once again about the current membership promotion being pursued by the Model Engine Collectors Association (MECA). The attached promotional flyer provides details of this initiative. Put simply, anyone who joins MECA during 2026 will qualify for participation in a draw at the end of the year for ownership of a fine example of the iconic Brown Junior engine which represents a major milestone in the history of commercial model engine production. I’m a member myself – why not come and join me (and many others)?? I’ve added links to MECA to both the Publications and Sources pages on this website.

September was another good month for updates to existing articles. The provision by my valued readership of additional information or comments on published articles necessitating corrections constitutes my very favourite form of feedback to the articles which appear here, since it constitutes the “peer review” of these articles, enhancing both their completeness and level of authority. Thanks, guys!

One article that received some additional attention was that on the work of E. Gray & Son and their Grayson range. Knowing my fondness for dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, my good mate Marcus Tidmarsh was able to supply details of the later activities of this company going into the 1960’s and beyond. I had no information on that topic when I first wrote the article, but Marcus was able to fill me in. Amazingly enough, the Grayson company is still going today (2026), albeit under a different identity and in a different line of business. This information has enabled me to complete the story of the Grayson marque – thanks, Marcus! I feel better now – I hate leaving stories unfinished!

My good mate Gordon Beeby did some more research on the very obscure APEX engines which were featured here last month. He found that the APEX Skylark had been featured in a May 1983 article in “Model Builder” magazine which had escaped my notice. He also located a few more classified ads for the engine as well as an additional article in the August 1936 issue of “Flying Aces”which seems to provide further clarification of the dating issue. I’ve added this new information to the published article. Many thanks to Gordon for his contribution!  

Gordon was also able to add to my knowledge of the distribution and corporate ownership of the Kingshire model engines. I’ve updated the article on the Kingcat and Glo-Cat engines accordingly, again with my sincere thanks to Gordon.

As if all of this wasn't enough, Gordon also dug up a fascinating piece of evidence which carries the story of the Japanese Kondo brothers' involvement with model engines back into the pre-WW2 era, far earlier than had been believed previously. I've updated my earlier article on the early K.O. engines to reflect this new information. Where would I be without assistance like this?!? 

I’ve also been able to add a little pertinent information to my description of the T.S. 35 diesel in my article on the very rare BOMA diesels from Indonesia thanks to the recent arrival of a second example of the engine. This example was accompanied by its box and paper, allowing me to update the description of the engine in the article.

A significant enhancement to the quality of the older images presented on this site has been provided by my good mate Marcus Tidmarsh. Marcus has been working with the AI Gemini app, becoming amazingly adept at creating greatly enhanced colorized renditions of some of the older low-resolution images presented here. The results are really impressive, as indicated by the attached before-and-after pairing from a recent article. Marcus enjoys doing this work, and you’ll be seeing more of his efforts in both past and future articles as time goes by. Many thanks indeed, mate! 

Now, on to this month’s new articles! My first subject for the month is an in-depth look at an early post-WW2 British classic – the 5 cc ETA “5” diesel of 1946–1950. This engine was among the first model diesels to appear in Britain after the war, being preceded into the British marketplace only by such offerings as the Leesil, Mills 1.3 and Owat models, and even then by only a few months. It was an extremely high-quality offering which had a good performance by the standards of its day, thus getting the famous ETA range off to a very positive start. 

The second article sees us returning to pre-WW2 Germany for a look at the work of Bernhard-Helmuth Kratzsch, nephew of Walter Kratzsch of Kratmo fame. B-H. Kratzsch was primarily an automotive engineer and journalist who was well-known for his many technical articles on automotive and other subjects.  He was more of a designer of model engines than a manufacturer, but his BHK series of model engines (most of which were manufactured by others) attracted considerable attention from German modellers both before and after the war. An interesting individual!

The MEN transfer article series returns this month with the publication of an extensively revised article on the beautiful little PB .33 diesel made in very small numbers by Gordon Burford’s son Peter Burford of Australia in 2004. The original article by Ron Chernich appeared in June 2004 on Ron’s MEN site, but that article didn’t include any testing of the engine itself. The new article which appears here remedies that omission, also adding a few details which have become apparent since Ron’s time of writing. 

That’s about it for this month, fellow enthusiasts. All being well and assuming that my neighborhood remains free from the sound of tramping Belleville jackboots, roaring Abrams tank engines and M7 gunfire, and that the mushroom clouds of WW3 and the fires of climate change don’t engulf us all courtesy of A.O., I sincerely hope to be still on deck and still sufficiently enthusiastic in November to present a few more reviews for your reading pleasure. In the meantime, I really appreciate all the expressions of support that I’ve continued to receive from so many of you! Stay safe ‘n sane, and keep yourself reliably informed about what’s going on!! Use your vote responsibly!  

Adrian Duncan 

British Columbia, Canada (the NATION, not a state!)

Greenland forever!

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