‘Lifelites‘ – A very special Children’s Charity…..
Your President, Jaswinder S. Shergill has requested that we publicise a worthwhile charity brought to our attention by Dr. Richard Johnson, a guest at the Annual Dinner. The charity is called ‘Lifelites‘ and you can read more by clicking on the link.
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Our good friend Frank Smith talked about Switzerland’s railways at the Cleckheaton venue at the recent meeting on Thursday 28th February. Frank’s lecture was entitled “Railways to the Clouds” As usual his illustrated talk was filled with amusing stories and anecdotes. We are sure Frank will return with another interesting talk for us in the future…..
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Visit Cancelled
We regret to advise that the visit to ‘Surgical Innovations’ scheduled for Thursday 28th March has been cancelled. The company are unable to accommodate us at this time. If you know of members who were planning to attend please will you pass on this message.
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The 147th Anniversary Dinner was held on Friday 22nd February at ‘Leeds Seventeen’ in the company of The Lord Mayor of Leeds, The Rector of Leeds and guests from kindred associations. The guest speaker was Pete Finlay, retired Senior Flight Engineer with British Airways, who gave an illustrated talk entitled ‘Concorde: The End of a Dream’. Photographs of this enjoyable evening will be published on the website shortly….
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The President and Council were sad to hear of the passing of Terry Ashton recently. He had joined the council at the start of this current session and had been a member of the association since 1996. Terry had been Fluid Power Manager with Thorite Limited before his retirement and was highly respected in his field of expertise. He is survived by his wife and son. We send June and the family our sincere condolences.
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Please note ! There is a change of date for a forthcoming event. Our factory visit to Constar International in May has been brought forward by one week to suit our host company. The new date for your diaries for this visit is Thursday 23rd May 2013. Click on the link above or see the Events list to view the webpage for this event.
We have an update for all you keen golfers. The 2013 Golf Tournament will be held at Wetherby Golf Club on Thursday 4th July. Further details will be available closer to the event….
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We have made contact recently with the Manchester Association of Engineers. With a view to promoting both of our associations we have added ‘links’ to each other’s groups. Click on the link to find out more…
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Report on the Visit to Thomas Broadbent Ltd. by Andrew Kibler…
Click this link to open a new page to see Photographs and Andrew’s report:- Thomas Broadbent
Report on the Visit to see ‘The Hobbit’ by Andrew Kibler…
Although the night was pretty dismal with heavy rain, the iMax cinema proved once again to be a winner.
The thought of sitting down to a 2 hr 45 min film was not everyone’s cup of tea, including mine but the time just seemed to vanish, mainly due to the spectacular 3D effects and stunning sound quality. Indeed there were times when you felt you could just reach out and tickle a foot or catch a butterfly. Then there were other times when it was seriously thought someone in the audience was snoring ! Only the last 15 minutes or so did it become bum numbing.
Sadly, because of the late finish of the film not all could attend the evening meal planned but i hear it went well and was enjoyed by all. See attached group picture.
Visit to see The Hobbit in December 2012
Report on the ‘Boxford’ Visit – 1st November 2012…
We were invited to visit the factory of ‘Boxford’ in Elland. Our host, Paul Barraclough who is Managing Director, welcomed the group and we were given a short presentation and video history of the company. From somewhat less than ideal conditions in a former mill that dated back to the mid-nineteenth century the company had moved to a brand new factory in Elland. The tour encompassed all departments including CNC machining and we were lucky enough to see a couple of machines operating. We saw the sheetmetal laser cutting equipment as well as folding and welding. The company had two ten metre high automated storage and picking towers which were taking over from the previously used rack and bin storage system. Their philosophy is to do as much ‘in-house’ as possible and so powder coating and wet painting facilities were also shown to us. The company has a niche market and specialises in producing educational equipment to teach young engineers the principles of CNC machining whilst giving them a ‘hands-on’ experience of writing programs and then seeing their work produced. At the end of the most interesting tour Barrie Yates proposed a vote of thanks to Paul Barraclough and wished the company well for the future.
Model LMS Dreadnought Loco by John Bentley…
See John Bentley’s latest model locomotive, the LMS Dreadnought
Bloodhound: The British Built Rocket Car…
See details of the Bloodhound Rocket Car and read about the first firing of the rocket engine.
During the summer we had the Golf Day and Solstice Walk…
Report of the 2012 Golf Tournament by Kevin Hegarty, Golf Secretary.
See the winning photograph taken on the 2012 Summer Solstice Walk.
Update on the University of Leeds Formula Student Racing Car…
In the past the Leeds Association of Engineers has sponsored the Formula Student Racing Car. Our programme secretary, Barrie Yates, has forwarded an update looking towards the competition in the Summer of 2013. See the links below for further details.
Pit Pass & List of Sponsors (Each page opens in a new window)
Our New Online Look…
You will notice that the website has taken on a new look. The previous publishing system was becoming expensive and difficult to maintain and so it was decided to transfer to this new system. It is called ‘WordPress’ and the building of the new website and transfer of data was effected by Kally Shergill, brother of your President, Jaswinder Shergill. We are indebted to Kally for his time, hard work and expertise in making these changes possible.
Council Members Gordon Toulson and Andrew Kibler (Vice-President) will be responsible for editing the website. Any comments about the new look and in particular any articles or news which would be of interest to members are most welcome. Please email the Website Editor in the Contact section.
About the Leeds Association of Engineers…
The original objects of the association are reproduced here:
” The Association was formed in 1865 for the purpose of bringing together those engaged in the direction and supervision of the Engineering Industry; for mutual acquaintance and the exchange of opinions on interesting questions constantly arising from the progressive nature of the Engineering Industry, to arrange Lectures, Works Visits and Social Functions and for the circulation of information on technical and scientific subjects, or any question or knowledge which from it’s novelty or usefulness, may be instructive or interesting to the members. “
Membership…
Membership is open to engineers of all disciplines. We are a social association rather than an academic one. Further details can be found on our Membership page.
Lecture meetings are open to all members, but please be aware that visits sometimes have limits imposed on the numbers attending. Full details will be available closer to the visits.
The President and council hope that you will enjoy the variety of events lined up for this forthcoming session. Special thanks go to Barrie Yates, your Programme Secretary, for his hard work in arranging these forthcoming events.