Video

The design of Locomotives is very varied and things changed a lot in the time of George Stephenson. The Locomotives were improved and became more powerful. A ‘cab’ was added to protect the driver from the weather and the loco’s looked very different from Stephenson’s Rocket. You can try out your own designs based on these instructions.

Making the boiler front using paper or card and further ideas for additional items you could make eg. a nameplate for the Locomotive. You can invent your own name for it. The locos were named after people or places or new names were invented which sounded like the machines sound or the mechanical words related to it eg. Locomotion, Puffing Billy, The Royal George etc.

Making and fitting the Firebox and Footplate for the loco model using card or paper. There are two versions, a simple one and a more complicated but improved version.

Instructions for making the Chimney by rolling a strip of paper into a tube shape.

Instructions for making the boiler for the loco model using card or paper and decorating it appropriately.

Instructions for assembling the basic model to which the various body parts made from card can be added.

Using card is a common way to make the base for a 3D model. We can combine card with the paper roll tubes to create complete structures such as shelters, buildings, houses etc. Sometimes we need thicker card such as corrugated card from cardboard packing boxes and this can be troublesome to cut and takes time to prepare for an activity. There are several ways we can join a paper tube vertically...

Roll tubes can be used in moving mechanisms by punching holes in the tubes and linking them using wooden dowels as axles or ‘pivots’ through the holes. This opens up all sorts of additional possibilities beyond structures. Eg a drawbridge for a castle or a lifting bridge across a river. The simplest example to start with is a lever crane and it’s a great way to introduce levers and pivots. More...

A tube raft is a set of tubes all lined up together to make a flat panel like a raft or wall or roof. Just like a ‘frame’, the raft or several of them, can be made separately and joined when required to make a building for example eg. Shelter or house. Tubes can also be fitted inside large paper cylinders to make really strong towers and all sorts of imaginative structures.

This video describes how to start off a structure such as a shelter by making a frame from 4 paper tubes. These basic joining techniques can be used time and time again in all sorts of different structures.

Even though we’re using recycled paper and making paper structures the concept of ‘quality’ still applies. If we make poor quality tubes the same result is obtained in the structures we make from them. Just like in real engineering projects we can apply simple rules to check quality and refine the production process even with very young children. This video describes how to make good quality ro...

This is an overview of the whole project in which examples of large diameter roll tube structures and mechanisms are discussed. Later videos show their construction and how they fit in with both Design Technology and Science in the curriculum. Large diameter roll tubes can be made by very young children eg. Early years and KS1 but they’re fun for everyone and it’s amazing what ideas the childre...

Instructions for making a paper roll tube trundle toy.

Now let’s exercise our creative skills and produce a scene in which the crane plays a part. You might want to give the crane a name. This might sound strange but the huge dockside cranes on Tyneside and in other ports of the world are often given names eg. Hercules, Titan, Big Geordie(this was a crane used in quarrying rather than on a dockside). The name might suit the location for your scene....

Lever Crane 4 Magnets

Lever Crane 3 Paper clip hook

Lever Crane 2 Various dowel pivots and winders can be used

Lever Crane 1 Assembly Instructions

Roll Tube Structures 8 Examples of Structures and Mechanisms

Paper Roll Tube Structures 7 Mechanisms

Paper Roll Tube Structures 6 Strengthening the tower

Roll Tube Structures 5 Building a tower

Paper Roll Tube Structures 4 A basic bridge structure

Paper Roll Tube Structures 3 Connecting tubes together

Paper Roll Tube Structures 2 Long and short tubes

Paper roll tube structures 1 Making roll tubes

Motor Projects 11 Crazy creatures

Motor Projects 9 Paper fastener switch card version

Motor Projects 10 Paper fastener switch in use