Just to reopen this in case anyone is interested!

Today I bought an early fibreglass speedboat hull at our local 'antiques' market – only because the boat has an interesting jet drive.

The remnants of r/c installation suggests single channel valve radio (maybe reed?) with meccano drive to the rudder servo. Probably early to mid 1960s I suspect.

A bit of research convinces me I have a Taplin Waterjet drive unit here although the directional 'rudder tube' nozzle is missing. The actual jet assembly is a lovely sculptured chrome plated unit with water cooling scoop for engine cooling and three bladed prop within. It has a mild steel U/J input ( a bit rusty as it isn't plated)

The hull is quite a nice moulding but obviously very dated and the fitting out inside is useless for today's r/c equipment.

i can upload a photo if anyone is interested to see what the water jet unit looks like.

All I need now is the lovely Taplin Twin engine to marry to the jet drive ( the engineering quality of Taplin was the stuff of legends, from their big electric boat motors and then onto their glow engines).