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Where are we going? I don’t know....

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2FS

Fire! Fire!

I like urban buildings and I’m slowly constructing some of the Scalescenes range in N for use on my formative layout, but I’m not getting on too well with cardboard, so I’ve bought the fire station and I’m translating it into plastic card. The brick bond isn’t right, but it’s all I’ve got and you can’t see that easy at NVD.   Van for scale and fitting test, I don’t have a fire engine yet.   One thing I really need to do is to settle on a time period... but then I have 3 x gre
John57sharp

John57sharp in 2FS

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2mmFS

A filler post

A small update, nothing has happened in this scale for weeks, too complicated and personal for here, but we’re off and running again, here making coal loads for the minerals.   Filler of milliput in plastic bag off cuts for shape, real coal to be glued over next.   Thanks for looking in.
John57sharp

John57sharp in 2mmFS

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Airbrush

A cautionary tale

Well here’s a tale, we’ll get a back to  2mm wagons and locos soon, there’s a video in hand, but yesterday I was preparing to give a new16mm scale loco a coat of paint when I managed to drop the airbrush needle, in fact it slipped out of the mechanism when I tilted it. The thing is that usually this would be ok, the carpet is soft, the needle big enough to easily find. Not today. Being outdoors, the needle went down between the cracks in the decking. Oh how we laughed, oh how we cried.... Right
John57sharp

John57sharp in Airbrush

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2mmFS

Tool Tip Tuesday - ceramic soldering blocks

Tuesday again. Today’s top tip is a multipurpose tool primarily designed as a holding tool for jewellery makers, a ceramic black with tiny holes throughout, supplied with stainless (and mostly unsolderable) pins. Very useful for holding and securing work, protecting from heat.   I got a twin pack, so the second doubles as a handy tool, drill, pin, wire, work and cocktail stick holder. I put it in a tin lid so the stuff doesn’t go straight through when you pick it up, but only after it
John57sharp

John57sharp in 2mmFS

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2FS

Numbers add up to ....

Getting down to it, 2mmFS wagons take just as long to do as their bigger brethren, perhaps longer, there’s a lot of fiddling. So some vans and now a few opens are receiving their numbering and lettering. It’s all CCT Transfers applied on gloss varnish then matt  varnished over.    I also ripped up the first 2 foot of Easitrac, it was too thick in glue and I hadn’t really thought through the wire droppers. The new length is almost ready to lay, pictures as it happens.
John57sharp

John57sharp in 2FS

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Tools

Tool tip Tuesday - ceramic tipped tweezers

Tool tip Tuesday, well it is Tuesday and I was thinking of doing one of these now and again. Nothing new here, just stuff I’ve picked up along the way and found useful.   I bought a pack of half a dozen of these off eBay for not much money, and they are surprisingly good. You might think, as I did, that the tips look chunky, but they go to a good fine point, and being ceramic and a bit chunky, they tend to warp less, so less parts ping away into orbit somewhere. As an aside, I think th
John57sharp

John57sharp in Tools

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2FS

Officially a train!

With wagons #1 and #11 now numbered up, we officially have a train. Further vans are close behind, seen behind. Just some more subtle weathering to do here. Loco needs it too.    
John57sharp

John57sharp in 2FS

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2fs

We’re going to need more wagons

I’m writing this taking a coffee and (home baked) shortbread break while I order up some more wheels, and yet more vans from Shop2. Yesterday I got some progress on brake gear after watching Nick Mitchell’s wonderful video on building the 16T mineral, and following his methods I have succeeded in getting 3 or 4 levers on.   I did a stock take and found I had one chassis too many, so I had to buy 2 more van bodies (they come in pairs) so I had to get another chassis too. Good job I like
John57sharp

John57sharp in 2fs

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2FS

Wagons roll!

This is Wagon #12 undergoing some remedial work on the under frame. Replaced a few rubbish attempts at etched axle boxes from the 3D printed range. The large nut is a red herring!
John57sharp

John57sharp in 2FS

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2FS

More 08 progress

Major good news! After the dispiriting news of jamming gears, I put it away for a day or two while I got on with something else. After carefully removing the wheels and gears until it freed up, I traced the problem, I think, to one of the short stub axles on the gear train, it was just too short, so I replaced it.    After that it all ran smoothly, so I carried on, reassembled everything, even the rods, and it still ran! So I soldered the rods on with the microscopic washers and oil soake
John57sharp

John57sharp in 2FS

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2fs

Three steps back....

The drive train has become locked. The driving wheels will only turn 1/3 revolution either way. Hmmm.   I’ve stripped it back to just the gears and the problem persisted, nothing obvious, so the free gear axle came off and the motor turns the worm wheel freely. Phew. I put the free gear axle back, and after an initial stutter, it appears to run well. I’ll do more testing and slowly add the centre axle with gears and wheels and see how it goes.    
John57sharp

John57sharp in 2fs

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2fs

08 Brakes, done!

Today was a good day, the brakes rigging and everything finally went together and looked great, the 4 free axled wheels turned fine. Great result. A little bit of shenanigans followed when the cross wires were cut and replaced by sleeves to insulate the 2 sides, one shoe fell off, but soon fixed.   Then, a small setback.   The whole gear train, previously running well, even with the wheels coupled, is locked solid...   More on this story later.      
John57sharp

John57sharp in 2fs

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2FS

Brakes 2

All is not as well as I thought. In the earlier entry the brake shoes were lined up one hole too high. My fault for misreading the instructions. I also had tried to attach the brake rigging too high.    A golden rule that I have yet to learn fully is that if a part doesn’t fit without force, you may have made an error. These kits are good, not many errors at all, so if it don’t fit, you’ve probably done it wrong!   Take 2 seems to be hanging together well.    
John57sharp

John57sharp in 2FS

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2fs

Brakes!

Getting the brake shoes onto the rigging proved to be a long job. Maybe too long for something that will be scarcely visible. Anyway they are now hung, just the control rods to go on now.    also put 2 van roofs on, took one off again..  
John57sharp

John57sharp in 2fs

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2fs

Figured out

Just finished the brake hangers on the 08 quickly this morning.   later added some paint to my current off topic project, a 4mm scale figure from Modelu. These are really nice.    
John57sharp

John57sharp in 2fs

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2FS

State of play

A long time since the last post.. times have changed.   This project started off as a possible DJLC entry, but it has moved to a form of shelf layout, hugely inspired by Templefields in MRJ in concept and layout, but not just a direct copy shrunk down. My other major inspiration was Canada Street (maybe I’m in the wrong scale?) which I was delighted to see in Liverpool a few years back. This shelfie won’t be very industrial,  but it may change era.   I’ve almost built 2 Easit
John57sharp

John57sharp in 2FS

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Two steps forward, one back

<p>Still moving forward, just about. The quartering was done by eye and by gently fettling the rods until the whole assembly rotated freely. This took time and care, but we got there. I was emboldened to trim off the axle ends, clean then up and was admiring my work when I read a comment from Izzy warning not to do this until I had fitted the outer frames! I have checked though, and I think it will all fit as it is.   I’ll be making spacers as per Mick Simpson’s article because my hamfis
John57sharp

John57sharp

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Gronk One progress

Slowly getting there, confidence higher than usual at the moment.   Cranks and pins and wheels are now mated up, rods laminated and cleaned up. More photos tomorrow.   Quartering next.
John57sharp

John57sharp

2

Gronk One, part 2

Having upgraded my workbench and treated myself to some new tools, I have finally managed to solder up the brake rigging to a standard that I am happy with. The next stage is to add cranks and quarter the wheels...
John57sharp

John57sharp

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Getting serious

The vans are progressing well, though I am struggling to keep the tiny multilayer axle boxes together while soldering to the underframes. I will try using different temperature solder. I’ve also started the Presflo wagon from the Association kit, who designed this, it’s a cracking build, very intricate but seems to go together well.
John57sharp

John57sharp

2

Van underframes...

Here’s a progress report in the Association BR van kits build. The first picture shows the peg clamp in use to hold things down while I reattach the overlay that hadn’t quite taken on the first attempt.   The second shows that my soldering has improved a bit and the bodies in saddle brown for now.   I have tinned, folded and sweated 8 axlebox etches, but the first 2 I tried to fix on delaminated, so I’m going to try again... Did drop one onto the patio, but it turned up the next morning. P
John57sharp

John57sharp

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Masterclass CCT in 2FS. Not a masterclass...

Hailed in MRJ as one of the best etched kits ever, ok so that was maybe the 4mm version, but still, I needed one of these for my embryonic layout, so I just had to have one. I started building mine last summer, 2017, and my first learning experience was discovering the need to use solder paste for the very delicate overlays eg on the body ends. I also experimented with a gas soldering iron (disaster), better, new bits for the Antex, but as I work a lot in the garden or at our caravan, I have set
John57sharp

John57sharp

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Gronk One, 08 in 2FS

It was Mick Simpsons article on building an 08 in MRJ 252 that finally did it, though the pressure had been building for some time. I've dabbled in the past with P4, 7mm and 16.5, 14mm, 009, but these days I'm more used to 16mm or 7/8ths scales, with a track around the garden that has similar civil engineering issues to the real thing! So why 2FS? I mean it's so small, watchlike, and there is a clue. I had thought for a long time that I'd like to make a clock from scratch, I already have a small
John57sharp

John57sharp

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