Somewhere, yes somewhere, is a "to do" list following the outing to St Albans. No doubt it will show up or I'll write another one following the Ormesby Hall show.
Anyway, I did know that the point control box needed an upgrade. The original was squeezed into a tiny box I happened to have to hand and the wiring was from two lengths of six-core flex whose strands were just a little too thin. There was never a proper mount on the layout so it often dangled and swung! The result was regular elec
Yesterday was the North East Area Group meeting of The 2mm Scale Association. We had a short overview/history from Mick Simpson on the various wagon chassis available over the years.
Then a good number of us sat down to progress various chassis building projects.
See http://neag.2mm.org.uk/ for more detail and a few pics.
Within my own fleet of stock, I have a number of wagons that run on the Mike Bryant etched chassis. These date from the early eighties, use wheels on 13mm axles and
I'd been pondering station lamps for a while. A stock of Ratio ones are stashed in a drawer and I thought that these might serve. Having built on and placed it on the platform, I had to rethink. The whole thing seemed just too clunky and the uprights are square not round as per the originals.
Out with the brass tube and sheet and lets see what we can make.
The posts are fabricated from two telescopic pieces of tube. The smaller diameter on was cut to approximate length and the ends clean
New to the roster at Brafferton are two DMUs a Metro Cammell class 101 in green and a Derby Lightweight class 108 in blue (yes I know; blame my lad for the increasing "modernisation"!).
Both require chipping and attention to the wheels to make them suitable for use on Brafferton; 2FS and all that. Previously I have used the wheel turning service for diesels and DMUs and very good it is. However on this occasion I thought I'd give the Association drop in wheelsets a spin. Here is the bit cove
Ongoing work to make the new platform "disused"!
From the last post, you will have seen the groundwork around the platform painted but ungrassed. This was the first job. I used a slightly longer grass this time using 2.5mm and 4.5mm fibres of "fall", "winter" and "hay" mixed together. Some trimming will be required and then I shall dust with the airbrush using a light straw shade. Similarly, the bushes which are bits of Woodland Scenics in (supposedly) "Dark Green", will require shading to f
Further work on the station area to make me (and hopefully you!) happier with it's appearance.
The "disused" platform which was hastily cobbled together for Shipley has been replaced by a more refined one, constructed of plasticard off-site and detailed before placement on layout. This features a grounded van body as mentioned in the Patrick Howat book. It's doubtful that this would be a ply-bodied Southern van as appears here, however this was one of the first kits assembled by my son James
When I first fabricated the platform extension, I used Association PCB sleepers to make the base and topped it off with some thin ply. Now there is a old adage that "nothing looks more like wood than wood". This may be true in 7mm and even in 4mm scale. However when you get down to 2mm scale, I'd say that nothing looks less like wood than wood. I'd used some ply on Masham many years ago and was less than happy with the result; I was therefore mildly surprised to find that I'd made the same mist
A most enjoyable weekend in the wilds of West Yorkshire. Shipley is a lovely little show, a good handful of excellent layouts and a satisfying range of traders. Topped off with a Chilli chez Sissling on Friday and a Curry with Ed, Sue, Mick and Yvonne on Saturday night, we really did have a good time. A few pics (on camera phone; bit duff, sorry), with some video to follow:
This was the first weekend that the D49 really worked. Still needs a bit more weight and some extra springing on
Interspersed with summer holidays, I've being trying to make some improvement in anticipation of the Shipley show on 8/9 September.
One of the running issues at Nottingham was the performance of the coaches; mainly due to a hotch-potch of couplings and coupling bodges to try and get coaches closer together. To this end, I decided to make some semi-permanent couplings for the older Bach-Far coaches and utilise the Dapol NEM dummy couplings on the newer ones (as per the DMUs where this works n
A very nice gentleman rang the other day to invite me to the show held at Ormesby Hall. I took his details to check the date and ring back.
The piece of paper (the back of a letter from my son's school) subsequently went into the recycling unactioned. Sorry!!
If the nice chap, or anyone who knows him, reads this, I am interested and can make the dates in March. Could you please contact me again.
Having gone as far as I might with the trackwork from a running aspect, I turn further attention to scenery. Actually I'll be getting some third party input on the trackwork from somebody substantially more qualified than me; more of that when it's happened.
Now then; I have been slapping paint around to try and build up those layers of believability that might just lie beneath the surface. What? Well one of the things that impressed me about Framsden (apart from the overall scenic quality)
In anticipation of the North East Area Group of The 2mm Scale Association 30th Anniversary Event (hereinafter referred to as "the do"), I've been doing some scenic work to Brafferton.
Last time, I mentioned that the surface of the goods dock had been removed to relay it in the same manner as the platform. Nothing has yet progressed on this, as I am now in the process of adding an extra platform, so I'll surface them en-bloc. Reading the Middleton Press book on the line, I picked up on a pre
Bit of an anticlimactic weekend following a week away in Wales. Saturday was spent sorting out the usual chaos that greets you following a period of absence and then, yesterday, there was a pile of paperwork to shuffle into some semblance of order as well as catching up with various relatives.
After all that, I really didn't feel like braving the Easter throng in York so a quiet Monday has been spent beavering away on the central board. More trackwork has been tweaked and large chunks of wha
What's going on here then?
Major surgery in the yard area, that's what!
Post-Nottingham I've been obliged to take the sledgehammer to the walnut. Bits of rail have been removed, replaced and rejigged.
As a general guide:
W = widened
N = new rail
TD = still to do!
OLANB = there's the titchy weigh hut from the last post!!
With the sun shining this morning, I took the opportunity to take some better (?) photos of the weighbridge/coal office. These are somewhat higher resolution than the previous post and highlight the grottiness of my modelling!
Here you can see the method used for the roof: tiles on 10thou plasticard and a centre beam of 40thou timber. There are similar beams mounted on the inner gables to support the plasicard sub-roof.
In an attempt at redemption, here is a "look ho
Well! A thoroughly enjoyable time was had at Nottingham. Thanks to the show organisers for all their hard work; I don't envy them at all.
Although Brafferton didn't thoroughly disgrace itself, I have come back with quite a to-do list. There are some fairly substantial tweaks required in the trackwork, especially in the yard area to ensure that running reliability is maintained.
Additionally, I was concious that some of the scenic work didn't progress as much as I would have liked. On the
Well we've been settled in the new house for a couple of months now and in the last month I've been beavering away trying to get Brafferton to a state where I won't be embarrassed by it come March and Nottingham. I'm not going to post anymore photos of the layout before Nottingham and hopefully this will make it more enjoyable for those who visit the show. The layout is now permanently erected indoors with the ability to run it and work on it in comfortable surroundings; a much better situation
Little progress on Brafferton right now.
Most of the house is now boxed up with an impending move in a week or so's time. I just hope that the layout makes the move unscathed; it is all packed down into it's carrying cradles, but there is the matter of a week in storage between leaving house #1 and arriving at house #2. Fingers crossed.
Meanwhile, seeing Russ' blog (now thread) about his first steps into 2mm reminded me of mine, some 26 years ago. Whilst evacuating the loft I came acro
Work continues apace (well continues, we'll leave it at that) on the lighting gantry.
I needed some system to fix the five pieces together. When we were constructing the baseboards, Edward came up with some bolts with large knurled plastic knobs on. These screw by hand to a captive nut on the next baseboard and give a solid connection without the need for tools. These would be too big for the gantry, but I thought I'd like to use a similar method.
At the Farnham show, where the 2mm AGM w
Some of us might say it's been long gone. Meanwhile I notice that I haven't posted here for over three months. Dead? Lunatic asylum? Not just yet...
A few bits and bobs have been progressed over summer. Most recently I've turned my attention to the lighting and initially the gantry:
The gantry is in five pieces to mirror the baseboards and is made in a similar manner. Two laths of 9mm ply are cut to the required diameter; the upper piece is around 4" deep, the lower one just 1". The
As the wife was away at a concert, and the kids felt that they'd done their Father's Day duty by about 7am, I've been left pretty much to myself today. Bliss!
I'd recently resolved to finish the ballasting and now that 99% of the plastering is done, I set about sorting it out. In the end, I didn't reach the finish line, but one more shortish session should put it to bed.
Other recent work involved plastering in the platform extension, painting the basic landform and initial tryouts of f
As others have previously posted, last weekend was Expo 2mm; a lower key event than last year's Golden Jubilee Expo, but an excellent day nevertheless. The big advantage of these days is getting to see members from across the country, old friends and new alike and have a good chat about all things 2mm in a relaxed environment.
I especially enjoyed seeing new layouts from Nigel Ashton and David Long. Always a great source of inspiration to see other members layouts taking shape.
Back home
I know that one of my big failings is that I often rush into things and end up having to redo them or extricate myself from the resulting mess. This applies to life generally as well as modelling specifically!
However, that initial bodge-up often helps me understand how I might do things better and therefore as long as I learn from my mistakes, I'm quite happy to make them. Of course, sometimes it all works out fine the first time. Sometimes...
The station building is one where I've str
Steady progress on Brafferton continues. Mike Taylor did kindly invite the layout to Expo, but we agreed in the end to give it a break from Association events for a little while.
The station area continues to receive attention and the cattle dock base and platform (brick bit) are in. I've been playing about plastering these into the contours of the land and laying the station approach road from the main road and overbridge on the right hand end of the scenic area:
As a result of
