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About this blog

Ian's Ramblings relating to building Modbury and items for it

Entries in this blog

GWR Buffalo (1076 Class) in 2FS (Part 2)

After a few months of doing other things, I have once again started work on my 3rd loco. Previously, I had formed the saddle tank (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1009/entry-16413-gwr-buffalo-1076-class-in-2fs/) and there the project had stalled for no other reason than I wanted to progress Modbury for the 2mm Association's Supermeet last month.   Picking up the reigns again, I have made a start on the chassis. Once again I have decided to provide the engine with a milled soli

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

2FS Supermeet Tutbury

Well yesterday was the 2mm Association's Supermeet at Tutbury. What a thoroughly enjoyable day it was too, a big thanks to John Aldrick and his team for organising such a successful event.   I had been invited to attend with "Modbury", so arrived on Friday evening to set everything up. Unfortunately, a couple of Gremlins had snuck into the hall and had been having fun at my expense! The turnout controlling access into the yard refused to move in either direction which was somewhat annoying

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Backscenes - Trials and tribulations of a would be artist (Part II)

Armed with the knowledge gained from failure, I have handed the task over to my good friend Percy V. Runce.   So to Mark II...   In desperation, I painted over the previous attempt with 3 coats of white emulsion to cover it. Then I mixed up a yellowy green colour and lathered it all over the area up to where I wanted the horizon to be - in hindsight a slightly lighter shade would have been easier to paint over!   Once this had dried, I then began sketching on where I wanted the fields to b

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Backscenes - Trials and tribulations of a would be artist

Whilst I do not consider myself to be an artist, over the last few days I have tried to add a painted back scene to Modbury. The medium I have elected to use are acrylic paints, and unfortunately I have to report that I have been somewhat unsuccessful so far!!   The whole back scene was covered in a sky to start with and was painted pretty quickly with white emulsion and Cerulean Blue acrylic paint. Because the complete back scene is about 9' long, I had to paint the sky in sections of about

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Modbury Signal Box 5

A couple of weeks work has seen the exterior of the Signal Box fundamentally complete.   Firstly, I added the gutters. These were simply 0.030" plastic sheet gouged out with a 0.9mm drill close to the edge of the sheet. Once a suitable furrow had been ploughed, the sheet was turned over and what will become the underside scraped with a razor blade to provide the outside curvature. A strip was then cut parallel to the gouged gutter such that the gutter itself would be a mil or two off the bu

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Modbury Signal Box 4

Yesterday afternoon and early evening I did a little more to the Signal Box for Modbury. The work was to get the steps and landing completed.   Firstly the steps. I have no idea how everyone else makes their steps in 2mm scale, so as is my want I went my own way. To start with a support jig to hold everything in place was made; the height of the landing and the distance the steps projected ground wards was plotted onto a scrap of foam board, and a diagonal marked for the angle of the steps.

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Modbury Signal Box 3

Following on from the previous entries on the construction of a Signal Box for Modbury, the next stage was to build the Chimney stack and the supporting ground floor wall. This was to be a brick construction, so a solid core of laminated plastic sheet was welded together and when dry cut and shaded to size to take into account the thickness of the embossed brick sheet which was to for the cladding. After the embossed brick sheet had dried, the decorative string courses near the top of the stac

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Modbury Signal Box 2

Having completed the CAD drawing for a signal box based on the preserved one at Bodmin General (see previous blog entry http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1009/entry-16898-modbury-signal-box/),I printed a couple of copies out onto thin card so that i could make a mock up to check the size of the building :   3/4 view of Front   3/4 view of Back   This little mock up confirmed that (to my eye) everything looked in proportion and construction proper could begin. My prefer

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Modbury Signal Box

Following on from the theme of my last blog entry, I have continued with the Virtual Modelling. This time I have been drawing up the plans for my signal box, this is based on the one surviving (and preserved) at Bodmin General. I have a 4mm scale plan from the SLAG series of "Bodmin" articles in the Model Railway Constructor (and indeed built such a box from my 4mm layout many years ago). However, because I want to get the windows and doors etched I felt it would make sense to draw up a 2mm scal

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Modbury Bridge

Not a lot of modelling progress has been made in the recent couple of months. All of the track work on the layout has been completed (and wired). A start has been made on the scenery (or at least the land form) behind the station, and some modifications have been made to the over bridge.   I decided that the wing walls that I had originally constructed were a little too long, so these were cropped and new buttresses added to the ends. I also felt that the roadway was too wide so I took a

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

GWR Buffalo (1076 class) in 2FS

For my next 2mm scale engine I had been considering an Armstrong Goods 0-6-0 tender engine (which I will also build) but in the end I've decided to begin work on a GWR "Buffalo" 1076 class. This engine is effectively a tank engine version of the Armstrong Goods, having the same wheelbase but slightly smaller wheels (and obviously no tender), and also has outside frames. For my chosen period (c.1906) nearly all of this class still had their saddle tanks (they were later rebuilt with pannier tanks

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Experiments in Scenery

Today I have well and truly been brought kicking and screaming into the 21st century!! I've been playing with static grass - the last time I did any scenery on a model railway I used surgical lint a'la Barry Norman.   So having purchased a couple of bags of Heki grass (a green and a beige, both 2-3mm long), borrowed a friends static grass applicator and inspired by Gordon Gravett's book on grass etc I had a go. Mr Gravett seems to advocate blending his static grasses, so that is precisely wh

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Experiments in Point Rodding (2)

Following on from the last instalment, I have finally got around to getting some of the rodding in place on the layout. This is of the round variety, with stools (or stands) at no more than 6'0" (12mm) centres.   The stools (on their bases) were superglued in place alongside the track using a straightish length of 0.25mm nickel silver wire as a guide to getting them in line. Once they were all secure, the wire was removed and rolled repeatedly between two pieces of sheet steel to remove any o

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

GWR Down Home

Just coming off my workbench is my first 2mm scale signal (actually it's my first completed signal in any scale!) This one is the Down Home for my fictional Modbury layout. The post has been milled to a tapered profile from 3mm square brass bar, the arm, balance weight and ladder are MSE components. The lamp is my own turning fixed to a small piece of L section brass. The finial is an old (overscale) OO handrail knob with a piece of 0.5mm phosphor bronze wire pushed through, soldered and turned

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Experiments in Point Rodding (1)

Although I haven't as yet finished all of the track work on Modbury, the parts that are laid will need ballasting before too long. This in itself poses a few slight problems, like what to use for ballast? But one of the things that I want to install before I tackle the actual ballasting is the Point Rodding - Yes, I will be putting point rodding on my 2FS layout!!   A re-read of the appropriate section of the 2mm Association's publication "Track - How it works and how to model it" gave a pote

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Modbury Signalling 1 - Point Dependent Ground Disc Signal

Because I am now trying to get some of the under-board gubbins in place for the operation of the turnouts I need to get some of the above board items in place so that I can ensure that the two won't interfere with each other. One of these above-board items is the "Point Dependent Ground Disc Signal" associated with the catch point at the exit to the goods loop.   This little signal is one of the old style rotating types whereby the lamp case rotates to show a round green plate (and green light

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Modbury - Signalling Diagram (Mark II)

Over the Christmas period I have been giving further thought to the signalling diagram for Modbury, and its associated Locking Chart.   I really want to get this as sensible/accurate as possible because it is my intention to use the signals to allow power to be provided/denied to the various track sections, effectively engines will only get power if the correct signal(s) have been Cleared to allow entry into the section.   To this end, I have come up with the following :   I still have a

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Modbury - Signalling Diagram

Tonight I have been trying to finalise the signalling diagram for my fictional GWR through station Modbury.   Below is the diagram that I have come up with. Hopefully it is a realistic representation of what the GWR would have provided for my Edwardian modelling period of c. 1906.   All being well others who are better informed than myself will be able to provide guidance to any errors that I may have made. The main query I would have is whether the turnout on the main line at the right of t

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

GWR Small Metro Tank (7) - Ready for Warley Exhibition!

After a few trials and tribulations, I've done it!!! I've finally managed to scratch build a working locomotive in 2mm Finescale   Since the last instalment, the sub assemblies have been primed with Halfords No 8 Self Etch Primer, the footplate sprayed with Precision Paints Indian Red. Before the buffer beams and footplate top were brush painted the pre-turned spring cups were super-glued in place behind the valances (the bond made more secure with 24 hour epoxy), and the assembly sprayed

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

GWR Small Metro Tank (6) - Ready for the paint shop

More progress has been made on this little project, such that she is now ready for the paint shops.   To finish her off, the cab roof needed some detail (the whistles won't be added until she has been painted). There is a rain strip along the back edge of the cab roof, this was added from a single strand of multi-core wire (0.2mm diameter). To get this perfectly straight before attempting to solder it in place it was rolled on a flat surface (a piece of sheet steel) beneath another flat surf

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

GWR Small Metro Tank (5) - More detail and progress

Continuing with the addition of detail, I have now completed the bunker assembly. This required the addition of the coal rails, the lamp sockets, the handrails and the fire iron hooks.   The coal rails are simply 2 lengths of 0.3mm straight brass wire that were taped down while narrow strips of 0.004" nickel silver were soldered across them centrally and about 11mm either side of the centre line for the support brackets. Once the brackets had been soldered on and cleaned up, the bunker rails w

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

GWR Small Metro Tank (4) - Footplate Detail

As they say the devil is in the detail ...   The body is now in 3 sub components : Footplate, Boiler, Cab & Tanks Bunker   And now comes the slow task of adding the minor components and details to these to achieve a complete model. The first part to be "detailed up" is the Footplate. To this I need to add the springs and axle boxes for the leading wheels, the buffers, the vacuum and steam pipes and finally the lamp irons.   I had already turned up the buffers - I make these as 3 s

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

GWR Small Mero Tank (3)

Some significant progress has been made with my first scratch built 2FS loco - It works!!!   Following on from the last instalment, I had determined that I needed to construct some of the body work in order that I could determine how well or otherwise my dog clutch arrangement would be successful in transferring drive from the motor to the gearbox. A dog clutch is used in engineering when turning between centres so I had some conviction that it would work, but I was a little worried that if t

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

GWR Small Metro Tank (2)

The chassis has moved on a little since the previous post, a gearbox has been milled and the profile of the chassis has been milled/filed to shape.   The gearbox has a peg at the rear right corner which locates in a corresponding hole in the main chassis block, and a 12BA bolt secures the gearbox to the block at the front. Cutouts in the main chassis (and side frame) also locate the gearbox (although the one in the side frame is generous to prevent any shorts between the frame and the main c

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

GWR Small Metro Tank (1)

A couple of years ago, I made a somewhat abortive start on a 2FS scratch built loco. I had got to the stage of a rolling chassis, and a body that consisted of footplate, valances, buffer beams and a cab bunker. Where I had failed was getting the chassis to actually run happily. In the end, I decided to shelve the project and move onto my 1854 Saddle Tank that has been documented previously that used one of the 2mm Association etched chassis kits.   Now that I have proved to myself that I can c

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

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