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About this blog

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

Entries in this blog

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 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

Modbury - Trackwork 4 (Turnout Operation)

Now that most of the trackwork has been installed on the first (Exeter end) baseboard, it is time to try it out!!!   Before I can though, a Turnout Operating Unit needed to be built. The first thing required is a method of connecting the Switch Rails to any under board gubbins. Obviously I had already thought all of this out up front, but I did need to open up the holes that I'd drilled to accommodate these fixings because I couldn't feed them down!! These first items were bent up from some 0.

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Modbury - Trackwork 3

Finally, a start on building the Baulk Road track work for Modbury...   Initially, the baulks for the station approach along the embankment have been laid. These were fixed to the track bed with really runny super glue, capillary action sucking the adhesive under the baulk as it was held in position. The baulk for the other rail was laid at the same time using the previously prepared "Baulk Roller Gauges". Once the position of the first turnout was reached, the positions for the switch tie bar

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Modbury - Trackwork 2

Before a start can be made actually trying to lay track work, I first decided to try to make some of the components for the Baulk Road track.   The plain track work will be represented by laying HO scale (2.3mm wide) PCB sleeper strip longitudinally beneath the rails. However, the Baulks that lie beneath the crossing V's and the switch baulks themselves were somewhat wider (about 20" or so). So the first thing to do was to make some 3.5mm wide PCB sleeper strip - for this I have some 4mm s

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Modbury - Trackwork 1

Now that I have completed the baseboards, a start can be made on the track work...   However, as preparation is everything I first wanted to put down a raised track bed. This is formed from some 1/32" bass wood sheet which was fixed to the baseboard top with PVA, and weighted while it dried. This was done in relatively small sections by transposing the Templot trackbed onto the sheets before cutting out ready to be affixed - I had included the Trackbed Edges on the print out from Templot.

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

Modbury - Baseboards (3) - Complete

Last week I managed to complete the second traintable for Modbury (the Exeter end one). Over the last couple of days I have painted the baseboards so that I am now in a position to actually start laying the track (although that will have to wait for a few days as I want to get my third 4 wheel coach complete ready for the 2mm Association event at Kidderminster on the 21st.   Below are a few images of the progress to date - I have placed the templet plan on the baseboards and positioned some st

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Modbury - Baseboards (2)

A little more progress has been made on the baseboards, although as is often the case there has been a step backward before resuming the stepping forward!!   The originally made traintable used a turned peg and socket on which to rotate, whilst that worked I could not prevent the whole traintable from rocking slightly on this centre pivot point without introducing a lot of friction at the outer edges which I felt would be counter productive as I could visualise the "sudden unsticking motion"

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Modbury - Baseboards (1)

Now that I have a home for my new layout and a plan that I am happy with, I decided that I should make a start on the baseboards.   The first (Board 1) is the left hand traverser board. This has been constructed from 12mm ply for the ends and top with 8mm ply sides and 6mm ply for the cross bracing. The top was first dealt with first, a hole was drilled in the middle and a circle of 20" diameter drawn from that hole - I originally thought that I could use my router fixed to a trammel to cu

Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Modbury - 2mm Layout Planning (and making a start)

Having finally completed the insulation and fitting out of my new shed, I now have a hobby room with internal dimension of some 10' x 5'8". Not huge, but large enough to house a reasonable 2mm scale model railway, a table/bench, etc.   Because this new space will also be my modelling room, what I intend to do is to construct a layout along the back wall of the shed which will allow the modelling table / workbench to go under the window for natural light to be used when using my lathe, etc.  

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 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

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 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

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