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About this blog

2mm Scale set in the rural Midlands.

Entries in this blog

Poor decision

I managed to get my self talked into obtaining a hand held PICtrollerfor Lambourn, to replace the original AMR hand held.   It works great on Farish (Poole) mechanisms, but is frankly hopeless with coreless types.   Nothing wrong with the controller, so I'll not return it, but not really a happy buy ????

RichardW1

RichardW1

Turnout operating unit - initial work up.

Standard TOUs are many and various. I doubt that there is anything truly original in this, but it is offered for interest's sake.   The baseboards for Maxstoke are of a low profile, so a reasonably discreet unit is required. Eventually the design will incorporate mountings for frog switching microswitches, but this is a trial unit to test the system. Firstly I wanted the unit to be as simple as possible. the points were originally made with my standard moving sleeper tie bar, which has pivoted

RichardW1

RichardW1

Midland Class 800 2-4-0

This blog was originally set up to document progress on my Midland Railway modelling, and layout Maxstoke. So after a brief excursion to GWR metals, and a rummage through the gloat box, the next loco has been started. This will be based on an etched (10 thou NS) originally produced by Nick Dearnally many years ago, under the name of Lodge Coachworks. The basic etch components are reasonably well defined, Those on my etch are marginally mis-aligned, and some of the etch fold lines were less defi

RichardW1

RichardW1

Portable test track

A while back I mentioned that I had been busy making a portable test track. Two have been built, one for Peter Clark (who conceived the idea), and this one.   Case closed. . The basis is a cheap aluminium snooker cue case. The innards are ripped out, and replaced with a baulk of timber, on which the track is laid. the overall case dimensions are 34" long, 3" wide 2"mm high. the internal timber is 2 1/2" x 3/4".- length to suit.   Case open for business   I left the timber a bit shor

RichardW1

RichardW1

Epsom Show

The show at Epsom went well. (Thanks to Justin and Mark for their time operating etc). The new MERG Shuttle work well enough, although the deceleration/delay times could be longer. This may need either a reset chip or adjustment to resistor /capacitors.   The Platform siding rails at the board joint took a bash loading into the car - although repaired a bit they will need relaying.   Valentin brought along his new C Class which runs as well as it looks.   The operating schedule didn't last

RichardW1

RichardW1

Updating stock for Lambourn

After spending a great day at the controls of JBS' Ashburton layout, I was very impressed by some of the very simple conversions of proprietry stock. Operating to a schedule was fun too, giving some meaning to driving trains- at least it is not aimless. Trying to get a particular movement for each train adds purpose and keeps the mind going. Lambourn needs horse boxes, the last outing at Aldershot exposed a real lack of appropriate stock, and Richard Brummitt's great conversions of the Lima box

RichardW1

RichardW1

D&S high sided Syphon

At Chelford I managed to acquire three of these kits from Jerry's bits stand, and thought that they would compliment Lambourn well, I later learn that fish was also carried in these wagons. Anyhow two weekends later and progress is good. The kit goes together well, but in future I'll add the details to the framing before fitting to the sides. Less of a heat sink that way.   So a few bits to tidy up then the paint shop.,,, Then brake rigging and decals

RichardW1

RichardW1

Lambourn awakes

Hello everyone-   I have been foolish and accepted (perhaps I offered?) to dust off Alan Martin's finescale model of Lambourn for an upcoming show. I acquired this layout a number of years ago, and it has rarely been shown since. I have to say I'm quite excited by the opportunity to get things running again. At it's last showing the shuttle failed, and I never got round to fixing it.   The first task this weekend has been to (find) and renovate the layout legs. These are made solidly from 2"

RichardW1

RichardW1

A 4F for Maxstoke

So here we are. Not sure about the paint finish or the photograpy- need to put proper safety valves on and do a bit of weathering, but the loco is substantially complete. Now all I have to do is finish the layout

RichardW1

RichardW1

All quiet in the midlands

I am conscious that posts here have been sparse lateley, mainly the result of building works at home. 1860s terraced houses are draughty, especially when the windows are original! So new glazing units all round, which has meant decanting the workshop. Then while there is noting in the workshop thought I'd redecorate, er........   So old floor boards up, new wiring, new floors, (hard wearing laminate) new skirting ( still to fit). Many thanks to Mike R in getting the floor down. Then I can reb

RichardW1

RichardW1

A restart is made.

Maxstoke- restarted After a break of several years, I have decided to re-start work on Maxstoke, a model of the only intermediate station on the ‘Stonebridge Railway’, a single track connecting line running from Hampton in Arden ( the LNWR east of Birmingham ) roughly northwards to join the Birmingham-Derby line of the Midland Railway at Whitacre. The inspiration for the model was a picture of the simple station building in an article published in the BRJ some years ago and the station bu

RichardW1

RichardW1

A Starter for Lambourn-mechanism

It seemed appropriate to show a picture of the bits that make it work. The servo motor is self explanatory. the brass plate screwed to the small block of ply is the main below baseboard drive. The red and black wires power the LED. What may not be so obvious is the double crank arrangement for the signal. Just below the red and black wires can be seen a small section of copper Mercontrol tube, a steel wire attached to the signal is guided through this to a small hole on the crank, which is very

RichardW1

RichardW1

Whats the point?

Not a negative title- the next task on Maxstoke is to sort out the operation of the turnouts. I had anticipated digging into my stock of Fulgarex mechanisms, but these are really massively oversized for the task and the layout.   Mike Randall has been working up a mechanism to use with the MERG servo units, and having seen the size of the mini servos I have decided to try these out. The first task was to join MERG!   That done, and this morning the first Servo 4 kit arrived. For those who ar

RichardW1

RichardW1

Wagons Roll

Just to show that the wagons situation has not been neglected, here are some pictures from a batch build of Association wagons, currently in the shop!

RichardW1

RichardW1

Coaching Stock

The Stonebridge Railway (Maxstoke is the station midway along the line) had very few passenger trains, indeed very little traffic of any sort! In the early days (1853 timetable) there were 5 daily passenger trains between Hampton and Whitacre- this was reduced to four in 1856. Throughout this period the first train of the day was a mineral train. in 1877 the passenger trains become referred to as 'Pass & Goods' on the time table, (four per day) with a passenger only train in the early after

RichardW1

RichardW1

Groundwork

Now that the Servo TOU's have been installed, it is time to start thinking about groundwork. On Copenhagen Fields the majority of the 'world' is plywood, being covered with buildings. Here at Maxstoke I am going back to open country, so the basic ground former for the foreground land is based on artist's chicken wire stapled to plywood formers. Over this is painted on a liberal quantity of white PVA and strips of newspaper- both on top and under the chicken wire.   Now chicken wire is ok, but

RichardW1

RichardW1

Prototype Notes

Prototype notes I promised that I would give some background to the model. In doing so I must point out that the accompanying pictures and illustrations are taken from Roger Waring’s book ‘The StoneBridge Railway’ published by Brewin Books. Copyright is acknowledged. The station was also known as Coleshill, but I have chosen to retain the earlier name of Maxstoke (modeller’s licence!). The track plan, as can be seen, was very simple. For interest I have extended the siding to form a lo

RichardW1

RichardW1

End of the Line

Whilst reviewing the photo showing the basic formwork for the ground it was noticeable that the siding has not been fitted with any buffers. So I thought I'd better provide some. Typical rail built Midland style buffers are described in MRJ issue 121, and now adorn the Northern end of the siding.    

RichardW1

RichardW1

2-6-2 Cylinders

Evening all, It's been a not very nice day today, overcast and cool-perfect for spending an afternoon in the workshop! Having cleared a bit of space on the workbench, attention has turned to assembling the cylinders. David's design produces a sturdy slidebar assembly, but you do need some small (tiny) files to size the apertures in the cylinder covers. Here I am showing one completed unit, and one with the cylinder cover off, to show the internal assembly. It was quite fun to make these up

RichardW1

RichardW1

2-6-2 chassis progress

The motor is mounted by machining a support ring which is then tapped to accept the thread on the motor nose. Once soldered to the chassis the motor can be mounted. I took care to align things such that when screwed in tight the connection tags are horizontal   The balance weights are fixed in place on the wheels with epoxy   And all are now ready for painting- 1st coat is cellulose red oxide

RichardW1

RichardW1

Whats the point? installation

The Servo motors arrived this week, and to my great surprise the Servo4 board and Setting box worked flawlessly. A simple support cradle was swiftly assembled this morning from offcuts of ABS sheet. When assembled, the complete unit was mated with the turnout, and in-situ testing started.   Unfortunately the turnout would not fully throw in one direction. A bit of discreet measurement showed that addition of all the working tolerances meant that the pivot point for the lever arm, was too c

RichardW1

RichardW1

A Starter for Lambourn

It has long been a task to get Lambourn's platform mounted starter signal into operation. In fact the original non-working signal was broken some time ago. A fit of enthusiasm, and a wet weekend (Well two actually) has seen the task completed.   the signal was sited at the end of the platform, and so was unusual in that the balance weights were mounted high on the post, an early example of 'elf and safety'! I confess that the model is actually too tall, ( it should be a bit lower for the dri

RichardW1

RichardW1

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