I tried to convince these folks of the merits of Easitrac or even soldered PCB construction, but they seemed happy with their own way of doing things
http://youtu.be/0jFZReHQTTE
Still, they managed to lay about 12 feet of track in under 5 minutes, so maybe it's not a bad approach.
Their next move was to rip it all up again, which sounds a lot like what some people write about on RMWeb, so I think that there's hope for them yet.
A little break from the 2mm stuff indoors... The weather has been pretty decent this weekend so a certain amount of effort in the garden was felt to be in order. Naturally apart from pulling out the many weeds, I took the opportunity to make sure that the railway was clear of obstructions.
This afternoon the odd train or two had to be run just to make sure things were working properly. Today's main performer was my little IP Engineering 'Jane' - a meths fired pot boiler - similar in principl
The body gains its buffer beams, valences and roof panels.
... and I promise to write about something else one day
Buffer Beams
As far as I can tell the method of assembly intended by the Worsley Works kit involves two false cab floors to be soldered to the main body and a separate chassis built around a floor unit with two cutouts, presumably for motor bogies. The floor unit and the cab floors have etched holes, so I guess that the idea is that they should be bolted together. The si
I promised myself that I would spend some time turning the various bits I've cut out for the shunting tractor into something more tractor shaped.
In the previous installment I'd cut out the main chassis frames on the milling machine. In fact the chassis has been together for some time but lacking any sort of superstructure.
The body parts are cut from 5 thou K&S brass sheet using good old fashioned scratchbuilding techniques like a coping saw and Swiss files - the only concession to
As you might have seen on one of 2mm threads, the tractor and its test bed put in an appearance at the Tutbury gathering yesterday.
Several folks had a try at tractor driving and several politely declined. Apart from hopefully being entertaining for the budding driver it was interesting for me to see what happens with someone else at the wheel.
Full marks to Laurie Adams for being the only person to attempt and complete the full tractor shunting challenge (swap an i
Those of you on the 2mm_notices mailing list will have seen Edward Sissling's request for micro layouts to appear on the (bigger) Association stand at the Nottingham show next month. I've volunteered South Yard to attend on the Saturday (15th March)... since I pretty much always go to the Nottingham show anyway.
...all of which means that I need to do a bit of housekeeping in order to get it into a fit state to put on show. Here's a photo of it in its usual surroundings.
As you can
Modelling chez moi has been on temporary hold for the past week or so due to a trip to see MinerChris in his new abode in Sudbury (not Suffolk!).
We did manage to get out and about on several occasions and caught a few of the local activities. I'm no expert on these matters so I'm sure that others will know more than me.
This is the view from Chris's local model shop - George's Trains - a mere 237 miles away in Toronto. Nice shop though.
A freight on the CP mainline near Chelmsfo
Unusually we managed to find some real snow on our post Christmas steamy day trip to the GCR at Loughborough today. It's surprising how different conditions can be just 40 miles from home.
The GCR also provides a welcoming refreshment room with a real fire. The all day breakfast went down very well too.
We go to the GCR quite regularly. Somehow we always seem to get this loco
The last train of the day and the gas lamps are lit at Rothley
The loco ready to reti
Having a little early autumn interlude in Somerset now that number 3 child has departed the nest. Usual recipe... cottage, log burner, kits, books, local ales, walking, cycling, the odd visit to the local steam railway... 'oh, I didn't realise it was that close, fancy that eh?'.
Also trying to see if I can do a blog post from the tablet, so anything might happen...
Kit assembly with suitable surroundings...
Suitable reading material. I've been saving this book for a suitable occasi
Thought it was time for some first hand research regarding what's so great about the railways of the south west...
We're in coach A
Films are by other peeps...
Wrong sea wall for St Ruth but just to show that other sea walls are available...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc5ox1tZ6sI
Signal checks on the return journey at Goodrington, Newton Abbott and Exeter meant that Britannia was putting in some serious effort by the time we got to Cowley Bridge Junction... and me wit
Stretching the same title a little further, some new metalwork arrived with the postie today...
The main items on here are a couple of chassis for Associated Octel 1957 vintage chlorine tanks. The two etches are different from each other because I want to try two different ways to put a tank wagon chassis together. One is (I hope) conservative and steals as many ideas as possible from other people's designs. The other design is intended (if it works at all) to achieve an even more spide
Another quick update on the progress with this build.
As you might have seen in my holiday post, a second tank wagon seems to have sprung into being, the idea being that it's not much more effort to paint two of these than it is to paint one... well, that's the theory anyway.
Rather than yet another progress photo of a wagon slightly less incomplete than last time, I thought I'd look at another little conundrum.
Having finally got two wagons ready for painting (somehow there always s
In this post I actually start to build the kit...
Folding the Body
The one job that was worrying me most of all (and probably delaying me starting work) was bending up the single etching that makes the loco sides and roof. Logically this semed like the place to start construction, so at least I would get what seemed to be the worst job over and done with very early in the build.
I'd built up some confidence (and tools) with the two wagon kits that I built as 'practice'. In particular
I've volunteered to take the tractor test bed to the Tutbury gathering next month so I've been doing some more work on it ahead of that. All of the work so far is 'below stairs' so visitors may not see much visible difference from it's state last year at Chelford but in fact quite a lot has changed.
The first big change is that the curtain track has now been relaid to run dead straight instead of following the line of the Esso siding. This makes manual steering more predictable - pre
My workbench sits in a bay window that gets the full sun in the afternoon. I had a bit of modelling time on Friday but it was just too hot to be spending time sat at the workbench. Sometimes I set up in the back garden with something fairly self contained like assembling some bogie kits, but I already have several bogies assembled and waiting for coaches to make use of them.
I've been buying and building a lot of coaches recently to run on St Ruth. I've enjoyed doing this but it's always a b
Fitting the Cabs
To recap from the previous installment... I think that the cab sides need to taper slightly inwards from the doors to the nose, but the kit seems to assume that this doesn't happen.
I took some dividers and marked 0.5mm in from the widest part of the nose ends. I filed down to these marks and then continued the filing down to the buffer beam level, checking with a square that the edge was truly vertical. The photo below shows a modified end compared with the original sti
It Lives!
This is a quick update with some good news about my class 22 - this afternoon postman brought me an Atlas MP15DC that will provide the chassis for the class 22.
It had taken about 5 weeks to arrive from New Jersey. I was rather beginning to think that it was never going to arrive and wishing that I'd just found a nice Farish class 20 like everybody else does.
Naturally, being a patient sort of chap, after a fairly cursory test to make sure that it wasn't dead, the body was
Progress continues on the class 22, albeit rather more slowly now that the days are longer and I'm often out and about enjoying the nice weather for more of the evening.
This posting is rather an interim update to say that "I'm still here" rather than a blow by blow account of particular bits of the model, mainly because I don't think that I've done much that is really 'finished' since last time. No photos either, because the appearance really hasn't changed noticeably.
Attention has now
