Leaderboard

And so, some months after this (though it was primed shortly afterwards and a different chimney fitted): and this: Christmas has brought about this. The full gory details (and some gratuitous Ebay related musings) can be found here and in this earlier blog entry here. All in one piece (albeit briefly), it's been taken apart for final painting which will have to wait until I've bought some suitable paint. Reassembly following painting is one of those stages of model making which is fraught with apprehension. Will those assemblies, which went together so snugly in bare metal still do so with a coat of paint? Normally, this would wait until the topcoat was on, but we needed to check running clearances with the fully completed chassis. More suspense: will the wheels still turn? Does the flywheel get caught in the boiler? Will the newly installed pick-ups get tangled up in the brakegear and short? Have I put the motor leads on the right way round? Here's the fully primed chassis for comparison: The one bit which is nearly there is the backhead scratchbuilt from plastic and some castings from Backwoods Miniatures (a set of rejects from their exhibition stand). It's been painted since, but those pictures weren't up to publication. More as and when... Update 3 April 2012: Adam

Inspired recently by Alex (Wiggoforgold) and Dave (Max Stafford) I thought I have a go myself at modifying one of these CCT's using Bachmann LMS bogies as a replacement for the incorrect BR ones that Lima fitted. The moulding is trypical Lima and is quite fine. Even the undeframe is reasonably detailed.I manged to strip off the paint using Mr Muscle oven cleaner. Moulded handrails were cut off, as well as the roof vents and buffers. Paul Bartlett's site came up with a suitable victim to model: http://paulbartlett....7fad5#h19f7fad5 This example has additional strapping on the body sides. I made this up from Microstrip. Buffers and roof vents came from MJT. The buffer heads were filed down as per the prototype. I sprayed the shell with Halfords white primer, then pre-shaded the panel lines and the roof with Tamiya NATO Black. I used Valejo Carmine acrylic for the crimson. The ends were sprayed with Tamiya NATO black as well and the roof was sprayed with German Grey. A coat of Klear sealed this all in. Decals were from an old Woodhead sheet I've had for years. These are lovely to work with and they were fixed with Klear. It's a real shame they're no longer available. I replaced the moulded brake wheels with etched examples from Mainly Trains-soldered to some wire. I then used a watery mixture of Valejo Black and Flat Earth to cover the sides and ends. This was then removed with a wet cotton bud. The underframe received a few passes of Tamiya Flat Earth/Nato Black mixture, before everything was blended together with Valejo matt varnish. Bogies were fixed on with some Wickes nuts and bolts (6 BA I think?). Packing was with washers to achieve the correct ride hight. The Bachmann wheels fouled the underside of the chassis so i replaced them with Romford 14mm ones I had spare. This has been a lovley little project over the festive period and certainly adds some variety to the NPCS.

Great to have RMweb back after the Christmas downtime - thanks to Andy for seeing it through. I decided that I needed to redo the control for the lower section of Empire Basin to use servos. This is partly because I was unhappy with my attempts at wire-in-tube and the rather lashed up linkages I'd made which didn't work very well and partly because I wanted to have a test bed to demonstrate the use of servos for point control. I needed to make a proper drive mechanism for the point blades which allows for some adjustment in the blades when fitting them to the layout, I also wanted to separate the servo component from the TOU to allow for easier fitting. The use of servos makes for much easier fitting as the adjustment can be made on the servo controller rather than having to fiddle with different lengths of linkages. In the past I've made TOUs out of brass and paxolin but decided to try using plasticard for this project. The Plastruct square tube is pretty robust stuff and when stuck onto layers of 60 thou plasticard make a component which I think will be strong enough for last. I cut two lengths of plastruct tube which telescope together, the larger is 5/16th inch and the smaller 1/4 inch. These were cut 50mm and 55mm long respectively. Starting with the larger tube I drilled two pilot holes 16mm apart (for P4, EM or OO would be closer) and then slowly openned the holes up to 6mm in 1mm stages. The larger tube was then stuck on to a base plate made of two pieces of 60thou plasticard which gives a base almost 3mm thick. This base blade was then drilled through the same 6mm holes. At the same time I drilled some 3mm mounting holes in the base plate (only done on the front one in the picture). The unit connects up to the point blades via lengths of 16th inch tube which have a length of .8mm brass wire fed through them. The wire gets soldered to the point blade and the adjustment in height can be managed by moving the wire up and down in the tube. I drilled the holes in the smaller of the two plastruct tubes 1.5mm and then openned them out to be a force fit for the 16th tube. The brass tube is around 40mm long and is pushed through the smaller section plastruct once it is slid inside the larger tube. For my depth of base board and underlay I ended up with 11mm of tube protruding above the base. It is worth remembering at this stage to put a broach into the end of the brass tube to remove the burr from where it has been cut, this makes pushing the wire through later a lot easier. To make sure the tube doesn't move I mixed up some aruldite and pushed it into the smaller of the two plastruct tubes and around the brass tube. This should secure things but also avoids the risk of sticking the whole thing up solid which I thought might happen if I tried applying superglue from the outside. Finally I stuck and shaped an operating wire connection by laminating three little bits of 60thou together and sticking them into the inside of the sliding section of tube. This is drilled with a .8mm hole which will have the operating wire threaded through it. A little bit of tidying up with some sandpaper and we have a pair of complete TOUs ready for installation. The holder for the servo is even simpler, base plate of two 40mm square pieces of 60thou and then 'walls' of 60thou 12mm high cut to go around the servo. I drilled these walls with a pair of 2mm holes which allow the servo to be securely fastened by simply threading a short length of 2mm rod through the mounting holes on the servo case. The result is a unit which I can screw to the baseboard but from which the servo can be removed without too much problem. These servos are TowerPro SG-50s which cost about 3 pounds each depending on where you buy them. I got mine from 'Giantcod.co.uk'. So with these components ready to mount it is time to fasten them to the base board. David

Hello This post was meant to be published over the Christmas Break but with RMWeb taking a short break plus other things I have only just managed to get it done! I hope it was worth the wait! OK, just before Christmas I had some unexpected time off work so as I was stuck at home I decided to have another go at some trees so my good friend Gina and myself sat down and made a few more. Now one of my goals for Highclere is that the trees on the layout are reconisable, so to test this out I have created a little quiz / test to see if it works! Now I know what the trees are meant to be but can you folks reconise them from the photos below? Let me know what trees you think they are...(Trees 1 to 5)... 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. (Thank you Andy for helping with this one!) The trees are made using the age old method of twisting wire together to form the shape, the only difference I do is to solder the wires together once formed to strengthen them a little. The tree is then sprayed with aersols ('cos i am lazy!), covered lightly in Woodland Scenics Polyfibre, then with Gaugemaster Leaves (thanks to Lee m22 on his layout thread Hares Run for the tip-off), all held together with copious amounts of hairspray! The leaves I feel give a wonderful effect as shown below... Finally I got a SR Brakevan etched kit for Christmas and I couldnt bear it ending up in my gloat box with all the other kits so I built it! Thank you Andy Missy

Over the Christmas break, amongst other modelling projects, I've continued with the roof slates. Having reached the top of the skylights/dormers, before adding further rows of slates, I needed to add ridge capping to each of the 6 skylights. Photographs do not really show this clearly but I assumed it would be lead capping fitted over a thin rod. I had some 9 thou steel guitar string left over from the roof trusses so used this, supergluing short lengths along the top of each ridge. For the lead I used thin paper (actually the envelope the guitar string came in) which I had cut about 4mm wide. Before gluing it to the roof, I placed it over a spare length of the wire and creased in the central rolled top. This made it easier to position over the wire on the roof. I used ordinary white pva glue to fix the paper in position and trimmed the edges if they were not quite even each side before the glue totally set. I then continued to the top of the roof with more slate strips. There are no skylights on the other side so progress with that may be a bit quicker. Only one picture of progress this time and I won't bore you with further blogs on this subject until all the slates are laid on both sides and I can start on the weathering. By way of a change from Tavistock's roof, I've made a start on the 2mm Scale Association's etched kit for the LNWR diagram 88 van and in the next day or so will put up some pictures and description in a new blog entry. It's a beautiful etch but quite challenging to put together.

You've made an excellent job of it but frankly, from yourself I expected nothing less! These old Lima 42 footers really do polish up into a very nice layout model. That reminds me, I do have a couple of parcels vehicles to finish off for my 'Elvis era' parcels and the nice new B1 to haul it! Dave.

Got a few of these knocking about somewhere, this makes me want to dig them out and do them up, very nice indeed!

It does look nice. The Lima model is dimensionally pretty good. Before I did mine I compared it wioth the LMS society drawing in the Railway Modeller (about October 1964 I think) and found it pretty close. The big letdown was the bogies and the Bachmann ones are a good idea.

Very nice- I've always liked the Lima LMS 42' van as a model, and it really does scrub up very well with a little work- I really must get round to tackling the bogies on mine

This entry is the result of my Christmas project... I still has one GWR Iron Mink kit that I purchased from the 2mm Scale Association several years ago. The kit comprises 2 identical sprues each having a floor, an end and a side. The first step was to prepare the floor, the centre was established, then the axle centres established from that datum (each was lightly scribed into the plastic), I also drilled vent holes for the fumes of the solvent to escape. The V-Iron was bent up along with the Colin Waite axle guards (I decided to use 2 fixed axle guards for this build – compensated wagons in 2mm scale seem a little pointless to me, but I’m prepared to be shot down). The axle guards and V-Iron were super glued to the floor making sure that the axles when fitted will be parallel to each other and perpendicular to the edge of the floor, I made use of the little holes in the axle guards through which I could see the previously scribed lines. The brake gear was super glued to a small piece of 40 thou styrene, to make fitting to the floor easier, and when fitting the end of my tapered broach was used to align the brake gear to the V-Iron : The kit wagon sides were prepared by filing off the hinges on each of the doors, then the centre 3 planks of each door were carefully filed back to a depth of about 20 thou. The top and bottom rails of each door were then added with small strips of 20 thou styrene, one edge of the strip was slightly bevelled (this may not be visible in the photos). Doing this allows retention of the door handle and locking mechanism. I also drilled out the horse hook holes in the solebar as per the prototype at this stage too. (The body is shown below assembled around one of the floors, and with the cast white metal buffers (again from the 2mm Scale Association – although now replaced by brass turnings) The next stage was to fit the floor unit into the wagon – had I not built up the body previously this could be done now around the floor. My reasoning behind making up the body and chassis as separate units was to aid getting the buffer height correct, as the floor unit can be slid up and down within the body until the correct height is achieved, then secured with solvent (obviously for this to be possible, the floor unit needs to be a tight interference fit within the body cavity : The next phase of the operation was to prepare some new hinges for the doors (12 will be required, 3 on each door), a slim length of 5 thou styrene was taped to a piece of tufnol (although anything that would allow separation later would do), with a length of 10 thou plastic rod positioned down it’s centre (once dried, I allowed it to set overnight), individual hinges could be cut from the length (I happened to have some 10 thou rod in my box, although if necessary some can be made by gently warming a piece of sprue a few centimetres above a candle flame to soften it, then gently draw apart to create a thin filament of plastic) : Once the hinges had dried, the cast axle guards were added (again these are old 2mm Scale Association components that have now been replaced – by etchings I think) The next stage was to fit the roof – I decided to use 10 thou styrene sheet for this (35mm x 17mm), which was given a bit of a curve by rolling over it on the back of a mouse mat with the round handle of an x-acto knife, and the corners rounded off on a piece of fine grade emery paper. Because this material is quite delicate, I decided to fit a central spine to the inside of the wagon for additional support. Once the roof had been fitted and allowed to dry off, the roof joining strips were added with narrow strips of 5 thou styrene : After everything had dried, the roof strips were trimmed to length and the brake handle added and soldered to the L shaped 0.2 mm phosphor bronze wire that I used to represent the vertical rod that substituted for an internal V-Iron on the prototype. The completed wagon can be seen below :

More CAD stuff completed, this time for the Leeds Chamberlain or Pivotal car, Leeds ordered around 185 of these cars, 75 each from Brush and EE and the balance built in house, this making them the most numerous of all the LCT tram types, so if you model Leeds trams there's a fair chance that you will need a 'piv' They became known as 'pivotals' due to EMB designed pivotal trucks, the idea being to get a 4 wheel car to perform like a bogie car, unfortunately it only worked well when all the linkages were well maintained and pretty much all ended up locked solid greating a rigid 10 ft truck, which in retrospect was not the greatest of ideas. A great number ended up being re trucked onto Peckham P35 trucks like the later Horsfields ran on. So having scratchbuilt a couple of pivs I thought I'd like to extend the fleet and to a degree use the main body parts in the future for some earlier Leeds typs, more on those when and if they happen. So, pics, couple of tiny things to do but in reality this is pretty much finished, also the truck parts for the model as these have only ever been available as part of an etched kit.

Hello Rob, You have got me now, TBH I just don't know what make it is. I got it from a local model shop (Tennants Trains Halesowen) who has boxes and boxes of odds and ends. It was in a box of other chimneys all loose and cost me the Princely sum of 40p! Sorry I can't be more specific but, next time I go there I'll ask John Tennant if he knows who supplies them. Cheers! Frank

Hi, this an update on my blog that I have not updated since my first and last entry, I am taking a little break form building up my baseboards to give the details of what this layout is to be about, it will be set around a distance of some 2 to 3 miles from the outskirts of Manchester City Centre, based on a line running down into Manchester Victoria Station, the era will be the 1980's decade which will be allowed to time overlap into the very early 1990's, going no later than 1993. My influences for this layout, are a mixture of Queens Road DMU stabling point, Newton Heath DMU depot, and Manchester Victoria train services, in the 1980's, which I still have fond memories of, as I am originally from Bury "East Lancs Railway fame", my many journeys down into Manchester Victoria on the class 504 EMU's involved them passing over the line that ran into Victoria via the Red Bank, which also was next to the DMU stabling point at Queens Road, this is now the site of the Metrolink depot line. The Bury trains ran into the bay platforms at Victoria, which were next to other bay platforms these would be filled with many types of 1st generation DMU's, 101s, 104s, 105s, 108s, 128s and so on, the rasping sound of exhausts and the heavy smell of diesel fumes ever present in that area of the station. The name for my layout is "Newton Ridley", now I did choose this name because I am a Coronation Street fan, far from it, but I do admit to taking the name from a mix of the infamous Brewery name "Newton and Ridley" and "Newton Heath" DMU depot, I was pondering on a name for the layout by making sure it had a North West slant on it, so this is how I came up with the name, but it so happens that both names have Newton in them...............I am trying very hard to justify that my choices where a more complicated thought process than they really are, but at the sometime just proving the fact that I really am simple in my head sometimes !!! As I stated in my first blog, the layout dimensions are 22.5' long by 8' width at one end and a 6' length at the other end, the layout scenic area will be of a U-shape, it will definitely incorporate a DMU servicing depot and stabling point, there will also be a junction which will involve a double track branch line climbing a gradient then going over the double track main line before the both go off stage, I am still tinkering around with getting a suburban station into the layout, this will hopefully act as the other scenic break, the layout will also incorporate 2 fiddle yards, one will have 3 stabling roads and a through line, and the other fiddle yard will have 4 stabling roads and a through line. I hope to have the track plan uploaded onto the blog this weekend.