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New trees springing up everywhere! Hi all, The tree line along the top of the embankment has moved forward a little recently with the completion of a few more specimens! It's slow work, mainly because my fingers need some recovery time after all that wire twisting, however I think the end result is worth the effort (and pain!) Obvioulsy it's impossible to have a 100% accurate representation of each and every tree (or is it...) so this will be a rough approximation of sizes and shapes. Only another 20 or so to go..........! In non forestry related news, with thanks to Pixie of this parish, the recently released RMB is now running with B4 bogies as per the preserved examples at the MHR. It's also received a red cantrail stripe and now just needs to be lightly weathered and have some enthusiasts installed. Anyone know a source of 2mm scale sandwiches? After reading back through Missy's excellent blog, I decided to follow her example when it came to point rodding, and courtesy of MSE, some .4mm square brass wire arrived this morning. I was orginally going to use the 2mm Scale Association etched rodding, but having seen the sqaure rod in use, it gives some extra depth over the etch. It is slightly overscale, but not by much, and if anything I think that will help make it more noticable, especially once painted and weathered and blended in with the rest of the trackwork. MSE Brass rod on the left, 2mmSA etch on the right Finally, and you may have noticed, I have been playing around with the presentation of the blog, trying to make it a little different and visually more interesting, hopefully it works but feel free to let me know if it doesn't!! Cheers all, Tom.

There was quite a lot of debate on the Class 22 thread a while back about how one might convert it to EM or P4. I think that the EM gauge fraternity generally decided that the existing wheels could be pulled out slightly on their existing axles, and I hope that this has worked out for them. This wasn't going to work in P4, and the original wheels could only have been used if they were turned down to P4 profiles. Some folk have suggested fitting P4 tyres to the existing Dapol wheels, and good luck to them, too. The issue is that the Dapol Class 22 uses a split axle and associated pick up, as my photos will make clear. This means that the wheel tyres and axles have to be electrically connected. This wasn't a problem for Dapol, obviously, as they have mass produced a decent OO metal wheel for their model, which fits onto stub half-axles, that in turn fit into a central gear assembly. Ultrascale considered doing a 'drop-in' wheel set for a while, but technical issues, which I understand were essentially associated with the fact that they didn't have an all-metal spoked wheel available, meant that they did not proceed with the project, although they do offer a bespoke wheel producing service for P4 modellers, albeit the price is very high and almost as much as the locomotive itself. My method does use Ultrascale wheels, but an existing wheel from their range, namely a 3' 7" 10-spoked Southern tender wheel, which has one less spoke than the Class 22, but is the correct diameter. Each pair of wheels comes with a P4 axle. Here is the Dapol motor bogie, with the keeper plate and one of the OO axles removed (I might add that despite being told how to remove the keeper plate by friends at DRAG, and the fact that it was 'easy', I didn't find it easy at all, and was in constant fear that I was going to break something with the amount of controlled force I was trying to apply at times). In the end, each keeper plate came away intact and without damage. The keeper plates are attached to the bogie side frames, as other photos will show. An OO wheelset, with a pair of Ultrascale P4 tender wheels: Dismantled OO wheelset: The P4 axles need to be cut into two 10.5mm lengths. If you just cut them in half, there is the risk that the two pieces might meet inside the nylon worm housing and cause a short that you really don't want: After removing the first 10.5mm section, simply remove a further 1mm (or slightly under, to allow for the width of the piercing saw blade). I then spun the rough end I had just cut in an electric drill and filed smooth: The next activity involves creating an electrical pathway from the wheel rim, over the nylon wheel centre, to the half axle. I chose to solder a piece of 0.3mm brass wire over the outside front of one of the spokes. The theory was that when the wheel is hidden behind the bogie side frames and painted & weathered, you simply won't notice it, and it saves messing around with the rear of the wheel and the back of the flange. First, I cut groove in the outer end of each half axle and filed a groove big enough for the brass wire (in some cases, I over-did the filing a bit, but it doesn't matter, as the whole thing will be completely hidden afterwards): Checking the fit of the 0.3mm brass wire: Returning to the axle and worm, for each wheelset you are left with the central worm component and two half axles, each with a groove filed in the outer end: What happens next was different for the first wheelset as compared with the other three, but the method adopted for the remaining 3 wheelsets was much easier and quicker, so.. Measure and mark a point 6mm from the outer end of each half axle and super-glue one half axle per wheel set into the worm assembly: Do NOT glue the other half axle in! The worm assembly is actually hollow right the way through, so if you are not using the split axle method, you could use a complete 2mm diameter axle with the worm assembly mounted centrally, but this would require seperate pick ups and more modifications to the Dapol motor bogies than I felt was necessary. Next is the really barbaric bit. It you love the excellent and well-engineered finish of an Ultrascale wheel set, look away now.... To secure the 0.3mm brass wire in the wheel rim, I first cut, then filed, a groove in the rim: A length of 0.3mm brass wire is then put into the groove on the rim, and soldered to the wheel rim. The wire should be pre-trimmed so that the opposite end reaches just as far as the opposite side of the axle hole (ie. reaches from the outer race of the rim, along one spoke, and across the width of the 2mm axle. I would then recommend temporarily mounting each wheel in the other half axle and removing the surplus solder carefully. I filed most of the unwanted material off with a needle file, then mounted the wheel in the electric drill and used two grades of fine wet & dry paper, then a glass fibre pen. The first wheel of the pair is set aside and the second wheel can also have the brass wire soldered to the axle and cleaned up, as per these two photos: It's then a matter of assembling the components to make a viable P4 wheelset. These photos were taken of the first wheelset. First on each axle is a 1mm wide brass sleeve, cut from 2mm internal diameter brass tube: Then the Dapol brass bearings are added to each half-axle: Finally, the assembled P4 wheelset: Old and new: NOTE DATED 06-02-23 - MORE PHOTOS TO BE RESTORED IN DUE COURSE What I did for the last three wheelsets, was to assemble the bearing, 1mm brass slieve and wheel to the axle already super-glued to the worm, solder the 0.3mm brass wire from that wheel rim to the steel axle, and then assemble the other side, bringing the whole lot carefully together using a GW Models wheel press and a back-to-back gauge. The first wheelset in the motorbogie: With the P4 wheelsets, there's not quite enough room inside the bogie frames, so some material was removed in the area of each wheel with a piercing saw and cleaned up: This is the amount of plastic that needs to be removed from each corner of the bogie frame: First wheelset sitting inside bogie frame, to check that there's enough room: First bogie with both wheelsets fitted and keeper plate/side frames re-attached: Second bogie with replacement wheelsets fitted, being test run, prior to it's keeper plate being re-fitted: Completed conversion running on 'Callow Lane'. The side skirts and other bits now need to be fitted and the loco weathered:

In the olden days, before 50's were called Hoovers we used to refer to them as 'bleeps'. I have no idea where that name came from, or if it was in common usage. Answers on a postcard... The photo is a vintage scene from Birmingham New Street in the late 70's. I wonder if Jim is planning to have hordes of spotters at the platform ends like this?! Those were the days. The Class 50 project is shaping up nicely with a full set of auxiliary sounds recorded recently at the ELR. I've ended up using engine sounds recorded from the same loco back in 2008, simply because they provided everything I needed to make a 'multistart' chip including both cold and warm starts. The cold start is great, slow and chuggy but eventually blends seamlessly into the idle. This single clip ate up 81 seconds of the four minutes available on a v4 chip! Recordings from Bo'ness have already been put to good use in the Class 37 project. I recorded the horns at both ends of their loco and have replicated this in my two projects (37/0 & 37/4). Also, it's now possible to do shorter, more prototypical 'toots' than was possible before.

Excellent stuff, the red stripe on the carriage helps to make it show up against the lovely background of green! Is it a transfer stripe or some careful painting?

Tom, A big thumbs up from me for the blog presentation! The trees look really effective and provide an excellent frame for the trackwork in the foreground. Seeing your progress is really inspiring, hopefully over the summer I might be able to start building a layout in earnest (although it might have to wait until redundancy and retirement arrive in October! Ian

Hi Tom, Those trees look brilliant. Keep up the good work Owen

Whilst Fisherton Sarum has now appeared in a number of the regular modelling magazines such as Hornby magazine, Railway Modeller and British Railway Modelling it has now made an appearance in the latest book from the Kevin Robertson, Noodle Books stable “Modelling the Southern Volume 1: Ideas and Inspiration†This 112 page paperback publication by Jeremy English, a finescale modeller and lifelong Southern enthusiast, covers a range of aspects of modelling the Southern Railway / Southern Region from locomotives, rolling stock, stations, architecture, train formations, freight, operation and infrastructure. A couple of pages of images (with thanks to Chris Nevard) and a brief introduction to Fisherton Sarum features in the Modelling Inspiration section, alongside a number of quality and well recognised Southern layouts. This hopefully demonstrates the scope and variety of possibilities when modelling the Southern. This post is an extract of my blog at www.grahammuz.com and the full entry with further details can be read here.

Hi Knuckles, Well done, I'm sure the next one will be easier for you! I do have one bit of advice for you, though. Chopped and slightly sharpened coffee stirrers! From the likes of maccy D's, Costa, etc! I usually cut them into halves or quarters with wire cutters(!), then make the cut end much thinner so it's like a fine screwdriver - use these when prising bodies off - you don't damage paintwork or plastic. Cheers, John E.

A very comprehensive post Tim. Now I'm just apprehensive as I was hoping the 'tender wheel option' was going to be simpler than turning down wheels a la Buffalo's original post Is there any reason why plain old wiper pick ups wouldn't work?