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This blog entry starts with the entirely predictable “Has it really been six month since I last wrote something,” comment. Well yes it has. Real life it seems has a way of getting in the way of modelling time, that and commuting into London on Mr Branson's 1:1 train set every day. In that awkward time between graduating and starting the first proper job, I did manage to get some modelling done. This was in the form of one of Mr Higg's excellent replacement chassis for commercial bodies. The body that was donated was a 14xx in lined green livery picked up off an popular auction site. I chose the 14xx in particular as it fitted in nicely with my scenario for Congdon's Shop and it would be useful for the branch service on St Ruth, whilst also making up for the lack of steam on the layout. It also lacks outside pistons which I don't want to tackle just quite yet a I foresee it as another area of problems. I had meant to write something up earlier about the construction of this from an absolute beginner’s point of view but consequently I haven't got around to it. The chassis at one point was running quite well, albeit on a pure smoothed 12VDC supply and with two white-metal cars bluetac'ed on to give some traction. A number of things were changed from this early rendition. Firstly the cars were removed as they wouldn't fit under the body. I also changed the way the motor was mounted, replacing the bracket at the front of the motor with brass rod soldered onto the terminals at the rear. From memory I think the chassis went for 4 rebuilds, mainly due to issues with delaminating PCB. I can't remember how many times the wheels were quartered, but it was probably in the tens of times. You may gather from the title of this entry that the final result wasn't all together successful. I did manage to get the chassis “running,” and the body “fitted,” before St Ruth went to TINGS and consequently it made its show debut there. Needless to say when the Autotank and Autocoach appeared from the branch, it was promptly followed by the “finger of god,” or an “earthquake,” knock from below the baseboard. Even when the loco was moving the juddering was so violent that at one point it lost its Autocoach. This is the reason why the designation “Vomit Comet,” was applied. The Autotank combination then limped back, disgraced by its builder, to the fiddleyard, where it was replaced by one of these newfangled diseasel thingbob’s. Not exactly a good advertisement of the better running qualities of 2mmFS. It was so bad that I even forgot to get a picture of it on the layout. The combination has had one other outing of note, to the AGM in Bedford where it accompanied South Yard. It here that Mr Higg's himself looked at it, along with Rich Brummitt and gave me some pointers as to how to improve the running. After this, it has sat in a box whilst I oohed and arred as to what to do with it. Eventually, after was over Christmas, I decided that I had better stop dithering and start to go through some of these suggestions. I should reiterate that I am not a loco builder, and these practices are probably questionable at best. Those with much more experience would do things differently the first time around. Most of these points seem to have been debated quite thoroughly on the 14 page forum entry. 1. Too much time I spent drinking beer rather than building the engine. Especially a 0-4-2 as a first try, where there is little to no weight. Well... this isn't going to change now. 2. Rusty Wheels. Rich's suggestion was to polish the wheels off with Autosol metal polish. I can definitely see the benefit of this as the steel tyres on the association wheels rust extremely quickly, which is catastrophic for the pick-up on this very light engine. Thus the coupling rods were removed and the drivers pulled off the muffs. The sideframes were then un-soldered from the body, (damaging them in the process ,) revealing the pony wheels to also take off. The wheels were then placed in a mini drill and the polish put on using a cotton bud, at the same time that the Manor's wheels were done. Now the wheels are safely put away in a re-sealable bag away from moisture until they are needed once again. 3. Bent Chassis. This really where the tale of woe begins. Once the wheels and sideframes were taken off the chassis, something caught my eye. The chassis wasn't lying flat on the workbench.... a check with a ruler confirmed my fears. I'm not sure how or where this happened or how, but I am fairly certain that it either happened when the wheel were pressed on the muffs using the bench vice or perhaps an error was made when building the soldering jig. Worse than this, when the spacers were un-soldered it was found that the etched sides were also as bent as a banana. Surely this was the sign to start again from scratch... In an effort to save £15, the etched sides were clamped on the baseboard, and lengths of brass rod were soldered onto the sides in a truss like pattern. These are strategically placed in order to avoid the uprights of the soldering jig. The hope is that these brass rods will both straighten the chassis out and make it stiffer so that it doesn't occur again. Once the soldering jig had been straightened using an set square, the sides were placed in once again, (MK5 remember...) The sides were checked for square-ness by using long lengths of axle steel (~1') Initially pieces of brass were used to “tack,” the sides together, which allowed for the sides to be removed from the jig. It was then possible to check the straightness again using the ruler before placing the sides back in the jig and soldering the spacer’s onto these. Initially I had used the wider 7mm PCB spacer, however I reverted to the 6.4mm wide spacer. I think that using the wider PCB had caused the ends to splay on the sides due to my ropey soldering. The narrower strip certainly left much more “tolerance.” In an effort to reduce the amount of delaminations, I decided to solder the flat spacers in place and then cut the insulation gaps afterwards using a razor saw. This immensely improved the success rate, possibly as it spreads the heat over a relatively larger area. The downside to this is that there is only one isolation gap rather than doubling up. The vertical spacers were similarly treated however an isolation gap was placed down the middle before emplacement due to the difficulties of putting a razor saw into the chassis. 4. Bearings and Simpson spring's As I was aware that electrical pick-up was going to be a problem with a light, 6 wheeled engine. I decided to follow the recommendation to fit Simpson springs and completed these to the letter. This basically involved reaming the bearings out to 1.6mm and using the straightened spring wire from couplers. I found this wire extremely fiddly to use, and when the wheels were fitted the wire had lost its springiness and had already bent into the wrong shape. I had replaced this with DG wire which worked well, however to keep the friction low I only fitted these onto each side. I have now replaced these with slightly finer wire, fitted these on all 6 wheels and used a longer length to try and reduce the friction whilst maintaining the springiness. I have also replaced the bearings on the driving wheels. I know that this shouldn't make any difference under the tolerances of 2mm, however I think that under my loose tolerances it didn't help the quartering. 5. Sideframe Repairs. The sideframes that cover the rear pony truck are folded up from the etch material and then soldered on, and hence not the strongest construction. The etched spacers were replaced with lumps of brass, cut and filed square before being soldered to the main body. The sideframes will be fixed in place with glue once the pony wheels are positioned and fitted, to avoid damaging the paintwork. 6. Motor Mounting. Fitting the motor was the subject of many trials and iterations. I chose the flat can motor to use a recommended by Chris. Others that I have spoken to would recommend shelling out for a coreless motor. I am however told that this could be risky with AMR, PWM controllers around. Perhaps my first mistake was to chop off the wrong end of the spindle as this left the holes for the bolts in the gearbox end of the motor. After trying several different mount configurations I couldn't make one accurately enough to use and maintain electrical isolation. This would definitely be a lot easier if the motor was the other way around. In the end I have opted to use a solution similar to what was used before. The problem with this is that after painting the chassis, the motor has to be soldered into position. I have probably been lucky once already no to get paint in the motor after soldering it on before spray painting it. To solve this problem, I have used brass tube soldered to the end of the chassis attached to the side-frame spacer brass. Into this brass tube, appropriately sized brass rod is inserted which is in turn soldered to the motor terminals which creates a socket. Overall this configuration isn't perfect as there is a lot of strain placed on the solder joints on the terminals, however for the occasional fitting and removal this shouldn't be much of a problem. The other problem is that an old bit of rail ticket also provides the insulation between the chassis and the motor body, perhaps not the most elegant engineering solution. Originally I had used both sides of the gearbox, however I think that this may have been causing an bind in the gear chain. As a lot of other people have done, I chopped the nearside off. With the other end of the motor still supported, there isn’t too much problem with the Motor moving around. This brings it up to date so far. I think that I am now at the point of having to wait for the weather to break to do some painting, and possibly waiting further to use that etching primer that my dad was using for his manor. There is still much more to do, but I will have to save that for the next entry. Unfortunately that will probably be another 6 months away.

Since my last entry for the work shop, not much has been done model wise. With a trip to Rio, the house painting and the new pups. There seems to of been a shortage of time, for the life of me I do not know where it has been going. I did manage to get the bow pen out today, and I also started rewheeling the frames, not much to show there, as it was just fitting hornblocks and washering up etc. Will take the pictures when there is something to see. I have lined out one side of the loco, so that is I suppose a quarter of the job done. I am not sure I like the photos, they make it look like there is a lot of tidying up to do. My little haul from Rio, just these few cost just under £35. Fortunatly we were going near to shop or that would of added £50 taxi rides. Must get more organised and make sure I do not run out in the future. Makes you miss the model/toy shop 10 minutes away.

A New Year means that exhibition season is under way. It used to start earlier back in the North but there isn't a lot locally until January and then it's St Albans, Southampton and then it is busy through until March until it's over for another year. Returning from St Albans the realisation hit me of what I had done to myself. Then I get an email from an exhibition manager to confirm details for next year that very much confirmed it. I am an idiot. I unwittingly talked myself into this over a year ago and now I have to live with it. Since that conversation some work has been done on the layout. This has been to remove some items I wasn't happy with. When making the platform substructure I had second thoughts about the ground contour and after asking second opinions of many people with the prototype photographs I have I concluded that the rear siding had to be relaid. Up it came... ...and back down it went - a little higher than before. It is now nearly platform height at the buffer stops and the ground levels can look much more like the real thing must have been. The many rolls of solder make useful weights until I get around to using them up on my unbuilt kit mountain. Another area that has given me massive headaches and continues to do so is the turnout operating units. These were built as a moving sleeper below the track bed with 0.3mm wires coming through a slit in the 2mm plywood and soldered to the point blades. They worked until someone prodded one loose at Ally Pally where the boards were sat on the Association stand as a demo piece. A repair was impossible to effect and the truth was as bad as I feared as the design was proven wholly unsuitable. Proper planning...? Idiot! They had to go and I'd put it off for over six months. Finally I built up the courage to cut out the mechanisms. This is an example before surgery: First the electrical connections were severed and the sleeper removed. The plywood was cut away along with the sleepers because they were fixed to baseboard far better than they were to the rail. Now I must replace them. A more robust solution would be for small tubes to pass through from the TOU to just below rail level with a thin wire soldered to the switch rail that is a sliding fit in the tube. To begin with a jig was milled in Tufnol to create a gapped structure with the small tubes at the correct separation. The following series of pictures demonstrate its use. I now have seven of these soldered up waiting for divine inspiration to provide the rest of the mechanism from my ganged DPDT slide switches to these. This hasn't worked out well so far. I have read the Associations latest publication Track How it Works and How to Model it and that didn't result in any tungsten filament above head moments either. I have some parts mocked up from telescoping styrene sections but I am not sure how I can actually assemble the only idea that I keep coming back to in my head. Anything that is fitted needs to be less than 4mm in depth because that was how much space I thought would be needed when I had the router out and put the recesses in for the TOUs. A consequence of the baseboard design is that it is not possible to access the switch from beneath the baseboard. I used 20mm ply and it is not much wider than the cess at each side of the track so cutting this up would have been unwise to begin with and very difficult to achieve now. The remaining requirements therefore are bombproof reliability whilst being sympathetic to the small section loose heel switches and plastic chairs. I've done various things in the meantime to distract me and remain motivated but I really need to get this problem of my own idiotic making behind me to move on with this layout. I have trains and I have a venue and a date and I need some reliable working switches.

For a little light diversion, and before I got my head round modelling chalk cuttings, I decided to have a go painting some of the figures of people (and dogs!) I have been collecting for a while, from all different sources, to bring a bit more life to Brookford. Looking at some wargaming sites recently has made me realise my figure painting techniques stopped developing at about age ten! Recently, I did a bit of surfing which led me to various websites with some good "how to" descriptions and illustrations. The idea is that you start with the figure black, as in no light falling on it. You then think about where the light is coming from (usually above) and dry brush "light" onto the figure where it would fall, by dry brushing white onto the higher areas, downwards, so that when you look at the figure from above, there is a preponderance of white, and from below, a preponderance of black. When very dry, you apply thin washed of translucent colour, so that the shadows and highlights start to emerge, all in the appropriate colour. So you don't paint shadows on, they're already there, in the creases, in the folds, under the chin, between the fingers and so on. Anyway I'll try and show you what I mean. It's all about shadow, so here goes, with the black underneath everything else, and a start made on the flesh parts: Notice Jethro at the rear, painted using my previous technique - he can remain as he is for now as the "control". Here they are with a bit more work on the flesh and the white dry brush to help accentuate the features and the shadows. I hope this works! It took a while to get that hair off his nose with very fine tweezers! Bear in mind his face is about 3mm from chin to brow. Then I managed to get a first coat of colour wash on a few of the figures. I started on the facial expression on the guy in the middle, but it was bed time before I got to start on the other two. Lots more to do, all the touching in of over-painting etc etc, plus several more washes to get the shading and the reflected light better, but I think that the foundation of the black primer then the white dry brushing at the beginning may prove to be a satisfactory way to go. I had a go at a couple more figures - the tractor driver and the mother and child and this is how they ended up so far: I had started off adding colour to the white dry brushed areas: I'm not sure why he looks so glum! Then I added more colour wash over the new colour when it had dried, as well as most of the black shadow areas: The paint wasn’t dry when I took some of those - they are mostly matt finish. It took me about two hours to do those two. That’s these two pretty much finished. I think it looks like a paternity suit in the offing! Here are some more, using the same techniques: Just the crew of the O2 class 0-4-4T to do next. Cheers, Paul

In response to queries about the techniques used on Brookford to do the grass and so on, here is a brief description. I used a home made fly-swat/tea-strainer to start with. I have always been a great proponent of the home made tea strainer job, to the extent of boring people rigid (!) about it. This is mine: The loco warning label is because of experience of frying DCC decoders if a loco is on the layout anywhere when using an electrostatic grass machine. Don't ask. This produced results like this: All this grass was done with it, although I didn't have any of the longer fibres back then: I did think that painting on a second or third application of PVA glue would just flatten the first layer of grass, but after some experimentation I have found that it doesn’t. I assumed that covering the first application with more PVA would gum it all together and it would look awful. So I tried spray on 3M craft mount, which seems to be like thin spray-on Evo Stick type glue. It works well, but i found that gums up the fibres too much. So I tried another recommended way, using hair spray. That worked ok, didn't gum it up too much, but one brush with a passing hand, and half the fibres fell off. Which is ok if you’re a horse. Anyway, I was reading something somewhere which said that wetting the previously done area is what is important to maintain the effectiveness of the electrostatic bit - you need conductivity. So taking that logic a step further, after I had hoovered it, I tried brushing water over the whole area of grass that had dried (with a 2" domestic gloss brush) to moisten it, then went over with diluted PVA, about the consistency of milk, not as thick as single cream, on the basis that each fibre doesn't need a huge amount of "stick" to stay where it is. So that's where I've got to so far. Later I borrowed a Noch Grass Master 2 to do the extensive areas required for my narrow gauge extension. It has an eight foot long and six inch wide incline leading to the micro layout bit, all of which is set in grass Downland. So I was pleased to have the chance to use the GM and try it out. This shows another area - the incline up to the higher level baseboard where the cutting is - after the first application with the Noch GM. It would have taken a great deal longer with my trusty tea strainer! Here are some of the fibres I used, mostly MiniNatur and Noch. The top ones are 12mm long and are ideal for 7mm/ft. This is after a number of applications and added detailing. The flowers and so on are just various bits picked up from different ranges at model shops and exhibitions. I went and photographed the Hampshire Downs last summer to get an idea of texture and density of different plants etc. Lots on the internet too about what plants grow on chalk downland. The chalk in the cutting is chalk I picked up on the field trips. Here I am using a hair trimmer to make a path once it was all dry: I certainly found that I could get a greater density with the GM, using five different colour and length fibres all mixed in different proportions for each application. So I would say that you can achieve good results with a £5 homemade tea strainer, but for sheer volume and time saving for large areas, as well as the using the nozzle for very localised application the £120 Noch GM2 is very good indeed. (Usual disclaimers, and thank for the loan, mate!) But I didn't do the whole area on subsequent applications, I just did random patches, then I did even smaller areas, using the same technique but using the nozzle. And then I started adding "finger rolled" bits, having placed a blob of PVA where I wanted it. Letting it dry, and hoovering it, using a stiff brush in between each episode! So, the Noch GM is a great bit of kit, especially for large areas and long fibres, and is just the sort of thing clubs should buy for their members to use.

Hi everyone, I've done some more detailing on this model, coal in the bunker,front and rear steps added, vacuum pipes, 3 link couplings, oh and leaf springs made and fitted. The coal in the bunker is plastic stuff made by Peco. The front steps are metal ones cut from the RTR bogies I used for the Double Fairlie, the rear ones are for a Jinty they come from an etched set I got from Mainly trains. Vac pipes from Markits, Slater's 3 link couplings. I made the leaf springs by cutting a strip of 0.25mm plasticard approx 1.5mm wide, cut into 20mm lengths, drilled 0.5mm through the center and threaded onto 0.45 brass wire bent 90 degrees on the end and secured with Superglue. I cut each section down by around 1mm each end so that each section was 2mm smaller than the one above. I then drilled the top leaves each end 0.5mm and pushed through the same wire bent over square for the mountings. Both outer wires were then trimmed flush with the bottom leaf, the center wire was left longer to go through the running plate, then trimmed flush underneath when the glue had set. I had another little play around with the Jewelers Loup for the detailed photos, they aren't perfect by any means but at least they're closer up than the camera on it's own would achieve, here they are :- The rather overlarge whistle made from a Biro pen nib The etched brass steps bent up and soldered together I've just received an email from Steve at Lonely Planet that the artwork for my nameplates has been done so hopefully I'll receive them by the end of the month. more when they arrive cheers for now.

it's the detials that bring things to life... well done

Wonderful - do like to see semaphores Andy and these are really taking St Ruth to the next level. Great stuff...

Judging by what can be seen so far, I'm guessing it's an igloo :-)

Definitely worth doing. Making the arms move is not as difficult as you might think... although arranging the drive can be more err... challenging. If you want to make life easier for yourself then go for dummy signal lamps. Regards, Andy

After some thought, and a few minutes with a file I've carefully reshaped the "brow" over the windows. I think it now looks a lot more like a Warship, although the front is now looking a bit sorry for itself with various splodges of copydex and filler. This is the current state of play after a couple of hours work tonight. New handrails (the ones under the window now have the central pillar), replacement lamp irons (Shawplan) and beefed up headboard clips (plastic strip). I also removed Bachmann/Mainline's attempt at the ventilator above the right hand light. It's the wrong shape. My chosen prototype seems to have lost it anyway and just has a dirty blanking plate in it's place