Ian Smith

In order to try to rekindle a bit of modelling mojo, today I have been playing trains having a running session on Modbury. Whilst running a few trains, I also took the opportunity to video a few of the movements. After an hour or two of editing, the result has been uploaded to YouTube : Thanks for looking. Ian

Stephen, Yes, there are sliding covers within the framing on the lower body sides. If I do add limewash, I will have dribbles from the slats in the upper body and around the doors and also the sliding covers in the lower body. I have always assumed that the whole of the inside would be treated not just the lower half. Also, my assumption is that it would have been “splashed around” with something like a broom - indeed I have modelled a wheelbarrow of limewash with a broom leaning against it on my cattle dock! Because I mix my red shade, there is always a small variation within my wagon stock, which is further varied by weathering. The image containing the 4 plank wagon shows it to be fairly brown in digital format (it doesn’t look quite so brown in the flesh). Ian

Very little modelling has taken place over the last few months, but over the last couple of days (having seen Richard Brummit's post on his latest "Beetle" (diagram W4)) : I finally decided to do some work on the one that he so kindly gifted to me at the Portsmouth exhibition. On getting it home, I had already removed the 3-link coupling hooks that he had fitted so that I could replace them with DG couplings. In that guise it has happily traversed Modbury over the last couple of months or so. Below is a photo that I took at Portsmouth : The model as provided by Richard One of the things that I felt Richard's model lacked was any form of rain strips or cross strips on the roof. Having searched my library for photographs of the diagram W4, I really only found one dated in the late 1920's that showed the roof properly, and that had full length curved rain strips, however the diagram in Atkin's showed cross strips above where the side uprights were (similar to the contemporary W1, W5 and W3 cattle wagons). I therefore decided to put narrow strips of masking tape across the roof to represent these and then repainted the roof in a mucky grey colour. Unfortunately, as Richard had absolutely no idea what shade of "Red" that I dreamt up for my GWR Red wagons, the shade that he had chosen (whilst perfectly plausible and probably a better choice than my own) was somewhat at odds with my own rendition! With that in mind, I elected to mix up a little of my own colour and applied a wash of it to try to bring the red shade closer to the other red wagons on Modbury. Doing this also had the advantage of toning down the bright white of the transfers too. Finally, I attempted to weather the lower portions of the sides and ends (and underframe) with further washes of Precision Paints Frame Dirt and Humbrol 110. The following photos show the wagon at home on Modbury Vacuum cylinder side Non-vacuum cylinder side Finally a comparison with one of my dirtiest red wagons. Overall, I am really pleased with this addition to my goods fleet, and it makes an interesting addition to my cattle train - Thank you once again Richard!! The only thing that I am really unsure about is whether these "Beetle" cattle wagons would have received the lime wash disinfectant treatment that normal cattle wagons received until the 1920's. My assumption is that they would, but trying to find photographic evidence is proving tricky - therefore I will leave as is for now. Thanks for looking Ian

Thoroughly enjoyed the Portsmouth exhibition!! With just Steve and myself operating for the day, I don't think either of us managed to get a good look at the other exhibits. However, the short time I spent away from Modbury proved that the show was an excellent one with a variety of good quality layouts/scales on offer for the public. Unfortunately, within the first few minutes of running it was noticed that my Dean Goods had an intermittent short, so we had to deploy John Russell's somewhat out of period Collett Goods for the day, but it is such an excellent and reliable runner that we'd have run it anyway!! I didn't manage to take many photos of Modbury (and unfortunately none at all of Nigel Ashton's wonderful Drwys-y-Nant), but here are the few I managed : An overall view of the scenic section before the public were allowed in. Steam Railmotor just departing towards Newton Abbot. Once again, the SRM attracted a lot of interest and favourable comment. 517 tank in charge of a short cattle train departing Modbury. Prairie (later 45xx) draws a short Plymouth bound pick up goods over the embankment into the station. A closer view of Prairie and leading wagons of Down Goods train. Finally, fellow 2mm Association member and friend, Richard Brummitt, provided me with a surprise gift ... A rather beautiful "Beetle" - a diagram W4 Prize Cattle Wagon. Richard said that he took my artwork for the W1/W5 cattle wagon and amended it. I think that is a gross understatement as the only bits recognisable from my original work are the ends and the drop flap side door!! He has 3D printed the body, and "cobbled together" the running gear from various bits of etch. The result is simply stunning and to say that I am thrilled is an understatement - Thank you Richard!! Unfortunately, because Richard uses 3 link couplings (!!!!) on his stock I wasn't able to run it on the day as it will need a set of DG's fitting. Thank you for looking. Ian

Panic not Stephen. It’s only the last exhibition for this year. Currently, it should be at Loughborough and Swindon next year. Ian

Just a heads up. My train set, Modbury, will be making its last appearance of 2023 at the Portsmouth Model Railway exhibition on Saturday 18th November (Admiral Lord Nelson School on Dundas Lane, Portsmouth, PO3 5XT). Ian

Thank you. On my screen it's the same. The actual building has a footprint of 32mm x 24mm - I should have included a suitable coin of the realm in the photos 😆

Well, "Yeovil Pen Mill (South) Signal Box" is finished (apart from adding a nameplate), although "Yeovil Pen Mill (South) Signal Box" on a single plate won't fit the space available!! Therefore, I need to ask Laurie what he feels might be a suitable alternative - I can't remember ever seeing a signal box plate being shown that had two lines of wording (but then not many locations would have needed that anyway!!) Anyway, for now I'm not going to do anything. Anyway, the previous instalment left me with just detailing to do really. So in short, the interior has been dealt with - an instrument shelf added behind the front windows, an armchair added with a driver/fireman sitting in it having a conversation with the "bobby" who has a cup of tea in his hand. None of which is particularly visible even when the internal lighting is lit!! The down pipes have been added - from the poor photographic evidence we have I couldn't really tell where these were so I've put one near the front right corner and one near the rear left corner. The pipes themselves are bent up pieces of 0.5mm diameter nickel silver wire. The fixings are from a doubled up loop of thin copper wire, the ends of which being twisted together and the whole soldered in place on the pipe, the twisted tail then fits in a suitable hole in the wall/framing of the box (having first threaded on a small patch of 0.010" plasticard to represent a wooden block fixed to the wall to which the downpipe fixing could be screwed). Once fitted in place, the roof was offered up and any excess pipe carefully filed off so that the gap between gutter and top of pipe was minimal. With the interior detail added, the roof was permanently attached with canopy glue (used because it dries reasonably quickly but isn't as instant as superglue would be). Once dry, the flashing around the chimney stack was added and painted in light grey. One (of the many) details that we are unsure of is whether there was any sort of extension on the non-step end of the box - the large scale maps of Yeovil Pen Mill that Laurie shared with me seem to show that the box footprint was not a simple rectangle, but there was a (varying size, depending on the map) extension of some kind at the rear left corner. I elected to offer Laurie a choice (neither of which could be right!) of a small coal bunker or a wooden lean to privy/store. Both of which have a small peg on their bottoms which engage in a hole in the signal box base to provide a positive location. The coal bunker I constructed as a brick extension (although because the only embossed brick plasticard I have is English Bond, I had to make the walls 1.5mm thick so that the headers on the outside face would be sensible. I decided to give the bunker a corrugated roof. The privy/store was constructed to be a wooden construction rather like a shed (again with a corrugated roof). The door has 0.005" hinges fitted, and a latch handle from a bit of fine bent wire with a thumb lever from a flattened piece of the same. Finally, a few photos of the finished item ... Thanks for looking. Ian

Thanks Gerry. Yes, it is quite small - a footprint of 30mm x 24mm (1.25” x 1”). These small boxes are personal favourites of mine too, I much prefer the earlier small paned windows. This particular one being a “type 2”, which photographically seem to be quite rare (excepting the preserved one at Didcot). Ian

This post simply contains a couple of photos of Pen Mill signal box in its current state : The next task is to complete the interior of the box (instrument shelf mainly). The exterior still needs the safety bars fitting across the windows, and the down pipes from the guttering. Thanks for looking. Ian

Progress with the Pen Mill signal box seems pretty slow by my usual standard, not that I have a lack of enthusiasm, just life generally getting in the way! Anyway, progress is being made and this post will show where we're at ... We left the previous post with the ceiling (with gutters) and the hip roof having been formed. The two were united, then the process of slating the roof was attended to. I printed a grid of slate sized boxes onto a sheet of printer self adhesive label, then cut the grid up into strips of slates. What will be the exposed lower end of each slate was cut through so that each slat looked separate when the strip was stuck to the roof. The roof structure with the slate strips applied. The lead flashing between the facets of the roof is in the process of being added, having first glued lengths of 0.3mm brass wire along each joint. The lead flashing was prepared from more self adhesive label : The flashing being prepared by forming the roll-over over a length of 0.3mm brass wire by pressing down each side with a pair of tweezers. Once the roll-over had been formed, the length of adhesive label was cut to length and the excess at the corners trimmed of at 45 degrees. With that done, the backing was removed and the flashing stuck in place over the brass wires on the roof corners. Once complete, the whole was given an application of runny super glue to ensure that the slates and flashing were securely fixed together and to the plasticard roof underneath. When all was fully dry, the slates were painted overall in a mid-grey colour, with odd slates picked out in a slightly darker shade, and the flashing painted in a lighter grey. The outside of the gutters were painted in GWR Dark Stone, the soffits below the gutters painted in GWR Light Stone, and the inside of the gutters painted in Precision Paints Frame Dirt (although any generally mucky colour would have done!) The completed roof structure. I have since touched up the flashing in the near corner where I caught it with Dark Stone. The eagle eyed may have noticed that I put end caps on my guttering - these are simply bits of 0.005" plastic scraps that are cut to profile once fully dry. With the roof essentially finished (although I will put flashing around where the chimney stack protrudes through the bottom rows of slates once the roof is finally stuck in position), it was time to move the main structure on. The first thing was to paint the upper part of the box in the GWR Light & Dark Stone shades as appropriate : The painters have been in, and the glaziers have also started their work. Also evident is the small LED that I have fitted to illuminate the interior should Laurie ever want to. The LED is a particularly small one which supposedly runs off 12v (with a suitable resistor) which I purchased from some stand or other at an exhibition a few years ago. In order to fit it I had to drill firstly down the chimney stack then up into that hole from the locking room (forward planning would have been a godsend!!!), I elected to run the +ve lead down the corner of the room into the locking room as it was hard enough to thread the -ve lead down the small hole I had provided! It was originally my intention to form the windows as I had for my Modbury signal box - with frames cut from sticky label, but trying to cut the arches for the locking room windows proved particularly challenging as the label was apt to tear or fray as I tried to cut out the shape. I therefore decided to cut the frames from 0.005" plastic sheet which allowed very small slithers to be sliced off to correct the arc of the window frame tops. The glazing bars were formed by scrawking the bars on a sheet of thin cobex (from the Association), then covering the grid with white ink and once dry buffing off the excess on the panes with cotton buds. The frames were attached to the cobex with DLimonene which doesn't appear to have affected the transparency of the cobex at all. The following 4 photos show each aspect of the box now that the glaziers have finished and all of the windows have been fitted : The front of the box. As can be seen it is a warm day and the bobby has opened up all of his siding windows to let in a bit of fresh air. The reality is that my panes of glass were very marginally too narrow such that when the frames were set side by side the inner and outer frames did not overlap each other enough! The locking room door end. The door was simply formed by overlaying a fretted out 0.005" piece with the panels in on a 0.030" backing. The door knob is less than 0.5mm diameter (with a 0.3mm shaft that is glued in a hole in the door), and was a simple turning operation with files and a mini-drill. The rear of the box. The windows in this face of the box do have their frames cut from a self adhesive label as they were the first to be fitted. Having done the locking room window frames in 0.005" plastic sheet I elected to do the rest of the windows in the same fashion. The ladder end of the box. The upper storey door has a basis of thin cobex (glazing bars as per other windows), with a fret of door panels and window frame of 0.005" plastic sheet. The sign on the door is simply a piece of black painted 0.005" with edge and "writing" scratched in with a needle. Having reached the limit of photo upload, I will draw this post to a close. Thank you for looking. Ian

Apologies, you are quite right. I originally viewed the post on my phone (so the image was quite small). Looking again at a much larger image reveals that what I saw as a brass shade is indeed painted a brown colour. Being a post 1900 modeller I am used to seeing (or imagining I’m seeing) Indian Red frames, Iron Duke is clearly sporting a lighter brown rather than Indian red. Ian

First, May I also thank you for starting this thread and for the effort involved in your experiments. Secondly, the thing that jumped out at me with regard to the Iron Duke photo experiment is the tone of the frames - in colour they are clearly polished brass (as are the tops of the splashers), however when the filter is applied the splasher tops still look polished bare metal however the frames look completely different looking painted rather than bare metal! Ian

My thoughts regarding the size of the mounting plate is that the larger size was necessary because the coaches were originally built with oil lighting (a much larger fitting) requiring a larger hole in the roof, so converted coaches needed the bigger plate to cover said hole. Unfortunately, when I built my coaches in 2mm I neglected to notice this, so all of my gas lit coaches (all single pipe) have a small plate. There we’re a couple of articles by John Lewis in early BRJ’s on coach lighting. I will see if I can find them as I know there were drawings included. Ian

Steady progress on the Signal Box ... Firstly, the bank of levers have been assembled and painted : The left hand one is for the detonators, so really needs white chevrons on it - rather than trying to paint these on I may firstly try just scratching off the black paint to reveal the white plastic below! Secondly, the steps have been constructed and attached - well actually, they were built up in situ : First, the two side rails (stringers) were cut to shape (from 0.020") and attached, ensuring that they were vertical and parallel. Once these had fully dried, the treads were added from strips of 0.015" - to ensure that they were at a consistent spacing, short lengths of 0.040" square strip were used as spacers (as can be seen in the photo). Once the step was pretty dry, the next one up was cut and fitted. Needless to say this took a few hours overall as I wanted to make sure that the step below was secure before the next one up was added. Once all of the treads were in place and fully dry, the railings were added, firstly, the top and bottom newel posts were fixed in place (the bottom ones having had their tops cut diagonally at the same angle as the staircase), these and the handrail being formed from Evergreen 0.030" square strip. Once the posts were fully dry, the handrails were added, then the central posts were cut and fitted (again with their tops cut at the angle of the staircase). Finally, strips of 0.010" were fitted half way up the newel posts. The final bit of progress is the start that I've made on the roof. Firstly, a rectangle of 0.030" was cut to represent the soffits around the roof and also to provide a flat base plate to build the rest of the structure upon. Once happy that all of the edges were perpendicular, some little noggins of 0.040" square plastic were fitted to the underside which engage within the "ring beam" of woodwork forming the top framing of the windows. The guttering was then added using my normal method of gouging a 0.8mm round groove in the edge of some 0.030" plastic sheet. This is done with the non-fluted end of a 0.8mm drill in a pin chuck. Once the groove has been made, the sheet is turned over and a razor blade scraped along the edge of the sheet (where the groove is on the other side!) to form the underside of the guttering. Once happy, the guttering is cut from the sheet with a bit of land to allow fixing in place on the base plate. The roof "base plate" showing the pieces of 0.040" which engage snuggly within the "ring beam" of the main structure. Also evident is the underside of the guttering. The top side of the roof "base plate" showing the guttering in place. The roof base fitted in place on the main structure. The next task was to form the hip roof. This was cut from 0.030", and was surprisingly simple to execute (although I did mock it up in thin card first to make sure that my calculations of angles gave me the shape and size I wanted. Although I ended up with a hip roof of the correct height, when it was tested against the guttering on the base I discovered that it was very slightly too short (the guttering stuck out a bit too much on one end). Rather than re-making the guttering, I elected instead to lengthen the roof! This was accomplished by simply welding on a sheet of 0.015" onto the triangle at one end of the roof, and once dry cutting and sanding it flush. The next task will be to unite the hip roof to the roof base and guttering. Then I will cut some slate strips from sticky label and get those fitted. Then it will be painting the woodwork before finally making and fitting the doors and windows. Thanks for looking Ian

Just a little bit of progress on the Pen Mill signal box (I've been baby and dog sitting so have been away from the work bench for a couple of days). However, before embarking on those duties I did manage to get a bit of paint on the box. The whole of the brickwork was painted in a mortar colour (actually Precision Paints GWR Light Stone let down with a dash or two of white), then the bricks themselves were applied by dry brushing a couple of red brick shades mixed up from Humbrol 73, 100 & 113. The views below show the results : Before I start to paint the box's exterior woodwork, I want to paint the inside. But before I do that I have decided to make up the levers. These are simply a representation as although there are lots of windows experience shows that they won't be that easy to see so the fidelity of some nice etched levers seems an extravagance. The base for the levers is simply a strip of 0.020" plasticard which has a series of parallel scrawked grooves across it at 0.8mm centres. Because I had made one of the grooves a little deep the base separated so has been backed with a piece of 0.005". The edges of the strip have been scraped with a razor blade to give a bit of a domed profile to the strip. The levers themselves are even simpler, being cut from a 0.010"x0.020" strip of plastic. I have made them 6mm long, a cut being made in one end and one side of the split cut short and splayed out to represent the catch handle. The next job will be to assemble this little lot and paint the levers. However, before I can do that I needed to establish what colours each of the levers needed to be. Luckily, Laurie's research had provided me with the signalling diagram for Yeovil Pen Mill's South Box (this one). He also has the same for the North Box, but that is out of scope for his model. Yeovil Pen Mill South Box signalling diagram. Now I'm no signalling guru, so have absolutely no idea what "FPL's 11 & 13 stand normally 'Out'" means but I assume that the levers lean forward (i.e. towards the signalman) when Normal. Similarly, "Points 19 fitted with Langley & Prince's 'Economic' lock and stand bolted" indicates to me that there was no separate Facing Point Lock Lever for Points 19. Also, "Discs 5 & 23 mechanically selected" means nothing to me, but I assume that the states of those ground signals is determined mechanically depending on points 10 and 12. Finally, "Spagnoletti Block on Main Lines" is also a mystery to me and may have something to do the with the dotted lines A-B, C-D and T.C. Signalling engineers should probably stop reading this entry NOW!! However, armed with what little I do know about signalling I decided I would try to determine the lever colours from the above diagram, so produced a little spreadsheet : I have written a little formula in the "Colour" column that "calculates" the colour based on the text in "Type". The "Action" column is simply my description based on reading the signalling diagram above. I have called the platform roads by the A-B or C-D shown on the signalling diagram merely so that I can provide a sensible (to me) link between my description and the diagram. I have no idea what 26 is on the signalling diagram as it seems to relate to the two little 'O's and +'s adjacent. As the levers at the left and right hand ends of the frame generally relate to signals I will paint lever 26 red. That's it for this instalment, if anyone can enlighten me further with regards to the signalling diagram it will be much appreciated, even though for my purposes I probably don't need to know. Thanks for looking Ian

A little progress on the Pen Mill signal box. Initially, I was going to paint the brickwork before making a start on the upper works, but in the end I decided that I would be handling the model quite a bit so have delayed the brickwork painting until the stage I have now reached. Since the first instalment, I have again been studying the post card view which is the only view that we have of the rear and non-step end of the box. The signal box (and the Pen Mill engine shed complex) can be seen in the middle distance, and my interpretation of this view is that the signal box has a window in the upper storey to the right of the chimney stack, which makes some sense as the line to Yeovil Town station runs behind the box. With that in mind, I have removed a window sized area from the back wall in this corner. The post card view that shows the rear of the signal box. The whitewashed cattle pens are towards the left of the view, slightly further to the right is what looks like another wooden signal box but is in fact a Linesman's hut (according to one of the large scale maps Laurie has). The subject of this build is the signal box immediately to the right (and nearer to the camera) of the Linesman's hut. The following photos show the state of play of the model : The upper works have been cut from 0.020" plasticard (the parallel plank grooves having been scrawked on first). Once fitted in place, various strips of suitably thick plasticard were used to build up the framing on the basic elevations. The corner posts had pieces of Evergreen 0.030"x0.030" welded in place to build up the profile of the corner posts (as the butted sides and ends left an L shaped corner post). Once fully dry, a fine file was applied to ensure the posts were square and the correct size. The window sills were 0.015" plasticard strips cut to fit between the framing, and sit atop of the scribed panels. The odd shaped piece of plastic in all these photos is effectively a "ring beam" that will give strength to the corner posts and form the framing above the window and door openings. This was cut from a piece of 0.060" plastic sheet so that it fits between the walls and corner posts. The hole in the middle is to allow me to get into the upper floor area to furnish it after painting. The hole will also serve as a method to allow the roof sub-assembly to be retained - the plan is to have a removable roof. The "ring beam" temporarily slotted into position. Another view with the "ring beam" temporarily popped in place. This view also shows the new window reveal in the back wall of the signal box. The next job will be to paint the brickwork. Then the steps, doors and windows can be made and fitted. Thanks for looking Ian

Simon, Yes, the box is at the end of the engine shed complex, in the junction of diverging lines. Ian

Like Jim, I have never used any sort of quartering jig. Set up wheels on geared axle such that crank pins are about 90 degrees to each other (then leave that axle alone!). Adjust next set of wheels to be about same as best you can, add coupling rods so that it is an 0-4-0, then adjust the second axle only until rolls happily as an 0-4-0. Once satisfied, add next axle and again only adjust that one until it rolls as an 0-6-0. As Alexander would say “simples”. Ian

I hope that Laurie doesn't mind my cluttering up his thread with my build progress but here goes anyway ... Some time ago, I suggested to Laurie that since Modbury is essentially finished that I wouldn't mind making one or two bits and bobs for his Yeovil project - I enjoy all elements of railway modelling and since I didn't need to actually build anything other than rolling stock for my own project that one or two side projects would be quite nice for my own interest as much as anything else! We tentatively agreed that I would try to build the Pen Mill signal box, and Laurie furnished me with what few photos he possessed of the Pen Mill engine shed area that included "Yeovil Pen Mill South" signal box, along with his track plan as this illustrated the small amount of real estate available for the box to fit in. Essentially, the signal box sits within the diverging roads of the GWR line from Pen Mill station towards Weymouth and the link line from Pen Mill to Yeovil Town. From the various plans Laurie had we estimated that the box was only about 16'0" x 12'0" in footprint. With these dimensions in mind, and a reasonable (although not close up) photo of the step end of the signal box, a CAD drawing was produced using the imported photo as a scale to ensure that the height and width of the box were in proportion, and the front, rear and other end drawn up based on other GWR signal boxes. Unfortunately, Yeovil Pen Mill box seems to have been one of the relatively rare Type 2 boxes, so the resulting drawing is not an accurate rendition of the actual signal box at Pen Mill but is my best guess from the information I have available. Basic CAD drawing of Yeovil Pen Mill Signal Box (as originally drawn). Following a discussion with Laurie, we believe from the only (very distant) photo we have of the rear and non-step end that there was a small timber extension (possibly toilet) cantilevered out above and to the left of the locking room door as I have drawn it. Although I have printed a couple of copies of the above drawing onto card with a view of making a mock up, in the end I dispensed with that idea and went straight into cutting plasticard! The following sequence of photos shows the lead up to the current state of play - the brickies have completed their work and are now waiting for the carpenters and joiners to come onsite. The basic carcass of the locking room was built up in 0.040" plasticard with the door and window openings slightly bigger than the actual furniture will require. An outer skin of Slater's brick plasticard (0.020") was welded in place (with the door and window openings correctly sized (this forms a small rebate behind the brickwork into which the actual door and windows will eventually sit). As may be seen in the above photo, I favour butt (rather than mitred) joins at the corners of my buildings, so once the solvent had fully dried, the excess lengths of walls were cut and sanded back to be flush with their 90 degree counterparts. The brick courses (well mortar lines) were made good around the corners with a fine 3 square (triangular) escapement file. The following 3 photos show the current state of play (before the carpenters and joiners turn up) : Once the back wall had been added, suitably sized pieces of plain 0.020" plasticard were welded in place before the internal skin of brick plasticard was welded in place. A small step was added for the locking room door, and strips of 0.020" added in the window reveals for the sills. The arch brickwork around the tops of the window reveal was simply formed by skrawking parallel lines 0.5mm apart on a piece of 0.020", a strip 1.5mm was cut off perpendicular to the scribed lines, then a razor blade used to cut into each groove about 2/3rds (i.e. leaving about 0.5mm of groove attaching each brick to the adjoining one). This action causes a gentle bend along the strip just right for an arch. The chimney stack was made up as a separate component, the basis being a 2mm square section of plastic around which brick plasticard was layered - ideally I would have used 3mm square plastic but didn't have any in my stock (until I had finished the chimney when miraculously I found a 6" length in a bag of odd strips of plasticard!!) Once complete, the stack was fixed in place centrally on the back wall. Before I can make a start on the upper wood work, I will paint all of the brickwork. The plan is to paint the whole in a mortar colour, and when dry I will dry-brush various brick shades diagonally to hopefully pick out the individual bricks. Thanks for looking Ian

Been a bit side-tracked recently (see later in post), but yesterday I decided to tackle something that I've been putting off for ages - loco buckets. Inspired by Trevor Pott's article in the latest MRJ (No. 297) on his Aberdare loco (and the small details he's made to accompany it), I decided that I really couldn't put off adding some of these details to my own locos. The accompanying drawing of a bucket shows in the article shows them to be about 1'0" diameter at the rim, and about 1'0" high overall. To make mine, a length of 2mm diameter nickel silver was chucked up and a taper turned with the cross slide set to some 4 degrees. A 1mm milling cutter was used to bore into the embryonic bucket, then a graver was poked into the hole to widen it out to give a thin lip at the rim. A piercing saw was used to part the bucket from the rest of the rod, and the bottom of the bucket then addressed with a fine file to bring the height down to about 2mm. The handles were formed from some 41swg (0.112mm) phosphor bronze wire which was tinned before forming into a long U shape around round-nosed pliers. The tails of the U were cut off appropriately, and the tails then soldered to the outside of the rim of the bucket - to assist in this tricky operation, the bucket was sunk into a hole in a piece of tufnol (not sure of the exact size of the hole as it was one of many that that particular piece of tufnol has in it, but suffice it to say that the bucket protruded from the hole by about 0.5mm and was held firmly). One of the pair of buckets made so far. The enormous rule gives an indication of the true size of the bucket!! The other bucket made has already been hung on the tool hook on the rear of my "Buffalo" saddle tank. Another view of the "Buffalo" with its full complement of bits and bobs hanging on the tool hooks on the bunker. Now to the real reason not much else has been done!! As can be seen in the photo above, the tank engine is not sitting on a length of baulk road track!!! I have started to make myself a little "test plank" - quite some time ago I built the board from a piece of 4'0" x 6" x 4mm plywood using some strips of MDF for the frame. And there it had sat with me debating whether I actually needed a test track given that Modbury is permanently set up in my living room. However, a couple of weeks ago I noticed the board leaning up in the corner of my spare bedroom and decided that I really ought to do something with it, especially since I had bought some Easitrack and etched chair plates to try out. The original plan was to knock up a test track consisting of a run-round loop with a single siding off the loop, and indeed that is what I have started to lay. However I have since developed the idea a bit, so have amended the Templot plan so that the original single loco release point at the end of the loop is now a crossover giving me an extra siding parallel to the loco release, giving me a plan similar to West Bay station at the end of the Bridport branch. West Bay Station My thinking now is that I could eventually incorporate this test track into a wider scenic board, and to help facilitate this potential end game I have re-aligned the original siding so that diverges slightly more to make use of more of the 6" width that I have available. A general overall view of what has been played so far, and also shows how the siding deviates from my original plan. At the time this photo was taken I had not stuck the engine release crossover and additional siding gained in place. As can be seen, my preference is to build my track work in situ, which on a board this size is probably just as easy as building it offsite! Finally, a closer view of the completed turnout built using the various normal, slide and check rail etched chairs available from the Association. Looking at the photo, I realise that I have still to fit 2 chairs this end of the crossing nose, although these will need to be butchered a bit as there isn't enough room for 2 ordinary chairs to fit end to end. One thing that may be noticeable in the above photo is that I am laying my Easitrack sleepers individually (rather than in the panels of 6 that they come on the sprue on) - As this is a test track, I wanted to see if I could lay the sleepers such that I would have prototypical rail lengths with appropriate sleeper spacings. That's all for now, thanks for looking Ian

Richard, You will also need 3-133 Frame bushes (10 phosphor bronze), 6 for the axle holes and others for the worm and spur gear axles (sorry I’m not familiar with the J94 chassis so don’t know how many extra are required for the spur gear(s) or worm shaft). I think you need the wider frame spacer PCB strip with these 0.010” chassis kits, the narrower strip I think was used with the phosphor bronze frames (scratch built). The gear muffs will be needed on any axle that has a gear on it including the worm gear and any intermediate spur gears (the other muffs may not have a concentric hole and outer surface so if used with a gear you could end up with a gear that doesn’t run true). Hope that is useful and also hope that someone with more experience of this chassis kit shares their knowledge too. Ian

I think that getting others involved with running anything is an age old problem. One of my other hobbies is radio controlled car racing, I have been club secretary for more years then I care to remember (over 15 years), the same treasurer has been in post longer than I have (over 25 years!) and the same chairman has held the post for several years too. At each AGM no one ever puts their names forward to take up the reins, so the 3 of us default to continue. We have just 2 other club members who are prepared to form a committee. At 62 I am the youngest of the 3 by quite some margin, but one wonders how long we will continue. Getting back to railway matters, I’ve finally joined the Great Western Study Group, and looking at the newsletters so far received, the group journal (Pannier) has finally got a new editor, the previous one continuing long beyond his preferred retirement - it almost seemed that an ultimatum was the only way to get new blood into the role (a kind of “that’s it, no more publications unless someone new steps up”). But equally, it’s not just people to do the role that is needed, they also need input from the membership as a whole, our 2mm Association magazine editor regularly requests articles for the future magazines, as without that there can be no magazine!

I assume that the second turntable photo is for the benefit of our Antipodean friends 🤣

A big thank you to Tim, David and team from the Modbury team too. A thoroughly enjoyable exhibition despite it being a bit warm and sticky! Our vote was also for Old Parrock - a very deserved "best in show". Ian