CF MRC

I find that wrought gold turns very nicely for whistles… Tim

About four years ago, I purchased a 3.5” gauge A3. After some mainly cosmetic work it became Hyperion. One aspect of the engine that eventually meant that I sold it on was that, like many live steamers, it had slide valves with outside admission, which meant that it had the radius rod below the valve spindle: once I realised this it niggled greatly. Its performance was also adequate, but I think it would have needed some fairly extensive work to make it sparkle. Many locos like that never get re-assembled once someone starts to fiddle. It was replaced by a 3.5” Maunsell King Arthur, which I am currently working on. This was 90% complete and has some exceedingly fine engineering in it. The engine has inside admission piston valves with the correct valve gear layout. The cylinder cover sheets are not quite the correct shape at the top by the running board: they should be flush and so are due for re-working. Might that account for some of the previous comments about the S15 cylinders? I always set wheels in the relationship of the prototype: there is no reason not to in 2mm scale. Tim

Perhaps Copenhagen Fields contradicts that last paragraph, David? (Not that it is all to dead scale, though - tunnels aren’t that exciting). Tim

I’m afraid you simply can’t run FS wheels on track with N gauge clearances. The tread width could, in theory stay the same but with extra thick tyres: not an easy solution and very ugly to look at. Probably best to either tighten the gauge through hand made turnouts for N, or go to 2mm FS. Tim

Back in 1978, Keith Armes solved the problem of working slips on Chiltern Green by tightening the gauge to 8.9mm; this then tightens the check rail and crossing nose clearances so that the wheels fit the track better. It would be good if the Finetrax turnouts and crossings did the same. Jim Snowden did the same in O gauge Finescale which has a horribly sloppy set of standards. Tim

What I was trying to say, was that we generally try to make models of complete scenes rather than buildings with e.g. walls missing so that you can see inside. But this tube scene has become a bit of an ‘educational model’ such as we used to have in museums. Virtual reality screens have now replaced many of these displays: I prefer models… Tim

York Road spiral stairs are now complete, after a weeks work: the illuminated steps will help to draw attention to the lift and give a raison d’être for the funny shape on the southern side of the tube station. The construction was aided by John Jesson producing laser cut step sections using the MRC laser-cutting facility; rather like a castle stairway (the top step shows the profile). Once glued together, the centre section was cut away, the steps trimmed with a high speed tungsten carbide trimmer and a new brass ventilation shaft turned up to the correct diameter, complete with plate work jounts scribed into place. The aluminium collar helps to centralise and support the stairs towards the bottom. The reason for the polished conical tip will become apparent later (it’s not an ICBM). The copper pipe of the stair shaft had a window cut into it using diamond discs and the position of the stairs was then determined. There are a number of conduits surrounding the ventilation shaft and these were represented by brass square section and strip. The vertical plate joints were scribed in using a tool in the lathe, where they would be conspicuous. The artwork for the tiles was already available from the station building. Tile strips were cut out and thinned down from behind with a scalpel and tweezers so that they were almost like a transfer. A paper liner was marked up and the individual tile patterns glued into place. I’m sure some clever person could have drawn all this up and printed it, but I’m more of a make it directly sort of person. The liner was held in place with photo mount and a chrome metallic pen used to finish the top of the ventilation shaft cone and the top of the main shaft lining. Finally a light cured resin spherical lens was made to go on top of the cone. The reason for this? There is an LED positioned immediately above the main shaft in the roof and these reflective / refractive devices might capture and improve light transmission down the stairwell. I did not want to fiddle with extra LEDS. The final scene fulfils the aim we had three years ago of showing how a tube station is laid out. It’s not really realistic modelling, but I’ve found it great fun to do. Just for completeness here is a link showing the famous Covent Garden steps. https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fiwl8o3d7eebb1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D3024%26format%3Dpjpg%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D4d5f74c09a51902e8548e2fd49a23467d3bf2a61 I think that’s enough tube modelling for a while, apologies for the long post! Tim

That is not the same set up as those are just single lenses rather than pairs in a telescope body. That arrangement gives you working range. Tim

My students use variations on these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/BoNew-Surgical-Binocular-Distance-Aluminum/dp/B07CCLW8QC It is easy to modify a pair of prescription plastic frame glasses to take the loupe unit. I have used this type of magnifier for decades (albeit higher price versions) - they give you a greater working distance and depth of field, compared to single lens devices. Tim

Nah. The cottage pre-dates all the ugly Victorian industrialisation. Tim

That’s a very impressive water cart, Jim. Tim

If you have chickens, you have rats. You could also have Peter Rabbit. Tim

Peter rabbit has come to visit his distant London cousins for the Christmas holidays. Tim

Replacement reindeer set. Edges of sleigh thinned down etc. Full instructions in the 2mm section. Tim

In December, the MRC usually holds a pre-Christmas mini exhibition. The York Road tube diorama was having its first outing with a working train for the show. Whilst certain features such as the toilets and occupants are popular with all ages, I thought it was appropriate that the younger members of the audience get a preview of Santa Claus and his reindeer on a flight test. Having spent far too many hours making the underground tube station I wanted something nice and simple. Osborn Models came up trumps with a nice little 3DP of Santa in his sleigh with four reindeer out front. This had landed on the YR tube station roof and attracted many favourable comments from the audience, not least Phil Parker from BRM who was surprised to see such a model on CF. In discussion, I indicated that I thought it was capable of improvement, especially in the motive power department; CF is, after all, 2mm FS. Close examination reveals that the antlers and heads of the ‘reindeer’ pass a strong resemblance to a love child of a triceratops and a moose. There could be a case for an after-market bespoke antler etch if someone was very keen: I certainly didn’t fancy soldering up eight antlers from wire as an alternative. I then recollected that Preiser make some reindeer as a plastic moulding. Now these come as a very fine six pack in pairs, including four adorned with rather more plausible antlers. The challenge with these models was that they come in pairs and two of them would have looked as if Santa had done an emergency brake application with their heads down grazing. These therefore required plastic surgery with a triangular neck re-section. With the other pair I moved the head around on one of them to create a bit more variation. The Preiser reindeer are not too steady on their feet (maybe it’s not just carrots they have on Christmas Eve) and so some sort of location was required. A centre pole was made from metal strip and cross pieces of 0.4mm brass wire soldered in place. This replaced the chunky 3DP structure which was actually quite weak. At this stage the reindeer underwent key hole surgery with a 0.4mm tungsten carbide drill to locate the cross pieces just behind their withers. The antlers were also trimmed a bit. After a fair bit of thinning down of the sleigh edges with a scalpel and very sharp chisel the whole assembly was given a puff of grey primer, to show any major defects. At this point I had a serious look at reindeer liveries on-line. They are very similar to dairy shorthorn cattle with a mixture of beige, yellow ochre, umber & white. The antlers would generally be darker shades. The noses are generally pink and of course one of them (Rudolph) has a red nose. Any bridles / tackle were painted on with a fine brush. The parcel load in the sleigh was augmented with extras and some are carrying the initials of the grandchildren. The gold lining on the sleigh was re-instated using a fine line gold marker pen. Finally, I thought that the sleigh ought to carry some aircraft recognition marks for Lapland. These are OH-JLP. Those of you that know about these things will recognise that OH is the symbol for Finland and JLP is a shortened form of Joulopukki, Finnish for Santa Claus, or literally ‘Christmas Goat’. So now you know. Of course you could save yourself a great deal of work by purchasing a Modelu Santa & sleigh 3DP, which came out just as I started this project, but where’s the fun in that? I look forward to seeing the grandchildren’s faces when they see Santa Claus on CF. Tim

Super glue can be very tricky to use near ‘glass’ because of frosting effects. I often use thickish matt varnish from Tamiya to fix such details. Takes a while to set / dry out and the component needs to be a good passive fit, but much less stressful. The extra parcels were fixed in place on this finescale vehicle for CF in this way. It was converted from N gauge. The grandchildren should like it on York Road. Tim

It was at the Croydon autumn 1974 exhibition that I stood for hours watching Newton Tracey and first met Keith & Heather. I also met John Geach, secretary of the MRC which I then joined. Keith’s layout was therefore shown at Central Hall the year after and the rest is… Keith made the turnouts for Chiltern Green (8.9mm gauge) so that the slips could work and much of the point work on Copenhagen Fields. A great man. Tim

Communal toilets for the block? Don’t forget the tin bath(s). Tim

Had a great day at the MRC mini exhibition with YR in its first outing as a diorama. The standard stock also ran and looked the part. This train may get a new mechanism and act as a prototype for the gate stock which is currently at the design stage in the Jim Watt works. Signage and posters soon. Tim

Being tinplate Bing, that LNWR Precursor isn’t going anywhere fast. We have one and train at the MRC. Tim

In the latest moving picture mode. https://youtu.be/rm04SuM50EE?feature=shared Tim

Following on from various discussions on the visibility of the YR tube platform, I decided to adjust both the diorama box and the platform roof itself, cutting back about 1/2” from the top of the latter. This was achieved with a well known fine scale modelling instrument. The station track work is now much more visible and is complimented by some pleasant curves in the infrastructure. Next job will be to lay some temporary strip track so that we can get a train running for the MRC mini exhibition on 10th December at Keen House. Tim

Just that. Tim

I was very lucky to have a close look at the ‘38 stick at Warley. It really is very impressive and should be amenable to modification to make ‘35 stock for use on Copenhagen Fields. The bogies have been cleverly designed to allow the train to negotiate small radius curves and of course there is no buffer locking. N gauge tube modelling will now be a whole lot easier. Tim

In its natural environment. This will be very special. Tim