Richard Hall

A bit late to the party, but when I went down the code 40 / 9mm gauge route with "Longframlington" I ended up building turnouts to the American NMRA standard or thereabouts: 0.75mm flangeways, 7.65mm back to back. That actually works quite nicely with the wheel profile on most N gauge models from the last 20 years, but I decided that if I was going to hand-build my pointwork and adjust the back to back of every single wheelset I might as well go the whole hog and construct my next layout in 2FS. I have found the jump from fine-ish N to 2FS quite challenging and I suspect it will take a lot more fiddling before I have something which runs as well as "Longframlington". My two tips for beginners: stick to standard geometry straight pointwork, and diesels. I did neither. Richard

I'm glad I haven't committed to taking Longwitton anywhere yet as progress has been frankly rather feeble. I have run into all kinds of problems with my point operating mechanisms resulting in a couple of blades parting company with the droppers: I may have to rework them which is a little daunting at the moment. Over Christmas I thought I would tackle a couple of the structures, not that there are many. I now have a station building and platelayers' hut, both built from Plastikard sheet and strip. I am now working on a road bridge using the ancient Peco mouldings as a starting point. The Peco model dates back to the very early days of British N Gauge and is a little oversized but I think I can do something with it. I need to get the backboards finished, then I can break the layout down and take one section home at a time to work on. @GER_Jon has been working on a grounded coach body for the station platform, which just leaves a couple of small sheds and that cast iron urinal. I am very surprised no-one has done the panels for those as an etching yet: any volunteers? Richard Richard

D5177 worked military trains through to Woodburn on at least two occasions. I don't think it worked the Rothbury branch although class 25s were RA5, the same as a J27. Gateshead had a handful of class 24s from new in 1960 which could have turned up at Rothbury in theory, but the Claytons did not arrive until after the branch closed. Steamwise the Bachmann / TMC G5 is perfect, just needs a non-corridor Gresley or Thompson brake third to go with it. Only one: the Rothbury passenger service finished in 1952 because no-one used it any more.

D5177 demonstrates why 2mm is very much easier if you just have diesels. It really is a lovely runner, and all I had to do was change the wheelsets. Meanwhile the Ivatt 2MT is steadily improving but still derails for no obvious reason when running tender-first. I'll get there eventually.

Nice work, instantly recognisable building. It's a shame the real station building didn't survive: photos show it still looking very tidy in the early 70s so I don't know why it ended up being demolished.

Shop 3 has a tender chassis etch to suit the Fowler tender, part number 3-180. I found that yesterday while looking for something else.

I'm working on a 2mm finescale "Longwitton" at the moment. Early days, only got the wiring finished yesterday. I look forward to seeing your photos.

A significant milestone: After leaving Longwitton propped up against a cupboard all summer I finally found the time and enthusiasm to blitz the wiring, result being that I can now run trains. There are a few rough bits in the pointwork but I am slowly working through them and soon had the 2MT and a few wagons ambling round without falling off the track too often. The 2MT runs terribly and limps like a three-legged donkey, and the J39 won't run at all on Longwitton as I forgot to build any sideplay into the centre axle, so it only goes in straight lines. Now I have a test track I can put a bit of effort into getting one or the other to work properly. My rewheeled Farish diesel runs very nicely but that feels like cheating somehow.

I have done almost no 2mm modelling for three months because (insert feeble excuse here). The more I looked at the 2MT, the less happy I was with the valve gear. So I decided to be super brave and pull it all apart to have another go. I made up a new, slightly longer combination lever from a bit of nickel silver strip (ex Assoc mineral wagon chassis fret), drilled 0.3mm in more or less the right places and filed down to narrow it. The valve spindle is 0.3mm N/S wire and supports the forward end of the radius rod. Much better than my first effort, with the union link now roughly parallel to the slidebars. Istill have to cobble together some spindle covers which are rather awkward fiddly little things. The chassis is also in bits as a couple of wheels had come loose in the muffs. Loctite should fix that.

Grrr. Looking at the 2MT last night while trying to figure out how to make some valve covers I realised I have fitted the expansion links back to front. Also the combination levers seem to be about 0.75mm short compared to the Roche drawing, which means the radius rod sits almost horizontal rather than being angled upwards towards the front. The union link looks to be attached slightly lower on the crosshead which doesn't help, downside of using Black Five bits I suppose. Question: do I go back and have another go (and risk ruining all my previous work) or leave it as it is and be pestered by rivet counters at shows for evermore?

I'm not an especially good modeller. My approach is crude and my methods unsound. But just occasionally by sheer good luck I manage to pull off something like this: Even before adding weight and general fettling it actually runs quite well, at least in a straight line. I lengthened the driveshaft at both ends and it now shows no signs of binding up. The Black Five crossheads turned out to fit the Farish cylinders and slidebars perfectly. Advice to anyone else doing this conversion: don't even bother messing around with the Farish crossheads, just use the Association ones. It is a pity they are not available on their own: anyone want a Black Five smokebox door? I broke the valve spindle covers so I need to fabricate some replacements and find a way to secure the front end of the radius rods so they do not move up and down. Balance weights on the wheels, dummy coal load to hide the motor and then some new numbers. Blyth North (52F) had a handful of 2MTs for a short time in 1960-61, just long enough for a couple to venture to Rothbury. I know 46474 was one of them but I already have that one in N gauge. After this things should get easier: all my other locomotive requirements have inside cylinders. Richard

More 2MT fiddling. Bad news first: I broke the piston rod off one of the Farish monkey metal crossheads. Things were already going badly by that point: as I feared the washers that were supposed to attach the connecting rods refused to stay put and I was half way through drilling out the pivot to take a nickel silver pin when the piston rod snapped off. Not to worry, I have ordered some of the brass Black Five crossheads from Shop 3, not exactly the same as 2MT ones but close enough for my kind of bodgery anyway. What to do while waiting for them to arrive? I thought I would see if I could get the thing to move under its own power, and I succeeded. That second photo requires some explanation. The Farish model has a coreless motor in the firebox. At least it should have: mine was missing the motor and its mounting plate which is why it was cheap. I have a small stash of this particular size of coreless motor: but Longwitton will be using the same controller as Longframlington, an old AMR feedback unit which works superbly with open frame motors and big cans, but eats coreless motors in about the time it takes to say "that isn't running very well". I had a dead coreless motor which I gutted to turn into a bearing support for the worm shaft, with a home-made mount Araldited to the chassis. It isn't exactly model engineering, but it works. In the tender we have one of a large number of Chinese 1015 flat cans that I bought for pennies: they are a bit odd as the brushgear is at the output shaft end but they are nice and torquey, and just narrow enough to fit a 2MT tender. Driveshaft is 0.7mm nickel wire cross drilled 0.3mm one end for a drive peg, simply bent 90 degrees at the other to engage with a hole drilled sideways into a length of 1.0mm ID brass tube. At the motor end the same size tube is used, with a slot cut across the end with a razor saw and the inner bore radiused a bit with a cheap diamond burr from Aldi. Needless to say the Mk1 version is a bit rubbish but not as bad as I thought it would be. I need to shorten the motor shaft and lengthen the driveshaft as the articulation isn't quite good enough, and I will be cramming bits of lead into every tiny bit of space in the 2MT body. The Farish model has traction tyres on the trailing drivers, and without these mine will just about pull its own tender at the moment. Richard

A bit more work on the 2MT. I now have four bits of valve gear, eight joints, each of which felt like a total fluke that I would never be able to repeat. My beginner's luck still seems to be holding. In between ruining my eyesight with the valvegear I made a bit of progress on the chassis: This rolls very nicely and this time I remembered to put a bit of sideplay in the middle axle so it should cope with Longwitton's fearsomely sharp (22 inch radius) curved crossover. So much easier to do quartering with removable wheelsets. The pony truck frame is "live" to one side of the split chassis so I only insulated the axle bush on the non-live side. Only one more wheel for pickup but every little helps as they say. Next up, crossheads. I tried to attach the connecting rods using the Farish washers as per Nigel's excellent instructions but made a mess of it and I don't think I have enough metal left on the retaining pin for another go. So I will have to find or make some very thin nickel or brass washers (the Farish ones look to be stainless steel), solder a pin to them, drill the crosshead and attach the whole lot with a soldered washer at the front which should work in theory. Richard

Nice work. @GER_Jon brought one to the Norfolk meeting on Sunday for everyone to admire and we were pondering on how to rewheel it. Now if the RTR manufacturers could stop with these ridiculously obscure prototypes and do a proper engine like a J27 or G5... Richard

Not much time for tiny train stuff lately due to having taken on far too much work, but found a bit of time to be super brave and tackle my Ivatt 2MT project. I bought this minus its motor and gears for not much money, and it will be perfect for Longwitton if I can get it running. Association conversion bushes etc and a Nigel Hunt etch for the tender chassis and valve gear. The tender went together no bother: I learned from my J39 build, and this one has the muff on the centre axle narrowed slightly to give a bit of sideplay so it can go round curves. The J39 works well in a straight line but I am going to have to pull it apart or possibly start again with a fresh chassis etch . The bit of the 2MT which really frightens me is the valve gear, but look at this: It took me an hour, and I needed two attempts at each joint, but I have an assembly which moves freely without the joints waggling around. Beginner's luck? Almost certainly, but it does look a bit prettier than the Farish version with its giant rivets. Now if I can just make another one the same... Richard