Ralph R

Show guides printed, see you all at the show. Look out for Arun Quay and Black Lion Crossing, both excellent layouts. Ralph

Martin, I have now been using an E2 for 12 months and I can only say my experience is totally the opposite of where you are. I had(have) a problem with the micro switches but a quick packing under one corner always rectifies it - I have never had it cut out in the middle of a job, it usually happens when trying to start off. There is obviously a little flex in the chassis of the E2 but I have always been able to rectify it with packing - usually a small piece of 3mm ply. Over the 12 month period I have spent well over 1000 hours cutting with the machine and the only issue I have had was with the air assist pump which conked out and was replaced very quickly by Darkly under warranty. I have to say their support is second to none and there is no issue with the supplier being based in Australia, their support is much superior to some organisations who are based 2 miles from me. I have had it fail in the middle of a job and that proved to be the laser head circuit board which was caked in soot and just need cleaning but other than that it has performed exactly as I expected, without any problem. In terms of software, Laserweb was an absolute pain in the a** and Lightburn has been a magical switch for me. Jobs that sometimes took 20 minutes to set up in Laserweb now take less that 2 minutes and the flexibility Lightburn gives is superb. The E2 has opened up big changes to the way I can work and I can't think of working without it now. Hope you are able to persevere as I am sure it will be worth it in the end. Ralph

Thanks Steve, that is most helpful and shows perfectly how you achieve such a perfect job. I will have a go at that thanks. Ralph

Thanks Steve. There must be a lot of metalwork on a small piece of brass bar and I look forward to learning the process when you have time. Ralph

That is very impressive Steve. Can I please ask you one question about the weight bar assemblies? The part that fits around the post, I wonder if you could please show a shot of the metal section before you start work on it and the stages to reach completion - I am not quite sure what you are using for that. It certainly works well and it is one of those things I have always struggled with. Thanks, Ralph

Dave, forgot to say that the crosshatch area on the baseplate is where you are supposed to solder the ground signal frame to - I know instructions would have been useful, sorry, I will have to put something together when I get chance. Ralph

To respond to both Steve's and Dave's postings. First, the Palatine Models LMS Ground Signal etch is not a kit, it is merely an etch. It is intended to be an aid to building an accurate model of an LMS ground signal and is intended for the serious modeller who is likely to have the remaining parts needed to complete the model to hand. This includes the necessary wire, pins and tubing. Secondly, I haven't done any instructions because I have never really sold any of these etches - 10 is probably the most I have sold in 4 years or so (even after an article about them appearing in Scalefour News). They were produced for the Manchester Model Railway Society's P4 club layout Slattocks Junction and we needed 5 of them. To help us I made them into an etch because, in my opinion, the alternative casting was a very poor representation of this signal and I knew I could do better. As such I designed and developed this etch - it took 3 or 4 attempts to get it right but Steve's work shows what is possible with care and patience. I also never intended that the balance weights be made operational which is why the pivots are flimsy but accurate however Steve has shown it is possible to do it by beefing up the pivot points. The fold lines do need to be on the inside Dave as Steve has done. And yes, the pivot point on the back blind is marked in the wrong place and I haven't corrected that, simply because I only need 5 making and I didn't really expect to sell any. As my website says, I simply sell these to help others and I certainly don't do it as a business. There won't be any different types adding to the range either, if we need it for Slattocks then I will produce something, if we don't then I won't - life is too short and I have too much modelling to do without developing things that the group doesn't need. Yes, there are some narrow gauge bits on the website too but I do have a layout of my own being built which is why I have those bits! Ralph

Dave, these were designed to be dead scale and based on drawings in the LMS Journal. The etch is for one base which can support 2 signals on the same base therefore there are 2 discs and 2 balance weights and 2 blinders. If you want 3 or even 4 signals on the same base you can adapt 2 etches to make them as I have done for the 3 up signal we needed. In general ground signals are only singles in which case you can remove the top light box from the fret and use only 1 set of discs, weights etc. Doubling the thickness of these items is not what I intended, it will make everything far too thick. Hope this explains things for you. Ralph

I know what you mean about making the holes in the discs for the lenses! I had the same problem but in the end I left them and painted a spot on the transfer to represent the lenses but even that is not perfect. That is an interesting point about seeing the signals Steve, never thought of it like that before and it has given me some things to think about when doing mine again. Thanks. Ralph

Thanks Roy, that is very useful. Will try that out because when you look through a magnifier you can see the dot pattern from the colour laser printed transfer - probably fine for most but in reality if I can see it then I think others will too and I will try and do a better job. I have to say that none of my ground signals have lights nor do the balance weights move, going to have to try and resolve the balance weights though but lights are out for this layout. Ralph

Thought I might add a copy of a photo of a 3 head ground signal from Slattocks Junction. The signal discs have the transfers applied but it is not finished as the curved plastic base shows but remember how tiny this is - about the size of a 5p piece. The white base is plasticard which forms the concrete foundation some of these signals were built on. This is now being replaced as mentioned earlier. Don't want to hijack your thread Steve but thought it might help to show what you can do with the etch (or 2 in this case). Ralph

Steve, you have made a superb job of building our LMS ground signal etch. I have made up a few but they can't compare to the build you have there, well done. Can you elaborate on how you painted the red band please? I have used the transfers available from Hall Royd Junction for mine but it looks like yours may be painted. These things are tiny so I would be interested to know. I am making a new set for Slattocks Junction which use the MERG system of removing the signals from the baseboards leaving the servos attached to the baseboards. They are effectively hot-pluggable signals using chip carriers for the locators and so far the results are very promising and well worth using. We have a 3 high ground signal block so it is more or less essential that they are removable from the layout for track cleaning purposes. Excellent work, pity you can't live near us!! Ralph

To expand on what John says above, the paint not sticking to the sleepers was in fact due to the fact that the track was C&L Flexitrack. At the time it was purchased, unknown to us, the manufacturer was playing around with different plastics to reduce his costs and we just happened to buy a batch which had been made from polypropolene which I am told is the same stuff that paint containers are made of (and paint certainly doesn't stick to those). Some of you may actually have this problem too, it is only noticeable if you scratch the top of the sleeper with your nail and the paint simply flakes off. The group who work on this layout are quite happy with what we are doing and the length of time it takes. We are developing new techniques as we go along and many modellers have benefited along the way from our developments but they probably won't realise it. As we say, each to his own, which is why we don't have much time to spend on here putting the record straight. Ralph

Hi Dave, I have a Derby Lightweight converted with the Branchlines set. It is an easy job - save your engineering skills for something that there is no easy solution for! It runs well on Slattocks along with a Bachmann 108 which doesn't have a Branchlines set but some converted wagon wheels which are shorted at the rims and some Biro tube. They both run perfectly well but the 108 took a lot longer to convert. Ralph

I would just like to add to what John (Allegheny) says above. At Manchester we do actually have several of the models made by the old masters (Alex Jackson, Ross Pochin, John Langan, Norman Dale, Sid Stubbs and Norman Whitnall and they can be seen in our clubrooms. They are exquisite models some of which were built just after WW2 and meant that everything had to be scratchbuilt from the wheels right up to the motor. Painting might not be up to todays standard but Sid did make his own airbrush from brass and this came into our possession when we cleared out his railway loft - this probably dates to the early 50s. We really should get some photos of these old models which are on show in our display cabinet. Need to get the website updated! Ralph

Hi Jason, Yes you get burrs from the knife but these are easily sanded off. I always sand Slaters brick sheets anyway as the face looks so much better when the bricks are flatter. The file shows part of an English bond sheet I made and painted in engineers blue. This is just a test to see if it would all work. Different shades of blue acrylic followed by a coat of grey enamel when it was all dry, the enamel was then wiped off with a tissue leaving the mortar marks. Don't forget that the brick sizes here are 3mm by 1mm high and this is massively oversized. Hope this helps. Ralph

The scribing was done using the blade. If you look at real brickwork mortar courses are not set back that much, at least not as far as on a Slaters sheet of plastic so what you can do with the cutter is plenty deep enough. Ok, it takes a while to do but at least you can set the brick styles out to match your model. In fact it is highly likely that we will actually set out most of our buildings on the cutter for Slattocks Junction, the Manchester Model Railway Society's P4 layout. Not too sure about the huge mill that will take up most of the front board though, but all the terraced houses will benefit from having the walls scribed out with the cutter and then I will probably make a resin master so that we can batch build them all more easily. The scribe lines are of sufficient depth for the mould to pick up very easily, the rubber picks up the tiniest of scratches on the master. The cutter bits I have been using are here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HIGH-QUALITY-LIYU-14mm-HOLDER-BEST-QUALITY-SAME-DAY-DISPATCH-FREE-UK-P-P-/141202069979?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item20e04c99db and I see that he doesn't list the Roland blades in his shop at the moment, there are plenty of alternatives though. I do remember speaking to the guy at this shop and telling him what I wanted and he gave me the low down so I could order the right stuff. Would definitely use his services again when the blades run out which could be a while yet! Hope this helps you. Ralph

As a friend of Dave at Honley Tank and one who pointed him in the right direction to buy his cutter perhaps I can explain what I am actually doing with my machine. Currently it is beavering away scribing a large sheet of 10thou plastic for me - what is it? Well actually it is English Bond brick paper. Why bother? Well it actually looks a lot better than the Slaters equivalent as the Slaters mortar courses are far too deep and the bricks have rounded corners so why not use the Silhouette to do a much better job for a fraction of the price? It is very easy despite it taking a long time but then what else does it have to do? The artwork is drawn in Coreldraw and I use version 12. I also use this to produce my etch drawings so, for me, this is a no brainer - no point in learning Inkscape for me although I have been very impressed with Mike Trice's achievements using it. The only issue with using Coreldraw is that the drawing starts printing at the bottom of the sheet so before cutting I just move it all to the bottom of the page and then it cuts from the top - leave a gap or it will cut the backing sheet. You don't need to go through any conversion software, just select the Silhouette as if you are sending the job to a printer(yes of course you need to load the driver). Before printing you need to go to properties and select the colour of the line you want to cut, the default on my machine is a grey so just pick black or whatever colour you have used to draw in. Then leave it to cut, no need to go into any other package or buy the Coreldraw add on they are now selling. I have used it to produce 4mm doors and windows for buildings and I intend to use it to mark plastic for buildings and bridges from drawings in thicker materials. As far as the cutting heads go I am currently using a Roland blade with an adaptor (Ebay) which is working just fine and keeps the costs down compared to the Silhouette blades. Hope this helps Dave to quickly get up and running with his machine once Santa has been. Ralph

Having been mightily impressed by this little machine's capabilities I took the plunge and bought one. I use Coreldraw for all my drawings having quite a lot of experience with it in producing drawings for etching. Coreldraw, like Inkscape uses the Silhoutte as a printer just like any other printer but it does work fine apart from one issue. It prints (or should I say cuts) upside down so that things at the top of your Corel drawing actually get cut at the bottom of the sheet. Not really a big issue, I simply move everything to the bottom of the drawing before starting the cut but it is a bit of a pain. I have no idea why it does that but I will try and see if I can find a solution one day. Otherwise I am amazed with the machine's ability (along with many others in our club) and I have started to produce windows for a signal box. They are much more appropriate in plastic rather than etched brass, the depth is right and best of all you don't have to sit waiting for the etchers to do the job for you and then send you a hefty bill. Thanks Jason, you have changed to modelling lives of many people. Ralph

A quick update on the P4 version of the 2-4-2T. It managed to get round 3ft6ins radius curves fine but the trailing radial kept bouncing off so for me this is going to mean a new chassis. For anyone wanting to do a P4 conversion I would advise you to make something to hold the footplate assembly in prior to removing metal. The last photo in Nile's posting above gives you an idea of the size of the block of metal that comprises the sidetank and some of this needs to be relieved to get a side to side clearance for 18.83. Also the footplate needs relieving to clear the coupling rods although if they were closer to scale that would be less of a job.

Having spent a lot of time trying to fit these Gibson wheels into the Bachmann chassis I have to say that making this body fit for P4 clearances is a big job. There is a LOT of metal to remove from inside the body to get clearances for these wheels but it IS possible. Having got the clearances sorted I now need to see if it will go around 3'6" curves without derailing and at the moment I have my doubts, these radial trucks are very bouncy and in 00 the flanges keep them on. I will check it out tomorrow on Slattocks and if it doesn't run smoothly then I will look at doing a chassis for it. The Gibson wheels I am using are the K3 wheels which Colin Seymour has done a 3mm axle for. Ralph

Sorry Free At Last, you are right. I didn't look at the radial wheels as not needing them I simply discarded them out without looking. These 'live' wheels can be a bit of a problem for us P4'ers but they certainly do improve pickup. Ralph

"Stripped down my 2nd loco that wasn't picking up from the front and rear trucks and adjusted the wipers. I am surprised there has not been anyone else on with this problem, or maybe they have not yet noticed." "Free at last", there are no pickups on the radial trucks. What you have bent up are simply springs to keep the wheels on the track. I have stripped down a 2-4-2 to convert to P4 using the Bachmann chassis and Gibson wheels and so far it is looking a possibility although it is early days. It will be necessary to do some relieving of metal to clear the coupling rods as the Gibson wheels have a bigger crank throw but Colin at Gibson can supply 3mm axle wheels of the right diameter but not the right spoke pattern. Also if you go down this route get his pack of coupling rod bushes since only the Bachmann coupling rods will fit, exact scale ones won't - I already have a couple of other 2-4-2 chassis on the go so I thought I would use their coupling rods but they simply locked up. In the end I soldered some brass tubing into the Bachmann rods and used those. It runs very freely without the motor, not got as far as putting that back in yet until I am happy it will negotiate curves and pointwork without derailing. Bachmann's radial trucks are certainly ingenious and a much more realistic solution than those on the other 2 chassis I have bought for this loco over the years. If anyone is interested in P4'ing it let me know and I will update it when I progress further. Ralph

Meths definately works. It will also soften hardened Araldite but you can also get some glue remover from B&Q if all else fails.

Those coaches look great Dave. I have a couple of those Clogher coaches too and been wondering how I could use them on a non-Irish based layout. Thanks for the inspiration.