Geordie Exile

Think she'd notice - and a phrase which rhymes with anchor might ensue!

The anchors are for my missus who crafts - I had spaces to fill. I like the idea of a pub, but I'd call it The Windin' Hoose! I've got a dozen of the 21tonners to do. I started another 4 P4s to keep me going until the Backworth hoppers arrived - just the brake levers, stanchions and handrails to do, then I'll hold off painting them while I make a start on the lovely shiny new stuff!

It's arrived. My first (how many of my posts contain those two words?!) wagon etch. It doesn't look as though I've left anything important in the post-etching soup. I'm busy on another batch of Fencehouse P4s at the moment, so it'll have to wait until at least, erm, the weekend

The exterior strapping for one side of a P4. Each P4 has, as is traditional, two sides. And two interiors. Is there something inherently nuts in what we do for 'enjoyment'?

I'm waiting nervously for my first-time wagon etch to come back from the etchers. I've hedged my bets by only including three wagons and peppering the rest of the minimum-size sheet with all sorts of others stuff (fencing, windows, pithead sheaves, even anchors for my partner who does a lot of maritime crafting!). I am working on the assumption that the etches are littered with errors in spite of the great advice from other forum members. If I can end up with three static models lurking at the back and artwork for a new, viable etch, then I'll count it as a win. Good luck with yours. Richard

Hmm. It's my birthday this month...

Not specifically a 2mm question, but here goes. Is there such a thing as the electrical equivalent of a dead man's handle (a plug adaptor would be ideal) so if I go to bed and forget to switch my soldering iron off... I know some irons come with this feature, but I don't want to buy a new one. Yet.

Well, gosh. Two B6 turnouts, both of which (appear to) work perfectly. I confess I've been holding off laying actual track on an actual layout as my first two attempts were less than perfect, to the point (!) that I thought I just didn't have the knack for track. I may try and scavenge the bases and crossings from my unsuccessful attempts and do them again. Except they're PVA'd to a test plank, so any suggestions as to how to un-PVA them gratefully received. If at first you don't succeed...

Me too: stumbled across it today, and, well, wow!

This may not seem much, but it's a breakthrough for me. I've finally got an Easitrac turnout that doesn't throw a wagon off the rails! This one's for the Forth & Clyde AG layout, if it passes muster, and if it doesn't I'm happy to reclaim it and incorporate it into my own. Edit: nearly a day later and I've just noticed I forgot the check rails. Oops.

Looks really good, Jim. Didn't you say you didn't like doing buildings? Richard

Four Fencehouses P4 hoppers have emerged from the paint shop. Thank goodness the NCB didn't have a standard size of lettering. It means I can use pretty much any size I've got. The full hopper on the left has Railtec transfers; the others are from Fox. I was worried about the quality from Railtec as they're much cheaper than Fox. They're a joy to use. Edit: P.S. I've tried a different masking technique with this lot when spray painting below the solebars. Rizla. They're cheap as chips, easy to cut, easy to position, pre-gummed, and I've always got some on me!

Well, that's the artwork for the Charles Roberts 15-ton Hopper (a Backworth exclusive!) sent to PPD. Hopefully I've applied what I've learned (and enjoyed, and not enjoyed) from putting a few different etch kits together, along with my first etch of the coal processing plant. I think I've added enough, but not too many, tags. Hopefully I'll not just get a frame back, with the rest ending up in the etch soup at the bottom of the tank. Time (and upwards of 70 quid, I think!) will tell. Members of the Forth & Clyde Area Group have offered much advice, including 'try 3D printing instead', for which I'm very grateful. Oh, and the red oxide primer on the P4s is currently hardening off in the shed: I'll get the solebars painted tomorrow, and then think about the lettering. (Why didn't I just stick with RTR, off-the-shelf n-gauge? I'd be sitting watching the trains trundle by now! Probably.)

I've learned to ignore that small but clearly audible rattle when I vacuum. What used to evince a whimper from me is now met with a philosophical shrug.

I've a wooden floor, and yet the bits that ping away still disappear. Apart from the ones that I roll over when I push my chair back to look for them. And the brand new reamer that rolled under the skirting board and fell into the expansion gap betwixt wall and floor - I know where that is, but I'll never see it again.

I've been juggling a couple of jobs over the last week or so. Working my way through the etch artwork for the Chas Robert Backworth hopper, I ground to a halt when my three-layered solebar wasn't deep enough. Start at the fold and the bearings, and it underhung the body. Start at the body, and I'd need a really long axle. It hadn't occurred to me that Chas Roberts wasn't constrained by .25mm nickel silver, and could make his undercarriage as thick as it needed to be! So, I turned to see how Bob Jones had done it on his P4, and did a batch of three. Bob's experience showed - he'd included fold-out spacers in the first solebar layer! Genius. So, the artwork progresses, painfully slowly. I've got to the stage where I just need to draw axleboxes, strapping, stanchions, interior dividers and a brace that sits under the sloping ends of the hopper body. And then the dreaded origami, where I squeeze it into the smallest area of N/S that I can manage. Progress so far: Credit to Bob/Fencehouses - I've cribbed his chassis design quite closely, with the obvious exception of the dimensions. Fold-out spacers and coupling mount are straight copies of the way he's done it. And the P4s: The one on the left is my first attempt, with the strapping soldered on (or not) as per Bob's instructions. I've found it much easier to cut out all the bits of strapping and superglue them on, using the etch as a positioning template. The corner plates I removed from the etch, put a 90deg fold into them and then glued them on once the bodies were assembled. Bob sent me the etch for the stanchions, each of which are made up of six laminated layers. Try as I might, I couldn't get six at a time to behave, so I've gone for four each. To hide the laminations, once attached to the body ends (glue again) I've flooded them with solder. They've not turned out too bad at all. The handrails are 0.3mm wire, as the etched versions were a bit square, and more squashable. I've a few days off coming up so hopefully they'll take a trip to the paint shop then. Thanks for looking Richard

Morning Ray I have both of those books - the Elliot & Charlton one is already dropping to bits as I've used it so much! As I'm going for a period immediately prior to closure (i.e. early 70's) then it looks as though the motive power was almost exclusively Austerity J94s and Class 14 diesels. Initially I'm hoping to use re-wheeled / detailed versions of the Farish models, and I've picked up one of each from eBay to play with. No 29 was an RSH side tank (I think - I don't know much about locos!) which was transferred from Ashington to Backworth during that period, so I may end up trying to replicate that too. Then there's the BR diesels (Class 37s etc) working from the exchange sidings... R

Hi Ray The final bills have landed - or at least enough envelopes to create the last of the windows! They've got just the right level of translucency to show the interior as silhouettes, which is just as well as I've no idea what was actually in that building. I'm hoping to model the whole pit area, with shortened sidings to the north and south so the whole area covers about 1m x 2m. The southern two-road approach opens out into several roads more-or-less starting at the weighbridge. This is where I've got so far: The buildings modelled so far are those involved in the extraction and production of the coal. The heapstead itself is too small in context with the other buildings, but ultimately the layout should stand on its own. I'd like to fill in the empty L-shape behind with the ancillary buildings (baths/canteen, office, generator house and warehouse/stores) as they'll not take up much extra space. The western (left-hand side of the photo) is bounded by the road and the land-sales coal drop, and the east by the pitheap which just needs to be suggested on the model. I'm toying with a three-part layout: the colliery, the exchange sidings and the staithes on the Tyne, which in reality were 20 miles or so away, but which I'm minded to join together with a foot of track between them! And somehow I want to include a roundy-roundy bit just so I can sit and watch the trains run. All in an area 3m x 2m Thanks for showing an interest Richard

Hi Ray. I'm assuming there were two doors in the bottom of the hopper, with a transverse crossmember two or three planks tall, so that's what I'll model. I'll add internal strapping which appears to mirror the exterior vertical one, but I'm not planning on doing any hinges on the floor. This is the best picture I've got of the inside of the hoppers: ...so I'm also using this fortunate/unfortunate photo as an aid to the design: I'm not sure of the type of hopper this was, but it was in use on the Ashington system when it got involved in a fight with several others on Blyth's North Staithes. The Backworth hopper was actually 11' wheelbase, and 17'6" over the buffer beams, so quite a substantial wagon compared to the other wooden hoppers in use, I think. R

Well, I'm feeling quite pleased with myself. While I'm waiting for bills to land (no, really) so I can use their windows as glazing for the current building project, I've returned to the etch artwork for Backworth's signature 15t hopper. The internal angles have been doing my nut in. But, a couple of weeks away from it have meant a clear-headed approach, and I think I've finally got it. I've printed the hopper body onto plasticard in 4mm, and it's come together nicely. So, I think I'll crack on with the chassis frame and brake subframe, and start playing with axleboxes.

This whole 2mm journey has been a series of firsts for me. But I doubt if I'll ever get to "Oh goody, a tax bill"

The Coal Processing Plant is taking shape. I'm at the glazing stage, using the cellophane from window envelopes as it has just the right translucency. I never thought I'd be hoping for bills to land! I'm glazing one storey at a time, and adding the central opening sections randomly open and closed to relieve the monotony of each aspect. Once done I'll floor each storey furnished with fictitious machinery, all in black, to further reduce the detail but give the clear impression of something going on internally. In all the photos it's the only building that you can see into.

Sound advice, Chris. Except I don't have any brass. I've got to the point where I've added the embossed plasticard brick sections, so that's the end of the soldering. I have braced it with corners of the etch frame (which make accessing the interior a bit, erm, gynaecological) and I'm going to floor it with 1mm plasticard superglued into position once I've glazed it, so that should add some strength. And I doubt if any of my models would survive being sat on . My partner wants a new cat, which will be absolutely banned from the shed which will eventually house the layout! Richard

Thanks for your comments, Ray. I grew up on Marden Estate, about 10 miles away from the pit. Was dragged a couple of time to Backworth Primary School when it became Backworth Drama Centre. And the artwork for the wagon etch is progressing, slowly, so watch this space...

You mean I needn't bother putting a stamp on that letter to the Patents Office, then?