2mmMark

We gave Mike a fine send-off last week. It was fascinating to hear of the many interests Mike had. It's always a bit sad that you often only hear about of the wider life of a friend at their funeral. He'll be much missed but fondly remembered.

I'd recommend this instead of scouring pad. It's a little bit finer and has a better base colour I made an "electric nozzle" for a Noch puffer bottle that works very well. The charge for the nozzle comes from a Flockbox. I documented some of my scenic work on British Oak a while back.

I have a 2mm layout which has a 1200mm by 400mm main board, mostly 9mm ply. It started off reasonably light but once track, scenery, buildings, uncoupler electromagnets etc. were added, it's now quite heavy. Also 1200mm is a little too long to fit widthways in many modern cars. It was fine in my Peugeot 305 estate but awkward in my current Skoda Roomster. I'd recommend looking at Gordon Gravett's method of using extruded polystyrene foam insulation to build light yet strong baseboards, and cutting the length down to between 900mm to 1000mm as suits your track plan. Mark

The 4.5mm above rail dimension works well as it allows the magnetic tail of the loop to be clear of the rail top on pointwork when the loop is in the raised uncoupled position. If the coupling is mounted lower, the tail needs to be shortened accordingly. If it catches, it can derail the stock.

I've travelled out of the UK with The Pizza, which has a flight case that meets the carry-on size requirements. On 2 trips to the USA, there were no customs or carnet issues, just security checks. Other trips were pre-Brexit European visits one on Eurostar and the other driving. Having travelled on business with IT equipment requiring a carnet, my advice would be to avoid if at all possible. It's a tedious and time-consuming process at the end of a trip when you're usually quite tired.

EMA's Plastic Weld is my solvent of last resort when all others refuse to stick. It's designed as an adhesive for Plastruct ABS. It can be a bit agressive on thin plasticard. I've had it cause wrinkling and warping. Mark

Thanks Bob, very useful information as I've also acquired an NGS Hunslet for British Oak. I was planning to use 2mm driving wheels but seeing your photos, I shall follow your option of thinning down the flanges. I'm wondering if it's worth making some new axles to suit the increased width over the outside faces of the wheels set to 2mm back-to-back standards. Mark

That happens with UK occupational pensions paid to recipients living overseas. The schemes have a duty to ensure that they're paying pensions correctly.

I think so too and what you've done is to mirror history because the steel drop staithe replaced a wooden tippler staithe. Interesting to read about the hoppers because my 2mm model of British Oak uses a quartet of finescaled Dapol 21T hoppers. I'm planning to replace them with four made from etched brass kits so each one is subtly different. Here's my "unloading" method. The coal load is shaped black foam in which a steel pin is hidden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KbKjQ01z-I

I have a couple of these Japanese wheel cleaners I use for my narrow gauge locos. One has failed because the conductive foam that the wheels press on to has ceased to conduct. There's no obvious break in the material but tests with a meter show a lack of continuity. The second one still works as designed. However I think the Minitrix style cleaners work better. I've modified one to have a terminal block on the end to which wires from a power supply can be directly wired. This makes it easier to use. I also have a Kadee wheel cleaning brush which has a small enough seperation between the brass bristles to work down to Z scale. https://www.dckits-devideos.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1259 That also works well.

An easy way to make spacer washers is to cut a slice of empty biro tube to the appropriate thickness, cut it to make a split washer, then slip it over the axle, leaving everything else undisturbed.

On my 2mm scale Irish NG cameo layout, I faired in the corners of the box using sanded down polystyrene ceiling coving, which gave a nice effect when covered with a skim layer of filler and undercoated with white primer, ready for backscene painting. I built the layout in the early 2000s and don't know if this product is still available. It may have fallen out of favour with modern building regs. A possible alternative would be quarter circle sections of 32mm or 40mm plastic waste pipe with the cut edges sanded very thin. Mark

My model is inspired by a design that Paul Lunn did in a book on layout planning. His design was an adaptation of the real thing, as is mine but Paul did provide an accurate drawing of the steel drop-unloading staithe. It was built to serve as a worked example for a 2mm Association publication "The Beginners Guide to 2mm Finescale Modelling". It's reasonably accurate as far as the staithe and canal wharf go but the surrounding scenery I've modelled is nowhere near as bleak as the actual location was. I think I had about 3 or 4 photos of the real thing and that was about all. Since building the layout, a lot more photos have come to light, along with some video that was on Youtube for a while (since removed as it was probably from a DVD and in copyright). I've not seen the Scale Model Trains article. Paul sent me a scan of some of it and also of an NCB subsidence plan of the area. I've also obtained the two IRS Journals in which the layout was featured and two paperback books on the Calder & Hebble Navigation. Another 2mm modeller, Richard Caunt, has built the British Oak staithe and the loading screens in 2FS. His model trumps mine in that the hopper wagons actually work. Michael Andress described, drew and modelled the staithe in a late 1970s Railway Modeller. Something I did find out was that British Oak was very busy during the 1985 miners strike.

Merry Christmas from the workbench. Recent activity has been narrow & transatlantic. Some proper photos soon. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FQcbVUerIpc?feature=share

Yes indeed. With a little bit more effort, Bob Dylan could have become just as famous.

I think those pigs need some more room. I'm going to call Hamnesty International.

With his guitar & harmonica rack, I think he missed a trick by not strapping cymbals to his knees, a drum on his back and adding a kazoo.

I do recall blackened buildings in London of the early 1960s. Even so, I would personally still avoid any form of dead black in 2mm scale. Muted shades of grey will give the right sort of effect, along with careful consideration of where soot would build up. The soot effects need to be built up slowly or there's a risk that it'll end up looking like an Ian Futers BR diesel.

It's a grave mistake to make 2mm/N models too dark. If anything, it's better to make a them bit lighter. Keith Armes reckoned to aim for a pastel-type approach to scenery colour and I think he was right. Copenhagen Fields does get dusted from time to time but as you can imagine, it's quite a task. When not being worked on at Keen House, the scenic sections live in sealed boxes. This keeps them in pretty good condition. Tim posted this image on his Facebook page yesterday. It's the amount of fluff collected after a days running at Warley

I'd recommend a clock cleaning solution. Various types are available. I've been using Horolene and it works very well. All you need to do is leave the parts in the solution for about 30 minutes and they come out very clean.

I would agree with that, having had a pile of similar but incomplete castings. Unfortunately they went AWOL after loaning them for display at our 50th anniversary Expo. N Brass do some nice boiler fittings and a smokebox door for the C. In fact they do a complete kit for one but it duplicates the contents of the old Assocation kit. The castings I think were done by Ks and they're pretty good, even by today's standards.

Denys Brownlee made a super little model of the Sentinel with one of his handbuilt motors in it. Not sure where it's ended up but it was, I think, his smallest loco, smaller even than his Midland 0-4-0 saddle tank.

Well that was a series of four really good programmes, each one nicely different. I suspect the "big name" aspect was just a hook to help them get made. After a while you forgot they were famous names as their enthusiasm for the subject came through. Let's hope it got good ratings and series two can be made. As a "Tri-ang baby", (1st trainset in 1962ish was an RS15) I'd love a visit to James May's workshop. All those enticing red & yellow boxes. Plus Minic motorway in the Jools Holland episode. Fantastic stuff. Well done Channel 4!

The code 30 rail was actually a rolled flat wire, as was the Association's original code 40 strip rail. Both have an oval cross section with flat sides and a rounded top & bottom. These rail types were best suited to soldered track assembly, although a moulded sleeper base was produced that suited the code 40 very well. Unfortunately, the rolling process introduced some distortions in the code 30 which curved it vertically as well as the natural lateral curve from being coiled. That made it a little tricky to use. Over the years, several members have found ways to create a bullhead cross section in the code 40 rail. Bill Blackburn had a well engineered system to profile and straighten code 40 strip rail. The current rail sections I believe are drawn through hardened steel dies at a specialist wire company. Code 30 flatbottom would be a nice product to have but I suspect it would be a rather niche market for narrow gaugers, light railway modellers and those wanting a scale conductor rail.

If anyone's planning to use the A3 to get to the show, there's a full closure of the A3 at the M25/A3 junction for bridge replacement from 9pm Friday 13 to 5.30am Monday 16 October. Closure information: The A3 will be closed northbound from the B2215/A247 exit at Ripley to the M25 junction 10. The A3 will be closed southbound from the M25 junction 10 to the A247 at Burntcommon Diversion information: Drivers heading south will be diverted via M25 to junction 9 and use the A24, A246 and A247 to join the A3 at Burntcommon. Non-motorway traffic will be taken off the A3 at Hook and use the A243 to pick up the same diversion via A24 at Leatherhead. Drivers heading north over the full weekend closure will be diverted via A247, A246, A24 and M25 to junction 9. Non-motorway traffic will continue along the A243 and join the A3 at Hook. (ULEZ restrictions will not apply to drivers using our official diversion). https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1j0gDOyGErOVI54Bbuf7nngogjjj2iUg&ll=51.28557753700376%2C-0.479453456975949&z=12 Mark