Jim T

Hi Phil When I get any new N gauge stock the first thing I do now is pop a wheelset out, measure the axle length and record it. That way I know which replacement wheels to order and don't screw up! B4 bogies are a particular problem. The old style ones under the air con mark 2s were 15.2mm, the new ones on later Mark 1s with B4s and on the recent Mk2/2A stock are 14.0mm Jim

Hi Nig I love the carriages - not sure what you’re seeing in close up but they look really realistic from your photos. I think finishes are really important and you’ve achieved that lovely lustre beautifully. But how? Jim

Beautiful etches and a great idea, but who puts their washing on coat hangers before they hang it out on the line? Is this a cultural pitfall for modellers of the Japanese scene? Or something that is prevalent amongst those of us who are "special" enough to be railway enthusiasts?

That Bogie Mink is looking great Rich... OMWB over the last couple of days I’ve been doing some Engineers’ spoil wagons. This particular pair are the result of a moment of inspiration while staring at a couple of the Farish steel high goods and wondering how the hell I’m going to rework the chassis on these to get the brake shoes in line with the wheels... Perusing David Larkin’s “Civil Engineers Wagons: Volume 3” there’s a particularly interesting section showing a “Miscellany of Older CE Wagons, Ex-Revenue Wagons and Brake Vans”. It starts particularly well with a Her

Lovely neat work soldering on the panels. What’s your method for that? I always seem to end up with a lot of cleaning up or dry joints... Jim

Nice to know the history of what you’re building! I’ve succeeded in marrying the plastic hopper to Bob’s chassis now (see below) so the next time this appears will be on the workbench thread. Many thanks to all who’ve supplied suggestions or info about the chassis.

Thanks Trevor. Just assembling one of these chassis which is now sold as S2-358. I don’t think the body is available any more but I’m merging the chassis with the NGS plastic and etched brass kit. Only the exploded diagram from Bob’s instructions is now available so your blog has answered a few questions. Glad I found it in time, I could have really messed up the brake levers without it.

Hi Chris Yes, you’re right. I’m thinking rather than cutting away from this hopper body I’ll order a couple more and fix the Moulding for the hopper bottom under the chassis / brake unit cross member, perhaps as two separate pieces. So a brief hiatus with this is on the cards until another couple of NGS kits arrive. EDIT: NGS is out of stock so done a bit of hacking about and the body near enough fits now. Fairly simple in the end, although I have a couple of tricky 45° bends to do on the chassis cross beams to fold down half etched sections which seem to be

I’m working at home which has the benefit of a new workbench desk in the living room, so zero commute after a day designing the Chiltern Tunnel for HS2. I’m trying to use the time to progress my 2mm wagon fleet, but I’m stuck with an HTV (21t mineral hopper). The body is the NGS kit and the chassis is s3-258, one of the Fencehouses etches available from the Association shop. I’m quite pleased with how it’s gone together so far (the soldering lesson from Nick’s Jubilee series of videos helped a lot) but the instructions are very generic and don’t really explain how it fits the kit -

Steve - that's awesome, thanks for taking so much time to explain the process. I have ordered some (different) casting materials (F32 for the resin but a different rubber) and will try a couple of simple things at the weekend before doing a two part mould. I'll post results and the master up on the AQA thread over the weekend. Thanks again for taking the time to explain and inspire... Jim

Hi Pix Lovely work with the casting. What materials are you using currently for the moulds and the resin casts? Thanks for all the inspiration! Jim

A brief question regarding resin casting open wagons. I want to do a large number (ultimately 30 to 40) medium opens (the BR ones with planked sides and corrugated ends). I have built / adapted a one piece master for the body, based on the NGS kit What I’d like help with is which materials to try for creating the mound and casting the bodies because the learning curve seem quite steep and I want to focus limited time on actually modeling rather than experimenting. One specific is that I saw somewhere LEGO being used not just for the mound box but also to register the two mound halv

I’m hazarding a guess that’s a steel mineral wagon, possibly a Peco kit? If it’s a plastic kit build they can be very prone to bowing inwards, although I’ve never seen one quite as bad as this. I think it’s one thing to do with stresses set up in the material originating in the solvent joins? To quote 2mmMark’s post from another thread: “The 2-551 2mm RCH kit is capable of being made up into a decent looking model... The assembled body does have a tendency to bow inwards but using a less aggressive solvent like Di-Limonene reduces this to almost nil.“ Obviously this is

Thanks Nigel I hadn’t appreciated the mound tool costs! Inside bearings it is then... Cheers Jim