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Pixie's Workbench - 2mm/ft Diesels and a 305mm/ft Cavalier


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On 30/12/2020 at 17:38, Donw said:

Obviously some engineering works on the fast lines.  When I was a lad we lived in a terrace of cottages looking across the river and Kings Meadow to the main lines headed to Paddington out of Reading General. There were goods at a low level  but the slow lines above were full of long freights headed to London in those days. So I was well aware of which lines were which well before I travelled frequently  on the line.

I quite liked the DMUs if you could get a seat up the front with a driver who left the blind up  on the one side you got the real feel of the mainlines.  Of course if there was something running slow in front you heard the klaxon at every AWS and you just new we would be switched to the slow lines to let some express past and probably run into platform 8 instead of 4. 

 

Some lovely modelling.

 

Don


Some good memories there Don; have you got any railway photos from the area? I hadn’t realised you were originally local to these parts. I’ve always thought that the stretch of GWML from the Reading Gas Works to the Vastern Road bridge would be a great model with the Waterloo lines in the foreground too. 

 

On 30/12/2020 at 19:55, Steven B said:

Have you been mixing 2FS stock with standard N gauge? The Mk1 CCT and the pres-twin wagons look tiny next to the Warships.

 

Steven B


 

Yep, guilty as charged and just about the worst combination of an high-riding 1/148 loco and 1/152 smaller-prototype van as Chris pointed out. Normally the difference is not vastly noticeable but it certainly looks a bit odd here; I’ll have to be a bit more careful of this in the future. 

 

4FA57985-19EE-49DD-90EA-809A043A7724.jpeg.eba30a214592be9b20c51245c6e450f8.jpeg

 

The Farish Warship does ride about 1.75mm too high, I presume to allow the bigger flanges to fit under the floor of the model. The below example (which is slowly becoming an NBL example) has been dropped by 1.25mm, I didn’t fear to go much lower as it does push the buffers out of alignment. Sat next to a Farish CCT, it looks a lot closer. 

 

7DD1B8C1-F1EE-400B-ACCC-B9B7B604240D.jpeg.c14beb995662d968a21dd39020f786ea.jpeg


And a Farish Mk.1 for comparison.

 

0C259892-8710-44CD-93FE-3C313693E6DA.jpeg.7c6e8995004a802451544c82c7edcab7.jpeg

 

Cheers,

Pix

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Pix 

 

sad to say I never had a good enough camera as a boy not to mention the money for film until older when we had moved away. There were ssome excellent articles on Reading in the GWR Journal if you haven't got them I could try a photo copy for you.  Your slice of railway would be a good choice from the horseshoe bridge at the mouth of the Kennet to the Vastern road bridges was well known to me and would include the H&P works. There was an ungated level crossing parallel with the Vastern Rd bridges.  I never saw it used in later years .

 

Don

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  • 3 weeks later...

Bonus points if you can make the roller blinds work.

 

I managed it once, in 4mm, with the Lima Class 73...stick a small screwdriver into the exhaust port, turn a plasticard cam, move the blinds at both ends simultaneously (a strip of acetate running the length of the roof). Inspired by the guy who did something similar but motorised to a 7mm Class 73 in the 90s and wrote it up in BRM. Think I met him at an exhibition once.

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I'd be intrigued to see that in action. 

 

This is very good:

 

It's far too bright for the traditional roller blind; but would look great on a more modern DMU for the destination blind. If it could somehow be combined with the 'matt paper' look you get on a Kindle, it could have real potential.

 

Cheers,

Pix

 

 

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Ah, sadly, the bodyshell is somewhere in my parent's house on entirely the opposite side of the world. I'd stayed up all night reading or playing computer games some time in my late teens, and inspiration struck at about 6am. Had it working by lunchtime!

 

I've got nebulous ideas about a simulation of TOPS, where an embedded computer on the layout holds a list of all the stock available, you construct a train in the system as well as physically on the layout, and move the train from one place to another under an actual TD number, which could then be meaningfully displayed on signalling panels… possibly overkill for a 1200x200mm layout though!

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  • 6 months later...
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26 minutes ago, The Fatadder said:

make sure there is no distracting them with more 2mm stuff though :P

 

N Gauge models with supplied replacement drop in 2mmFS wheelsets are about to be a thing.......

Congratulations Steve! (again ;))

Tom. 

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17 hours ago, The Fatadder said:

Congrats mate,

make sure there is no distracting them with more 2mm stuff though :P

 

edit, the artwork is really rather nice as well!

 

Steve,

 

Ignore this muppet :P:P and ensure you do DISTRACT them with more 2mm stuff.

 

Congratulations on the new job mate.

 

Cheers

 

Neal.

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  • 4 months later...
4 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Are you taking a micrometer and tape measure with you to your new employees Pix?

Just sayin'.

 

Mike.


They both get an outing from time to time but the former isn’t the most efficient prototype measuring.

 

Pix

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