Copenhagen Fields

[CF MRC]

Afraid I didn’t get round to taking any pictures, but we did win the Visitor’s Cup! CF last won it in 1990 and before that, Chiltern Green in 1983. The layout had some electrical issues on some of the mainlines, but we generally worked around them. The tube worked well and the NLR reliability also paid off for some extra work in the fiddle yard. We had two rewheeled Farish jinties enter service and of course Mons Meg. Maybe someone else took some piccy’s?

 

Tim

[Jan W]

I found a video of the wakefield show on youtube.

CF part starts at 12 min.

 

Jan

[A Murphy]

Peerless.

 

Alastair M

[east barnet andy]

I found a video of the wakefield show on youtube.

CF part starts at 12 min.

 

Jan

Jan , thanks for this ; excellent stuff.

 

( I would have thanked you sooner , but temporarily lost the ability to reply to stuff )

 

regards

 

EB Andy

[east barnet andy]

[east barnet andy]

Afternoon Tim

 

just spent 45 minutes sending you a humorous and informative post , with attachments ; then lost it . . . twice . . . wonderful . so have already sent the pics . now for the words.

 

so here goes . . . .again . .

 

over the Christmas break , was taking a healthy stroll on Hampstead Heath ; with friends and family ; strictly legit ; and noticed the LNER advert on a wall above the shops opposite Ham Heath overground

station ; the one we used to call the Cross Town Flier. I am pretty sure it was covered by a modern hoarding , now removed . Anyway , I immediately thought how good it would look on CF.

 

do let me know your thoughts.

 

the other two pics are of wall adverts ( is there a better name? ) at the Highgate Hill end of parliament Hill Fields. not so relevant to CF , but I do love the idea of

catering for "beanfeasts " ; very Dickensian .

 

best wishes , I do hope I haven't bored you senseless , and see you at St. Evenage ?

 

Andy.

[CF MRC]

Funny you should highlight these ghost signs Andy, but I am currently working on some for a new group of buildings on CF. One of the advantages of modelling a real location is that there are some wonderful prototype shots that it might one day be possible to reproduce.

 

 

If you look carefully, you will see a splendid sign advertising petrol at 1/- a gallon (1p a litre for the youngsters). That is actually remarkably cheap petrol even for the 30s.

 

 

This group of buildings is being made for CF by Richard Wilson and so we have used this photo as a basis.

 

 

The sign was made by hand drawing some artwork at four times oversize and then reducing in a colour photocopier. I have used digital imaging for signs on buildings, but the effect is a bit too perfect and lacks the character of old sign writing. Close examination of the photo shows that this sign was actually on a bill board fixed to the wall, rather than painted directly on the wall

 

 

I am currently working on other wall painted signs for Richard’s building and will post some more details when complete.

 

Tim

[Clearwater]

Tim

 

Isn't 1/- 1 shilling so 5p in new money? Still absurdly cheap!

 

David

[Caley Jim]

Tim

 

Isn't 1/- 1 shilling so 5p in new money? Still absurdly cheap!

 

David

But there are 4.456 litres in a gallon, so near enough 1p a litre.

 

I can remember when it was 4/6 a gallon!

 

Jim

[Clearwater]

But there are 4.456 litres in a gallon, so near enough 1p a litre.

I can remember when it was 4/6 a gallon!

Jim

Thanks - my mistake in forgetting to convert the volume unit as well. As a post decimalisation baby, I can covert from LSD to £ and Ft/in to m/cm but always struggled with gallons to litres (I was in my 30s when someone explained to me how many pints in a gallon - I've always been ok with the pint measurement for some reason) and also with stone/lb/oz to Kg (even though 1lb = 454g is a conversion I know off by heart). I still think of height in ft/inches first and weight in stones albeit I tend to use Kg for the latter!

 

David

[Donw]

But there are 4.456 litres in a gallon, so near enough 1p a litre.

 

I can remember when it was 4/6 a gallon!

 

Jim

 

I remember 2 star at that price and 4/11 for 4 star  when I had my first motorbike but my wages were £5 a week ( quite good money for a 16 year old in those days)  four gallons to the pound or 8 pints of keg bitter ( with a bit of change).

 

Don

[CF MRC]

There has been some over-night inflation:

 

 

Tim

[Caley Jim]

There has been some over-night inflation:

 

 

Tim

A 25% hike overnight! That's extortionate! Even worse than train fares! Just as well this is not France, or they'd be out on the streets in protest!

 

Jim

[CF MRC]

We’ll look out for the gillet Jim!

 

Tim

[Ian Morgan]

Someone just posted the following comment on my YouTube video of CF:

 

"Wish they would change the name on the water tower from ”Ebonite” to ”Tylors.” That was the name on it until the late fifties."

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZji6qDlh0A

[CF MRC]

A method for making ghost signs of a complicated design or those directly written on walls is to use colour photocopied / printed computer paper stuck to the walls. The trick is to make the paper fag paper thin by scraping away the backing with a scalpel blade (No 15 is good) until it is almost down the the ink.

 

 

It will almost be transparent when held up to the light and very delicate.

 

 

If the background to the sign is light, then the area of wall should be painted white otherwise it may darken the image. The sign is stuck onto the wall using dilute PVA glue. When it’s dry the glue shrinks the paper down onto the brickwork; a sort of poor man’s decal / transfer. The artwork can then be distressed with paints to show bricks weathering through.

 

 

There is lots more careful weathering to do. Richard is making a superb 1930’s garage to go on the northern end of the complex so we will soon start to get the area more detailed. It is quite thought provoking, that the small area of CF that we are currently working on is as big as some 2mm layouts! Some well known RMWeb 2mm names are also appearing on the shops.

 

Tim

Edited January 4, 2019 by CF MRC

[CF MRC]

Someone just posted the following comment on my YouTube video of CF:

 

"Wish they would change the name on the water tower from ”Ebonite” to ”Tylors.” That was the name on it until the late fifties."

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZji6qDlh0A

He’s absolutely correct Ian. It’s on our list to do. Ironically, the building at the bottom is nearly correct for spelling, but we only recently realised that it was TYLORS rather than EBONITE on the tower, which was as we saw it just before demolition in 1983.

 

Tim

[queensquare]

Richard is making a superb 1930’s garage to go on the northern end of the complex so we will soon start to get the area more detailed. It is quite thought provoking, that the small area of CF that we are currently working on is as big as some 2mm layouts! Some well known RMWeb 2mm names are also appearing on the shops.

Tim

Looking superb, it's an honour to have a shop on CF. The shop will need some sort of delivery vehicle - is a horse and cart too much trouble on London Streets!

 

I will make sure Justin gets a good deal on spuds for his chips!

 

 

Jerry

[RichardW1]

I’d Better get on with the internals for your shop tomorrow Jerry

[Nig H]

Hi Tim,

 

I've sent you a PM. Can you get back to me please? 

 

Regards,

 

Nigel

[bécasse]

The latest Model Railway Club Bulletin (no.506 Jan/Feb 2019) contains an interesting article by Tim entitled "Keeping the wheels turning on Copenhagen Fields". It doesn't say that it has been reprinted from anywhere so presumably this was its first publication but I would guess that it won't be its last.

 

What particularly surprised me was the extent of the wear described and depicted. Tim makes the very valid point that "if you do the sums for some of our (CF's) engines they would be easily headed towards 200 real miles." Now that sounds like an awful long way, and in some respects it is, but with 2FS approximating to 1:150, that is only the equivalent to a full size milage of 30.000, at which point many main line locos would only just be nicely run in.

 

Tim makes the extremely valid point that the 2mm Association has made a huge contribution to making modelling in 2FS a practical proposition - and one of the reasons that I avidly read this particular thread is the amount I can, and have been able to, learn from it - but it does make me wonder whether too much emphasis might have been placed on making something possible rather than in finding the most effective solution, simply because that is how 2FS, of necessity, developed. It is really an attitude of mind issue, "Eureka - I have found a solution" should be followed by "but is there a better solution?". I don't want that to sound too negative because I am only too aware that even retired people have limited time to devote to the good of their hobby and I am also aware that some who practice 4mm finescale might have taken matters a little too far in recent years, the original Study Group of (now) over half-a-century ago having carefully mulled through most of the issues before elaborating them as workable standards.

 

Much of my modelling over the last couple of decades has been devoted to fine scale 7mm modelling of narrow gauge industrial items, which may sound very different from 2FS but is actually remarkably similar, albeit with, usually, a slightly wider track gauge and with very low prototype speeds to emulate [a typical 8 mph top speed in 7mm is still equivalent to a top scale speed of less than 30 mph in 2FS]. With tiny wheels, even low-revving motors like the (late-lamented) Mashima 1015 need multi-stage gearboxes to keep model speeds low and reliable. With nothing suitable commercially, I learnt to make my own, accurately marked out using a GW Models riveting tool, and with brass gears set out at exactly their theoretical pitch. When the boxes were first assembled, with gears at this pitch they could only be turned by hand, but with a little "lubrication" of Brasso they very quickly loosened up. Once this was achieved, they were thoroughly washed out and the fully-enclosed gearbox packed with graphite dust. They were then run in a little further using a powered drive at low speed until ready for use. I wondered how they might wear, so the first to be constructed was run continuously, admittedly off-load but at maximum motor speed, for a number of weeks. When the trial was finished, the enclosed gearbox was opened up and no signs of wear, neither physical on the gears (and bearings) themselves nor minute specks of brass could be detected. In other words, the gear train was working exactly as it theoretically should, neither too loose nor too tight.

[CF MRC]

I think that David’s comments are well made. However, I would suggest that the 2mm scale exhibition layout environment is relatively more hostile than that of 12” to the foot scale re: loco mileage. The amount of debris & fluff that our locos pick up during exhibition running is far larger, pro-rata, than a larger ‘model’ would have to endure - and there is no way of stopping it. Some exhibition halls are particularly filthy. CF is undoubtedly the hardest (best?) layout for stress testing 2mm scale locos & stock!

 

Tim

[bécasse]

Tim, I accept that the exhibition environment is harsh, I was just surprised that the ratio of wear model/prototype should be that great. It was reflecting on that that led me to wonder whether the engineering principles in 2FS could be improved, without too much work I might add. The range of bits and pieces available to 2FS modellers these days looks most impressive (I am envious!) but lacathedrale's fascinating thread has opened my eyes to the amount of "bodging" that can still be involved. I have "been there and done it" of course but that was 50 years and more ago when, unless you were a competent model engineer (the name Cruikshank comes to mind), that was really the only course open to one whatever scale one was working in.

David

Edited January 12, 2019 by bécasse

[CF MRC]

A little taster of Tom Knapp’s Paget Christian Mission in place on CF. This area is currently being worked up, scenically.

 

 

Will need a bit of gap filling between the pavement and the road.

 

Tim

[Caley Jim]

Pavement looks as though there's been some subterranean movement!  Didn't know that area was subject to subsidence!!   

 

Jim