Photo Call! 2mm Layouts Out and About at Exhibitions

[andy stroud]

IMG_6509.JPG

 

At one point yesterday, Julia came over to check my hands weren't superglued to the barrier rail in front of Hallam Town.

 

There's no shifting me when there is BR blue in the house...

I particularly liked that 37 too.

 

andy

[Graham R]

Not exactly a 2mm layout, but the 2mmSA "Further North" roadshow was at Perth MRC's exhibition today, manned by the Forth and Clyde area group:

 

Jim, Alisdair, Simon and Nigel do their best to convert an unbeliever, who has been forced to stand, the better to repent of his coarse-scale ways.

 

Jim was busy making up one of his own wagon kits - his technique is to apply a spot of Carr's 188 solder cream with a cocktail stick, no flux, and a quick dab from a temperature-controlled iron set to 300C with a large bit with a fine tip. This gets the heat in quickly and so can be removed before other joints start to loosen. 

 

 

Simon had brought along some work in progress: a horse lorry and a brake van, both from Jim's etches.

 

 

There was no 2mm finescale layout at the show, but there was a very nice finescale N layout using Finetrax, Eric Farragher's "Clifton and Lowther", which is probably better known Dahn Sarf but was new to me. There are pictures elsewhere on RMWeb. Just as impressive as the finsecale track was the scale speeds and accurate composition of trains. I spent quite a while just gazing at it, helped by the seemingly endless variety of trains from its million-track fiddle yard.

 

Graham

 

Edit: I almost forgot: for Scottish and North Eastern region modellers, it was also interesting to see the engineering sample mouldings of DJ Models' Clayton (Class 17). The mouldings arrived on Thursday and Dave Jones bought a Halford's rattle can of grey primer and painted them in the sunshine on Arbroath's KIngs Drive promenade (oh, alright ... the road out to the cliffs ...) yesterday evening.

 

The bogie gear towers are not ready yet but the body, framing, and bogie sides are. For the purposes of the exhibition Dave placed one body and frame on Hymek bogies; the frame mouldings in front are those for the Clayton however.

 

 

The body looks very nice and has the tablet changer recesses in the cab as a good Scottish Clayton should:

 

 

I gather these are expected to be ready in about three weeks, at about £115 for a single powered unit, and £150 for a 2-pack of one powered, one unpowered. They should be very straightforward to finescale: the bogies are the same design as Dapol models like the 26 and 27 (pinpoint axles running in phosphor-bronze current collector cups, so the wheelsets just pop out, and can be sent off to the 2mmSA reprofiling service then popped back in). Although the models will come with two grooved wheelsets on the inner end of each bogie, fitted with traction tyres, Dave is including two spare wheelsets with each loco to facilitate finescaling.

 

With the right bogies and a finescale coupling, these locos should look very convincing.

 

Edited June 24, 2017 by Graham R

[Caley Jim]

Jim was busy making up one of his own wagon kits - his technique is to apply a spot of Carr's 188 solder cream with a cocktail stick, no flux, and a quick dab from a temperature-controlled iron set to 300C with a large bit with a fine tip. This gets the heat in quickly and so can be removed before other joints start to loosen. 

Slight correction, Graham.  I don't use any separate flux.  The solder paint has a flux in the vehicle* - and it's not too quick a dab.  You have to wait until the heat transfers and you see the solder flow.  Then you have to hold the parts together for a few seconds until the solder solidifies.  Too many people do make a quick stab with the iron and as a result the heat doesn't have time to transfer through both parts and you either don't make a joint or make a dry joint which soon falls apart and at the same time have big blobs of solder.

 

What you are doing when soldering is creating an alloy between the metal and the solder on the surface of the parts and this needs both surfaces to reach the fusing temperature of the solder.

 

Jim

 

*(liquid to those not familiar with pharmaceutical terminology, not the vehicle being assembled!)

[Ian Morgan]

I just found out that I am taking 'Freshwater' to the Andover exhibition, 2nd and 3rd September 2017, so I had better extract the digit and make some more progress on the scenery. Oh, how I love deadlines.

[Donw]

I just found out that I am taking 'Freshwater' to the Andover exhibition, 2nd and 3rd September 2017, so I had better extract the digit and make some more progress on the scenery. Oh, how I love deadlines.

 

Is that one of those where you send details of the layout to an exhibition manager but don't receive any confirmation until nearer the event? Hope you get things to your satisfaction in time.

 

Don

[Ian Morgan]

I found I had a couple of emails about it last September, but as no date was specified, it did not get put into my diary. Luckily, that weekend is one of the few empty weekends in my diary for a couple of months.

[Ian Morgan]

Here is a short video of St. Ruth at RailWells 2017, yesterday, possibly as not seen before. It is a 360 video. For best effect, view it on a mobile phone or tablet. On a PC, use the mouse to pan around the view.
 
Half way through, the sun goes down, the lights start coming on, and the mail train backs down into the station ready for its overnight run to London.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p026cC7ZNnw&t=23s

 

 

[Chris Higgs]

Here is a short video of St. Ruth at RailWells 2017, yesterday, possibly as not seen before. It is a 360 video. For best effect, view it on a mobile phone or tablet. On a PC, use the mouse to pan around the view.

 

Half way through, the sun goes down, the lights start coming on, and the mail train backs down into the station ready for its overnight run to London.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p026cC7ZNnw&t=23s

 

I found watching the spectators slightly disturbing. Looks like at 55 I can still count myself in the younger half of the model railway fraternity.And a fraternity it certainly is.

 

Chris 

[DavidLong]

I found watching the spectators slightly disturbing. Looks like at 55 I can still count myself in the younger half of the model railway fraternity.And a fraternity it certainly is.

 

Chris 

 

Indeed, Chris. I'm 66 and remarked that the Wells show clientele make me feel postively youthful!

 

David

[Phil Copleston]

Indeed, Chris. I'm 66 and remarked that the Wells show clientele make me feel postively youthful!

 

David

 

Same for me (I've just turned 63) as for David. Though I have no concerns for the future of our hobby. I believe it has just changed its catchment base (no longer starting with trainsets for young boys), which is perhaps a revertion to a pre-war appeal to adult incomers looking for a craft-based hobby. And possibly attracting a greater ethnic and gender diversity (which we need). I do hope so anyway! 

Edited August 18, 2017 by Phil Copleston

[modfather]

Indeed, Chris. I'm 66 and remarked that the Wells show clientele make me feel postively youthful!

 

David

I would only say that well is a little bit of a specialist show (I used to be one of the few 20somethings until I emigrated)

[2mmMark]

Not at an exhibition but I visited David Eveleigh last week to take some photos of Framsden for a forthcoming MRJ article.

 

Here are a couple of shots I took using my phone.

 

 

 

The rest of the photos were done with a DSLR but the quality of the images I'm getting from my LG G3 phone are very good indeed.

I've now got a holder for it so it can be sat on a tripod.

 

David's work has a "painterly" feel to it which makes it quite distinctive.

 

 

Mark

 

 

[Donw]

Thanks for posting the pictures Mark. Framsden is a lovely layout. I shall look forward to the MRJ article.

 

Don

[Ian Morgan]

My layout, "Freshwater", attended the Andover exhibition last weekend, and we were visited by an old friend. 'Emmy', Dave Harris' scratchbuilt M7 that performed all through the early 1990's on "Alresford" made a short appearance on the layout. I had to disconnect the power because 'Emmy' is not DCC fitted. After its many years of service, the wheels no longer stay put on the axles, and it will now go into retirement in a display cabinet. I did take a couple of photos, but the focus was not too good, sorry.

 

 

[Ian Morgan]

I also took some video of some shunting on "Freshwater" during the show. The locomotive 32670 is better known today as "Bodium", which runs on the K&ESR. This model will be repainted and will become number 13, "Carisbrooke" when I get the transfers and nameplates I ordered from Fox. I took the video on my mobile phone, and the results are a bit jerky or glitchy. I should use my video camera in future.

 

Unfortunately, locomotive number 8, "Freshwater" threw a con rod, bent it, altered the quartering and jammed its mechanism late on the Saturday. I put it back together, but it was still dead, so either the decoder needs reprogramming, or the decoder is dead, or the motor is dead. I will have to investigate.

 

https://youtu.be/uz9vBoLLhjs

 

[Gingerbread]

This weekend, September 9th and 10th, STEAM (Swindon)

 

Apologies for picture quality - lighting was "challenging" (rather dim), and camera batteries died before I had chance to take a few more photos.

 

Ian Smith's Modbury, on its first public outing

 

Llangerisech

 

 

and a highly appropriate adjacent display

 

 

Another maiden public display - Mick Simpson's Callaton

 

 

This one seemed rather over-sized

 

 

As was this

 

 

Jerry Clifford's Demo/Roadshow stand - before the rush...

 

 

A very enjoyable weekend

 

Links to a couple of videos of the event (no connection) :

 

David

[Steve's Shed]

John Russell and myself had good fun at the Swindon Railway Festival over the weekend helping fellow Midland Group member Ian Smith to operate his layout Modbury on its first exhibition outing. Apart from a few minor issues, it ran really well all weekend (much to Ian’s relief!) and it deservedly drew much praise.

Here’s a small selection of photos I took yesterday, which I’ve put on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/134299158@N06/sets/72157688901568805

Steve Croucher

[Ian Smith]

I forgot to take my camera to Swindon, so only took 3 photos on my phone of Modbury all weekend :

 

First an overall shot of the layout on Saturday morning before the punters arrived with Steve trying to learn how it all works

 

A Plymouth bound passenger heading into the station

 

A Newton Abbot bound cattle train (being hauled by a somewhat out of period 45xx borrowed from Andy Carlson (D869 of this parish) for the weekend - thank you Andy!)

 

Ian

[nick_bastable]

John Russell and myself had good fun at the Swindon Railway Festival over the weekend helping fellow Midland Group member Ian Smith to operate his layout Modbury on its first exhibition outing. Apart from a few minor issues, it ran really well all weekend (much to Ian’s relief!) and it deservedly drew much praise.

 

Here’s a small selection of photos I took yesterday, which I’ve put on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/134299158@N06/sets/72157688901568805

 

Steve Croucher

gives a 403 error

 

Nick

[Steve's Shed]

gives a 403 error

 

Nick

Thanks Nick, Ian's just had the sme problem. I'll see if I can fix it. Cheers.

[Steve's Shed]

Hopefully this new link will work. Ian's tested it and it works okay for him.

 

https://flic.kr/s/aHsm4M9v6D

Cheers,
Steve

[Chris Higgs]

This weekend, September 9th and 10th, STEAM (Swindon)

 

This one seemed rather over-sized

 

Caerphilly_Castle.jpg

 

 

And way too clean. Why can't people do proper weathering?

 

Chris

[queensquare]

A couple of snaps of Modbury at Swindon - including a couple of interlopers. The livery gives away who they belong to!

 

 

trains crossing

 

 

I love signal boxes and this is an absolute gem

 

 

MR No 25 of Saltley shed - in Devon!!

 

 

SDJR No 45 on a lowly freight!!

 

..........also at Swindon, a most unusual visitor at Llangerisech

 

 

 

 

Jerry

Edited September 15, 2017 by queensquare

[Re6/6]

That is a superb layout. Look forward to seeing it sometime.

[Donw]

Am I going senile or are you adding extra pictures Jerry? I am sure the last two weren't there when I clicked like.  Nice pictures. I do like your 2-4-0 lovely bit of work.  Now if it had been a Cambrian Albion class it would have been suitable for Llangerisech.

 

Don