Whats on your 2mm Work bench

[StuartM]

I've been fiddling about with ballast this afternoon.

I read in one of the MJR's an excellent article by a 7mm modeller who made all his track up in sections and then fitted the sleepers to the baseboard and then ballasted, then fixed the track to the sleepers. Admittedly this is much easier to do in 7mm rather than 2mm, but the results were stunning.

So I tried the same thing on a small section of test track. I laid the sleepers, ballasted and then added the rail, as can be seen in the control section of track ballasted in the usual way (well for me anyway) the result is much cleaner and neater.

The only downfall is it only works on small straight sections of track and not turnouts.

Anyway I've posted the experiment here so others might find the results useful?

 

[Donw]

The technique works quite well with stained timber sleepers which do not need separate painting. You can use stained sleepers with plastic chairs or if you are quick with an iron epoxy versaline chairs to the sleepers and solder the rail to them. With Easitrac plain track you can spray the sleeper sections first if the colour doesn't suit.  For the easitrac plain track I would suggest threading rail through the sections to hold them in line while fixing them then remove the rail to facilitate ballasting. Otherwise it would be easy to build in a kink.

For Copper clad I think the issue would be trying to paint the PCB timbers with out getting it on the ballast unless you feel an overall colour would be acceptable.

Don

[queensquare]

Back in the late 1980s and 1990s I did a lot of 2mm modelling with my old mate Alan Bridger. Alan was building Henstridge on the S&D and I built Vobster, the first and never finished layout in my North Somerset saga. Together we built numerous bits and pieces including some attempts at resin wagon kits. I built the masters and Alan did the moulds and other clever stuff. In 1999 Alan took a completely different path and bought a MR picnic saloon in 12" to the foot and spent the next several years restoring it. We recently made contact again as Alan is bringing what's left of the 2mm stuff up to me - I'm looking forward to seeing how it compares with what I'm doing now. Vobster never got beyond basic track but Henstridge did get some scenics, including a station building I made. I will post pictures when I get them but some of Alan's wagons can be seen in the AGM galleries - not sure what year but I'll look it up.

 

Anyway, the pictures I've attached are of the picnic saloon and whilst they are not on anybody's 2mm workbench, they are what kept a very fine ex 2mm modeller from his workbench though I think you will agree, he has been busy!

 

 

 

 

Happy New year all

 

Jerry

 

Edit, rake of Alan's SDJR wagons in 1996 AGM gallery, along with Bath MR station box - that's twenty years ago!!

Edited December 31, 2015 by queensquare

[CF MRC]

I have now completed the rear running plates on the P2. Gresley engines with this type of running plate have a small step between the cab floor level and running plate over the wheels. The front running plate finished just short of this position. In one of those jobs where things fall into place quite nicely, I bent up the step as an extension of the rear running plate (as can be seen in the first photo): it also does a good job of masking the joint. Of course the clever etch designers would probably have made this all from one piece, but scratchbuilt components are generally better made in penny numbers (at least they are with me).

 

Soldering this assembly in place was a bit tricky as the engine is a very good heat sink. It was of course tinned with 144 solder and then held in place at the front end with a little self-locking clip, as can be seen in the second photo. The iron needed plenty of solder on it to make a good heat transferring area with loads of phosphoric acid flux in the region. It was laid up next to the valence and runny plate and set at maximum temperature - 450 deg C. When all the solder was flowing well the iron was removed. There was quite a bit of solder to clean up, but I think the final running plate and step looks the part.

 

Tim

[glenng]

The North Norfolk Railways newly restored No 3 picnic saloon taken at this years member’s day in October.

 

 

 

[justin1985]

I haven't had much chance to do much modelling at all in the last few months, but the Christmas holidays have given me a chance to get back to the 2mm modelling. I eased myself into it by building a wagon chassis. Wagons are always my favourite part of modelling and I'd picked up a PECO "Colmans Musrard Traffic" van - prototypical livery - but completely the wrong body, being an SR refrigerated van. Still, there's no way I'd be able to replicate the livery, so I built an Association replacement chassis. Along with a bit of weathering I think it really improves the look of the thing.

 

Also in the picture is an Association etched J94 chassis. The chassis I previously built for the old style Jinty eventually got to a state of running reasonably well, but with a bit of hesitation when going backward only. I'm pretty sure the problem is the motor mount and bodged sleeves for the 1mm motor shaft (as fiddling makes it better, intermittently). Anyway, with the new Jinty and conversion kit looking much better, I've lost the drive to get it fettled and finished off. But, learning the lessons, I'm building the J94 for another spare old Farish body I had laying around. This time the motor came with a nice long 1.5mm sleeve, so I'll use that with a stub axle in the two "gearbox" bearings, and leave the motor restrained by much thinner more flexible wires and blu tak (used very stout wire on the Jinty, which I think is much of the problem).

 

Another diversion was an attempt to produce a scale (ish) working street/platform oil lamp. Every commercial working N gauge lamp I've seen has been hideously over scale. I didn't fancy trying to rig something up with surface mount LEDs in the lamp itself, but it struck me the Ratio lamp moulding, which is mainly solid translucent plastic, could be used with fibre optics.

I replaced the post with an equivalent length of 1.5mm OD, 1mm ID brass tube, and wrapped around, tweaked and soldered some 0.4mm wire to represent the wrungs at the top. I then ran a 1mm fibre optic up the middle, roughed up the end that sat nicely inside the moulded lamp, and connected it to a flat topped warm white LED with heat shrink. The result isn't terribly bright, but then the real thing wouldn't have been either, I don't imagine? The closest resistor I had to hand was 1K (working from 9v battery) so imagine I could make it a tad brighter by swapping this for a lower resistance one. I did consider trying to find even thinner tube and optics, but I imagine the result would be even dimmer? Here's the works

 

Happy New Year!

 

Justin

[Donw]

I think the lamp looks pretty good. I do remember GAs lamps being rather dim compared to the later electric ones.

Don

[2mm Andy]

Back in the late 1980s and 1990s I did a lot of 2mm modelling with my old mate Alan Bridger. Alan was building Henstridge on the S&D and I built Vobster, the first and never finished layout in my North Somerset saga. Together we built numerous bits and pieces including some attempts at resin wagon kits. I built the masters and Alan did the moulds and other clever stuff. In 1999 Alan took a completely different path and bought a MR picnic saloon in 12" to the foot and spent the next several years restoring it. We recently made contact again as Alan is bringing what's left of the 2mm stuff up to me - I'm looking forward to seeing how it compares with what I'm doing now. Vobster never got beyond basic track but Henstridge did get some scenics, including a station building I made. I will post pictures when I get them but some of Alan's wagons can be seen in the AGM galleries - not sure what year but I'll look it up.

 

Anyway, the pictures I've attached are of the picnic saloon and whilst they are not on anybody's 2mm workbench, they are what kept a very fine ex 2mm modeller from his workbench though I think you will agree, he has been busy!

 

Happy New year all

 

Jerry

 

Edit, rake of Alan's SDJR wagons in 1996 AGM gallery, along with Bath MR station box - that's twenty years ago!!

 

That's fascinating Jerry - I guess this is the picnic saloon now at the Midland Railway Centre at Butterley, Derbyshire?

 

http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=5293

 

Some superb restoration work going on there (and also to the carriage recently completed at the North Norfolk Railway as well).

 

If I recall correctly there was a set of Bill Bedford etches for a MR D365 saloon in amongst those Midland kits that found their way to you via me a couple of years ago. Might we see a 2mm version of this saloon sometime?

 

Andy

[CF MRC]

Another diversion was an attempt to produce a scale (ish) working street/platform oil lamp. Every commercial working N gauge lamp I've seen has been hideously over scale. I didn't fancy trying to rig something up with surface mount LEDs in the lamp itself, but it struck me the Ratio lamp moulding, which is mainly solid translucent plastic, could be used with fibre optics.

I replaced the post with an equivalent length of 1.5mm OD, 1mm ID brass tube, and wrapped around, tweaked and soldered some 0.4mm wire to represent the wrungs at the top. I then ran a 1mm fibre optic up the middle, roughed up the end that sat nicely inside the moulded lamp, and connected it to a flat topped warm white LED with heat shrink. The result isn't terribly bright, but then the real thing wouldn't have been either, I don't imagine? The closest resistor I had to hand was 1K (working from 9v battery) so imagine I could make it a tad brighter by swapping this for a lower resistance one. I did consider trying to find even thinner tube and optics, but I imagine the result would be even dimmer? Here's the works

IMG_20151231_165650small.jpg

Happy New Year!

Justin

All your lamp post now needs is a Victorian 'lady' standing under it! I think you could make the post a bit finer if you tapered it with a few strokes of a file, maintaining a 1.5 mm o/d X 6 mm high base. You have 0.5 mm to play with and it only needs the goodwill of the metal at the top. Think yourself lucky that we won't be putting in an order for 3 dozen on CF!

 

Tim

[2mmMark]

Back in the late 1980s and 1990s I did a lot of 2mm modelling with my old mate Alan Bridger. Alan was building Henstridge on the S&D and I built Vobster, the first and never finished layout in my North Somerset saga. Together we built numerous bits and pieces including some attempts at resin wagon kits. I built the masters and Alan did the moulds and other clever stuff. In 1999 Alan took a completely different path and bought a MR picnic saloon in 12" to the foot and spent the next several years restoring it. We recently made contact again as Alan is bringing what's left of the 2mm stuff up to me - I'm looking forward to seeing how it compares with what I'm doing now. Vobster never got beyond basic track but Henstridge did get some scenics, including a station building I made. I will post pictures when I get them but some of Alan's wagons can be seen in the AGM galleries - not sure what year but I'll look it up.

 

Anyway, the pictures I've attached are of the picnic saloon and whilst they are not on anybody's 2mm workbench, they are what kept a very fine ex 2mm modeller from his workbench though I think you will agree, he has been busy!

 

 

image.jpg

 

image.jpg

 

Happy New year all

 

Jerry

 

Edit, rake of Alan's SDJR wagons in 1996 AGM gallery, along with Bath MR station box - that's twenty years ago!!

 

Amazing work!  Where does one find a spare underframe for something like that?  Is it a 2mm one etched upwards?

 

Mark

[nick_bastable]

a small  teaser

 

 

 

10 brownie points to who can guess which line the Colonels surveying  

Edited December 23, 2019 by nick_bastable

[Valentin]

EKR?

[garethashenden]

With this as the goal, I have begun.

 

 

The chassis has been built , ready to have the gears and wheels mounted.

 

I've also done some work on the tender.

[Donw]

An interesting project especially with all those bits of ironmongery hanging off the boiler still no fancy lining out to do. I will be interested to see how it turns out. I like the cutouts in the frame to give it the look of a bar frame.

Don

[Caley Jim]

Feeling guilty at not having done much to the layout of late, I have spent the last few evenings building the water tank which will sit beside the turntable on Kirkallanmuir.

 

The painted tank and the base ready for painting.

 

The tank sides are an etch with a piece of 40thou styrene on the bottom with the edges rounded off and a false top of 15thou.   The two wee holes are for the inlet and overflow pipes and there will be an outlet pipe, with a bag on it, projecting from the underside of the tank, below the valve lever.

 

The uprights of the base are 50 x 50thou (scale 7½" x 7½"), made by laminating 10thou onto two adjacent sides of some 40 x 40 thou.  the diagonals are 30 x 30thou and the top beams 40 x 60thou.

 

The tank sitting on the base.

 

I built an identical one for the group layout 'Sauchenford', but painted grey, which can be seen lurking in the background of some photos of that layout.  In that case I fixed the tank on before painting the base.  I'm not making that mistake this time!      Painting the inner timbers was a nightmare!  At least I can get access from the top this time.

 

Jim

[Chris Higgs]

a small  teaser

 

line no 20 1.jpg

 

10 brownie points to who can guess which line the Colonels surveying  

 

Wherever it is I'll bet he's impressed with full-sized track built only with solder, no chairs needed. The cost savings must be massive!

 

Chris 

[Caley Jim]

Progress on the water tank.

 

 

Base painted; drain assembled and painted (needs more dirtying); pipes fitted and painted and the tank and base united.   Only the bag and valve operating chain to make, fit and paint and then several layers of polyurethane varnish to pour on for the 'water'.

 

Jim

[CF MRC]

P2 rear valve spindle guide and slidebars.

These are quite tricky pieces, as they are fixed to each other. For construction purposes they needed to be removable from the cylinder. I therefore turned up some brass bits to give me enough meat to whittle out the correct shape for the valve stuffing box and guides as well as a lug into which the slidebars would be soldered. I made three - the second one was a tad too small and was not an interference fit in the cylinder.

 

The slidebars were made from thick steel sheet, with the slot cut out using a fine diamond disc, as can be seen in the second photo.

The slidebars were filed down to shape and slotted into the lug at the bottom of the valve spindle stuffing box (third photo).

 

Tim

[CF MRC]

Silver soldering

For strength and convenience, the slidebars / lug joint needs to be silver soldered, as the piston stuffing box will be soft soldered to the bottom of the lug. For silver soldering I use a borax flux, easyflo silver solder and a small gas torch - as can be seen in the first photo. The components are held by pins in a heat resisting mica block with other carbon blocks to also act as heat shields.

 

The assembly photo shows the components held in place with a pin, running through the valve guide. The area is fluxed with the borax paste and a very small piece of solder cut and placed in the flux near the joint, out of sight at the back. The components are then heated up with a flame and the solder flashes into the cracks - simples! The secret with silver soldering is just using the right amount of solder.

 

The final photos show the assembly after cleaning up. The slidebars are currently very delicate and desperately need support at the back. Next job will be to make the piston stuffing boxes and then the cross heads and piston rods. As always, the camera is rather cruel.

 

Tim

[CF MRC]

A star ship.

Having sweated on the piston rod stuffing box I have now ended up with two mini starships. I have left the slidebars closed together for mutual support- the motion support bracket will sort this out when it's made.

 

Once on the engine it is evident that a little bit more side clearance would be useful. I can easily pack out the cylinders by 10-15 thou and still be well within prototype loading gauge. This will also allow a representation of the brake operating pivots and levers between the frames. The front coupling rod pin will not have a collar on it.

 

I think I have worked out how to make the crosshead: it will involve some metal origami.

 

Tim

[Caley Jim]

Water tank now completed.   Not quite in the same league as Tim's current project, though.  

 

 

And a couple of shots of it in situ with 391 about to top up :-

 

 

Still to be fixed in place and bedded in.   I'll probably try and get it a little nearer the turntable to give a little more clearance between the corner and the track leading to the exchange sidings (in the foreground of the last picture).

 

Jim

[Southernboy]

I have to say that both the above recent posts from CF MRC and Caley Jim leave me totally astonished at how anyone can model to such fine standards.

 

I like to think I do quite well at things in N gauge (where you can get away with quite a lot / be selective with camera angles etc) - but I am always left breathless by the degree of skill / intergrity required for 2mm - and the absolutely exquisite results.

 

You set a benchmark which fuels my aspirations in the lesser scale

Edited January 10, 2016 by Southernboy

[CF MRC]

Water tank now completed.  

 

And a couple of shots of it in situ with 391 about to top up :-

 

water tank #5.jpg

water tank #6.jpg

 

Still to be fixed in place and bedded in.   I'll probably try and get it a little nearer the turntable to give a little more clearance between the corner and the track leading to the exchange sidings (in the foreground of the last picture).

 

Jim

Looks like your engines like peaty water Jim!

 

Tim

[StuartM]

I do hope the photo above with the mini drill was staged, as anything that can cut through metal can also cut through flesh and bone, and those drills are notoriously prone to flying off fore & arft if not clamped down.

Probably teaching Granny to suck eggs, but I thought it worth mentioning for the younger viewers who may be watching

[CF MRC]

I do hope the photo above with the mini drill was staged, as anything that can cut through metal can also cut through flesh and bone, and those drills are notoriously prone to flying off fore & arft if not clamped down.

Probably teaching Granny to suck eggs, but I thought it worth mentioning for the younger viewers who may be watching

Stuart, point well taken: the photo was obviously staged, otherwise I couldn't have taken the photo! However, you will observe that the blade is below the metal sheet and so could not jump over the top towards my thumb. Also I only use such powered instruments with very significant finger rests to lock one hand against the other, limiting any potential run away, as shown in earlier posts with hand instruments.

 

Tim