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Evening all, I have decided to set up a blog of my 7mm efforts mainly as I prefer the blog format to the layout threads...too much scrolling backwards to find stuff! This project was started back in BCN when I was having a 2mmFS lowpoint and I confess there is something nice about jumping between the two different scales. Rather than repeat, I will do a short summary intro here but if anyone would like to read in more detail the thread can be found here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/12616-wenford-dries-7mm-1983/ Having always been drawn to China clay and my preference these days for building extracts from prototypes to try and capture the atmosphere, Wenford came in to being probably from an image seen in Maurice Darts superb book ‘Cornish china clay trains in colour’. This seemed the ideal chance to build a small 7mm toe dipping exercise in the senior scale. A Bachmann Brassworks 08 was purchased secondhand and at that time I think the Dapol 08 was not known about. This was followed with 4 Skytrex clay hoods, a Skytrex vent van and a Slaters Brake van kit to recreate the photo from the book. Could this be the first layout where I had bought all the stock prior to layout construction and not end up with an inversely disproportionate stock box to the size of the layout? Well...it could have been if Dapol hadn’t have brought out that 08 at bargain prices! It started with a sketch as most of my layout ideas do...and the use of Ikea Lack shelves as boards... This was developed into a small scale model in white card... Mock ups were produced using crude track templates...this took some time to get right... This was then mocked up with boxes to give a sense of the dries building... Track building commenced in UK using C+L turnout in a bag kits...and Deb’s 31.5mm gauges Track was completed and wired a couple of years ago... And then that Dapol 08 appeared which just had to be purchased... Following some running sessions it all went quiet again until now as I am having another 2mmFS low point! Time to refocus and good to zoom out a little. This brings us almost up to date as the next step is to laser cut the fascias at work from 3mm plywood. I have drawn the CAD plans but decided to mock up the proscenium arch before I cut out 10 or so sheets of ply Armed with foamboard last weekend and a couple of hours I mocked up one end and some of the building at the rear. This led me to reduce the viewable part of the layout to 250mm high which given the width is ok I think proportionately (the initial 300mm height looked too much when first made) It’s crude but has allowed me to tweak the CAD plans accordingly so well worth the effort. Infact I have just brought home some more foamboard to review and build the opposite end and I may try to undertake that this weekend. Here’s some images of the mock up... The main idea of this layout is to try and demonstrate that it’s possible to have a bit of fun in a small space even with 7mm scale. Although quite limited in its scope, it does allow you to shuffle and rearrange the wagons around and the Dapol 08 is soundchipped with the Paul Chetter DCC sound chip which sounds terrific. Another board could be added to the right hand end to make the passing loop but for the moment the aim is to try and complete this as a way of gradually easing into the scale due to more and more frustrations with eyesight and patience as I grow older As always, comments welcome, Pete

https://www.facebook.com/tim.hall.146/videos/1482512998519610/?t=4

Progress on the Slaters Simplex took a step back , a combination of 'Chemo lethargy' and 'cock up'. I was dismantling the loco prior to getting it ready to prime the body work and decided to try and test run the chassis having slightly increased the back-to-back to make it run through my points correctly. Unfortunately disaster struck and the DCC sound chip let the magic smoke out. A repair/replacement is on its way I hope thanks to Digitrains. I also decided to revisit my decision to abandon the 'Stour valley project' which I had made when I first got my unpleasant diagnosis back in February. At the end of the day none of us knows how long we have but what I do know is that I have more time available for modelling now than I've ever had before and I had damn well better make use of it! To that end I packed up the centre boards of Fen End Pit and got back out of the garage the two boards I'd built which had the goods yard for Clare built on them. There was a bit of work to do replacing a relay board I'd 'borrowed' for Fen End Pit but the track is now all wired and working back to the point I had previously got to. That has given me the chance to run a P4 loco up and down again which has been fun. I've got the next baseboard pretty much drawn up ready to cut, that will feature the platforms and station building. Also I've restarted work on a old old old project. A few years ago I was given a kit for a Crownline J20 which a friend had had 'maturing' in his cupboard. The packing date on the box says it all. The kit is very much 'old school', had drawn artwork for the etches (you can tell as they are sometimes not quite a symmetrical as you might like). The biggest issue I've had so far is with the splashers over the wheels. These were clearly designed to house oversize wheels with steam-roller flanges and were about 2-3mm too big in terms of their diameter, This has meant a lot of work because the holes for them in the foot-plate were equally oversized. I've got one side completed now and it isn't looking too bad. As an experiment I tried modelling up the sandboxes in 3D CAD and then printing on the resin printer. I was quite happy with the results and may opt to use them rather than battling with the rather crude etches of the kit. Amazingly the little .5mm x..5mm L section around the bottom of the sandbox came out in the print. Bear in mind this is ~10mm x 5mm x 6mm. Hoping for a 'site visit' to Clare over the weekend for some more photographs if I can stay awake long enough with the current quantity of drugs and the heat! David

Having received my most attractive-looking 14XX from Hattons last week, I have finally got round to running it in, as per the instructions provided with the loco. I have added lubrication to the two locations under the chassis keeper plate, and also to the coupling rod bearings, as per the instructions. I did test it briefly yesterday, but it wasn't a particularly good slow speed runner 'straight from the box'. I have cut out a circle of Daler board this morning, to lay my circle of Lima set track out on, so that I can put the test circuit down in a room that I can close off from feline curiosity. I do hope that the running in process works, as initial testing on the circle of track was very disappointing, with very uneven running, at both slow and moderate speeds. I will update this blog in due course.

A little puzzle for you... On the left is a new tank which has just escaped from the paint shop. ICI supplied chlorine to Hayle in the early years before Ethyl/Octel had their own chlorine works at Ellesmere Port and there was a period during which both Octel and ICI tanks were seen together. The tanks were made by different companies for different customers but both to the same RCH design, so they look similar but there are plenty of detail variations. No credit will be given for saying that the logos are different And now for a slightly different puzzle. Spot the similarities!

Having now glued all the cosmetic half chairs onto this copper-clad point, I tested it with a few locos this afternoon, to ensure that I had cut the inner chairs down sufficiently to ensure that Bachmann etc. flanges wouldn't foul them. Here is Peckett 'Plantagenet', which has RP25 wheels running over the point: Ex-LNER J72 'Charlotte', sold to the NCB, may occasionally be found on hire to the outrageously improbably light railway that will have running powers into the BR goods yard on my new layout: I also ran some locos with proprietary chassis, including a Bachmann pannier, a Hornby Peckett and my DJM/Hattons 14XX, all of which had no problem running through the points or fouling any chairs. The tandem turnout can now go into the drawer with the other completed pointwork. I may now built the remaining two A5 points that I need, but I'm being tempted by the prospect of a loco or two.

A little white ago, we left the chassis soap opera with this cliff-hanger "Coming in part 3, mounting the motor and meshing the worm & wormwheel". Well, it's here at last!. The chassis block and frames have been trimmed up thus This chassis is a particularly unfancy set of ironmongery, referring back to the prototype photograph in part 1 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1345/entry-14132-peckett-y-class-framed-part-1/ Note the lack of anything resembling guard irons. They've either been knocked off or deleted by a cost-conscious accountant. I suspect the latter. Anyway, it's jolly convenient for a lazy person like myself. The ends of the chassis have been given a recess where the buffer beam will sit, in order to avoid a short circuit across the split frames. Next on the agenda is how to power the locomotive. I chose to use the flat sided can motor available from the 2mm Scale Association. This is a compact powerful and smooth-running unit. It has a pair of mounting holes in one end which accept an M1.0 thread (12BA can also be used). Here's the motor and worm. The worm & wormwheel are Association products from several years ago but are none the worse for that. I needed to use the motor in an upright configuration which meant there was not a flat surface allowing the motor to be glued in position. To be perfectly honest, I'm not a fan of glueing motors in place. It's a perfectly sound practice and with the right adhesive, will give no problems. It's just that I prefer a slightly more engineered solution. What was needed was a strong right-angled section to mate up with the chassis block and hold the motor rigidly in place. I chose to use a section of 12mm aluminium angle of the type available from DIY stores. This has the hard work done as a slice of it will give an accurate 90 degree angle. It was drilled and shaped using my Proxxon MF70 mill and finished off with files. A mill isn't necessary, it's just a quick way of achieving the end result. Hopefully the photos will show the small amount of shaping and drilling needed. The base was tapped 12BA for the mounting screw. The large countersink is to accomodate the bearing boss of the motor, so it sits flush against the mount. With the motor attached, it should now be clear it's held in place. The front face of the mount has a small recess to allow the mount to be as close to the wormwheel as possible. To fine-tune the mesh of the worm and wormwheel, the base is carefully sanded on some wet & dry paper glued to MDF. Working slowly using a circular motion, it's possible to reduce the dimension quite precisely. The fixing screw is placed in the chassis then the mounting is screwed in place. It is just a fraction narrower than the central chassis block thus electically isolated from the frames. A single mounting screw has proved quite sufficient to hold the mount in place as there's quite a bit of friction between the mounting and the chassis block. If it becomes necessary, a small shear-pin can be inserted to lock everything in position. The worm is slipped onto the motor shaft and as can be seen, the meshing is just about right. There are a number of ways to get the worm/wormwheel mesh correct. For every combination, there is a specific dimension of axle centres but as these are at right angles, I personally don't find it easy to use. Originally, I started off using either a "Rizla" cigarette paper or a sliver of aluminium kitchen foil to set the meshing clearance. Nowadays, I tend to eyeball it and work by feel, knowing from experience how much backlash there needs to be on the wormwheel. The photo below shows the result Using a steel worm on the motor shaft, there is a way to check the mesh is a happy one. The worm is reamed out so it easily rotates on the motor shaft but has no perceptible clearance. This allows the worm to be spun on the shaft by fingertip to ensure there are no tight spots and it all rotates freely. A fingertip is a surprisingly sensitive measuring device! Once everything is confirmed OK, the worm will be secured with a drop of Loctite. Now we can try the chassis against the body. The unused end of the motor shaft needs some trimming to fit. This is marked with a felt tip permanent marker and will be cut off using a carborundum disc in a mini-drill as the motor shaft is hardened steel. The shaft won't be completely cut back as I want to try mounting a small flywheel, simply to see what effect it might have. This brings the progress on this loco up to date. The next instalment will hopefully cover the fitting of the coupling rods, flywheel and wires to the motor. Oh yes, I fibbed about the "small recess allowing room for the wormwheel". I made a mistake with the position of the mounting hole and had to relieve some of the mounting to allow the wormwheel to rotate because I did not particularly want to make another mounting...!

Planning for Hayle North Quay has progressed a bit. I have now sorted out a 2d plan by combining a transparent bitmap export of the plan from Templot with some colouring in done using Inkscape. The overall depth of the layout will be 22 inches at the ends and 24 inches in the middle. The Octel office block and the whole of the Esso depot have been subjected to quite a lot of fore and aft compression but hopefully I've still managed to keep the character of the place. I've also also pulled this together with the various 3d mockups of buildings that I've heen mucking about with for ages and added some expanded polystyrene hills to make a 1/4 size 3d mockup. The snow white hills have now been sprayed with various mixes of acrylic through my third best (5 quid) airbrush to make them a bit less stark. A hairdryer was deployed to persuade the paint to dry. I'll probably still do a few more bits and bobs to the mockup - like adding in some boundary walls and maybe adding a bit of colour to the buildings... and also make those chopped up orange biro oil tanks show up rather better against the rock face behind. Overall I'm reasonably happy with it although there are a few things that I want to adjust when I do the full size version. At the moment the only track gradient is up to the Octel works. I might add more on the real thing but also need to think about wagons rolling away. I still need to add some coal piles on the quay itself. At the moment the middle foreground looks pretty empty. I might also experiment to see how things look if I extend the dunes up as a painted backscene. I had some bits of LED strip left over from our new kitchen that was done last year so some of this was repurposed and fed from South Yard's lighting controller. It's a bit bright for such a small mockup but it does the job. Next job is to start thinking about baseboards... at the moment I'm thinking in terms of 6mm birch ply. Some photos - one overall and one of each of the main clusters of buildings.