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It’s hard to believe that it’s nearly 5 years since I last wrote a blog on this forum and actually, most of the work I’m about to describe was completed about 9 months ago. I recently decided that in order to make my wagon fleet more representative of the Big 4, I needed some LMS vans. The Association shop sells 3 plastic body kits that are suitable for my era - a twin pack from the N Scale Society and a single 2mm scale version. I was concerned that the N Scale versions would look too large in comparison with my other pure 2mm scale wagons but comparison with drawings suggested that the length and height were acceptable; the problem was with the width which was about 1.5mm too wide. I therefore decided to see if I could remove sections from each end to reduce the width to match that of the 2mm scale van. The N Scale pack has sides and ends to make up into two quite different diagrams, one with horizontal planked sides and corrugated ends that I chose to model as a fitted version of D1897 (10’ wheelbase) and the other with vertical planking and ends that featured cross bracing between two end stanchions that I modelled as an unfitted version of D1664 (9’ wheelbase). D1897 Looking at the ends of this kit, it seemed that there were two places where I might be able to reduce the width. Firstly, the flat space between the side of the central ventilator and the start of the corrugations seemed too wide and secondly, there looked to be more plain plastic on the edges than seemed to be the case in photographs. This latter problem was easily solved by trimming a bit off each edge with a sharp scalpel. The problem either side of the ventilator would mean cutting the ends into three pieces which I did by scoring heavily almost all the way through from the back with a P cutter and then finishing off the cut with a scalpel. I then cut and filed the pieces so that the corrugations came much closer to the ventilator, trying to get a nice smooth fit between them. The ends were reassembled using a thick piece of spare plasticard behind them to strengthen the joins. Carefully scraping and filing along each corrugation helped to remove any traces of a ridge where the joins had been. A comparison between the original (left) and altered ends (right) can be seen below. To quote Eric Morecombe (and show my age a bit) “You can’t see the join” (well, hardly). The picture below shows the assembled wagon but with the area below the solebar still needing to be painted black and with one more buffer needing to be bought from the 2mm shops, followed by some darkening of the roof and overall weathering. D1664 The end of this style of van looked like being harder to deal with as I did not want to spoil the nicely riveted detail of the cross bracing nor lose the riveted detail on the corner plates. The only solution I could come up with was to replace the three plank sections either side with new ones with the planks scored slightly narrower. Again, I divided the ends into three pieces, cutting just outside the edge of the vertical stanchions. In order to retain the corner plates, I glued the edge pieces to the van sides and only after the glue had set really hard, cut the ends back leaving only the bit of plank that was visible behind each corner plate. I scribed two new pieces with three 1mm vertical planks and glued these either side of the original N scale centre piece. After fixing the ends to the sides, extra pieces of plasticard were scribed and fitted to fill in the gaps in the buffer beams. Below is a view from above to compare the width of the one of the finished vans with an un-altered N Gauge Society van kit. Finishing Off To create some variety in both chassis style and colour, I chose to model the vans as follows :- D1897 - this is modelled as a fitted van with clasp brakes as appears in the photo of number 506818 on page 45 of the 2010 reprint of Essery’s LMS Wagons Vol 1. D1664 - I decided that this wagon would be unfitted but painted in bauxite livery with 5” lettering. I numbered it 264131 as per the picture of a van in BR livery on page 39 of Essery’s book. Although the photograph shows the ends of this van having slightly different strapping, I hoped these were later additions and also that the van was from one of the unfitted batches as I could not see the brake details from the photograph. Also, there was no evidence that the van would have received the bauxite livery, but I doubt if anyone can prove it one way or the other. The vans are shown below posed in front of Tavistock’s trainshed, still needing painting of the roofs, weathering and buffers. The left-hand van is from the 2mm Scale Association kit, modelled in LMS grey as an unfitted D1808, number 131391.

The aibrush now turns to the sides of the locomotive and has been loaded with a mix of frame dirt and weathered black. The former is prominent - only a small amount of the latter has been added to the mix. A very light coat has been sprayed along the bodywork and immediately manipulated by brushing downwards with a dry 1/2" flat shader. The paint was drying fairly quickly and the use of a dry brush moved it downwards inconsistently. The result is a deliberately uneven layer of dirt.

The floor of the warflat is just enticing for a weathering and using my previous experience on the TMC double bolsters I set to tackle this in a similar way albeit longer.I'm a big fan of Lifecolor acrylics [weathered wood set] and used them here. I painted the base colour with a normal round brush but the dry-brushing was done with two different size shader type. Two coats of 713 warm dark shade were applied. Followed by dry-brushing 714 wood warm base all over the deck. Then I used 716 wood warm light, 717 wood cool base and 718 wood cool light shade in different amounts to taste applied with the small shader type brush. The photos below shew it stage by stage.Keep doing it till you get the effect you want. A friend will be giving it a blow over with his airbrush which will blend everything in before I think about adding a load for them.

The second test etch for the Easichas for the Hornby J15 arrived via Brassmasters. Once again a superb etching job by PPD. Most of the mistakes from the first etch were corrected, though there are a couple of minor changes to be made based on actually putting this together. I've also been putting together the instructions and one of the other Brassmasters has been attempting to follow them! I'm really happy with the way the basic chassis goes together and very pleased with the fold-up brake gear design which makes the brake hangers and brake blocks very easy to assemble. The chassis, coupling rods and brake gear went together well, I need to allow a gnat's* more clearance between the brake shoes and the wheels but that is easily corrected on the etch. The half-etch detail parts for the brake pull rods worked well to. The tender chassis needs some changes but I was able to make these physically with a piecing saw and virtually on the CAD drawing so that at least I was able to put it together to track down any other problems. The main loco chassis can be assembled and tested for rolling away from the Hornby body which is great for checking wheel quartering, clearances etc. The rods across the chassis for the brake gear get removed later allowing the brake gear to be removed and the wheels to be dropped out. The tender chassis is sprung with 'Continuous Springy Beams' and runs very nicely. I need to adjust the spring support points as the unit currently runs about .5mm low, but that is an easy fix on the drawing. The chassis disassembled nicely for priming and painting and all went back together again afterwards. I'm very pleased with the result which will be on the Brassmasters' stand at Scaleforum on Saturday. David * that is a British Standard Gnat, a little more than a smidgen but less than a bit.

It begins.....

For some time now the denizens of Tweedale have been clamouring for better passenger train accomodation, having become dissatisfied with the old brake van that has been used hitherto. Personally I can't think of a nicer way of travelling along lazy bylines, but there is no accounting for taste, and the Tweedalers disagree. So the railway company has finally given way and obtained a Park Royal railbus. Sadly this was found to be too long for the line's sharp curves and short platforms (both practically and aesthetically), so Grimley Engineering were entrusted with the task of adapting it to suit the railway's needs. OK lets face it, Tweedale doesn't really need a railbus, but I saw shortliner's thread describing a cut-down Budd railcar in the US subforum, and couldn't resist having a bash at something like it myself. The chassis came from a Model Power Plymouth diesel, picked up at an exhibition for 16 pounds. You don't see many locos around at that price these days, so I wasn't expecting great performance, but it was cheap enough to risk a try. The body was unscrewed and removed (I'm sure it will come in useful one day)... The chassis was attacked with a hacksaw and cut down to the bare necessities... The wheelbase is only half that needed for the full length railbus, but as the motor drives just one set of wheels it looks like it would have been fairly easy to cut the chassis and move the unpowered wheels out to suit. Instead I chose to leave the wheelbase as it was and halve the length of the body (approximately), giving a dumpy little railbus more in keeping with the layout's compressed nature. The body is of course from the Dapol plastic kit. Shortening the sides was straightforward, but filling and sanding the cut in the roof to blend it in was a chore. The railbus arrives at The Pits on a test run. The crowd look suspicious. Nobody gets on. Perhaps they haven't grasped the concept of sliding doors on a train. Whatever next, disembodied voices telling them to mind the gap? At Poshington Upon Twee nobody greets its arrival. The novelty has worn off already. I have to say, its not a particularly smooth runner. On the level its not too bad, but it struggles getting up the gradient at Poshington, with a lot of wheelslip and shaking, despite a traction tyre on one wheel. Still, I enjoyed myself building the thing. Some interior details will be added in due course, which might help distract attention from the motor and ballast weight inside, though they are not too noticeable. Cheers, Alan.

First reflections from being back in the hobby: Railway modelling rewards patience and perfection! Problem - The back to back points at the interface of the main lines and the station just didn't work for the majority of the stock. This interface is crucial for the story, as trains that are running on the left hand side should cross here to access the station and it would be a killer to know that trains would always derail here. Solution - Ordered an Hornby LH express point (R 8077) and the matching small radius half turn (R628) to smooth the frog-shock as a train crosses the junction. This helped, but didn't eliminate the problem, so an old Peco point was cleaned and put into service on the other side of it (Picture). This solved the problem, but opened up a Pandora's box of other problems! Firstly by going with a Streamline point the set-track geometry was thrown out of kilter and the electrofrog caused a huge amount of problems for a while, until i got my head around the electrical implications. Problem - Point motors. Enough said Solution - None found and still some points are unpowered Problem - Wiring all over the place, especially the common power and earth to and from point motors Solution - Box file signal box containing the CDU and connections to the Peco levers (picture) Problem - Flat track that wouldn't fit the scenic back-story Solution - Woodland scenic risers. Excellent and so easy to use! (picture) Overall result is better, but not perfect...! Possible next steps: Replace standard points with the Hornby express points, which seem like a great product and still conform to the settrack geometry, although not everyone agrees and tidy up the track interfaces and flexi-track curves.

it`s been a bit of a while........ But I`m aiming to get this project built over the next six weeks.... So, with the loco chassis 90% complete and pending the fitting of replacement Slaters drivers I`m pushing on with the bodywork. Like most modellers I`ve replaced those vulnerable white metal lampirons and loco whistle with lost wax castings from LGminiatures At the same time I drilled all 40 odd holes in the mazak body casting. I used a cordless drill and kept dipping the drill bits in neat washing up liquid and did`nt break a single drill. I thought the cab backhead was a tad too high bearing in mind the cab roof has lots of internal detailing and there is a lot of pipework at the very top of the cast backhead to be fitted in place so i reduced the height...... The most awkward part was folding the thick etched cab and keeping the window frames from buckling........... I`ve done about 90% of the chassis now........ ...and quite a bit of fettling with the front bogie pivot and rear axle to get her to negotiate a B7 turnout....... as most modellers now know , the original Hatchette drivers are completely useless for turning her into a working model so I have a replacement set of proper Slaters wheels....

When the driving wheels were being airbrushed, the paint was being applied to the complete underframe on each pass of the airbrush. Spraying started off the left hand end of the model and continued along the whole length, not stopping until the airbrush had passed the other end of the model. This produced a relatively even coat of dirt everywhere under the running plate. In later stages this evenness will be disrupted by other materials and effects that are intended to show the differing shades and textures present on the real thing, coming from differing sources and influences. You can see where there is some overspray on the side of the tender and cabside where I made no attempt to protect the original paintwork. This approach was taken because I knew that there would be more paint to add and the overspray would act as a 'base coat'.

Evening all, Quick update from the Mid Essex one day show held yesterday. A nice small show with a selection of quality layouts and good traders. Was a nice surprise to see Ian Futers there, having met him some years ago - bit of a modelling legend for me as his P4 Lochside layout was so instrumental when we were growing up...also was an inspiration for Kyle. The layout performed well overall with just a loose wire in the Fiddleyard noticed prior to the start of the show. A crocodile clip came to the rescue to see me through the show A few things on my list to try and sort prior to my next show later this year. Received some nice comments on the layout including the ‘where’s the other half of it’ Nice talking to 2mmFSer David Eveleigh who visited and discussing his plans for a DJLC competition entry...David won the 50 year layout competition previously. Well looked after at the show by Ken and his team including being delivered Fish + Chips and Apple Pie + Cream to my layout as was operating on my own all day. Next layout outing for Kyle is Wycrail on 2nd November - do drop by and say hello if you are attending Until then, Pete

I had been meaning to make a TCV (Twin Deck car Carrier) for my West Coast layout. This was to represent the Newton Chambers type that had been used on the 2235 Euston to Perth, and 2140 Perth to Euston during the 1970s. Sorting through my leftovers Box gave me a few things to work with. Although not 100% correct, and not super detailed, it will do for my purposes. It used up some time now the weather had turned wet. The project took about ten hours spread over five days. Finished item, on the rear of 1M12 2140 Perth to Euston as it passes through Watford. Main components, roof, underframe, and cast ends left over from a B H Enterprise kit. Cast ends stuck to the underframe, and roof section cut to fit. The lower well deck added. The underframe had a slight recess filed so that the thin plasticard sides would fit flush under the main side panel. A bit of Balsa used as strengthening. Some plasticard sheet cut for the sides and glued into place. The cast ends were then filed flush with the sides. The roof section has five windows each side. Rather than drill the windows out I used some bits of card, which would be painted a different colour from the roof to represent the glass. A coat of Rail Grey applied as undercoat. The cast ends had the original detail filed off and replaced with thin strips of plasticard. Some TPM brass buffers added. As the bogies have a reduced wheelbase I shortened some Minitrix Bogies by taking 4mm out of the middle. Joined together with a bit of plasticard strengthening, and a new pivot hole drilled afterwards. I used some masking tape to cover the rail grey, before painting the rail blue sections, and the roof. Some Ultima roof vents added. Unfortunately I hadn't got the correct transfers, so used some old Pressfix lettering to finish. The top windows in the roof painted a lighter gloss grey to represent the glass. Passing Linslade on the back of 1M12.

Fair enough, I know its a bit of a model railway cliche but the only place I could put the bus to get a picture was on the bridge. So there we are, more of a minibus than a full sized one. By the Edwardian era trams were very much the commonest public transport but I have seen pictures of this sort of small bus in the area. I think they were effectively used as a family sized taxi with seating for about six people at a push. It is based on a Scale Link etch, the figures are Andy Stadden though the driver has been Mikkelised with new arms. A loco rebuild next inline on the bench.

The station building that fronted Freshwater Station from 1889 until it was demolished to make way for a Co-op supermarket, was the largest and grandest of the stations of the Freshwater, Yarmouth and Newport Railway. It comprised the two storey Station Master's house, with single storey booking hall, waiting rooms and conveniences, and was extended at some time to add a parcels office. It was red brick, with tiled roof rather than slates. The brickwork was quite ornate around the eaves and around the division of the two storeys, and an unusual brick bond was used - Flemish Garden Wall Bond. This is formed by 3 stretchers then one header rather than the one stretcher, one header pattern of normal Flemish Bond brickwork. The roof tiles as also not straightforward. There are 5 rows of rectangular tiles, then five rows with scalloped edges, and so forth. See http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/f/freshwater/ for more images of the real thing. I did not fancy trying to fabricate such an ornate building from card or plastic-card, and as I had been playing with 3D printing, this seemed to be the obvious candidate for my next experiment. In the end, it took a year to complete the 3D model on the computer. Every brick and every tile is a separate 3D object, merged into an inner skeleton of walls. I duplicated rows and areas of bricks and tiles where I could, but it was still a slow and tedious process. A few test prints of part of the building were purchased from Shapeways to check the proportions, and the details as it progressed. I knew the window frames and ridge tiles were beyond the current abilities of 3D printing, so I made the window apertures to suit some etched brass sash window frames available from Brassmasters, and made a groove at the top of the roofs that an etch from Scalelink fitted. The notice boards have been added from the Trackside Signs range, but apart from that, and a little paint, the building is exactly as it was delivered from Shapeways. The brick and tilework has been rendered crisply and clearly on three sides. The side that is not so good is, of course, the side that is facing the public on the layout. Ian Morgan Hampshire Edit: Here is a screenshot of the 3D model in Blender:

At the Euskirchen exhibition, I asked Peter to use his camera to try to replicate some of the source photos I have of the real Freshwater. After some manipulation, here are the results: It shows some irregularities, and focal length differences, but the main one is the position of the buffer stop in the horse box photo. It is positioned correctly according to the OS map, but does not match the photographic evidence.

To make a change from printing corrugated iron I thought I'd have a go at printing some window frames and brick plinth. Fen End Pit's architectural consultant pointed out that glass panes in this kind of window would never have been square. I intended these to look like cast iron frames with a hinged opening section in the centre. I intend to add a window sill to cover the edge of the lower section of 'wiggly tin'. The base of the building was intended to have a brick plinth, this would have been two bricks thick so I've gone for a Flemish bond. As it is only 4 courses high it 'only' took about 2 hours to print. All I've done so far is paint it brick red and then paint the mortar with acrylic mix of white and tan. I've now got the entire roof covered and the pins in place for the fastenings the timber around the doors is also complete. I've now got most of the new track ballasted (or should that be 'sanded') which is means that the new board begins to look much more complete. David

Thanks to various comments on and offline the curvy roofed option won! I drew up the timber frame in TurboCAD and cut it out in 6mm ply on the laser-cutter this lunchtime. The resulting structure is 'quite large'. One of the reasons I opted for the curved roof was that I'd solved the problem of how to make curved corrugated iron. With any products available as sheets, either corrugated copper from Ambis or plasticard it is almost impossible to bend in circumstances where you want to, such as for a curved roof. However I tried to produce some wiggly-tin on my 3D printer and amazingly it worked! The curves of the corrugations are such that the model prints without support and each scale 8x3 sheet takes about an hour print. After a coat of primer and a little finishing the resulting surface is pretty smooth and I think works for my requirements in 16mm scale. Because I've managed to CAD model and print my own I found it was easy to make the corrugated 2D sketch extrude to follow the line of a radius in the other direction. So I was able to print the curved section of iron for the roof of the building at the correct radius to make it fit. So I have viable way to make what I hope will be a suitably agricultural fenland shed. Looks like the 3d printer will be working overtime. David

When I joined RMWeb and posted some pictures to a gallery (3 Dec 2011) I had reached the stage where the train shed roof for Tavistock was structurally complete but needed the slates added to it. The picture attached shows the roof as it was last Saturday. The slates I have used in the past on the station building were produced by Ian Barefoot under the trade name of ClearSolutions and are printed as sticky labels on good quality paper. As these worked very well for the building roof, I decided to use them again on the train shed roof - the style I chose was the random grey sheet of Duchess sized slates. Picture attached. Before cutting out the strips of slate, I also cut through the visible parts of the vertical joins between each slate. Although time consuming, I think this is beneficial as when weathered, this allows the joins to show up better. By yesterday afternoon I had reached the stage shown in the final picture - slates added to each of the sky lights ( the dormer shape openings) and the first 6 rows added to the main part of the roof.