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Hi all, As we ease ourself into a BH weekend just to let you know that Kyle will be attending the RAILEX virtual show tomorrow Saturday 29th May 2021. The layout was lined up to attend the original show but will appear at a date to be confirmed when some sense of normality returns. Meantime, I was honoured to be asked to be part of the virtual show and details can be found here: http://www.railex.org.uk/index.php On my layout page there will be a selection of Chris Nevard photos in addition to a short video that I shot especially for the show. Look forwards to see you (virtually) there Pete

When Hornby released their generic 4 and 6 wheeled coached I picked up a 6 wheeler to convert to an Engineer's Coach. The coach was broken down into its component parts almost immediately. I made a scratch built solebar footstep from a piece of Microstrip. This was held in place with brackets made from staples fixed into thd solebars. The original Hornby footboards had their stays removed and holes drilled for strong piano wire in their place. Recipricating holes were drilled in the floor of the coach. On the foot boards cut outs were made for the axleboxes. Everything was then glued into place. I changed the buffers and coupling hooks for some Lanarkshire Models versions from Mr. Frank's. I also replaced one of the battery boxes with a tank for variety. The underframe was then sprayed with Halfords grey primer and satin black. The roof was hand painted with Vallejo acrylics and suitably weathered with a spray of Tamiya NATO black. Some of the door window frames were painted a wood colour. Existing numbers were removed with a blunt cocktail stick and HMRS numbers used in their place. The 'D' and 'ED' transfers were from a CCT Grampus sheet. Everything sealed with Klear brush painted then airbrushed with Vallejo satin varnish. A wash of Vallejo acrylics was then applied and wiped off with a damp cotton bud. Underframe weathering was airbrushed on with an homebrew of Tamiya NATO Black and Brown. I found a set of vacuum pipes to finish. Overall a nice little project which in my eyes lifts the model nicely. Here's an engineer's train accompanyied by a an ex NBR J36. Cheers, Mark

I've gradually been adding the remaining smaller details, which seems to take up a lot of time. This first photo shows those at the front end. The lamp on top of the smokebox was included as a "fold-up" job on the etch (similar to a typical 2mm axlebox). The handle is rather delicate and hasn't survived the process of soldering it together, but I don't think you can see it well anyway. I will make the lens using PVA glue after painting. The smokebox door handles are made from etched handrail knobs, while the smokebox hinge is made from some bits of scrap nickel silver. The "taps" beneath the smokebox are a bit over-scale, but this was as small as I could get them, again from bits of nickel silver (the handles are 0.2mm wire). The vacuum pipe is bent up from 0.5mm annealed copper wire as I couldn't get a sharp enough bend in the equivalent width of brass wire. Following Pete Wright's article in the 2mm Magazine (reprinted in the Loco Bits and Pieces booklet), I soldered on thin fuse wire collars at the top, and just used solder to represent the thicker iron section at the top. The coupling hook is a spare from a wagon etch as I forgot to include any on my etch for this loco. All of these bits were soldered on - easier said than done as they are rather fiddly! The vacuum pipe at the rear of the tender is made in a similar manner, as seen below (apologies for the large water droplet on the side of the tender - this was taken after washing ready for painting). I must now make the missing vacuum pipes for all of my other stock! Here you can also see the tender handrails, made from 0.2mm nickel silver wire and etched handrail knobs. With these, solder is used to make them round. This next photo shows two attempts at making some of the boiler pipework. The left-hand one was the first attempt, but was deemed far too big and I reduced the diameter of each of the bits. This is really getting into the realms of approximate representation! These are glued in place under the boiler using Araldite, as I figured I had zero chance whatsoever of soldering them on without the bits of the valve all coming loose. You can see the pipework in place in this next photo, along with most of the remaining bits. The loco handrails are again made from 0.2mm nickel silver wire and etched handrail knobs. The main handrail is all one piece, with 9 knobs to fit at once. It is soldered where I could get at it from the inside, with the remaining knobs glued into their holes. The rather ugly but characteristic feed pipes on the firebox were made from brass wire with little fuse wire collars to try to represent the fittings at the top. The whistle was a brass turning made in the mini-drill using files and multiple attempts. One or two tries would probably have done it except it took me some time to realise that the reason it kept falling apart was that I was using brass tube rather than solid rod! The valves in the top of the dome are simply brass tube with the tops flared out using a drill bit. They were an absolute pig to solder on straight. In this view you can also see the sandbox lids. Presumably they were circular on the real thing but I had to cut away quite a lot of the rear to get them to fit against the smokebox. I'm not sure whether I etched the holes too far back or what. At this point, the loco and tender are ready for the paint shop. I think I will apply a coat of primer and then see if there is any more filling work needed. More lamps are needed on the loco roof and tender, but I haven't etched one of the correct pattern - they should have both forward and backward lenses, I think, and the lamp iron slots on to the side rather than up inside. There is one glaring omission: the cab interior. I didn't include this on the etch (no idea why not), so I will have to cobble something together as it is pretty conspicuous. But I figure it will be better to fit this after painting anyway. One more detail that I have made but will fit after painting is the tablet catcher to go on the cab side. The photo below shows one as etched and another one assembled, before cutting the rod to length. It's not a particularly accurate model, but again its small and will be blackened so will hopefully be good enough.

As I mentioned in my last blog the next bit of workshop machinery I fancied trying to reproduce was a pillar drill. This proved to be quite a tricky bit of modeling just because there were so many features. I'd taken a photograph of this drill in the shed at Thelkeld. It looked to me as if the drill was originally belt driven with a 'new' electric motor powering the original drive wheel at the bottom. There then seems to be a belt which takes the drive to the top of the drill via a choice of three pairs of pulleys depending on the speed you require. I could also see the interesting hand wheel which raises and lowers the platform on the pillar. I'm not really sure exactly what all the rest of the gubbins on the top of the drill is for. Perhaps someone can enlighten me. It looked to me as if there was a handle to pull down the drill head but it looks as if this can be reconfigured to give some kind of automatic geared lowering? It looks like you could set the machine up and leave it to drill down at a preset speed? Anyway, it had lots of interesting shapes and, while I've not exactly modeled it all precisely I hope I've captured the feel of the prototype. The main pillar was divided into two and the table and bottom drive wheels printed as separate parts. Also separate are the hand wheel to lift the table and the quadrant handle. The parts took just over 4 hours to print at .04mm layer height on the Anycubic Photon. The parts took a little cleaning up but I was blown away by the detail which came out. The toothed rack behind the drill head and the teeth of the gears came out remarkable well, even the lift rod on the table has a thread on it (albeit with a rather coarse pitch than the prototype). Please bear in mind that this part is only 35mm from front to back. I intend to make some drive belts out of paper in a bit. I found a rather nice Bachmann 16mm fireman and together with workbench you can get a sense of scale. The sharp eyed amongst you will have noticed that there is a section of wall behind the workbench rather that piece of MDF and I'd like your opinion on this. I've never been any good at trying to scribe random stone so I thought I'd try a rolling pin I downloaded from the thingiverse. This printed out on my Ender 5 and looks, well frankly, a bit weird. The roller is 86mm tall and ~25mm diameter so gives a repeat in the pattern at ~80mm. I laid down a 6mm thick of layer of Sculptamold and let it go off for about 30 minutes until it was firm but still 'green'. The roller was rolled into the surface and it took the pattern well. I then made the pattern slightly less patio and more wall by adding in some extra horizontal joints in the stonework. I also found I could smooth in a little extra Sculptamold to fill in some of the joints to make the pattern so it didn't repeat so obviously. Finally I found that a coarse old paint brush could be used to apply a little more texture and strata markings to individual rocks. Do you think this will work as the inside walls of the shed? Ultimately I want something which looks like old white-washed stone. Please let me know what you think. David

A few more printing projects over the last week. I found some nice pictures on the internet of the same sort of tortoise stove I'd seen at Thelkeld. The hardest bit to model up was the 'Celtic rope' design around the top, mind you I'm not sure drawing tortoises is my strong suite. The text around the top is tiny, the letters are .8mm tall and are have .25mm of relief. That they are visible once printed is nothing short of miraculous. I couldn't actually make out the text on the raw print and it only really became visible after painting and dry brushing. Owing to my stupidity with the support structure the flue didn't come out but I can add it with a piece of Plastruct tube. I'll probably have another go. Still, the occupants of my shed will now be able to keep warm and make some tea. For reference this stove is 36mm tall by 20mm in diameter. At the same time I printed a machinist vice for the pillar drill. While on the printer I also made a load of G-Clamps, as you know you can never have too many G-Clamps. I modeled one and adjusted the size by 10% up and down to give some different sizes. You can't quite make out the 'Made in England' legend but you can just make out there is something there. Finally I got a bit silly with the hand tools. The planes were based on a page from a Stanley catalogue I found online, the adze from a picture from my friend Alan who will be getting a few more tools in the post. The planes vary from 12 to 16mm (scale 9" to 12"). The adze has a scale 3' long handle. The garage has got too cold for printing now, the resin going extremely gloopy at low temperatures. Fortunately I was able to set the printer up inside and I tried the technology outlet's Premium Low Odour resin. I guess 'Low Odour' is a relative term but at least it didn't stink the house out. I've got some sculptamold on the Stour valley castle mount now. It looks ok but doesn't photograph too well in its white state. I'll post some pictures once it gets some brown undercoat on it. David

Clare station was built in the bailey of Clare Castle (you could do that kind of thing in 1865!) and the castle motte is still present behind the goods shed. I don't have the space to model the whole mound but need to try to make something that gives the right feeling. There needs to be a bit of forced perspective going on too which complicates things. This section of the aerial photograph gives some idea of the scale of the real thing. To those who have visited over the last few years it will be clear that there are a lot more bushes and trees on the mound now than in 1947. I've made an attempt at getting a suitable shape in polystyrene and sculptamold and, as always, I'd appreciate the views of the RMWeb eyes. The main line in the foreground is curving around to Stoke at a steeper angle than the prototype because I have to make the layout fit in the room. These means that the area between the main line and the yard is bigger than on the prototype. It was mostly grass and waste ground. The scar on the motte is where the winding path up the side runs. From the opposite view the hill climbs up, with a flat area of goods yard and grass at its foot. The very top of the hill will have a number of bushes on it and possibly even a small section of wall. Moving back towards the station platforms you get a better view of the overall effect. The most obvious compression has been in the space between the goods shed and the mound, I've to bring the two closer together in order to get some degree of height to the hill. I'm hoping I can get away with it because of the viewing angle. Let me know what you think. David

Work on the lathe continued, I had several more pieces to model up and a couple of changes to some of the first attempts at detail parts. The final CAD drawing looks quite attractive. To those who think 3D printing is 'cheating' I think I should point out this was more of 'home kit production' as the lathe has almost 30 separate pieces. The parts almost filled the build plate on my Anycubic photon twice over and each print job took about 4 1/2 hours. I got the parts assembled and painted, still need a bit of weathering, but I'm quite happy with the results. I intend to make another couple of chucks and a variety of tools to go with the lathe. Meanwhile, I needed a cup of tea so put the kettle on the stove. Now I just need to make a flue for the stove so I can light it ! David

Here's another of my Edwardian G.W.R. Loco's. Built using a Roxey Mouldings etched brass kit, running on Slaters wheels with sprung compensation.

There has been a bit of progress on my model of Clare in Suffolk over the last few weeks. The goods yard area around the cattle dock is coming on and I've planted the shunting signal which protects the exit from the yard (just in front on the J15) Looking the other way and the castle mount is coming on with the start of some walls on in. These have been molded in sculptamold and I've had a go at painting lots of 'dots' to represent the stonework which seems to be lots of bits of stone held together with lime mortar. I think this was mainly stones which could be picked off fields as there is no source of 'local stone' to quarry in the middle of Suffolk. Any decent blocks would have been robbed by the locals over the years since the castle was unoccupied. The goods shed now has windows and capping stones on the gables. I've tried to replicate the strange white-washed patch on the end which I have seen in the 1950's photographs. the yard crane is just resting in place, that is why it isn't quite central on its plinth. Aerial photographs show a line of eleven wagons in the siding beyond the goods shed. I can get ten wagons in which I think is an acceptable level of compression. The yard still needs ballasting. I've started on the ground-works down toward the river bank. The line here is curved much more steeply than the prototype and the bridge is shorted and on a curve. I'll make something similar to the original. I was surprised just how slim the centre pier is, one of my pictures allows you to count the bricks across the top and it was only 5 stretchers wide, so about 4'. As we don't exist in the movies where the protagonist can just say 'enhance that' when a blurry image appears I'd like your views on what this might be. Just along from the end of the cattle dock the aerial photo shows this. yes, that is as large as it goes. Guesses anyone?

So Phil asked 'Could your gadgetry print wagon bodies' and attached a photograph of a Cavan and Leitrim 3' gauge 4-plank coal wagon and a 2D drawing he'd made. Well I couldn't let that challenge go could I? Over the course of the festive season we have bounce various images and drawing back and forth as I hopefully got closer to the prototype. Photographs are somewhat elusive, I don't think many people who got to travel on the C&L bothered taking pictures of mundane old coal wagons. This one is an unusual prototype with a pair of hinged doors on each side - quite how the middle section of the side stayed up is a bit of a mystery, there is some metal bracing on the inside and outside but it all looks a bit sketchy to me. The wagons is about 60mm x 30mm in 4mm scale and I added some internal support to help prevent any warping of the sides. I took some advice from RMweb about print orientation and support and the first results came out pretty well. There is a slight diagonal line on one end which will disappear with a little sanding and paint. Once the support structure was removed the body sits square on the deck and I think should paint up quite nicely. I think I might slightly reduce the length of the bolts, I didn't know how they would come out and I might slightly increase the depth of the gap in the planks to make it more visible. The body is designed to fit onto an etched chassis which includes the solebars. There is a recess in the buffer beams on the inside to accept this. All in all a rather fun little project. Now, about this weird van with a tarpaulin roof..... David

I've started making a lathe for my model workshop. Boy does it have a lot of pieces! I've still got the gearing on the drive end to do and the bracket which holds the top set of pulley wheels. I'm not slavishly copying this photograph but trying to make something which looks lathe-like. The main bed of the lathe worked out to be too big to print on the Anycubic photon in a single piece so, as it was a relatively simple shape and could be sanded easily, I printed it on my Ender 5 FDM printer. This came out really well but I did have some issues with the tolerances between the FDM printed parts and the DLP printed detail bits. The first batch of detail parts just fitted onto the build platform and took about 4 1/2 hours yesterday evening. So far I have just cleaned up the parts and tried to fit them together, the white resin is useless at showing the detail in photographs (learnt lesson purchased grey next time). I think the results are looking ok. One of the levers on the cross-slide didn't get printed (my mistake) and the little handle on one of the levers is too thin and only just holding together. The tail-stock wheel is just secured with blu-tac for now. There are a couple of rods which need to be threaded along the bed, one threaded and one plane. I'm wondering if I can get a length of 1mm threaded rod from anywhere. If the 5p doesn't give a sense of scale here is the Bachmann 16mm driver next to the lathe. I'm quite pleased with how it is coming along, it is certainly the largest and most complex thing I've done so far. * line from Galaxy Quest !

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...!