Klaus ojo

Valentin, a really nice model and nice work! Thanks for showing Please allow some questions: There wouldn´t move any rods or pistons, would there? Do you know the composition of the 70° solder? And is it brittle? (The Rose Metal I have is very brittle, appox. 100°C melting temp., contains Pb,Bi,Sn) My own attempts in soldering whitemetal were not so convincing until now... The most common sources of the 70° solder do not tell much about composition but they should do so. AFAIC there are mainly 3 alloys in that temperature range: Woods Metal is containing lead and cadmium and the 2 other candidates are Indium alloys which are rather dear and so unlikely to be used (or explicitely would have been advertised therefore: for the 50g bar this is 10 quid for the Indium alone at sourcing ) The SDS I´ve found: https://belmontmetals.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/SDS-Bi-Low-Melting-Alloys-1.pdf (It´s the cadmium I´m concerned, not the lead.) So precautionally keep your hands and desk clean . cheers Klaus

Dear n9 a double slip is a complicated little thing and Peco´s one is not one of the worst, although designed to cope with oldest track and wheel standards. With your high expectations: Have you ever considered to build your own turnout? That is having 2 advantages: You are getting a better idea what is necessary to make a turnout work and you can do one to your very needs. If you are designing your turnout with moveable wingrails (just like high speed turnouts of the prototype; or a moveable crossing vee ) you will be able to run without wobble - given that you are capable of building your trackwork that smooth. (If you are having access to 2mm Scale association archives: In Magazine 6/1990 Brian Tilbury is showing his approach) I´ve attached a picture of my little experiment. You´ll need a special pivot bar or 2 drives to operate it. Do not add checkrails then. The finetrax turnouts on Alston seem to be the older design with an inserted milled crossing. The new easy build (wooden sleeper!) turnouts are with a continous rail which may allow even better running properties. Worth a try. I only know and like the 2mm FS version of both single and douple slip (which is from the same manufacturer and basically the same design but with finer 2mmFS standards). Klaus

Tom, I´d agree with Bob: staight track is no problem and curves as well, as far as they are having a large radius. I´ve tried a narrower wheel gauge of 8.9 mm with a BR class 11 (otherwise to 2mm FS standards) and it did run astoundingly well on N Kato track even with an approx. 290 mm radius and simple turnouts. However, your code 55 is sounding like Peco. The gap at the crossing at the Peco turnout I have is 11mm long and 1.3..1.4 mm wide and at the checkrails it is 1mm. With a wheel only 1.3mm wide that is difficult. With special turnouts this might work. The FREMO FiNescale folks are running their trains on basically 2mm FS standards but reduced btb to accomodate +/- 9mm gauge. This is still not compatible to NEM standard N gauge. Klaus

Yes Keith, nice coaches! You might have seen that these coaches are some of the older prototypes. Before having air pressure brakes in coaches these had manually operated brakes as well, including cabin. German railway companies relatively early took over the Westinghouse air pressur brakes for premium passenger service, especially after a better operating Knorr brake was available which could be loosened and fastened repeatedly. Freight rolling stock was fitted much later because of higher more quantity and costs consequently. There were other attempts for e.g. mechanical brake installations to replace the need for brakemen. e.g. Heberlein brakes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heberlein_brake As railway companies often were scarce of money older rolling stock from mainline and premium service very often was reused on seconday services so these coaches may have had a longer second live later. (You might have noticed stripes at the edges of German freigth stock of the era 2 between the wars? Thats for discriminating between unfitted and fitted rolling stock and the ones with just a pipe through to be able to run in air braked trains without itself having a brake.) By the way: The wagon for Ansbach on your photo is not a Bavarian prototype (seems to be a Prussian one. This is of course more probable than the other way round a Bavarian wagon in the north . Fleischmann did many funny things with these prototypes., which are indeed nice. Of course on a model raiway everything is allowed.) cheers Klaus

Thanks for that hint. I did enjoy it very much. (For me without British background this is all quite new) for easier access: beginning at 8:45

Bill, (Well- and I´ve seen that there is something on Wikipedia as well sounding very similar) I´m not an expert in this topic, however, some reasonable assumptions based on habits on Bavarian railways - which might be better than nothing: 1-2 see rekoboy (although with the vast variety of different manufacturers, countries and railway companies for glazing everything is possible: see 6. ) 3. Was there a mandatory number that had to be manned ?: The companies ordered braked wagons in a ratio between of about 1:2 or 1:5 (braked/unbraked) in their rolling stock and used them according to topographic needs spread over the length of the train which were shorter these days. If there happened to be more braked wagons than needed, why should the surplus be manned with cost? I´ve read (but do not know the source right now) that for very steep sections (like the Schiefe Ebene - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schiefe_Ebene ) there were additional brakesmen which only did service there, left the train at next post and returned to repeat the procedure. These trains would need some more braked vans than average. edit: there was a directive "later on in 1892", see §13: https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Bekanntmachung,_betreffend_die_Betriebsordnung_für_die_Haupteisenbahnen_Deutschlands#§._33._Bildung_der_Züge. 4. Did the brakemen on a train have to be from the same Landerbahn as the engine crew?: The wagons were inter-operatable, but I´d assume the staff wouldn´t as the rolling stock in many cases was wide spread. Not the locos and staff. AFAIK typically staff and loco changed at borders. 6. Would a branch-line train always have a wagon with brakeman’s cabin from the home company, or could the brakeman occupy any convenient cabin? I´d say yes, any "convenient" cabin. There were wagons even without any cabin. It was a dangerous job and many were injured and some even died e.g. with frost in winter and summers was not better I´d suppose. Life was not worth much these days. Brachlines were different in different countries(=Ländern). Some were operated by the larger companies, some only by own staff depending on the rather individual legal and economic background. 7. Did there have to be a wagon with brakeman’s cabin at the end of the train (e.g. to prevent runaway if a coupling broke mid-train). It is reasonable to always have a braked at the end for that purpose. 8. Where the brakeman’s cabin is lower than the height of it's van and so has no commanding view.. The commands were typically given by piping from the loco so view was not essential. The very early braked wagons did not have a cabin, then there were open covers (e.g. see: www.laenderbahn-forum.de/journal/die_steintransportwagen_der_BOB/die_steintransportwagen_der_BOB.html ) followed by closed and elevated cabins. These were lowered again when electrification was more widespread beginning after 1900, well: first lines. After introduction of air brakes after 1920 the cabins were broken down step by step (leaving a simple brake stand ). 9. A Gepäckwagen is for luggage in a passenger train. Typically it was behind the loco as protection and not at the end. You are thinking of a "Güterzug-Begleitwagen" (Pwg) which was for marchalling personnel, guard/train manager and- yes- to warm up the brakesmen at stops- not when the train was running. And yes- these were braked as well. The early trains did not have Pwg, this came up after about 1880 and was more widespread after about 1900. Hope this does help. If I happen to come across further information I might add. Please correct me if some details are wrong Klaus

You do not tell much about the experience you already have. Doing a chassis from scratch you might have to overcome that "horror vacui" building up something from nothing and so for me it was a good idea to approach this step by step. Be prepared that you will redo some steps more than once until it works or you are satisfied with appearance. With soldering this is not much a problem. The publications above are fine, the 2mm conversion chassis´ as well. As said: Take something simple but large enough preferably with gearbox and frame assembly jig to "get the feeling". As quartering is more difficult with more axles the M7 would be an idea (but you need to think about how to mount the motor and worm onto the chassis) If you like something for your learning curve after that perhaps try a Worsleyworks "scrach aid kit". There are no instructions and the chassis parts are very basic but with holes etched for the correct wheel base. For details, motor and gears you need to find your way. My choice was simply plonking and glueing on a gear and a motor. If you are not posh and just want to find out if doing your own chassis might work for you: take the Worsleyworks´Class 04 diesel etch and 3 pairs of wheels (3-040 and tram etch if you do not want to bother with connecting rods and quartering ) or the Class 02 diesel and 2 pairs of 3-003 wheels for practicing a little in quartering. However, these models are quite small, the motor is only 6mm diameter. The class 04 chassis 3-680 from the 2mm SA shop is another option here and is providing jig and gearbox...and even cosmetic spoked wheel covers. Have much fun! best wishes from Klaus

Chris, thank you for this valuable information, now I feel better. I guess I´ve got the instructions for the BR class 08 together with the parts some 2 years ago. And maybe I´ve simply read it too lazily... ... I like these gizmos on the VR F class... Including the bent front grill... regards Klaus

Bruce, what a pity that I do not have broad gauge and knuckle couplers. The VR F class looks great! "Wrong gears" is an issue: I thought the BR class 08 and 11 chassis are designed for 14 and 18 teeth 64DP gears and so the mod 0.4 gears should be an acceptable substitute. However, no way at my chassis. Only the 16 teeth instead of the 18 did allow the wheels spinning smoothly. I wanted to drive all axles with wide and heavy 14 teeth gears which I have plenty of. So now I can do the cranks and coupling rods. cheers Klaus

When recently Bruce (VRBroadgauge) said that the 2mm SA kit of the BR class 11/08 was a nice thing to do I decided to have a go as well. For me it was not as straight forward as I had been hoping. The fret partly was a bit weakly etched and so I had to open the door gaps and the handles were far too thick. And I was a bit audacious deciding to do it with the soldered cosmetic outer chassis but wanted to get practice in that technique. So I got what I wanted: a learning curve. There now is a short between one side and the middle of the PCB footplate which was not there before soldering the hook onto the buffer beam. Let´s see if this will have an impact on function. I hope not. The front steps are having a gap towards the buffer beam because I wanted to avoid something like that. Now I know again why I like superglue: when mounting the door sides to the plastic bonnet it did ooze out of all gaps between the hinges. Let´s see if I´ve cleaned it up thoroughly enough when I´ve applied some base coat varnish. I want to give it a black early livery, perhaps LMS. This would be an idea as well: DSB ML 6 https://www.jernbanen.dk/forum2/index.php?id=60108 I´ve seen several photos on the internet but suppose that the choice of photos is mixing class 11 and 08 and the LMS 7120 possibly is not in original state. Personally I am not so peculiar about this but on the other hand: I still could come closer to a specific prototype, so why not? On the photo the coupling rods and cranks are not yet mounted because I am waiting for some newly ordered gears which I must have used otherwise.. And some other parts are lacking yet as well. Some hints how to proceed are welcome. (Otherwise I will show a freelance loco here in my surroundings 😉 ) yours Klaus

Hello Adam, if this still is of some value for you to compare: here a photo. Please disregard the chassis. (I made it "just for fun") cheers Klaus

Richard, I agree with Bob. You may as well file flat a side on the flange of the 3-126 long crankpins to facilitate soldering/glueing. (Preventing the crankpin turning loose is not as important on the Austerity but for return cranks on locos with Walschaerts gear) You are aware that the etch 3-640 is including a jig for the assembly of the chassis? Not the kind of the 3-270 but useful. Take 3 of the axles (if you don´t already have): The loco has 3 axles and the etched jig has holes for 3 as well. ;-) Having one surplus is not wrong. The jigs are fine and a great help but not mandatory . With some practice you can cope without - e.g. if you are having a small wallet or you like fiddling until everything is right. have much fun with it! cheers Klaus

Do you want a horsebox? see: RMweb 2mm Finescale Down Under Work Bench - Page 3 When recently we´ve been asked by Sithlord75 and VRBroadgauge if we´d like to have one of their horseboxes I said „yes“. I´ve expected to be number #17 or so on the list of applicants being told it would take some months and having to pay xyz plus p&p... Surprise!: After a fortnight there was a pouch in my postbox with a fret of a neatly etched NE horsebox! This was my inspiration to instantly begin (of course before asking for and reading any instructions. Who does? ). All went together very neatly and it was quite straight forward. A really nice model and worth running on any layout. Well- I ended up with thoroughly sweating on some scrap parts I had to remove afterwards and added a bufferbeam which was not prototypically. A look at the picture of the GNR horsebox before would have been better. I was afraid of wiggling the half etched parts when filing off the pips. The photo shows I better would have filed these off more thoroughly. The etch is providing some brake levers, handles and steps I have not yet mounted. The edges need some rework to cover the slots which were very useful for easing the bending. So I´d say: we are having a new star of etch design! Bruce, Thanks for that!

Hi Alan, if you are scrolling upwards you can look it up how beginning times are changing. There will be a reminder here and at VAG. The 2 different times have been arranged since last year specificly to allow members from the Americas to join in at least once a month after someone from California wanted to participate Now our brave friends from Downunder get up very early in the morning each month... Be prepared to put your screen and camera onto your workbench and do some modellng while chatting- or in front of your armchair if you prefer. I am participating regularly since about 2 years and felt welcome from the beginning! Here in my surroundings is no 2mm Area Group and I´d say the Zoom AG is more than a substitute for that. It is fun and encouragement. I´d assume that you soon might be able to see Chris´presentation somewhere on the 2mm site or on Youtube... see you! Klaus