queensquare

Hi Dave, the production of a back to back gauge is interesting - a universaly accepted B to B for N is long overdue. What are you going to set it at? Jerry

On Highbury it is simply a moving sleeper with a chairplate next to the rail to beef up the soldered joint. Below the baseboard is a simple TOU made from telescopic brass tube soldered to a block of 1/16th PCB which is screwed to the underside of the board. A piece of guitar string (top E about 10thou if I remember) transmits movement to a hole in the middle of the tie bar. A microswitch is also mounted on the PCB for changing the polarity of the crossing - 12 years and 60 odd shows and it has never really given me a problem. I will take a picture next time Highbury comes down off its shelf. On Tucking Mill I have slightly refined the tie bar. Its still a PCB sleeper but now sits upside down ie. the copper is on the bottom. I drill two small holes just inboard of the toe of the blade and pass cut down Peco track pins up through which are then soldered to the rail which means the joint can pivot. Movement still goes to a hole in the middle of the moving sleeper but I now solder a 14BA washer over the hole to beef it up - don't forget to put insulating gaps either side of the washer. Tucking Mill is also using Cobalts albeit with a lighter gauge operating wire than that supplied as opposed to manual tube in tube operation on Highbury. Bath Queen Square will again use moving sleepers with a combination of electric and manual operation. Again I was told by a number of people that a moving sleeper was unsightly and unreliable, I have found it to be niether. Some of the tiebars I have seen described look very elegant but look a fiendish fiddle to make and I have my doubts about their robustness. Jerry

Highbury does indeed have rail soldered directly to PCB sleepers and in my oppinion doesn't look too bad. It is fairly quick and easy to make, is easy to adjust and has proved extremely robust. It is the method, certainly for pointwork, I woud always recomend for beginners for all these reasons. There is no doubt that raising the rail above the sleepers gives an improvement in appearence but is is fiddly and time consuming, whether using some form of chairplates for soldered construction or Easitrac - albeit probably worth the extra effort once a degree of confidence has been established. My current projects use Easitrac for plain track, soldered PCB with chairplates for pointwork and a few bits with code 30 direct to PCB to represent very lightly laid track. I am more than happy with the appearance of this combination, particularly when carefully ballasted and painted. In all these debates it must be remembered this is 2mm scale, its very small. The trackwork needs to be correct in its basic proportions but can get away with a mere representation of much of the fine detail. Over the years I have chatted with lots of people who were 'experimenting' with the ultimate 2mm trackwork - invariably they built next to nothing! Jerry

Sorry Rich I forgot those although some more pictures of your stock generally on Highbury, taken in more controlled conditions, would be nice sometime cheers Jerry

Hi, we had a great time at the Leamington show. The Stonleigh venue is one of the best we have been to and I'm sure the bright, airy nature contributed to the very relaxed feel of the exhibition. Do come and say hello next time you see us. Jerry

Hi David, probably will be 4 or 6 wheeled but not as crude as these old Farish offerings. I'm sure a 2mm member will produce an etch for something small and quirky that the Squire will find irresistable at some point! Jerry

Not sure I can realy justify any more 'foreign' cattle wagons but I can't resist them and will look forward to building one of the Great Northern ones. Is the kit on similar lines to your MR kits? Jerry ps Chris, there should be a pm in your inbox.

A few pictures Kim took at StAlbans and Leamington on her phone. ..of course an S&D loco would have lifted this lot on its own! The locos are Rich Brummitt's pannier and 14xx on the test etches for the new 2mm Associations chassis kits with my 14xx, based on the Langley kit, in the middle. The train is entirely the work of Master Brummitt. Missy Julia's holiday special! Not the best picture but these are Rich Brummitt's lovely Siphons. Would be nice to get a better picture of these - Rich? WillJ's railbus - afraid I know nothing about the prototype or model. Must admit its not my cup of tea at all but, in the unlikely event that lines like the North Somerset Light had survived into the 21st century, its this type of vehicle which would be running services . Frome market day special - I have about double this number of cattle wagons now with several more on the way, they are a favourite type of mine. I would still like to add some sort of passenger accomadation to this train for farmers/market goers though not decided what yet. I envisage it being advertised in the public timetable as a weekly service mixed train - primarily cattle. A quiet moment showing almost the entire layout. Jerry

Adrian Colenut has posted a nice collection of pictures of Highbury taken at the recent StAlbans exhibition, they can be found here http://www.cmra.org.uk/exhib12/h21.html One shot captures Julia, (Missy) arriving in her caravan for a fortnight in sunny North Somerset. Apologies for the fat bloke who appears in one of the pictures. Jerry

I don't know if any of the 3F's that ran on the SDJ had scoops or not but the line certainly didn't have any troughs. For a start there wasn't a long enough stretch of level track! Jerry

Hi Dave, many thanks for your quick response. I shant mention the names of the shops as its their place to take up problems over supply, not mine (and I know a couple at least have raised issues with the appropriate people at Dapol). The object of my post was simply to put a more balanced view of supply problems that often occur than I felt was being put accross. This I have done so I will leave it there. Jerry

Dave's feed back is indeed excellent, however his efficiency is not reflected by Dapol's ordering and despatch department. My local model shop has shown me the paperwork from Dapol and it very often does not include listings of stock which is claimed on here is in stock. In three years of dealing with Dapol they are yet to recieve an order that is correct and complete. This is not an isolated incident, of the four shops local to me,all of whome I am on good terms with, none of them have very much positive to say about Dapol's ordering systems and two of them are Gold Stockists! Errors and misunderstandings will often occur with both sides at fault at times but to constantly blame the shops and stockists for not having what you want is neither helpful or accurate. Jerry

I've just emailed the exhibition manager at Crawley including copies of our email correspondence pointing out their mistake. I can confirm that the Crawley website is wrong and we will not be there until 2013. My own website (link below) has an up to date list of exhibitions we are attending this year. Jerry ps. who is Gerry?

Thanks for your kind comments. We are due to go to Crawley in April 2013, we are at York this April. Jerry

Tom is being far too modest, he and Will were great company and superb operators today putting on a flawless display for the public which allowed Kim and I some time to take in the rest of the excellent Leaminton show. The layout behaved itself pretty well apart from a break of about fiteen minutes when I had to get the soldering iron out to repair a broken connection on the cassette dock. I've added another picture of the new Farish WD which somehow found its way onto Highbury in the morning along with a couple of shots of the North Somerset Light's latest arrival, currently in scruffy black but soon to sport a new coat of NSLR green, and some cosmetic improvements including the nameplate 'Stephanie' . Jerry

In my view, in a word, no. Having played with a few layouts using Kaydee's (essentialy the same thing) they are not a patch on DG's in terms of flexibility and reliability when it comes to shunting. Jerry

I tried the Mike Bryant MBM's but they had two failings. Firstly, there was no delayed action without modification and secondly seperating them at the end of a show was like trying to unpick nitting! Jerry

Thanks all for your kind comments regarding the MRJ article, I was very pleased with the way they did it. Simon, I think the Shay on Highbury was a one off, something to do with that Cornish air! That said, never say never. Alan, glad the article gave you food for thought. Kim and I will be at Railex Aylesbury with John Greenwood and Wenford bridge so hopefully we can all meet up. How does a Tommy at Wenford and double headed Beattie tanks under the wires sound.......... regards Jerry

Just brilliant Julia, inspirational stuff. I have some of those Mike Bryant wheels. When can I have one of these gearboxes?!! This gearbox would open the door to all sorts of small prototypes, like Nick I fancy one of the Colenel's Ford railbuses, perfect for the North Somerset Light. Jerry ps. can we have the answers to the tree quiz please

I thought you made a very handsome couple and excellent operators. Many thanks to the Brummit brothers for their help on sunday which added greatly to what was a great weekend at St Albans. Kim took some pictures so I will upload some later if they are any good. Jerry

I've been admiringly following this thread for some time without contributing but have been spurred out of my silence by this latest set of pictures. The narrative that the set of photos relates is very evocative and portrays beautifully what was once an unremarkable, everyday scene - great modelling. Jerry

Great work Tom. The trick to keeping plasticard laminations flat is to use an odd number of layers. I would suggest adding a third, thin layer on the inside which should equalise the stresses. When building models like this I also tend to make the walls complete with all layers before assembling the building so the walls can be left under weights to dry completely flat. Looking forward to meeting up at Leamington in a couple of weeks Jerry

I'm afraid he's ours now.......... Jerry (hoping to see some of you at St Albans and/or Leamington later this month)

Thats good news Chris, I have another of these bodies stashed away. No idea I'm afraid as I'm attempting to make mine into a more generic 'typical' tanky. That said I suspect its a bit chunky all round. Jerry

Hi Mark, I had forgotten that you had one of these. Your chassis is a nice design and should have a more realistic top speed as you have got a doble reduction gear train in there. Mine is much simpler with just a single 30:1 reduction - slow running is good although it does have to be driven as the top speed is quite lively! Jerry