Weekday Cross

Whilst "Jet Propelled" would be a little fast, you would be surprised just how fast locos were operated on the real thing whilst shunting. The slow, almost imperceptible crawl seen on many exhibition layouts is hardly prototypical

Is anyone thinking of converting their Sentinel shunter into a railcar? I gather the early railcars were based on the shunter chassis.

Superb locos! Any chance of a view of the chassis without the bodies on? As for lining the coaches, my limited experience with Midland/LMS coaches was to paint the yellow as a broad band and then use a black rotring-style pen to draw lines down the middle. You can get these in various thicknesses and from several manufacturers. Pentel ones are available in WHS, for example.

Why is this blog not linked to the 2mm Scale Association web site? Are you just shy?

When you had the wheels turned down did you retain the wheel faces?

The bus depot was at Aldenham, near Watford - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldenham_Works

All you need is an invite to a 2mm expo in China to complete the circle It's looking very nice, whatever its ancestry. Well worth all the effort. Can't wait to see it painted glazed and weathered.

Technically, lots of Atlas chassis were built in Glasgow, as the Atlas Works was the home of Sharp Stewart , who merged into North British in 1903.

13 is on the far right of the plan, just under "LMS"

Your plan looks as if you have made the point blades too close to the opposing crossings (frogs) compared to the photo. Move the 2 ends away from each other a little more and there should be plenty of room in N gauge.

Try old-maps.co.uk This will give you the chance to specify exactly which part of the station you want to view - as well as a range of maps over many years showing how things changed.

Very puzzled by your comments about the NRM not having a search facility!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? http://www.nrm.org.uk/ResearchAndArchive/Visit/librarysothersources.aspx - but read the guide first, as they share resources with the local university, which may seem confusing at first. I used it very successfully before the rebuilding work a year or two back - and the staff were extremely helpful when I made an appointment and arrived with my exacting list of books to look at.

Here's a photo showing a few Class 22s from up above http://david-j-smith.fotopic.net/p67447886.html His site has a few more images from ground level

Thanks - it never ceases to amaze me what photos turn up on the Internet. We have a few photos of the top of the wall taken from the footpath and a distant one that I took from the Scillonian but it is very difficult to get a decent close up of the real wall because someone put the sea in a rather inconvenient place. We've concluded that there is a stong brown hue to the local stonework - this is evident in the sea wall photos and also in photos of some of the stone built houses behind the tracks. The Scalescenes retaining wall looked great when we first did it but we've now decided that it's the wrong colour. Steve - thanks. Actually I find painting the wall quite relaxing... at least on those occasions when it's going well You may find photos of the sea wall at Dawlish far more common - this has been photographed many times - http://www.southwestcoastalgroup.org.uk/dawlish%20leaflet.jpg (that's how to model the sea by the way! ) http://www.railtourinfo.co.uk/images/D1015_dawlish_050408.jpg http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=105198 and even painted. http://www.oldukphotos.com/devon_dawlish.htm - these enlarge if you click on them - the other photos of the town might be an inspiration too

The sea wall looks a huge task - the ideas you have put forward sound very interesting - quite a novel way of doing things. I agree, looking at the photos, that the sea wall and the retaining wall ought to look more or less the same colour - though the sea would regularly wash the sea wall and the retaining wall might well have been affected by different things, like the smoke from the steam locos. I found this close-up of the sea wall - http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-2283222/stock-photo-quay-wall-penzance-cornwall.html - it might help you

To change to 2mm FS would be a major leap for you - and probably require a complete change in philosophy. It seems to me that very few people in 2FS have built a substantial number of locos - and those that have will be mainly conversions of N gauge items. Conversion wheelsets are available for Farish diesels and DMUs, but not yet for steam locos, so even a steam loco conversion is quite a challenge. There are a few etched chassis kits and a small number of complete kits available, but these by no means cover the range of locos most people would want. If you want to scratchbuild locos, then remember that 2mm components are not cheap. By the time you have paid for wheels, gears, motor and other accessories you are fast approaching the cost of some of the N gauge RTR locos. Add to that the time and cost of all the other things you will need like track jigs, rail, easitrack sleepers, replacement wheels for your rolling stock etc. plus all the extra time involved - and the decision of moving to 2mm scale becomes a very serious issue. You also need to consider that 2mm layouts generally run on much wider radius curves than N gauge, so you may get far less in the same space. Do at least seriously consider the alternatives. If an N gauge loco has the right wheels for your scratchbuilt locos, buying the loco for its wheel, gears and motor might well end up cheaper and quicker than going over to 2mm scale ( especially when all the other costs and conversions are taken into account). As an alternative, I have heard of one or two people using 2mm FS wheels on N gauge track by adding a thin washer to the backs of the wheels to bring the flanges up to the same thickness as on Farish wheels. When done properly, a 2mm FS layout and stock will look nicer than an N gauge layout - especially when looked at closely. In theory, having all the components available means that you can build pretty well anything you want. The extra work involved and cost are a major issue though. To my knowledge, (though I would be happy to be corrected if I am wrong), very few individual 2mm modellers have ever produced more than a very small number of scratch-built or converted steam locos - and I suspect all but a few do little more than convert RTR diesels and rolling stock, if anything at all. There are few large, complex 2mm FS layouts - and those that have been built are almost all group efforts. If you do convert to 2mm FS you will almost certainly end up drastically limiting your ambitions. A fairly small fleet of locos and a relatively unambitious layout are the very most that you are ever likely to achieve - at least unless your determination and energy is exceptionally high. Another alternative would be to completely separate your scratchbuilding activity from your layout. If you want to scratchbuild a loco, then why not try a larger scale? There are many more components available in 4mm scale, for example.

I wonder if Bob Jones still does the Fencehouses point chairplate etches? I have used those in the past to good effect. The Easiline etches were more or less the same width as the sleepers, which did not look quite right somehow.

Will these be sold through Slimrails too?

His catalogue has been reduced quite a bit now. There are several other things I remember clearly that are not there now. Eileens Emporium has taken over some of his stuff, but I suspect some of the more miscellaneous items have been dropped altogether. Why not send him an email?

Yes, I forgot about the air intakes - then there is the roof detail, which is more understandable as the available drawings are all rather vague. I seem to remember Bill Bedford doing an etch for the air intakes, but his empire has now been split up, so I don't know if it would still be available - or from where.

My main problem for me with the kit is the fact that some parts are recessed, like the frames around the grilles, yet they should be proud of the bodywork. I understand why WW have done this, as it makes the etch much simpler and cheaper to do - and in this scale many people would be put off by extra complexity. As for the inward slope of the cab towards the front, this seems to be almost all below the bottom of the cab doors, where the plane of the lower body panelling and the buffer beam cowl takes a significant change of direction - whereas the upper part of the nose has little if any deflection - this photo shows the effect quite well... http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/1150-Dapol-class-22/page__view__findpost__p__307008 Also, the cab window middle pillar has a distinct fold, so the windows are slightly swept back, which is rarely modelled. This, to me is the feature that most captures the face of the loco. Keep up the good work - I am sure you will end up with a very good model.