Ian Smith

A little reminder that Modbury will be at RailEx, Stoke Mandeville, Aylesbury this weekend (27th -28th May 2023) - http://www.railex.org.uk. There is a good presence of 2mm finescale layouts on show (Freshwater, Kyle of Lochalsh, Bath Sheds & Modbury), along with various other delights in a variety of scales. An Up local passenger train of 6 wheeled coaches headed by Metro tank 615 departs from Modbury, while a pick up goods hauled by a Dean Goods pauses at the signal box awaiting the single line token before it can proceed towards Plymouth. Hope that some of you will be able to come along to RailEx and say hello. Thanks for looking. Ian

Ian, I was lucky in that Richard Brummitt furnished me with a set of his etchings for a pair of Dean 10’0” bogies. I have added springs and axleboxes from my own 8’6” Dean bogie etches. Richard’s etch includes laminations to build up the volute springs which I think I will use. Brake gear will also be poached from my 8’6” ones. Step boards will be fabricated from some strips of step boards that I included on my 6 wheel coach etch to fill up space. Ian

Nick, I wouldn't worry too much about the door vents being a bit wonky - you should see some of mine!!! When I paint coaches, I do it iteratively - there is ALWAYS some touching up to be done with a fine brush, then some retouching, and then a bit more retouching!! What you have there is probably where I start from. Good light and magnification is your friend - I use one of those combined light magnifiers (although the magnification takes a bit of getting used to when you see that the size 000 brush that you thought you'd picked up is actually a size 6 🤣) I should also add that it wouldn't be the first time that I've completely stripped a coach back to bare metal and started all over again!! Ian

With my modelling mojo finally returned, over the last few days I have been working on a Worsley Works coach that I started several years ago. The coach is a D37 Brake Third with a clerestory roof, and I had put it to one side after erecting the sides and ends because I was not happy with the guards lookouts (some refer to them as "duckets"). Over the last week or two, the lookouts were removed, and re-attached so they no longer look quite as wonky as they did. The main roof is cut from 0.005" brass sheet, and the area where the clerestory would go was cut away so that I could get the iron in when attaching the clerestory roof. Once the clerestory sides and ends were attached to the main roof, another piece of 0.005" brass was cut and rolled for the clerestory roof - this was the very devil to form as being narrow trying to roll the 3-arc profile required tasked the patience somewhat!! The rain strips are simple lengths of straightened copper wire soldered in place - tacked in the centre, then occasionally around the arc, once happy the solder is flowed so that the whole rain strip is secure, and the excess trimmed from the ends of the coach. As is my wont, I sweated the G commode handles in place and fitted the door handles by soldering from the inside - both types of handles being provided on a little N Brass etch. Once all of the painting is complete, these handles will be scraped back to bare brass before the protective coat of varnish is applied. I prefer to have these types of thing firmly soldered in place, and as the model is built, it gets several good scrubs with cream cleaner so any poorly affixed ones come adrift long before the model enters the paint shop (luckily, this rarely happens anyway). The lamp tops are some simple turnings from 1.5mm nickel silver rod, and once secured in the holes drilled to accommodate them the pipe feed was soldered in place along the roof and down the end from 0.2mm nickel silver wire from Albion Models. Finally, thin copper wire is soldered from the lamp top to this main feed and the excess cut away. The brake tell-tale on the end of the coach is also formed from the Albion Models straight 0.2mm wire, tiny loops being formed in the ends before being filled with solder. Below are a couple of photos of the coach body, it is now ready to enter the paint shop (hopefully the primer coat will not reveal too much that needs attention!!) : Thanks for looking Ian

With RailEx just a few weeks away, I have finally "finished" the 45xx (although it still awaits its number plates, which are on order from Narrow Planet). A couple of photos of her to close this element of the project that is "Modbury" ... There is a little bit of touching up of the paintwork still to do (which only really becomes apparent when you take a photograph of your model!!!) Another side project that has just been completed is a "Rulley" (cart) for my coal merchant ... Some time ago, I picked up an N gauge Shire Scenes Coal Cart from the Dart Castings stand at an exhibition. I had never built the kit because I felt that the type of horse drawn vehicle it represented was a little to ornate for a sleepy South Devonshire town coal merchant. Internet image of the N Gauge kit A look at the various parts included in the kit indicated that I could with a little adaption make the sort of vehicle that I felt would be in keeping for my fictional coal merchant. I built up the bed and underframe of the cart as per the manufacturers "instructions" (although I decided to employ soldered construction rather than the advised super glue). The central divider and name board along with the balance scales I discarded. However I used the "head board" to make a lower head board and a tail board (as you can see I have absolutely no idea what all of these various bits of a horse drawn dray/rulley/cart are actually called, but hopefully you'll understand what I'm talking about!!) Once soldering was complete, the model was washed and primed and finally given a coat of red before being "muckied up". I purposely built up the model as two parts - (1) the leading wheels and associated underframe carriage parts (including the shafts that the horse goes between), and (2) the rear wheels, underframe carriage and bed of the vehicle. The idea being that I could then orient the steering part to wherever I placed the model on the layout. I was going to try to paint my coal merchants name on the head board, but before making such a rash decision I decided to have a look through my transfer stash to see if anything might be of use - I new that I had some ancient Woodhead pressfix transfers that almost certainly would have lost their sticky. Luckily, and most surprisingly, the transfers still stuck, so my merchants name was built up from some sub-1mm lettering (and a full stop) from the sheet and secured with a coat of matt varnish. A couple of chains (of twisted fine wire) were added hanging down just in front of the rear wheels (I think they were a form of hand brake, allowing the wheels to be tethered to prevent rotation). For a load, I made up some sacks from milliput, the tops of which were sliced off (to provided a flat face onto which I could glue some coal pieces) and once stuck together and painted dirty black, the coal pieces were affixed with gel type super glue. Photos of this little addition to the layout : Thanks for looking. Ian

Given that the two ends of the wire need to be facing in opposite directions, a jig could be made toward the end of a hinge - drill a hole the relevant distance from one edge of the hinge, insert piece of wire with a 90 degree bend in hole then close the hinge, finally form the other bend against the edge of the hinge. Obviously if necessary tweak the bends to whatever angle is required. In theory all of the Z shaped bits of wire will all be the same though. Ian

Although I model in 2FS rather than N gauge, I can shunt quite happily with my 2-4-0, 0-4-2 and 0-6-0 tank engines! They are also DC rather than DCC. Pick up from all wheels and as much weight as possible over the drivers all helps. Ian

Progress on the 45xx has been positively glacial over the last few months. However, I feel an update is in order as quite a bit of progress has been made in the last couple of weeks, probably because I've been spurred on by realising that Modbury's next outing to RailEx (Stoke Mandeville) is only now a few weeks away at the end of May!!! The previous instalment of the project showed the state of play prior to Modbury's last outing at AbRail, where the body was essentially complete but the lack of outside cylinders made the loco resemble one of the few 39xx (a Dean Goods tender loco conversion to a Prairie). As may be discerned thoughout this post, my modelling methods can be somewhat organic and evolve as things progress!!! In the interests of getting as much weight into the loco as possible I decided to "carve" the cylinders from solid brass (I think a photo of this may have appeared earlier up thread). A 0.6mm hole was drilled through the blocks for the piston, and a pair of 0.5mm square (approx) slide rods were filed from a length of Association plain rail. The cylinder head covers were turned from some Nickel Silver bar and a corresponding 0.6mm hole drilled for the piston rod. A couple of 0.7mm holes were drilled at the outside edges of the covers to accommodate the ends of the slide bars (the covers were used as a jig to drill corresponding holes in the cylinder blocks). Finally, the slide bars, end covers and blocks were united with solder : Also evident in this view are some short pegs of phosphor bronze wire inserted into the rear faces of the cylinder blocks - these are to locate the blocks onto the side of the chassis (the intention being to eventually araldite the block in position). The next step was to create the cross heads and piston rods. Luckily, I had a couple of suitable cross head "faces" in my spares box left over from the N Brass cross head kit that I'd used on the Steam Rail Motor. However, I sill needed to fabricate the actual "slide" part of the cross head ... Therefore, a strip of 0.75mm nickel silver about 3mm wide was carefully filed such that it had a couple of channels along each edge, that allowed it to sit within the slide bars and in profile looked like a squashed top hat : A short piece of this was then cut off to be a little longer than the cross head, and a 0.3mm hole drilled centrally before it was attached to a bit of brass bar (the first one I super glued to the bar but for the second I elected to affix it with solder). The bit of bar (with the rear of the cross head in place) was held in a vice on my vertical slide on my lathe and a 1.5mm milling cutter deployed to remove a channel from the 0.3mm hole out beyond one end of the bar : Once the rear of the slide was removed from the bar and cleaned up the face of the cross head was soldered on the front. A 0.45mm hole was drilled into the solid end (i.e. the end that had not been milled away), a bit of careful sawing and filing around the hole gave a reasonable impression of the cross head, so a piece of 0.45mm steel handrail wire soldered in place. A suitable piece of Association etched coupling rod was sourced, filed to a taper and a 0.35mm hole drilled for the little end. The etched face of the cross head had an absolutely huge pivot hole etched in it, so I made a couple of pivot pins from some roughly 1mm nickel silver rod/wire with files in my mini drill. The pins had a head of about 0.6mm and a shank of roughly 0.3 to 0.35mm. It was then a "simple" matter of popping the pin through the face of the cross head, through the little end and finally though the rear of the cross head and soldering the pin in place. Obviously, before the soldering was attempted, the holes in the little end and rear of the cross head had to be opened out a little to ensure that the little end pivoted freely in the cross head, and of course a couple of extra pins had to be made after the originals pinged out of the tweezers and into oblivion!! As an aside, I tend to chemically blacken bits that I don't want to solder together, and this can be seen in the following (rather blurred) photo : The motion brackets were filed from some 0.018" nickel silver. I first made one, and once happy with the fit around the slide bars it was soldered onto a further piece of 0.018" and used as a template to form the other : As can be seen, I left quite a hefty "handle" on the insides of the motion brackets, originally intending to cut that off as the position of the brackets is quite close to the leading drivers. The two brackets were then separated and cleaned up an tweaked so that they fitted their respective side bars. The original intention was to just have the brackets hanging in mid air supported solely by the slide bars, but in the end I elected to make use of the "handles" that I'd formed them with (albeit thinned down considerably) to allow the brackets to be securely attached to the chassis. Of course this fixing had to be joggled to clear the leading drivers, but now engages in a slot filed into the top of the chassis frame giving a much more robust fixing (this joggle can be seen in the photo above of the cross head and connecting rod). The fixing can also be seen more clearly in the following pair of photos with the cylinders araldited in position on the chassis : The cylinders in position, the motion on the left hand side is complete, and has had the cylinder end cap super glued in place. The end cap for the RHS is also evident and shows a piece of 0.7mm nickel silver wire soldered in place through the end cap - the the piston rod hole at the leading end of the cylinders was opened out to accommodate the stub of wire projecting at the rear of the end cap. The completed right hand side motion. As can be seen a representation of the valve has been fitted - this is just a piece of 0.3mm NS wire with a copper wire double twist (i.e wrapped around twice) soldered in place. Also evident in these photos is the leading pony truck spring wires - these are soldered to the edge of the framing and bear on the stub axles of the pony truck. The motion on the right hand side of the loco has the added complication (well complicated for my little brain) of the vacuum brake pump on that side. This needed a pivot from the cross head, a thin piston rod then leading back to the pump itself. With clearances being a bit tight, I decided that a strip of 0.006" nickel silver soldered to the rear face of the cross head was the way to go, and a 0.3mm hole was drilled at the top of that and an L shaped piece of 0.3mm NS wire soldered in said hole. Obviously, all of this extra paraphernalia on the top of the cross head meant that it would no longer pass through the motion bracket!! Remedial action with fine files excavated enough clearance in the motion bracket support so all was good!! The vacuum brake pump is a simple little turning with a 0.45mm hole down its middle to accommodate the 0.3mm piston from the cross head. Looking at photos, this had a square casting at the rear end, so my little tube was soldered vertically onto a piece of 0.5mm phosphor bronze (didn't have to be PB, just happened to have a suitable bit of material the right sort of size on the workbench). Once I was happy that the tube was perpendicular to the PB, files were deployed to create the square end, and provide a fixing peg. Once again, the fixing had to be joggled to avoid wheels but the advantage was that I had a few thou available by adjusting the angles of the joggle to get the vacuum pump in the right place : The photo below shows the RHS motion (including the vacuum brake pump) temporarily in place : And finally, with the body plonked on top : That concludes this particular episode, there is still quite a bit to do especially to make the vacuum brake pump look like it's actually fixed in place rather than just hanging there like it looks at the moment. And I might see what other pipework I can add around the cylinders. Although at the end of the day this (like everything else I make) is to run on a layout and not made for a showcase. Thanks for looking. Ian

Following Richard Brummit’s suggestion, I too have used green Rizla cigarette papers for my 2mm scale wagon sheets. I use exactly the same method as Richard, printing in draft mode as less ink is deposited thereby avoiding the paper turning to mush.

Although they may have been outshopped with a white roof, it would quite quickly darken to a smokey grey. Contemporary photos show relatively few white roofed vehicles.

Just a few photos of the layout at AbRail a couple of weeks ago : An elevated shot taken first thing Saturday morning just after I'd put the stock on the layout. My 45xx (eventually to be numbered 2161) managed to have a reasonably successful running during the day. It was confined to pulling a short Through Goods though as when I tried to shunt some of the consist into the yard the rear pony truck derailed as the engine reversed. Since returning to base, I have rectified the problem by adjusting the pick up springs bearing on the truck and also added a small patch of lead to give it a little extra weight. 45xx heading a short goods train. The 3 plank and 4 plank wagons have loads of bricks from the Steer Point brickworks further along the line. Dean Goods (No. 2569) heading another goods train along the embankment in the Plymouth direction. Cattle train hauled by a 517 (No. 551) slows to a halt to exchange single line token at the signal box. A closer view of 517 no. 551 drawing to a halt at the 'box. With the tokens exchanged and the starting signal (at the far end of the platform) released, No. 551 gently accelerates the cattle train away. The stands of thistles in the adjacent field are in flower or going to seed. Thanks for looking. Ian

I agree. I’ve also read that somewhere. I imagine it was to prevent injury (unlike modern cattle which I think have their horns burnt out, many photos in the earlier period show that cattle seemed to retain their horns). Ian

Nick, As others have said, I too am really enjoying seeing and reading about your wagon stock. Very inspirational! Ian

More progress on the 45xx ... Following the gentle persuasion by friends on here (and my own guilt), I have applied the lining to the boiler bands. As I suspected, the transfers did not sit particularly well on the moulded boiler bands (the main reason for my originally electing not to line the boiler bands) - the bands were slightly domed and slightly narrower than the Fox transfer lining. However, with a little persuasion and a swift waft of satin varnish after they'd had time to dry off the lining is now all in place and secure. The original light springs I'd soldered to the chassis to allow pick up from the pony trucks had been quite badly damaged during the handing of the chassis so they have been replaced with new pieces of phosphor bronze wire - the wires at the front bear on the pony truck axle, while the rear pony truck has the wires bearing on the PCB spacer (obviously gapped, and having a short strip of plasticard glued over the gap to ensure that the wires only bear on the side of the PCB that they should do). DG couplings have been added as has some coal in the bunker. The safety valve cover was given a coat of gloss varnish after polishing, and a couple of representative whistles turned up in the mini drill. The brass surrounds of the porthole windows have also been turned up and fixed with canopy glue. She is now ready for this Saturday's outing to the Abingdon & District MRC's exhibition where Modbury will be on show. Hopefully in the next week or so I will get the outside motion added so that by the next exhibition (RailEx in May) she will be completed!! Anyway, a couple of photos to show the current state of play : Thanks for looking Ian

Crikey Jerry, I hope you didn’t draw up the artwork in CAD yourself as that will do your street cred no good at all!! 😂

Tony, Normally I would just have the transfers to represent the boiler bands (indeed on my unlined boiler band locos I still use decal film for the bands before painting), however I decided to leave the moulded boiler bands in place (and now almost wish I’d filed the off 🤣). However with Tim and guilt getting the better of me I have started to add the transfers to the moulded bands and must admit I think it looks better for it. Ian

A little more progress on the 45xx ... Firstly, the slide bars have been fettled and fixed to the cylinders. The slide bars were fabricated from a short piece of Association plain nickel silver rail, the rail was trapped in the vice jaws and filed to reduce its height to about 0.5mm - giving me a roughly 2" piece of 0.5mm square(ish) rod for the slide bars. A couple of the cylinder ends that I had already made were double sided taped to my vertical slide (actually a sacrificial piece of Tufnol bolted to the VS), the 0.6mm centre hole in each was located and the VS moved 0.062" vertically above and below that hole to drill 0.7mm holes through which I could solder the slide bars. The ends of the cylinders also received a short 0.7mm hole (using the end caps to site the drill) to give a more secure location for the ends of the slide bars. It was then a reasonably simple operation to solder the slide bars through the end caps into the cylinders. A quick aside - when filing the rail down to the correct height, it helps to have a micrometer or Vernier Calliper locked off at the size required and try to slide the piece between the jaws, if it doesn't quite fit file a bit more off until it does. Doing this helps to identify any high spots along the length which can be filed or sanded appropriately. The cylinder blocks with then "end cap" and slide bars in place. And temporarily fitted ono the chassis by their mounting pegs. The next stage will be to fabricate the motion brackets - the plan is to file these from some 0.020" NS and solder them in place on the slide bars (a mounting peg being used to locate them to the chassis side) Yesterday was spent lining out the body (the body having received its coat of GWR green a couple of days previously) ... Once again I have used Fox transfers for the lining. As can be seen in the following photos I have also turned up a new Safety Valve cover. I don't know how whether the bunker rear was lined as the only photo I could find of an early engine (in works grey) is a 3/4 frontal shot in Russell's Engines book). I have therefore assumed a rectangular panel. I think that the boiler and firebox bands should also be lined but I have elected not to do this as I think it will look a bit too "busy". I may revisit that opinion though - thoughts? A final view of the loco with body plonked on top of the chassis (the mounting pegs on the cylinder this side are a little loose in their respective holes) I was hoping to have completed this little engine ready for Abrail next Saturday (4th March), but I have a busy week next week so may just try to get the body finished and pop the pony trucks back on and complete the motion after the show. Thanks for looking Ian

Excellent Mikkel. That window frame looks particularly effective. Ian

I did find it a bit of a surprise, I assume the author took the photo at one of the exhibitions Modbury attended. If I remember correctly when my friend showed me the book that there is another photo within the book too (I believe that the caption correctly references the layout and me as the builder). I guess all publicity is good publicity 😂 Ian

Mikkel, It is indeed an early view of Modbury! A couple of years ago a friend who had bought the book alerted me to the fact that Modbury was shown on the cover (at the time I wasn’t aware of the book even existed!) Ian

Just found this thread. I look forward to further updates as I too model Edwardian GWR (albeit in 2mm Finescale). I too have delved into 3D modelling (with prints done by Shapeways several years ago), having produced outside framed van, AA16, W1,2 & 3 cattle wagons. The Brunel viaduct looks very promising - I constructed one 4’ long from wood when I modelled in 4mm scale some 30 years ago. Ian PS Images of my 3D printed wagons can be found fairly early in my Modbury layout thread (or on my website www.modbury2fs.co.uk)

If opposite Freshwater then I think it was Hobby Holidays?

Tim, Thank you. A couple of locos ago I decided that this was a far easier and more robust method than trying to solder a piece of wire onto an upstand to represent the handle. Normally, with round tank fillers I have turned the body and lid as a single piece so a slot all the way across the lid element worked well, however in this case having a separate lid I felt that the risk of things moving when reapplying heat was too great so elected for a half slot which meant that the new part being soldered in place acted as a "key" to hold everything together. Simon, Normally, I work in metal so the beading is soldered in place using fine wire (or in the case of cab side cut outs requiring an extension for the top of a handrail from a strip of 0.004" N/S - see my Duke build a little further back in the thread). However, for this plastic build (with much thicker sides) it seemed sensible to do it the way that I did. My chassis frames are from some 0.5mm phosphor bronze - I bought a small sheet several years ago and is more than enough for every loco I am ever likely to build, especially as most of my locos have solid brass chassis!! Ian

Over the last couple of weeks or so I have made a little more progress on the 45xx build... Firstly, the cylinders have been hacked out of solid brass bar : One cylinder formed, and a block of brass has been prepared in order that the other can also be filed to shape. As can be seen, I've also made some cylinder ends from nickel silver bar - these were turned down to the correct diameter, a 0.6mm hole drilled down the bar and some slivers of some 0.010" parted off. The small piece of phosphor bronze wire is one of the mounting pins used to site the cylinder on the side of the chassis. The formed cylinder temporarily hanging on the chassis from its mounting pins. Same again but with the body resting in place for effect. Over the last few days, attention has been turned to the body : The tank fillers have been formed. The main element of these is a piece of brass bar that was filed to the outside shape then a pair of 1mm thick slices taken from the bar. Once cleaned up, these were soldered onto a scrap of 0.006" nickel silver sheet, which in turn was carefully filed such that it formed the lids by being slightly larger all round than the main body of the filler. A piercing saw cut was made about halfway along each embryonic filler, and a piece of emery used to widen the slot to accept an "L" shaped piece of 0.008" nickel silver. Once this little piece had been soldered into the slot and along the top of the filler, it was filed away to leave the central rib of the lid and the locking handle. This view shows the tank filler placed in position on the forward end of the tank. Also in evidence are the new mushroom vents - these were turned from a piece of brass bar, being 0.6mm diameter for the pipe of the vent, and 1.2mm diameter for the head. Once parted off the dome of the mushroom was formed with a fine file while spinning the part in a pin chuck mounted in an ER16 collet of the lathe (my mini drill chuck is so badly worn that it would not grip the 0.6mm stem of the vent). Also apparent in the view are the replacement handrails. The holes for the handrail stanchions were jig drilled (using 0.3mm holes in a scrap of etch to ensure the holes were consistently positioned on both sides). The handrail knobs are etched 2mm Association items, with the handrails themselves being 0.008" guitar string. Normally I would solder these together on the loco body, but with this body being plastic, the handrails were soldered up offsite as it were on a piece of Tufnol (the previously used jig being used to drill holes in the Tufnol to hold the handrail knobs). The handrail (guitar string) was purposely slightly over-long when soldered in place, but a careful rub on my diamond EZlap sharpening "stone" removed the excess with ease. This final view shows that I have also made and fitted the lamp irons (although I still have to fit some little slips of 0.005" plasticard to represent the fixing plates for these. The lamp irons themselves were formed from 0.31mm nickel silver wire, which was bent to an "L" shape then squashed in my vice. One leg of the flattened L was then bent up to represent the lamp iron, and the unflattened bit sited in a 0.3mm hole in the body (being secured with cyano on the inside of the body). That's all for now. Hopefully over the new couple of weeks I'll get it into a state where it can be used at Modbury's next outing at Abrail (Abingdon & District MRC's exhibition) on the 4th March. Thanks for looking. Ian

Nick, Thanks for taking the time to compose this post. Most informative. Ian