Ian Smith

GWR Outside Framed Brake Van Over last couple of days, work on the brake van has progressed. A roof of 0.006" nickel sheet has been gently run over by some brass bar on a mouse mat to impart a suitable curve. A stove pipe chimney was quickly turned up on the lathe (which included the little "skirt" around it where it exists the roof), and finally a new brake standard was also quickly turned up to replace the 3D printed one which unfortuantely fell foul to my cleaning process - The handle on the top is simply a bit of bent 0.2mm nickel silver wire soldered on then the tail cut off. Completed model ready for painting : Completed model : The body has been painted with humbrol dark grey enamel, and lettered with a combination of Fox transfers for the G.W.R and number (having separated the "G.W.R" into component pieces as the spacing was too great to fit the space), the home branding is from a very old sheet of Woodhead transfers, which unfortunately have lost their tackiness so had to be retained in place after dabbing dry with some varnish (all I had was satin so I will have to re-visit them when I get some more matt). I tried to dull down the whiteness of the transfers with some dilute matt black as I was dirtying the coal wagons at the time but should have used my usual method of dry brushing body colour over them as under the flash it looks horrible!! The 2 dumb buffered coal wagons are scratch built in plasticard on some old Colin Waite W Irons, and hand lettered in white ink using a Rotring pen - I ran out of ink in the pen on the red wagon so that clearly needs to be completed at some point That's it I'm just about ready to take St Ruth back to the Edwardian period with a little goods train now Ian

3D Printed GWR Outside Framed Brake Van With an almost complete loco, I felt that I ought to try to put a tail on the end of my wagons by attempting to complete the GWR Outside Framed Brake Van that I had printed up some months ago. The printing was a complete body minus the roof, and some J Hanger/spring/axleboxes with both Grease and Oil axleboxes (luckily I had a good many of these included on the sprue as they are very delicate and several lost a J hanger in storage or trying to manipulate them into position on the model). The print included recesses to facilitate the fitting of the Association W Irons and V hangers, and these items were simply super glued in the relevant positions. The footboards were folded up from 0.006" nickel sheet strips and soldered to 0.3mm brass rod that had been bent to shape and retained in holes that I had incorporated into the print (although they did need opening out as the super glue used to secure the W Irons had flooded into the holes. Manufacture of the footboards : The brake gear was fretted out of a couple of laminations of 0.010" nickel silver using an old 11'0" brake assembly etch as a master that I had kicking about in my box of bits. These brake assemblies were soldered onto some 0.3mm wire with a pair of V hangers from the old Association etch of 9'0" and 10'0" brake gear. The completed assembly was then manipulated between W Iron tie rods and footboards and soldered into position. Association turned wagon buffers were super glued into the holes povided in my print. Once all of the underframe was complete, I turned to the body, in particular the handrails. The knobs for these were produced in my usual method of spinning a thin wire loop held in the pin chuck around handrail wire, to produce a pile of little knobs. These were poked into the holes in the framing (which I had to open out to 0.3mm) as the waxy stuff seemed to have clogged most of them. The handrail was threaded through them and secured to each with a little solder. I decided to cheat a bit and use a single length for the whole side rather than separate bits across the door etc. Hopefully, I will be able to complete this by ExpoFest. Ian

GWR 1854 Class Saddle Tank - Getting ready for ExpoFest Last couple of days has seen the little engine get a splash of paint, and a pair of turned spectacle plates. The main body colour is Railmatch Pre 1928 Loco Green, the Indian Red being Pecision Paints Indian Red (1881 - 1906). I'm really pleased with the look of her now, and am just hoping that Jerry doesn't decide he wants his Graham Farish 57xx body back A few images below show how she is looking now, I still need to fit the toolboxes, and manufacture and fit the brass pipework just in front of the cab below the saddle. I also need to source some number plates, and if I'm feeling really brave put some orange/black/orange lining on the cab sides and around the bunker (this is unlikely to be attempted before ExpoFest though. Finally a backplate needs to be fitted in the cab and the footplate could do with being populated too.

Dave, Lovely modelling as usual. Unfortunately, I have to agree with Nick that the cobels do look like they've been stuck on and not carved from a single block that is bedded into the wall. As for the office, I suspect that you could put one outside the building or incorporate a wooden / brick office in one corner, since this is your interpretation of what a Clarke Goods Shed would have looked like, then the choice as they say is yours. I guess a driving factor will be the sheds location on the layout and whether a lean to appendage would have sufficient clearances around it relating to other sidings, etc. Ian

Thanks Nick. I must admit that I chickened out of trying to put a 0.3mm square hole through them

GWR 1854 Saddle Tank - Lamp Irons (early socket type) Well, I decided that this engine looked a little spartan at the front and rear, and needed a full complement of the GWR Socket Type Lamp Irons that were fitted to GWR engines from the Broad Gauge period until the early 1900's. The lamps of the period had a spigot protruding from the bottom that located into a square hole socket in the lamp iron, which themselves were effectively a 3"x3"x3" cube with a vertical socket down the middle. These cubes were located on flat bar which was fixed to the footplate above the front buffers and centrally between the buffers at the front of the engines, and on "stalks" at the rear of the bunker (of tank engines). Also there was generally the aforementioned type which also provided support for the smokebox handrail. Since the previous post I had been considering how to make the little beggars though (especially the one that had the also housed the handrail knob above the smokebox door). In the end I found some 0.9mm round brass rod, which was held in the pin chuck and flats filed onto it to form the cube. For the handrail attachment type and the "stalk" type, the rod was transfered to the mini drill, and shaped with files to form either the stalk or the handrail knob and stalk. Because the handrail was already fixed to the engine, I carefully filed a notch in the small ball shaped knob with my knife edge file so that the handrail could give the resemblance of passing through the knob. (Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures when forming these). The 3 irons that were needed for the footplate fixing were again made in the pin chuck, but this time the flats were made somewhat longer (about 2mm), and one of the flats filed right down to give the illusion of a cube on the end of a piece of plate material (see rather shaky photo below). The resultant collection of miniscule parts were then attached to the engine - the bunker ones and the smokebox one being secured with epoxy in holes (simply because I could manipulate them squarely as the epoxy set), and the ones on the footplate sweated to the edge of the buffer beam (the Grafar metal being resistant to solder). The photos below hopefully show these tiny lamp irons and that the engine is now ready for the paint shop. I've also had a go at copper plating the chimney, all being well it will polish up a bit better than it looks at the moment, if not then I guess I'll have to dig out some copper paint

GWR 1854 Saddle Tank - Fixes and Details During its time at Tucking Mill, we noticed that although she ran quite well she occasionally left the rails while travelling backwards over the engine release cross-over. A quick check showed that the back-to-back on the rear wheels was too tight. Once back home and this was easily corrected by gently squeezing the axle muff in the jaws of a pair of pliers to crack the super glue I'd used to secure the quartering and BTB. The wheels were adjusted to the correct BTB and once again secured with super glue once testing had proved that I hadn't cocked up the quartering - the transverse hole through the muff having been re-drilled to allow the second helping of glue to get in. Since Railex I've applied a little of the detailing - handrails, steps on saddle sides and finished the smoke box door. I've also made a new safety valve as the first one got destroyed trying to get it to sit better (but I wasn't entirely happy with the shape of it anyway ). The handrails were formed from electric guitar string (about 0.25 mm dia), with handrail knobs made from strands of wire from some multi core cable (I couldn't find my 5 amp fuse wire and that was the nearest I could source easily). The wire was folded double with the loose ends secured in a pin vice, the loop end was around a piece of the guitar string and with the pin vice hanging vertically below spun until the wire snapped off (always breaks just above the pin vice), allowing the pin vice to hang vertically ensures that the loop formed at the top is central and doesn't end up looking like a P or a Q). The knobs were threaded onto the handrails poked into 0.4mm holes drilled at the (more or less) correct places, and secured to the handrail with a touch of solder. The knobs were finally secured to the body with a dribble of runny super glue. The steps on the saddle were formed by forming a 90 degree bend in a strip of 0.006" nickel silver and when cut to length and all edges cleaned up with emery were super glued onto the saddle below the handrails. The strip having been scrawked at the bend point to ease the forming of the bend - the bend was strengthened with solder. The dish shape of the smokebox door was turned up on the lathe from 0.0030" nickel sheet soldered onto the end of a piece of bar that could be gripped in the chuck. The door handles and hinges being soldered on afterwards. The handles are 0.2mm nickel silver wire wrapped around a piece of axle steel that had had it's very end turned down to accomodate the wrapped wire. The hinges formed from thin strips of 0.006" nickel silver wrapped at one end around some more guitar string, the resultant U shaped piece was then sweated to the smokebox door. The images below show the progress to date. Still to do are the front handrail knob (which for the period I'm modelling also included the 3"x3" socket for the head lamp) - I'm really undecided how to form a 0.5mm cube on the end of a handrail knob at the minute!! The lamp sockets on the rest of the model also need to be made and fitted. The sandboxes and toolboxes will be added after painting. Looking at the photos I forgot to add that I've also formed the fire iron hooks on the rear of the bunker from 0.004" nickel silver strip bent double and the hook formed in one of the tails around a 0.8mm (I think) drill shank. The resultant hooks were soldered in place.

I have a set of plans (Railway Modeller Sept 1963) for a GWR 1854 Saddle Tank drawn by CJ Freezer. The leading paragraph of the text of the article says that it was drawn for Bob Wills so that he could make a kit of the 1854 Saddle Tank. The drawing itself purports to be of no. 1751, the last to be converted to a pannier. Hope this helps Ian

Richard, For some reason I can't see the images, clicking them it just tells me that I don't have permission to view them - I assume it'll be the same for everyone. Ian

Thank you John. Spent an hour or two trying to get the little devil to run a bit better this evening. Below is a link to a short video of the model traversing my test track. I really do need to build a new piece of track to test stock on as this one was built nearly 30 years ago and was a first attempt at 2mmFS track and looking along it it has more than a passing resemblance to a piece of chewed string :-)

Dave, That really does look the part. After our conversation I remembered that Dymock had a brick built goods shed, although I only managed to find a distant slightly blurry image of it. Your rendition really does say "William Clarke" to me! I look forward to seeing this progress. Ian

Looks like he ought to be on the bridge of the Titanic

GWR 1854 Class Saddle Tank - Slowly getting there Managed to get some more turning done over last couple of evenings, the Safety Valve and the Saddle Tank Filler for the saddle and a pair of splasher tops for inside the cab. The latter a concession to Andy Carlson (D869 of this parish) as he seemed worried about the health and safety aspect of large holes over the driving wheels when he saw the model at a recent Midland Area Group meeting :-) These were made by turning down a piece of brass bar to the outside diameter of the splashers, then boring out to a depth of about 4mm the inside giving a "wall" of about 0.4mm. This was then parted off and cut up to give little splashers which were subsequently filed to fit the part of the wheel visible in the cab. The tank filler is in 3 parts; the main body and lid, a small ring that it sits in on top of the tank and the clasp thing that holds the lid shut. After turning up the main body I slotted the top with a fine piercing saw (while holding the part in a pin chuck) to accept the clasp which was filed up roughly to shape before soldering in place then tidied up once in place. I have decided to persevere with the bunker illustrated last time, although I may end up replacing the coal rails so that they fit equally along each side of the bunker - the fact that they don't is only really noticable in the photos! I particularly wanted to see how I got on with handrails in this scale before tackling the ones on the saddle - the knobs being simple windings of 5 amp fuse wire around some fine guitar string. The photos below show the construction of the Tank Filler and how the model is looking now - I had hoped to get it completed for Railex but it is looking less and less likely that I will. The night's activities : two splasher tops, a Safety Valve cover and the Tank Filler and associated seating ring (I don't have a lathe tool that woule give a narrow enough cut to allow me to turn the Tank Filler and ring in one complete unit). The Tank Filler as slotted and the clasp thing roughed out The Tank Filler with clasp soldered in place - I may or may not try to make the little handle which protruded at one end - it will be awfully small, delicate and prone to being knocked off in this scale! The current state of the project. That's all for now... Ian

Thank you Julia. I've spent a few hours today building up and fitting the DG's to some of my stock but couldn't for the life of me find out how high to adjust them to! Ian

DG Coupling Height Above Rails All, I know this question has probably been answered somewhere else before but a search of RMweb and the 2mm VAG did not yield an answer. Therefore can anyone please tell me what height the buffing plate should be above the rails? Thanks in advance, Ian

GWR 1854 Class Saddle Tank - Bunker In between dismantling and re-erecting a new fence around the front garden I have found a little time to make a couple of bunkers for this little project. Unfortunately Mk I was a complete failure as I discovered that after I had bent it all to shape I had made it ever so slightly too wide. Mk II is a little better and is shown in the images below. It was bent up from a single rectangluar piece of 0.006" nickel silver which formed the front, the 2 sides and the rear, and had the chamfered top formed into the section which makes up the 2 sides and rear. The sides and rear being carefully bent into a "U" shape before the corners of the chamfered bit were anealed and carefully coerced back into shape (the action of bending into a "U" shape deforms the chamfered over bits). Once happy with the shape the front part was bent across to meet the far side and the join made good with 188 degree solder (before making the bend though I thinned the thickness of the metal with a scrawker and files so that a reasonably sharp 90 degree bend would ensue). The bottom edge of the front part was then filed back so that the bunker would sit neatly around and over the cab floor already fitted to the loco. Finally the coal rails (0.3mm wire) were solered up to some thin 0.006" strips of nickel silver supports while being held down with masking tape, again using the 188 degree solder. Once the coal rails were cleaned up and bent to shape the supports were soldered to the inside of the bunker with low melt solder usually used for white metal kits. Unfortunately, I think I need to make a Mk III as during the construction of this little fellow I managed to put a small bend in the rear which when straightened back became a little crease which I tried to fill with more 188 solder filed and sanded back. Slightly more annoying is that I have managed to make the downward bends in the ends of the coal rails meet the bunker sides at different points on each side - I've only just noticed this when I looked at the photos I'm uploading!! Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained!! Completed bunker (apart from handrails, lamp brackets and fire iron hooks) Rear of bunker showing damage as a result of the crease. Posed on the loco Posed on loco with the dome and chimney to give better effect. Right, I'd better get my tool box out again and get on with Mk III !!!

GWR 1854 Class Saddle Tank Progress Not massive progress really. But it is slowly coming together. The stumbling block for me was the chassis. It was running very well until I put it on the rails, at which point it decided to leap off the tracks at regular intervals. This really did set me back somewhat as I felt that there was little point in trying anything else until I could get a 2mm loco actually working!! I quickly found that the problem was that somehow I had warped the chassis so that an end wheel was not in contact with the rail. Initially to solve this I tried unsoldering the PCB frame spacers to re-align the chassis square again - to no avail. In the end I had to completely strip down the chassis and rebuild the flipping thing (I ended up doing this twice because on the first rebuild 2 of the frame spacers de-laminated and couldn't be replaced without me ending up with another wonky chassis!) Perseverance has (for the minute) paid off though as I now have a chassis that will run along my test track moderately happily in both directions. I now feel a resurgance of enthusiasm for this little project (and for 2mm FS in general), so last night I managed to turn up a chimney and dome and the images below show the progress to date. The cab and floor have been araldited into place (the chimney and dome are temporarily placed in position in 1.5mm dia holes in the saddle top - both had a 1.5mm hole drilled into them to allow a spigot of axle steel to be used to fix and align them. The next stage is to turn up the tank filler cap and the safety valve for the saddle top and to form the bunker. Before anyone points it out I appreciate that the cab hand rails are too far from the cab sheeting but I drilled the bottom mounting holes in the footplate slightly too far back and to rectify the problem will mean trying to drill more 0.3mm holes virtually next door to the existing ones or not have the rails held in a hole at the bottom at all). For now I can live with the fault!!

Richard, That is really impressive. I did something very similar years ago for a tiled floor for the kitchen in my wifes dolls house. I really like the use of real brick texture to build up the completed wall, and doing all of the tricky bits like the arched window up front really makes a lot of sense. I look forward to seeing more! Ian

Julia, Absolutely brilliant!! Ian

Julia, Not much I can add to everyone else's comments. Although seeing what you were doing with Highclere here on RMweb was (and still is) one of the drivers that brought me back to 2FS!! Keep up the good work, and the trees (which are new since the last time I saw Highclere) really lift your model to a new level. Regards, Ian

Rich, The lever frame does detract from the layout. I can understand where you are coming from, and for a personal non-exhibited layout putting the frame where you have it would be ideal, but for an exhibited layout I do feel that it just seems in the way. I did notice the lever frame on Jerry's Tucking Mill at the AGM and decided that "I want one of those", and I think Jerry's siting of it is best as it is "off scene" as it were (and uses electronics to do the "controlly" bit). Obviously if you intend controlling the points and signals mechanically then siting it where you have makes a lot of sense, but I do think that unless you have a very low stool / kneel down then both you and it are going to be obtrusive :-) From a number of levers point of view I think that the 10 you have should be sufficient as a few of the ones on the prototype would be to operate off-scene signals and facing point locks I would imagine (I assume that you won't be needing those to move in 2mm :-) ). I look forward to seeing how this progresses though. Ian

Andy, I've always cut thinish walled tube by rolling it backwards and forwards under a stanley knife. The resulting cut will need cleaning up (both inside and out) but the tube doesn't get deformed (unless of course you get a bit heavy handed and impatient) :-) Ian

Rich, As impressed as I am, I am beginning to think that you need some sort of help :-) I must however admit that they look mighty fine though. Could you form the bottom of the link (the narrow bit) by pushing the wire into a slot then bending the top to shape around another former placed over the top of the slot? (the gap being made good with a solder joint - perhaps smoking a joint might help too) :-) Ian