CF MRC

Maybe ‘trade’ has been good Jim so she’s gone for gold… Tim

Vulcanite with porcelain gnashers. Tim

They are exceedingly long. Take a look at the turnout that starts under Silver Fox. Tim

As can be seen in this YR photo the bench along the platform has a lady sitting on it. The bench was made a few weeks ago from modified Shire Scenes etches. I thought that the lady would best be served by this figure from Modelu : On arrival I was most impressed with the quality of the printing, especially the magazine. Unfortunately, once all the supports were removed I found that the lady had a rather extensive protuberance below her derrière. Trimming this away wrote off the magazine and, I’m afraid, the poor girl’s right arm. Even then she would not fit on the bench that I’d made with her coy Princess Diana posture, and would look more like a child perching on the edge of a wall. Serious surgery was therefore contemplated. Those of a squeamish disposition should look away now. She was electively fractured just below the knees and placed on a thick sticky tape operating table for distraction therapy. As this was judged to be about the correct length, a small amount of light cured adhesive was introduced into the fracture site and polymerised. After checking her against the bench the void was made up with more light curling resin added with a pin in small increments. During the same operation, a new light cured prosthetic right arm was made. After a rapid recovery and following a bit more minor plastic surgery the lady was sprayed dark brown as a base colour and then painted with suitable acrylic wash colours. She is now reading the Daily Sketch, marvelling at the Flying Scotsman’s non-stop run to Edinburgh. Her newspaper was made from cigarette paper and held in place with varnish. The end result is one step closer to reproducing the B&W York Road photograph and, unlike many figures on model railways, she is sitting properly on the bench with her feet daintily touching the ground. For all that I think I must be mad to have spent virtually a whole day working on this figure. Tim

I haven’t posted on WW for a while, but at least I have been doing a bit of 4mm scale modelling for the MRC’s new EM docklands lauout, ‘Orchard Wharf’. With modern ‘in-house’ laser cutting technology and 3DP components from Modelu, it is quite remarkably easy to make bespoke kit type buildings, which previously would have been a major effort. Do not fear though, I have stayed true to the faith and continued work on York Road tube station (2mm of course). The model is awaiting a pile of sand. It will be good to have the youngsters driving the tube train at Ally Pally, where this will be on display in diorama form. Having cleared the workbench of 4mm office blocks, I will be able to return to the Skittle Alley hopefully in time for Missenden Abbey next weekend. Tim

After some careful internet image acquisition & editing, York Road now has a full set of 1920s posters. A pile of fine ballast, bench, fire cabinet and buckets are still needed to replicate the prototype photo. The images needed quite a bit of cleaning up and brightening before copying & pasting into the PowerPoint file. This software has a useful re-sizing capability and allowed mixing & matching of the posters for variety. The images were loaded onto a dark grey background and then printed at high resolution using an inkjet printer. The original PDF retains much of the resolution of the individual images which are degraded in the photo image. Commercial posters do not generally include the ‘local’ advertisements which are very characteristic of an area. The edges of the poster boards were touched in with a black pen. The posters certainly add a splash of colour to the model and help with the atmosphere. Tim

York Road now has its ‘modern’ signage and electrical conduits. It will be on display in diorama form at Ally Pally (16-17th March) on The Model Railway Club stand. The signs were printed (Ben Weiner made the artwork) and the edge mouldings on the name board were built up with paint. The signs were thinned down at the back by careful scraping with a #15 scalpel blade to make them less bulky. The conduits were laser cut as etched strips, by John Jesson, sprayed with white primer then given a wash of stone water-based colour. The station now needs loads of advertising signs, a couple of benches installing, a Nestle chocolate machine and fire buckets with a hose cabinet. Tim

There are some super buildings and techniques in this current issue but, with few exceptions, they all have no evidence of this being a wet country (especially up north). The background building colours are spot-on and subtly weathered, but there is no evidence of mosses or lichens on any roofs or spreading up from ground level to the lower parts of the walls. I always use a dark green acrylic based wash on my buildings directed to where they will be damp or holding water. When applied at ground level it makes a structure look as if it is really planted. Perhaps I need to write an article… Tim

Not on the N gauge one they didn’t! It had a planked running plate and was nearly TT in width. Tim

The central trap door on the Sir Sagramore ashpan now has a control / locking device. It’s a bit unorthodox but it will hold the trap door shut when running. The linkages ended up with a rod pointing backwards at 45deg from the base of the footplate, with it pulled up to close the trap door. I therefore made a steel toggle that holds the rod in the open position: It rotates 90deg. and pushes in towards the backhead to open the trap door for ash disposal: I wasn’t convinced by the appearance of the toggle and it was also a bit slippery to handle. I therefore made a hand wheel to make it easier to hold and also reduced the locking pillar in size. The wheel was turned as a blank and mounted on a mandrel, Loctited in place. This was then drilled on the rotary table. The outer ring was then turned off to give the ‘grippy’ outer part of the hand wheel. After rounding off the edges the front face was given a rebate using a graver. The locking toggle components can be seen here, before assembly. The hand wheel was simply soft soldered onto the steel toggle, and held in place with a 10BA nut, with it pivoting freely on the rod - a piece of coat hanger suitably turned down & threaded. Finally an exciting video showing it in action! Back to small scale stuff now. Tim

The problem is that the holes for the handrail stanchions are in the wrong place: there wouldn’t be an overwhelming case to replace these wire handrails …..with wire. The nearest thing to prototype would be a separate etch to represent the stanchions and the handrail with the holes in the correct position. However, as they are painted anyway, I think the moulding is a good bet. Each to their own tho’… Tim

The art of small scale modelling is what you leave out, not what you put in. The moulded handrails will be far more subtle and if someone wants separate handrails then they could scrape them off and intall their interpretation of the prototype. Tim

It really doesn’t matter what the difference is in the trackwork between 2mm FS and N gauge, it’s the overall ambience of a layout that matters. However, when Keith Armes made the mainline crossovers from a scaled up prototype track plan, he remarked that they were the longest turnouts he had ever made. They could not work with N gauge standards. Tim

The excellent picture was clearly taken at Warley with the stealth tube present; since modified to be more visible. It’s a Zeppelin view, but none the worse for that. Can someone say what the caption was? Tim

News to me! Is it decent? Tim

After an inordinate amount of thinking and puzzling I have now made the front and rear damper linkages for Sir Sagramore. The rear linkage is simply a rod that links to the damper clevis and snuggles in close to the back head. The rod is located by a grooved bobbin that centralises it with low friction. The top is rebated and has a separate top hat 12BA bolt assembly. This rod has a rotating handle that locks it open by resting on the frames (a detent will be filed in when the boiler is next removed). To rest the concept, a lump of styrene was carved to shape. This was then converted to metal and can be seen here with the handle in closed position. It will be prevented from moving medially by the support component of the front damper. The pillar that supports the front damper lever has a rebate to locate the rear damper body when in the closed position. In this image, the dampers and drain cocks are in the open position; the brass nut will be replaced with steel. I have tried to maintain the style of Ian Jaycocks’ work with these new components. Tim

Thank you for the help, Edwardian. Herewith a photo of Stephen’s loco, completely scratch built except the wheels, gears and motor. It weighs in at 70g. As a retired dentist, he knows how to get a good polish on the dome, although I suspect it is not in non-tarnishing metal. Tim

May your links always vibrate nicely… Tim

Stephen Curry, a friend of mine in Australia has just made a Beyer Peacock 0-6-4T, ex Mersey Railway, in 2mm scale. He would like to paint it in Mersey Railway livery. Does anyone know the livery specification? Thanks Tim

Try working on a 3.5” gauge loco for a contrast in size! Tim

Interesting carriage that, Jim. I do like the WCJS carriages. We could justify a LNWR Birmingham businessman’s train on the NLR to Broad St, hauled by a Jubilee (not Nick’s type). I did procure etches for some of the coaches but unfortunately they went AWOL with a former member of the group. I think we have more than enough other projects on the list though… Tim

Will you make a Cardean, Jim? I always thought the old GEM kit looked very impressive. Tim

The great thing about model railways is, that as a hobby, it is always changing and that to me is a very positive thing. Following recent events, analogies to previous major changes in the hobby have already been made. It is often the case where a group can’t see a way of making something work that they give up. That happened in 1995 with the demise of IMREX, which was frankly overshadowed by the emergence of the Warley show at the NEC and a change towards more finescale modelling. The Model Railway Club went through a very sticky patch thereafter because it relied too heavily on exhibition income to be viable, with massive running costs. A new group then came along and changed the way the Club worked and used its major asset, Keen House, to generate income and hence pay off a substantial loan. The loss of the Warley NEC show has a familiarity about it, but I am sure that the Warley Club will adapt and go from strength to strength. The MRC is now in a very healthy condition with increasing membership, a vibrant Young MRC & Junior section and with nearly 25 years of successful exhibitions jointly held with Warners at Ally Pally. The show promotes the Club, but it does not rely on it for running. From a personal standpoint I have no doubt that Copenhagen Fields could not have been built without the support of the Club. The layout is now in its 40th year. The team that work on it are learning from the originators and indeed it’s exhibiting is getting more and more streamlined as old methods are questioned by new sets of eyes and hands. Such layouts are a cost to the Club in many ways and need to ‘pay back’. To that end flying the flag at outside shows and also Ally Pally are key. One has to be innovative: we had the first ‘exhibition’ at Keen House following the Covid lockdowns in July 2021, showing small groups of visitors around the layout with an up-close personal ‘tour’. It was great fun, I think well received and raised revenue for the Club. For our 40th birthday celebrations we will probably do something very similar at Keen House in early December, but also have our other new London-based layouts also on display; S7 ‘Bow Junction’ & EM ‘Orchard Wharf’. Conventional exhibitions are not the only way of promoting our interests. So the hobby is changing, step up and do something to support an event you enjoy, embrace it and enjoy it! Tim

Posted before completion.

I had two of those Graham Farish ‘standard’ engines: they worked as bankers on my old layout. With two working together you needed ear defenders and they used to like shedding their coupling rods as well. Pretty grim really. Tim