CF MRC

Nothing wrong with OOO Pix & Mark! One of our A4s started off as one. Our first new car when married was an Opel Kadette of slightly later vintage: it had Starsky & Hutch stripes. If you listened carefully you could hear it rusting. I fitted a motorised aerial to the car: unfortunately, when driving to Wembley round the N Circular to deliver the tube station building to the MEE competition, one very wet evening in January 1985, I turned it on. It had a super erection and shot over the top of the car - couldn't/didn't stop to pick it up. After that, the car ran with a London aerial (clothes hanger). Another time, I had been out one evening giving a lecture and was about to drive back to a colleague's house from the venue car park. We got in the car and once we started moving noticed that it was very cold. Some bu99er had cut out the windscreen! I agree with Mark that ACF50 is your friend. Like you, I have never been a car person, but six months ago succumbed to one of these: Obvious where the picture was taken, with Mark on the left and Tom Knapp on the right. Mr Toad on the road! Great fun - don't need many excuses to go out in it... Tim

The only masterplan, Mark, was the original drawings that JBS, myself and Mike Randall worked up in 1983. The original concept was sketched out on a Spaghetti House knapkin. These plans were signed off by the MRC committee in December 1983 and John made this little concept model from them: It is quite impressive, I think, that the outcome in 2016 is pretty much what we intended 30+ years ago. Quite a lot of people could not "see" the idea behind the project (in particular, the late Cyril Freezer) especially in the first ten years when we only had the northern (RH) end of the model complete. We do indeed all "muddle through with stoic trust that it will all come together at the end if the day". We're just not saying which day.... There is a huge amount still to do. The LH end is effectively a new layout scenically and there are dozens of signals to be made, let alone getting the GY fully functional. It will keep us busy for many more years and anyone who wants to help is very welcome. Tim

Yes Chris. It is a jobbing loco for the layout and, quite honestly, not my favourite engine class. I'll post some pictures of it shortly. Tim

Dear All Quite a lot of recent progress in the KX yard. The ramp to the Cally Goods & Coal Yard is now blocked out and in red oxide primer. It is red brick anyway, but will need detail cladding in our home made brick plastic. In the short-term it will be weathered in its current form to meld it into the scene. Mike Randall has started soldering up the two lattice iron bridges on the ramp that span the sidings below - it is sometimes quicker, perhaps even easier, to make things the old fashioned way without relying on etchings. They certainly look purposefully structural. The Randall's Knob board at the South End is now firmly and stably fixed to the layout, which has allowed us to make a neat job of the joint in the road leading on to the York Road viaduct. Tom's Paget Christian Mission building is now close to being bedded in, whilst Richard's block of buildings is making excellent progress (he may even post some piccys). I have just completed a Chris Higgs chassis to finescale a Farish J39. This was very easy to assemble and should make for a really useful engine - especially as I replaced the tender motor with a Maxon 1016, which makes it much more docile. Tim

And there I was thinking you were making a model of Iron Bridge gorge! Tim

'Bout time Gareth! But who am I to talk? Tim

A quiet moment at Belle Isle, on a hot summers day, with no trains in view. Tim

Warming up for Warley. Actually, before that we have the 2mm AGM at Keen House on the 15th October. So, Copenhagen Fields is coming out of its summer hibernation, with the photo below showing some of the new KX Goods Yard trackwork. I have tried very hard to keep the texture of the ballast and the cess very understated using fine ballast (powder almost) and pumice powder for the cess. It's very easy to make goods yard track too pristine, but also to make it too dark. It now needs some more track detail painting and overall weathering with an airbrush, although I think that the variations in colour work quite well to show track in various conditions/newness. The layout will also be on display at the MRC Open Day on 20th November, which might give easier viewing than the NEC! Tim

Maybe try washing out the colors nearer the horizon, i.e. making them lighter to gives greater distance effect? Tim

Pull the other one Jim. We all know the carriage is really pushing the engine around! Interesting topic on (cheap) motors. Bearing in mind the gestation period for most of my projects, the motor cost is a small proportional investment on a time basis and I prefer to use my old tried and tested favourites. Tim

Following on from post 1274, connecting the radius rod to the expansion link on the P2 has been achieved by bending an extension of the rod back on itself and tucking it into a hole where the radius rod is driven by the expansion link. The first photo shows the rod beginning to be bent. Important to keep annealing the steel to prevent it work hardening and fracturing. Second photo shows the pivot a little more closed with the expansion link in place. The third photo shows the back of the link (in reverse gear) with the pivot running in the inner slot of the expansion link - the expansion link pivot is silver soldered to the front slot. The final photo shows the front of the radius rod (in forward gear); a little bit of soft solder and wire was run in to the rearward gap between the link and radius rod to beef it up a bit. The long tab at the front will be folded round the top of the combination lever to make the forked joint that drives the valve rod just below. Tim

If you make the valve gear fully working Tony, then that is a mistake you will never make! Tim

I made the P2 expansion links today. They basically needed a 0.3 mm diameter valve gear pin on the outside arm to act as a pivot for the link itself, leaving the other arm free for the slotted radius rod to move on. It will probably stay in full forward gear as the engine will most likely be seen climbing Holloway Bank. The stainless steel etchings made life easy and the pin was silver soldered in the middle (photos show the links sitting on the carbon block), before folding up the etch. Once folded, all the joints were beefed up with some silver solder. To be accurate, there should be three layers, but I think two will suffice.... Tim

Little while since I have reported anything on the P2 - working on CF and getting the traction engine ready for its steam test have got in the way a bit. I made the off-side union link with forked joints as per the LHS and was offering it up to the combination lever and valve spindle when the latter went into orbit: worryingly, I didn't hear it land. So I completely cleaned up the workbench - a job long overdue - and still couldn't find it. After an hours drilling and filing its replacement was made and fettled with the union link. Worth noting that this time I left a great big handle on it and also that the stainless steel was taken to red heat to blacken it. I have been having thoughts on how to make the expansion link - it will require some tricky fabricating and soldering. I have a stainless steel etch, which might be a good starting point. Tim

Some interesting observations in the last couple of pages. The P2s are magnifcent beasts and the ACE 2002 that you are making, Tony, really looks the part. The boiler proportions on these engines are the very devil. Continuing the exhibition 'expert advice' thread. We had the south end of Copenhagen Fields as a static demo display at Ally Pally this weekend. Many people thought it was new layout (in some ways this end is just that), especially as we were showing the new track work and buildings for the entrance to the KX goods yard. We had some really wonderful conversations with people, explaining how the project was evolving and the geographical limits to our model. After lunch on Sunday, a mature gentleman came up to the layout and straight away said that our goods shed at the left hand end was completely wrong and should be much further to the left; there were no buildings in that area; even worse it should also not be two storey; he had walked past the area many times. He was completely correct of course, but I tried to point out that we had moved it northwards to act as a device to 'loose' the trains at that end of the layout and the design was following the architectural style of some of the buildings around the yard. I asked him what he would do and he simply said 'make the layout longer'. Keen House & the Model Railway Club are a finite size and I tried to suggest that one uses artistic license to try and give a plausible effect. He would have none of it and was really quite rude. The only silver lining from this conversation was that he was right about the two stories and we will probably reduce the height of the front part of the building - not for prototype accuracy, but because it will make the structure more interesting to look at. Thank goodness he wasn't talking to Cliff on Gresley Beat! One very often sees things that don't appeal on layouts at exhibitions, but in my opinion, the old saying 'if you can't say something nice, don't say anything' should be applied more often. Tim

Jerry, I was mistaken with the 3D printed windows (I've modified the post). Tom sent me this: ''The 3D printed windows did not work out. After printing several, the printer could never get the glazing perfectly flat – always some ribs in the glass from the 3D printing process. In the end, the windows on the Randell’s Road side were individually built up in place (23 pieces per window, including separate glazing for top sash and bottom sash in different planes). The windows on each floor are a different height, and the height was determined from counting the bricks". All the more remarkable, methinks. Tim

The gas bags on the airships were actually made from the intestines of the cow, not it's hide. These are obviously gas tight. The other name for this material is "gold beaters skin" as it used to be used to place between the gold leaves in a book of gold leaf. Whilst an asbestos-lined smoking room is an anathema to us, it's dangerous health properties were not realized in the 1930s. There were a number of survivors of the R101 crash (rare to have survivors when our jets fall out of the sky). The Americans refused to sell helium to the Germans, as by the 1930s the political situation had changed and Congress would not allow it. Helium was also less effective than hydrogen, producing significantly less lift and hence payload: the American airships were not very successful. It shouldn't be forgotten that the German airships were very effective for quite a few years, especially the original Graf Zeppelin - which visited Britain many times and indeed the Hindenburg - that had made many trips to the US, the year before the famous last one. I have numerous books on airships, finding them fascinating dinosaurs of early aviation. I think we need to let Mark get on with Franklands..... Tim

My mother saw R101 leave Cardington, in Bedfordshire on its final flight; whilst my father, who had not yet met her, saw the ill-fated ship pass over near Charing in Kent. I grew up 12 miles from the hangers at Cardington. I have 1:1200 model of R101, which to my eye looked better than R100, although the latter flew better. Tim

In correspondence with Tom this evening, I have just learnt that he used transfers (decals in American) to make the decorative brickwork on the front (which I will probably weather a bit). The whole building is made from brick styrene sheet using our mould, which gives very fine brickwork in 2mm. The zinc plate for this originally came from Dave Hammersley of Roxey Moukdings. The windows on the Randell’s Road side were individually built up in place (23 pieces per window, including separate glazing for top sash and bottom sash in different planes). The windows on each floor are a different height, and the height was determined from counting the bricks. Tom is writing it up for his local N scale magazine, so that should tell us more. Another exceedingly close up photo below of the decorative brickwork and the transfer sheets in action. Tim

Tom's building finally cleared customs and arrived late this afternoon. I've taken a couple of snaps of the building in place, before loosing the light (some CF baseboards are currently resident in my conservatory - hence the triffid attack). The Christian Mission has internal lighting of the main hall BTW. Our homemade brick styrene shows up well if you zoom in on the photos. Also a picture of Matthew's sheds placed in the front yard of KX goods. Obviously they all need bedding in and suitable junk around them. All stuff to do at AP. Tim

Jim, equally puzzled, as they appear upright on my screen! Tim

More Copenhagen Fields structures from the Cornish hut emporium. The 1860s three compartment first wouldn't look out of place on a well wagon passing through Tucking Mill - with a suitably geriatric engine in front. One of the other sheds also now has a coal bunker. Matthew has found the prototype photo which would look the business on any layout. Tom's Paget building is literally travelling at 30000 feet over the Atlantic as I write this. Let's hope that UK Customs don't open out the bottom of it for stashed drugs, as happened to a previous building he sent over! Tim

Chris, there will be chance to see TM at Ally Pally plus some other 2mm layouts of moderate and maximal space! Tim

Mirek It is a privilege to see your Mountain taking shape and an education for everyone to see how an engine is constructed. You will certainly know how Chapelon designed his engine by the time it's finished! This ought to be written up for Model Railway Journal. Tim

They look upright on my screen, but photographed with an iDrone. Tim