martin580120

@Lacathedrale thanks for the Templot, it helps me visualise it a lot better. I did question myself whether this was too ambitious but I have built every component, but the single slip, before now in 2mm and I have had running railways in other scales, but had issues with the baseboards or scenics or limitation of the track plan etc. that ended up causing me grief to fix/patch etc. All of which I'm reasonably sure I've learnt the lessons from and won't be as much of an issue this time round - hence also asking for thoughts and feedback before I commit to anything too much. Plus I'm fairly active with the Forth and Clyde Area Group who seem to have never ending patience for my continual questions and are a constant source of advice. @Caley Jim thanks for that information - I really need to get round to joining the CRA, I keep thinking about it then never sending in the form... I was thinking of having the main station building at street level, a bit like with yours - though what it ends up looking like I'm not sure yet.

@Lacathedrale thanks for looking into the Templot, again I really appreciate it. I should also really be working, but this is much more interesting! I am really enjoying the conversation this has generated, it's forcing me to explain through thoughts and decisions that existed solely in my head until the last few days, which is something I find very useful. I'm also having the 3d printer debate with myself - I'm playing a lot of Star Wars Legion currently and there's a lot of 3rd party miniatures that look wonderful, but I lack a means of producing currently. The 6 coach train was intended as a peak service, I'm drawing a lot of inspiration from the Cathcart Circle which currently runs 6 car units on peak and 3 car off peak, from some googling it seems this seems reasonable for the period I want to model too. I then thought it would be useful to model for the longest "normal" service, i.e 6 off 57' coaches and a loco (nominally something like an Ex Caledonian 439 class, but giving my the opportunity to use something as large as a Black 5 if/when I get round to making one) but I could drop that to 5 and 3 or 4 and 2 etc. should I need to. Specials can be accommodated if/when I have the stock to worry about them. The rear run around is there for two reasons, first, as much as this is not a true and accurate reproduction of Barnton, the real Barnton had one, so it sort of made sense to follow that example. Second, it means I can operate without a pilot loco, which is currently handy as I only have a single loco converted to 2mmFS with two at various stages of building. I can also use the end as carriage storage etc. I could omit it, but it does feel handy. Please do keep feeding me thoughts and suggestions, I might not take everything on board, but it's food for thought, and I'd rather do this one right - it's attempt no.3 at a railway for me, none of the previous two ever reaching completion before I realised I'd made irreparable errors that made continuing more effort than fun.

@nick_bastable, @Lacathedrale - thanks for the feedback, greatly appreciated. I've intended to move the top turnout, leading to the run around for the top platform, across to the other side of the board join to extend the available space in the platform - I'd "planned" two rakes of coaching stock, one of maybe 6 off 57' non corridor stock, the other of 3-4 and planned the run-arounds accordingly, on later reflection, having the most space available for both platforms is preferable for futureproofing and play value. I've just not got round to updating the track plan yet. The other point is slightly more problematic, I can put a run of plain track to move it back from the board edge at the expense of siding length - though I could probably gain another inch or so towards the far right of the board by extending everything that way. I am slightly space constrained in that I have 11' of wall I can use to have the layout up semi-permanently the above plan is 8' which allows me a 3' board for cassettes/storage which is about right for the planned train lengths. I could dispose of the crossover on the left hand board, or save maybe an inch or two by making them B6 rather than B7 points (and obviously bringing the tracks closer together), which might give a wee bit more room for manoeuvre. I hadn't considered a laser cutter if I'm honest - some friends have a fairly large one for making stuff to fundraise for Scout events, so I could explore that avenue - they have laser cut acrylic for me for medals/trophies before but I'd never thought about asking about plastikard.

Hi William, The more I look at it, the more I think putting in the single slip would be worthwhile - as I say, I'm just not hugely confident in my ability to build it. I've only built Easitrac and FineTrax turnouts - I have ordered some sleeper strip, chairplates and jigs for trying to build my own turnouts as I wanted to put some interlaced turnouts in the goods area. If you would be so kind as to sketch it in Templot it really would be greatly appreciated, as I am still planning - one of my reasons for sharing the trackplan etc. is to get feedback and build on others knowledge and experience. I started the running lines further apart in the throat as the plan is to have a single island platform - I'd originally planned on having the station building on the platform, similar to many of the stations on the Cathcart Cirlce (see below link to a Facebook image of Mount Florida) - but I think now, having the station building at street level is where I'm going to go, so having a narrower platform, and thus spacing the throat closer together is possible. https://m.facebook.com/theglasgowchronicles/photos/a.2515616675211400/2515622155210852/

Hi Nick, Track plan below - it's a capture of a capture using the MS Snipping tool so has lost some definition, but I think it's clear enough... Each box is 6" x 6" for a total length size of 8' x 2', the plan for storage and potential transport is two boards 4' x 1' and 4' by 2'. As per the above, the only place I see a headshunt working for the good yard would be to replace the circled turnout with a slip with a line heading back out towards the left hand board edge as per the below: I have played with some paper cut to roughly the right lengths (based on measurements of stock I have) so the layout should work for what I'm intending. (hopefully). I did start playing with Templot but I found the learning curve quite steep even with the extensive tutorials and videos - I can generate single templates for "basic" track, but linking anything together is a bit beyond me currently. The 2mm C&L Library in AnyRail seems to match the templot templates for individual turnouts etc. and I'm much more used to playing with it! I'm intending 1958 - 62(ish) BR(ScR) - any later than 1962 most of the Glasgow Suburban network was electrified and run using Class 303s, whereas my interest is mostly steam. Martin

Thanks for the encouragement and feedback. You missed the bottle of Blair Atholl 12 year on the bookcase - there's a couple of others hidden by the plywood for the baseboards too! As for the Tanith, I've been playing 40K on and off since 1999! I think the corners of the windows are likely to do with the settings on the Cricut - my wife's tool doesn't have the deep cut blade (guess what she's getting for Christmas...) and it's an older tool which doesn't have the ability to control the blade direction when cutting, the blade drags as the substrate or the head moves, so it does chew the corners a bit as it changes direction. I've also not cut right the way through the plastikard and had to use a scalpel to finish the job. Later attempts using multiple passes look much better. I'm likely to extend the edge of the board for some more space between the siding and the edgennof the board on the real layout, I mismeasured the space I have available at that end of the railway room, closer to 2' rather than the 18" modelled, however I only realised this when standing in that corner of the room this afternoon... "measure twice, cut once" etc. I had been avoiding a headshunt because the only way I can think of making it work is to put a slip in off the runaround closest to the viewing edge rather than the simpler turnout that's there just now. I'm not sure I'm confident, competent or capable enough to build one of those (until we get a FineTrax kit in 2mm anyway!). The track plan is lifted from the Caledonian Railway Association signalling book from the diagram of Barnton, adjusted for space and simplified a wee bit, to fit the turnouts I have "in stock" or available from the association as Easitrac or FineTrax. The CRA Diagram of Barnton doesn't have a headshunt, but does have a couple more sidings. I'll have another play with the track plan and see if I can make it work, as I do think it would make sense to have it.

I've just bought a LMS non corrisor brake third and third from Worsley Works to have a go at, so it's really interesting seeing your commentary!

I've spent some of the last few weeks re-planning my intended layout, procrastinating and making a 50% scale rough mockup of what it might look like. Most of the last fortnight's modelling time has been working out some proof of concept on the backdrop for the layout, some Glasgow Corporation B2 Tenements. I've started another topic with more details and to stop me posting long form essays in this topic(!) As I have a tendency to braindump/overshare (depending on your interest...)

I've been an occasional poster in a couple of the other topics on here and thought it way maybe time to start one of my own, to catalogue my intended layout build. I have been playing with layout design over the last few weeks. I'd initially had an idea of a small shunting layout, based around the Daluinne distillery, but as I got closer to cutting baseboards etc. I just wasn't feeling it. I went away and had a read of some books, well, looked at the pictures and played in AnyRail to try and find a trackplan I was happier with. To help visualise it, and to test the trackplan etc. I printed my ideas at 50% scale (i.e. 1mm/ft) so I could lay it out on the dining room table and played until I was happy. A book I found incredibly useful was the Caledonian Railway Assocation's "Signalling the Caledonian Railway" - a lot of my interest in railways comes from the signalling side so it was a fascinating book from that point of view, but there were a lot of diagrams and pictures of stations, and one trackplan that caught my eye was of Barnton - an Edinburgh suburban terminus with attached goods facilities. However, being from the Greater Glasgow area, I couldn't model an Edinburgh terminus for moral reasons, so I transposed the trackplan to somewhere in the South Side of Glasgow, connecting to Glasgow Central as a commuter line. I really like non-corridor coaching stock, so being able to use this was a driving factor on this plan too. I used 1mm greyboard to build a model of the intended model, mounting the trackplan to the greyboard and planning the scenery around it. This has been very useful in understanding how everything is going to go together - previous layouts in other scales have been done "on the fly" to normally disastrous consequences, so I wanted to stop and think this one through. One of the photos I was particularly taken with in my procrastination was of tenements backing onto the railway, and I thought this would look fantastic in model form. I turned to Google to see if I could find a kit for half relief Glasgow tenements. There is printable kit available online which I did print and look at, but having lived in a couple of Tenements across Glasgow (Dowanhill & Yorkhill primarily, but I did stay in Battlefield for a while) in my student days, it didn't *feel* right, so I decided to make my own based off my own memories of what it should look like. In my imagination, the Tenements will loom over the railway, they are the backdrop to the trains, so become integral to the scene I want to portray. If I couldn't get these to look the part, it was back to the drawing board for the whole layout. A trip to the Mitchell Library, in Glasgow, and I left with scans of the original Glasgow Corporation Plans for a couple of variants of Tenement buildings. All, handily, with Imperial measurements making conversion to 2mm/ft much easier, in my head at least. Realisation soon sunk in that there is a lot of windows in a tenement building. 43 and a door per block on a B2 Type to be exact, and my scratchbuilding skills are nowhere near good enough to do that accurately or repeatably. I follow a number of the YouTube model railways and Everard Junction recently showed off a Cricut machine to great effect. My wife happens to own one, so it was pressganged into railway service. Several design iterations later... Proof of concept! These can be machine cut accurately and repeatably as many times as I need them. Plus, the machine will cut 20thou Plastikard, and textured Plastikard, making this a realistic prospect. This particular design iteration isn't perfect - the central close windows needed moved up a bit, which was done on the next test. Now to see how it looks on the model. I scaled my 2mm/ft design to 1mm/ft and set about creating several to fill the gap and see how it would look. I previously had some Scalescenes papers downloaded for another project so used these to help give the impression of what I'm after... Here 8 off B2 Tenements stand above the intended station area. These are rough models more of cheap card with no window/door/interior detail and lack chimney stacks that will be present on the real thing. The gap where a ninth would be is the result of the Luftwaffe's "remodelling" of Clydeside in 1941 in my narrative. One advantage of this model was the realisation that I need to make the station a wee bit shorter in order to make the streetscene that will box it in more believable, so the right hand block of tenements starts where that will be - which also removed the need for those portals in the end wall. With all of this going so well over the weekend, I took advantage of the uncharastically dry Sunday for this part of the world and attacked some plywood with a circular saw to start making up baseboards. More to follow...

Hi Jim, Thanks for the advice with the boiler, Brass tube ordered from ebay. I'll gladly take the castings, what would you like for them? I won't be at the FCAG meeting in October, Scouts managed to plan a camp that weekend. I will be there without fail in November.

That's not a J94! My plan to keep plugging away at my first loco build went somewhat awry over the weekend. I was trying to figure out how to get the imperial skew gear and the metric spur gear on the same muff when I it dawned I may have bought the wrong ones... (for reference 3-102a, not 3-102b which are necessary, but wrong for this application. Self kicking administered. Lesson learnt). A Shop 3 order duely placed and the thumb twiddling began. This scuppered my plans for the weekend and resulted in a bit of a hobby rut. I couldn't settle to any of my other half finished projects, so I instead spent a bit of time tidying up my workbench (showing how serious my rut was...) and found, in a drawer, a Worsley Works Etch for a Caledonian 439 Class I'd bought back at Christmas and prompty forgot about. I didn't have all the necessaries for the undergubbins but thought I'd have a go at the body, just as a wee experiment. I like how it's gone together, and if squint it looks the part. I need to figure out how to make the boiler and manufacture/procure the various fittings not provided on the Worsley etch, but as a first shot at an etched loco body it's not awful. The front of the smoke box falling foul to the cif/toothbrush method of keeping everything clean and needing a dod of solder to reattach. I had planned on an LMS 3F Jinty next, I have a spare Graham Farish body that I've had for years, and thought doing a couple of chassis and matching them with commercial bodies was a gentle learning curve into loco building whilst I build my knowledge and experience, but I'm tempted to keep going with this and see if I can make it presentable. It will probably end up as 55204 (ex Caley 160) at some point in the future, although I have no need for a passenger only loco on my planned layout at the moment! What is it they say about best laid plans...?

Stephan, I think that's the first time I've been described as inspirational! I've found this hobby is very "learn by doing" and learning what works and what doesn't. I can only recommend perseverance. To borrow a phrase from an old Chemsit of my aquaintence, "all experiments give good data, especially the failures, because we can learn from it." - I've got a pile of a dozen mineral wagons that won't run very well, but taught me a lot of not what to do - they might end up on a theoretical siding with "cond" painted on the sides! Martin

This weeks work has been a BR Diagram 1/506 Brake van, picked up last weekend at the NEAG 40th birthday bash. It's the second of these I've built, and a definite improvement on the first. The roof is a bit wonky, needing a fair bit of filling and filing with liquid talent (liquid greenstuff from GW) and I'm considering if/when building my next one, making all the handrails etc. from 0.3mm brass rod rather than using the etched ones that come with the kit, but I'm fairly happy in the result. With the first attempt, now wheel-less to save a bit of money (...yes, I know the sides are on upside down... no, I don't know how I managed to do it, or spot it was an issue until I had the two sitting next to each other...) I suspect like many things with this hobby, the more practice, the better I'll get. That must be my 20th mineral wagon in the top photo, and it looks (and runs) considerably better than my first and second, so I think I may order another Brake van or two and see if those improve as well. But next on the bench is the return of the part built J94 now that I have the right gears for it (helps if you read the instructions...)

Thanks Nigel and Nick. That explains why that's not working then!

Hi folks, I'm working on the Association J94 replacement chassis as my first forray into loco building and have reached the point where I need to add gears. The instructions refer to the old imperial gears. I'd guessed the metric gears and found they didn't fit, or reach each other. I picked up half a dozen other sized gears yesterday at the NEAG 40th Anniversay show but have had similar issues: 32T (3-397) seems to clash with the section of etch that holds the worm in place. There is sufficient NS to trim some of it away, is this something that needs done? The 28T (3-396) has the same issue, whilst the 25T (3-395) won't reach the worm. I tried two 16T gears (3-391) but they won't meet. I tried another couple of gears and found the only ones that met were the 25T (3-395) and 18T (3-392). Other point to note is I am planning to use DCC so can limit the motor using the chip (a Zimo MX616) All of this is pre-amble to a couple of questions I suppose: 1. Am I using the right gears here? Have I missed something, or is this a (vaguely) sensible gear arrangement and I'll need to cut/file a channel into the etch to accept the proposed gear off the worm? 2. If so, does it matter which way round the two gears that will drive the rear axle go? The diameter of the 25T gear is close yo that of the wheels, so I'm not sure about it sticking out the bottom of the loco? 3. If I have messed this up, is there some table/article/RM web post somewhere that gives equivalency between the old and new gears to prevent me confusing myself in the future? My intended next project is a 3F chassis, so I can see me going through this again... If I need to buy other gears, I'm quite happy to, somehow a bush has fallen out and I've lost it, so another pack of them will be needed in the near future, so making the order up to £20 would be ideal.

A bit later than I intended, but I have removed the inner face of the slide chairs from the first of my "problem" turnouts. And yep... that seems to have fixed it. Don't know how well it comes across in the photo, but with the tiebar held over the blades sit flushly and the test wagon doesn't jump, and stays on the rails, even at speed! Thanks again to the support from everyone in solving this - I have procured some more FiNetrax units for my initial plank, but I havd a plan for these moving forwards :-)

...nope, haven't removed the inside jaws of the slide chairs... must have missed that bit of the instructions... (if it's as simple as that I will kick myself...) I'm currently heading South for Gilwell Reunion (A Scout Leader get together near London), and was explicitly told by the wife that I have to be "sociable" and that I'm not allowed to bring a tool box or projects with me. I will take a file to the slide chairs on Monday when I return to the workbench and see if this fixes the issue. Again, thanks to everyone for their advice and input, greatly appreciated!

Thanks all for the tips and suggestions. I am continually amazed by just how willing to help this community is, especially when compared to other hobbies I've been involved with in the past. I'll certainly try the suggestions on my next turnout - whilst the Easitrac ones have been down at £10, I have been picking up the kits in the hope they'll one day be useful and have built up a fair stash. A bit delayed, but here's some photographs of the worst offenders. If anyone can see anything, please let me know.

Don, I can't see anything obvious in the actual turnouts themselves, other than the jump when stock runs over. On some of them, the blades don't seem to sit exactly flushly against the stockrail, sometimes on one side, sometimes on both. I've gone back in with a fine file and taken more of the switchrail, and a bit of the stockrail away, and on some this has helped, but others not. I'd originally bought a FiNetrax turnout to see how "sharp" the point blade was - my theory had been that I wasn't filing enough of the switchrail away, but by filing a couple of practice blades down and comparing visually (and with callipers) the FiNetrax pre-ground blade and my own effort, I had thought I'd solved this issue. One one of the Easitrac turnouts, I (think) I have, and to my eye/mind I've not done anything differently to that one! I should probably also note, I'm using the Association blade filing jig, and I'm reasonably confident I'm using it correctly(!). I'll take some more photos of the worst offender when I get home to post and see if anything jumps at anyone.

My workbench has become a Permanent Way workshop over the last few weeks as I try to get to grips with turnouts. Four new easitrac and two FiNetrax completed since my last post. Or, at least completed in the sense that all the bits have been put together, vaguely correctly and without swearing. Well. Much swearing... I'm still struggling with the Easitrac turnouts, particularly the switchblades. I suspect I'm doing something ever so slightly wrong, that I can't quite work out, which is meaning the switchblade don't rest against the stock rail, and so, when I try to run a test wagon through it tends to jump. My plan is to take them to the next Area Group Meeting and let my betters have a poke and see if they can figure out what I've done, or indeed, not done... The FiNetrax offerings have gone together beautifully (if I do say so myself) and seem to work fine under test. I think I'm going to commit fully to FiNetrax turnouts for my planned layout/shunting plank, I'd need two B6 LH turnouts for the proposed plan, and I'm sure the easitrac ones, once fixed, will be useful for a grander plan. I might have to think about a baseboard next. Or, maybe finishing the J94 I haven't touched for nearly a fortnight...

Rather than enjoying the sunshine this weekend, and after considerable dithering, I have taken the plunge and started on my first 2mm steam loco. I've gone for a J94 with the white metal body from P&D Marsh, and the etched chassis from the Association. So far the build going okay. I'm not a fan of the P&D Marsh body. it came with bits broken and missing, it's also taken a lot of filling with green stuff and filing back. There was some suggestion of using it as a base to cut and solder my own cab from NS sheet, but I feel that's a little beyond my skills at the moment. I've got a Farish body on my ebay wishlist until payday as a replacement until I build up the skills/courage to try making my own. I know there's an argument for just buying some NS Sheet, having a go and learning as I do, but, I'm trying to take baby steps so as not to overwhelm myself. After getting the frame built and adding the frame spacers (hint, easier to file the insulating gaps in the PCB *before* soldering it into the body...) I put the wheels in loosely to see how they turned, and posed it next to an N Gauge version that's older than I am. I also put the finishing touches on my first Easitrac turnout. I bought this about two years ago when I first joined the Association and had no end of bother trying to put it together- turns out it helps considerably if you read the instructions... it's not perfect, I'm having issues with the tiebar and keeping the blades engaged, but a wagon will run through without derailing, so as a first attempt I'm reasonably happy. I have four turnouts to build for my planned shunting plank/distillery/first layout, and I'm tending towards the new FineTrax ones for speed and ease - I built one in about 45 minutes at an Area Group meeting earlier in the year - but I've got half a dozen of the Easitrac ones stashed, and now I (think I) know what I'm doing, I might build these up and find a home fot them.

I've been absent from the forum for a wee while as the other hobbies of Scouting and Wargaming took priority, building towards the summer camping season and a large (2500 figure) game set in a particular weekend in June 1815 - it remains railway themed because there's a London Terminus named after the battle! But with all the pressing engagements over I came to realise I'm at a critical juncture in my 2mm modelling. I certainly see myself as a beginner, but I've built a small fleet of wagons and carriages (some of them even look okay..), and now I face the need to build/adapt something for them to run behind, and something for it all to run on. Over the weekend at the Forth & Clyde Area Group meeting, I finished assembling some more wagons, two RCH 1887 5 plank wagons from Association parts, and a Caledonian Railway pre-diagram brake van from Jim's etches. I've got some more of the RCH wagons to modify into NBR and HR types for a bit of variety. I also took the opportunity to pick the brains of one or two members regarding building a loco, I've had a Worsley Works etch of a Caledonian Jumbo for near enough two years now, and I've made exactly zero progress on it. But now, maybe, a shop 3 order will be forthcoming as I look to start that adventure. I've also been thinking about a layout - it's wonderful having all these wagons and things, but they do need something to at least sit and look (relatively) pretty on. I had to fight my original ambition of re-makinf Glasgow Central in 2mm, if only for now, and settled on something 3-4' by 12-18" as a maximum scenic area, with 3-6 turnouts to start with. I have been playing with AnyRail, and found they have a track library for C&L finescale 2mm track, which, when printed, seemed to match some of the Templot templates I'd managed to create. Which led me to designing a 3' x 1' shelf type layout based around some old scratch built buildings from one of my dad's old N Gauge layouts. (He's braver than I'd be, sticking the family name on a building, model or otherwise) I'm happy with the front half of the track plan, but less sure about the back, my plan is to build a short traverser that can feed any of the lines so I can sort of simulate receiving sidings behind the main buildings, but I also considered some of the other parts to a distillery, either some sort of coal drop (I even thought about some mousehole/casette loading out the side so full wagons go in and empties come back out) or some sort of siding for the grain wagons to sit and be "discharged", or both. Any thoughts the general forum have are greatly appreciated. I have a Dapol Class 26 in BR Green I'm intending to 2mm-fy in short order, I ordered the wheels when I saw the journal article about converting them a few months back. This is likely to be the main loco, though I do have half an eye on trying to make a J94 from the Association chassis etch and the P&D Marsh body before jumping into the Jumbo. I also have a stash of BR vans and wagons I was building before settling on the Caley as what I wanted to model. I did, briefly, consider trying to jump straight into to building interlaced turnouts and Caley-ing the layout from the word go, but given I've (semi) successfully built a single Finextrak turnout, and I've had an older easitrac one as WiP for nearly two years, I thought perhaps smaller teps (for once), and, once I have a Caley loco to haul my Caley stock, rule 1 can be applied until I learn how to make soldered turnouts.

Thanks all - without the forum to distract me, I was forced to go back to my roots as an experimental chemist and do some experiments of my own. I suspect that the jewelry cleaner I have is not up to the task - I tried varying the time the etch was in, adding cif, soap and eventually ball bearings to see if this helped. (It didn't). In the end, I went for the classic cif, hot water and a toothbrush method and this has seemed to help. I've also bought a can of super glue activator which definitely helps. That's let me pick up some momentum and I'm up to four coaches, a brake third, third, composite and brake composite, all from Worsley Works etches with Association wheels, bogies and buffers. I've got some 3mm brass rod on order to try and fashion some gas tanks, and some dummy screw-link couplers to finish them off. They're not perfect, far from it in fact, but I'm pretty happy with the way they've turned out (so far). I'm definitely seeing improvements as I build more, which is handy as a package with another four coaches dropped through the letter box on Friday - this also included etches for my first loco (well, two locos, the CR 439 Class and a Jumbo) so I guess I have that to think about now...

Hi Ian, Thanks for getting back to me - I clean in a cheap jewellery cleaner filled with water, but I'm not hugely impressed with it, I may need to go for the cif/toothbrush method, or spend some money on a real ultrasonic cleaner. I am using Carr's solder paint and Orange flux. After reading your reply yesterday, I slathered on some flux and reapplied the soldering iron and it seemed to clean up a fair bit, so it could just be I've not used enough flux/heat. I rewashed everything in hot soapy water with an old toothbrush and then cleaned with warm water in the jewellery cleaner. I'll retry supergluing axle boxes tonight and see if it makes a difference!

A bit more progress this week, putting together two more Worlsey Works Caledonian 45' Coaches, and Association etches of Fox Bogies for these three. I had a go at painting a brake third after discovering a post with some RAL IDs for paint colours and matching them with some Vallejo air acrylics. I've still got some tidying up to do and some of the larger panels need another coat or two of paint, but it's starting to look the part and painting doesn't half cover a multitude of sins... I'm currently waiting on an eBay delivery of some square section and round brass rod to have a go at the underframe and the running step which are sadly lacking from the otherwise excellent Worsley etches (so excellent I've just emailed about some more...) I have encountered an issue with the bogies - I'm struggling with the etched axleboxes, so bought some of the white metal 2 bolt axle boxes, but am struggling to find a glue to bond them to the bogie, and the running board to the axlebox. I've tried superglue - which sometimes works and other times seems to fall off at the slightest provocation, araldite - which just left a mess and fell apart, and some low melt solder - which has been a disaster, doubling the thickness of the running board but not actually attaching it to anything. Does anyone have any hints or top tips they'd be willing to share? At this rate I'm fast running out of excuses for not building a layout or starting a locomotive...