kipford

As one of the builders of stock for Hope, I do find your remarks a bit grating. After 10 years on the circuit you are only the second person to have complained about our stock, the first was 'Kenton', remember him, who said we had to much of it! The layout is owned by the SHMRC, but the stock is owned and paid for by 4 individuals, reflects our tastes and is used on other layouts. Who pays for the few dozen extra wagons, a bill of probably £400 to £500? Also our operating period allows up to about 1922 and is not restricted to pre first world war, if it was you should have pointed out the Super D on the PW train was totally out of period. We have a new fiddle yard 95% complete, which is going to extend the layouts stock capacity and we will discuss your comments before putting anymore stock on the layout. I could not attend this weekend due to baby sitting duties, but I bet you did not discuss this failing with my fellow exhibitors, saving it for the faceless keyboard of the internet. You are welcome to come to Newbury in October, only a short distance from Reading after all and discuss your issues with us there.

On holiday so only just seen this. So shocked at the mindless actions of a few. My sympathy to the all those affected.

D I am tempted to slot and tab an internal frame kit, get Jonathan to cut them out in thin ply or mdf, then plank it with balsa. Any discontinuity could then be sanded out.

Try a test piece with PVA. Also did I ever show you this, 3D WL model best I could do from the shonky lines drawings of the Briggs schooner.

I volunteer at the Mid Hants. One the guys there is Martin Orford who was a very well respected keyboard player until he decided to quit. He was a progressive rock player, with IQ, Jadis, John Wetton etc. Just got his last solo album called 'The Old Road' it is great. A wonderful mix of keyboards, guitar, well recommended for those who liked early Genesis, Yes etc.

Duncan, I used Copydex on Brighton, available from Wilko in 125ml bottles.

Things have been very quiet on the Brighton front, just the general work needed to keep a layout on the exhibition circuit. We are having a quiet year anyway, only 3 exhibitions due to pre-planned holidays, we have already spent 5 weeks in New Zealand this year. The first show a one day is the South Wests Herts club show in Watford on Saturday. 2020 is already fully booked and 2021 nearly so! Anyway we had a milestone today finally got my first grandchild, he is 11 months old, to follow the trains on Brighton, dad Matt was operating! There is hope yet

Brighton East is going on one of only 3 outings this year (deliberate).

D this is the same way we do it on Hope. If you put the bolt head on top it needs to be very positively anchored to prevent the head spinning. The posh way is to put a 6 mm tee nut in the top of the board instead of letting the bolt cut a manky thread.

A while since my last post and lots of things were going on like, going to New Zealand on holiday for 5 weeks! Anyway here are we, still on the tender of course: I have made about 90% of the tender now, with only the last parts of the brake system, tender springs and the water valves to go. Then it needs undercoating and assembly. I will top coat the tender body when the loco is finished. On axles for first time First stages of brake rigging. Hope they are of interest

I will be there with Paul Segars Edge Hill. https://www.shmrc.org.uk/member-layouts/edge-hill/

D Approved, typical Chinese lathe, should do anything you want it to in 4mm scale. Now you need to think about quick change toolposts and a set of DRO'S, you know it makes sense! Most important, get your self a half decent digital 0-25mm micrometer, your cheapo verniers are now no longer accurate enough for turning diameters. Chronos, RDGTOOLS and ARCeurotrade are good sources. Next when you get it, strip the lathe and clean all the protective grease off it. Also check for burrs and things on the slideways. A bit of time spent on this will pay dividends, remember these things are built to price. Any probs you know where I am!

David The points were built using P4 track company chairs and nickel silver code 75 bullhead rail. The sleepers were laser cut as combe with each sleeper to its correct length and in its correct order. These were done by Great Shefford for me. The points were built to mix of 16.5mm and 16.2mm gauge. 16.2mm through the common crossing and 16.5 though the remainder. As I did not have any OO track gauges, Great Shefford laser cut some 3 point gauges in both 16.2 mm and 16.5mm and I bought some check rail gauges. I also machined my own mint gauge for 16.5mm. The photos give a flavour of the build. Templot templates and the laser cut sleepers Common crossing vee Putting in the stock rail, using the laser cut 3 point gauges.

DRD Greeting from NZ. Brighton uses the old C & L camping mat. If I am honest I cannot tell the difference between a layout with cork and one with mat once the ballast was laid. So would I use it again? Only if I had it already or it was free. Matt's new layout is using cork. See you in a few weeks.

So sad to hear this news. Newhaven Harbour was a great inspiration when I was building Brighton East. R I P Colin.

Don't worry about it, it is what makes third rail so unique. By the way I chickened out of the ramps as well. No one in 20 exhibitions has ever commented!

One thing I forgot to mention, are you are aware of the Russ Elliot article on the Scalefour CLAG website on setting out third rail and fourth rails? It is well worth reading and using. A lot of people make mistakes with where to position the third rail correctly, the biggest error is continuing the conductor past the toe of the point around the point motors and tie bars. Link to the article http://www.clag.org.uk/3rd-4th.html

Hi, looks good. Couple of suggestions for you I found useful when building Brighton East. First paint the track before laying the third rail. Second chemical blacken the third rail before fitting it. That way when you paint it, it reduces the tendency for nasty paint free gaps to appear around the conductors. If you look at the Brighton thread you may find some other useful tips.

Jonathan C and L website has them down as attending.

Hi Gt Shefford of this parish offers a laser cutting service and will also develop the design for you. You can PM him from this link. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/138485-usp-5000c-new-kit-from-clockwork-ideas Please be realistic though, that the design work to get to the laser cutting stage is going to be the largest part of the cost, as it is not a 5 minute job. In essence you are producing a one off kit.

Some people do build from plans! The first proper layout I built was for my son way back in 1993 for his sixth birthday. I was looking for a new project and a trip to Pecorama on holiday started a interest that persists to this day. The layout called Kipford (hence my user name) was based on plan SP12 in Cyril Freezers 60 plans for small layouts. This was drawn as a looped end to end with a high level terminus, but with a bit of modification it seemed it could be built as lower continuous run, with a return loop to enable out and back running to the high level terminus. The first picture shows the original plan with the proposed modifications. The first thing we decided though that 15” radius curves had to go if we wanted to run modern (at that time) stock. Hence I redrew it using 18” radius curves and added a bay platform. This increased the layout size from 8’ x 4’ to 9’ 3” x 4’ 6”, which just fitted in the bedroom. The second picture shows the final track plan including the tramway which added another 9” to the width. The third picture shows how the boards were configured, this allowed it to be racked up the bedroom wall when required. The layout was built to a running state in 3 months, it took a further 12 months to complete the scenics. The following pictures show it its original state with its seven year old owner shows how it was only 24” off the ground. Later we put extension legs on it to raise it to 3’ 6”. These pictures were taken by Tony Wright for a BRM magazine article and show the layout in its final form.

Sweet Pea is 5 inch gauge.

Tweezers and paintbrush = No Butanone on finger

Woodbine That is terrific, just what I needed and it also answers some others questions about the cab and tender floor.

Michael Many thanks, I can dream something up from that, anyone got a photo of the fall plate on the preserved example?