John Brenchley

Thanks Andy and Don Very useful diagram thanks Andy I'm just completing the woodwork for the next baseboard for my model of Tavistock so want to lay a road surface as well as the track supports so need to get the vertical heights correct. Best wishes John

Can I ask any road or bridge engineers if they can tell me where the rail height is likely to be as it goes over the bridge in the below picture of the Pixon Lane bridge in Tavistock please. Unfortunately, I haven't got any pictures at rail level. Track was lifted 40 years before this picture but it looks from the left as if it might have been roughly at the level of the stone course above the white line. Also, can I confirm that the clearance of 12' 3'' is measured to the point below each of the vertical white lines, not the top of the arch. Thanks John

It might help take off if you incorporate a bit of a ramp.

Can I ask what size of ply you are using and the dimensions of the sandwich etc. I'm interested in seeing how much lighter this might be than boards built with a solid pine frame. Thanks John

Hi Kevin Thats all looking really good. A silly question perhaps - if you are 3D printing a carcass, could you not print the bricks on it as well rather than having to add a Plastruct layer over the top? Best wishes John

Thanks Ian and Duncan I've looked at both web sites and the Narrow Planet (Lightrailwaystores) one looks to be ideal for ordering any number that one wants. Best wishes John

Hi Ian A quick question regarding your small tank engines please. I'm sure you have probably mentioned it somewhere in your writings but is there a 2mm source for the loco number plates? Thanks John

Western Australia also has a 3'6" gauge (1,067mm) At 1:50 that works out at 21.34mm so depending how accurate you want to be, 20mm is reasonably close. Same language (near enough!) Best wishes John Perth, Western Australia

Thanks Nigel for sending a reminder of that article A straightforward description and some simple wiring diagrams. John

Given the low cost of these PWM units, I think the easiest plan is to order one and hook it up to the rear terminals of the H&M Executive, turn that controller up to full 12v power and see how the PWM unit works at slow speed control. If happy, I can then buy a dedicated 12v supply, and build the PWM unit into a controller box with direction switch etc. Thanks for everyone's help. Best wishes John

Thanks Don On that basis, my simple electronics brain says having a lower voltage DC supply would give a slower speed - though would this mean they just stall more often at the lowest speed? John

Thanks Mark and others for your suggestions. If I go for the PWM route, would something like this also work - specifications seem the same as in your link above have the control knob separate is a bit more versatile for fitting in a control box. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/254692769428?chn=ps&_ul=AU&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1grW0IFPgQ8Sj5PKYSLIpag45&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=705-139619-5960-0&mkcid=2&itemid=254692769428&targetid=&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9070549&poi=&campaignid=15984321586&mkgroupid=&rlsatarget=&abcId=9300814&merchantid=263026884&gclid=EAIaIQobChMInuqnttSf-AIVT5NmAh1HJgbSEAQYCyABEgIVoPD_BwE If my understanding is correct, I need a 12v DC power supply. A local electronics shop has one like this - suitable? https://www.altronics.com.au/p/m8932b-powertran-12v-dc-1a-fixed-2.1mm-tip-appliance-plugpack/ They also have versions at 12V but higher amps ie 2A, 3A, 4A - do I go for the lowest amps? Is the fact that most of the PWM units are 2A or higher relevant? They also have a 9V DC, 0.66A version - would this be better for slow speed control? Thanks John

Thanks very much Mark I'll follow up all those links Much appreciated John

Thanks Mark I have just read your description on British Oak. It sounded quite interesting till I got to this paragraph :- For British Oak, I tapped into the 12vAC feed already provided for the plug-in controllers I use, like the Pentroller. The AC feed is taken to a small solid state bridge rectifier (the black box at the bottom of the case) and from there, the rectified feed is fed in the controller, which has screw terminals to make the job easy. The output from the controller is taken into a DPDT reversing switch with a centre-off. This serves to isolate the controller when a plug-in unit is in operation. If this is not done, there is a strong possibility the two controllers will interact with each other. For someone with no electronics knowledge, this caused heart palpitations and a cold sweat - tapping into 12vAC feeds, bridge rectifiers etc - help! I could probably solder together a set of components if I had a shopping list and a wiring diagram but without, I haven't a clue. Anyone have suggestions for a really good off the shelf unit? thanks John

DC Controllers I'm looking to upgrade my current controller (an ancient H&M Executive) and would welcome some suggestions. I have a mixture of motors including Maxon and the Association's more recent can motors. One that I have found online is a Morley Vesta N Gauge Crawler Zero Two Controller. Does anyone have experience of this? Thanks for any suggestions - at this stage, I'm not proposing to move to DCC. Best wishes John

Thanks very much Best wishes John

Hi Brian Thanks for your comment. Your reference to the Tavistock Canal got me looking for more information as I didn't realise it started near the weir. What I included in the model was just the salmon leap. Looking at picture on Google, Is the start of the canal some sort of sluice that allows water to flow out of the Tavy just above the weir and salmon leap - if so, I omitted that bit due to ignorance. Best wishes John

Abbey Bridge and the River Tavy Since last posting nearly 2 months ago, nothing much has changed on the layout as I have been focusing on remaking a replacement chassis for the Dapol 14xx - still not running as smoothly as I would like but I haven't given up yet. With some fine weather this weekend allowing good lighting in the layout room, I have taken the opportunity to take some more photographs and thought I would post a feature of the Abbey Bridge that spans the River Tavy in Tavistock. This bridge and the weir downstream of it are one of the most frequently photographed places in Tavistock. An example is below. Modern picture like this show the main weir plus two smaller ones downstream but in earlier black and white pictures, I thought that only the main one was visible, the river then tumbling over rocks rather then more small weirs and this was roughly how I built the model. Abbey Bridge has two arches, one a bit larger than the other due to the slight gradient of Abbey Pl as it crosses the river. It is constructed of large stone blocks (granite?) with those above road level appearing to be slightly darker in colour. The model was built from thick card coated in interior grade plaster with a bit of PVA glue mixed in with the water. The idea of the PVA was to give the plaster a bit more strength and hopefully reduce wear and tear such as chipping away from the card former. The stone courses were scribed in after the plaster had dried. A couple of images from the downstream side are attached below. The Tavy is one of the fastest flowing rivers in the country so I had to find a way of representing this. The base of the river is 6mm MDF covered with plaster swirled into ripples with a knife blade as it begins to set. This was then painted with a mix of blue and grey gloss enamel paints. For some reason, adding some enamel thinners caused these colours to tend to separate which gave a useful effect of light playing on the ripples quite by accident. Touches of very light grey were dry brushed around the rocks and elsewhere where wavelets had been formed in the plaster. The surface finish is a couple of coats of artists acrylic gloss medium which has stayed nice and shiny without any cracking or discolouring. The model bridge and river were built about 20 years ago and well before I visited Tavistock in 2009. Initially I had no pictures of the up river side of the bridge so assumed it was identical to the downstream side. During my visit, I discovered two main differences. Firstly, there was a substantial triangular buttress between the two arches and secondly, the bridge was quite concave on this side whereas I had modelled both sides straight. Although its a bit annoying to have these errors, I'm not going to try to change the model at this late stage. Below are a couple of pictures of the upstream side of the model bridge. The old cottages on Dolvin Rd with the railway embankment behind, visible on the left hand side of the above picture, can also be seen in model form. Note, the pavements are not yet glued down, hence they look a bit wobbly in places. Best wishes John

Looking great Jerry Not being a Midland modeller myself, you lost me with your reference to "comode handles" - could you explain please. Thanks Best wishes John

Thanks Jim and bécasse for adding your pictures again - much appreciated John

Re-posting the photographs I've just finished adding back all the photos that I had previously included in the past 7 pages of this thread. To return the continuity of the thread to the way it was, I wonder if it would be possible for other modellers who had included pictures in their replies to upload them again. My thanks to Ian Morgan who has already done this. I realise this is a bit of a nuisance to do but it would make re-reading some of the comments much more logical. I've had a read through and I think the following people have added pictures - if its not too much trouble and you still have them available, I'd really appreciate it if you could "edit" your comment and re-attach your pictures. Winchat - page 1 becasse - page 3 JohnBS - page 3 queensquare - page 4 JohnBS - page 4 Caley Jim - page 5 Thanks very much Best wishes John

D1661 LMS Cattle Wagon Along with the Midland Railway cattle wagon shown in the previous post, I had also purchased an etched kit for the LMS cattle wagon built to D1661. Although the method of building the kits is similar, the different style of top rails in the LMS wagon make this a kit for the masochists among us. On the Midland wagon the rails pass through the uprights so can be represented by just two continuous wires each side. However in the final style of Midland van which was perpetuated by the LMS in D 1661, the rails are fitted individually outside of the uprights as can be seen in the picture below, taken from the 2010 edition of Essery's book "An Illustrated History of LMS Wagons Volume One" As with the Midland kit, each side is made up of 4 layers. The bottom layer includes the horizontal and diagonal planking, the next two layers provide the outside wooden framing and the final layer has the various ironwork supports and brackets. The middle two layers have etched holes for the ends of the rails which I bent up from 9 thou steel guitar strings, each rail ending up looking rather like a staple. Many attempts were rejected as not quite the right length but eventually I got 8 that fitted correctly for the first side. The four layers are numbered 1 to 4 on the etch so it would seem logical to solder them together in that order which is what I did with the Midland wagon. However I found that the quantity of metal tended to form a heat sink and it was tricky to get the tiny delicate pieces on the 4th layer to solder properly. So for the LMS wagon I tried working in reverse order. Having thoroughly tinned the back of the ironwork, I first soldered layer 4 to layer 3 and then added layer 2 to the back of these. At this stage the "legs" of the 8 rails were pushed though the etched holes and then soldered in place from the back of layer 2 . The surplus bits of wire were then filed back flush with the back of layer 2 and finally layer 1 was soldered in place. One other slight change in construction I make is to remove most of the top and bottom of the etch surrounds and just keep the sides that have the locating holes. This allows the soldering iron to be run along the top and bottom edges of the wagon making it easier to transfer heat to all the layers rather than waiting for it to pass through them all just from the top or bottom surface. The finished cleaned up first side is pictured below. That took about a week so it will be a while before I can post a picture of the finished wagon. At least I'm only intending to add one of these to my wagon fleet - I certainly don't envy anyone wanting to make a rake of these wagons to replicate the picture below. Though since the etch now seems to be currently out of stock, perhaps you'll be saved from such torture. Best wishes John

A Progress Report Having realised from looking at the pictures posted in the previous update that I hadn't added buffer stops to the two goods yard sidings, one of my recent tasks has been to make up a couple of the excellent etched GWR buffer stops sold by the 2mm Scale Association. These come with the option of either modelling the original style rail-built buffer beam or substituting it with a wooden one often used when replacements were necessary. I chose the latter (but without any photographic evidence to support the decision) mainly because I liked the look of this style and also because it is easier to isolate the two sides. I used a couple of pieces of 1mm ply laminated together to form the buffer beam. A couple of pictures are below The other project I have been working on is completion of some of the etched wagon kits I bought a few months ago, one of which was the large version of the Midland Cattle wagon. This was the first etched cattle wagon I had attempted, all my other cattle wagons having being made using the plastic body kits, also sold by the 2mm Scale Association. Since none of the plastic bodies came with bars across the upper opening, I had added these from wire so was used to the appearance with this addition. What I found with the etched Midland Van was that an etched representation of the bars was include on the middle etch layer but probably due to the limitations of the etching process, these looked over scale so I elected to replace them with 9 thou steel guitar string, soldered into grooves I filed into two of the etch layers. The difference can be seen in the picture below, the top one showing the original three main layers just laid over one another while the lower one is of a finished wagon side with the bars replaced by wire and the fourth layer with the rivet detail also added.. The rest of the wagon was built exactly as intended with no other alterations. I finished all the soldering and cleaning up this afternoon so below is a picture posed on the layout before it goes to the paint shop. Best wishes John

Thanks Mikkel The vegetation on the embankment behind the left hand curve on the corner baseboard can be seen closer up in some of the pictures I posted of the layout taken from that end earlier on this saga (middle of page 1) Best wishes John

Thank you both for your comments Its good to hear from those who knew the station Brian. I did spend some time in Tavistock when I visited the UK in 2009 but of course, nothing was left of the site by then. I did take pictures of the river, St John's Lane plus the cottages and cemetary on Dolvin Rd with the railway embankment behind it which have been useful. Best wishes John