Nick Mitchell

I've got some more progress to report on my 9F, and rather than keep hijacking the general workbench thread, I thought I'd start a new one. As a bit of background, I was one of the subscribers to Bob Jones' 9F kit project may years ago, and started building this one soon after they were delivered. Once I had a basic rolling chassis sans valve-gear, there followed periods of experimentation around getting the valve gear to work, and subsequently getting it to reverse itself. These brief periods were interspersed with months and years of letting ideas ferment while I pursued other projects. Every time I saw Bob, he'd ask me about the 9F, ask when he was going to see it running, and remind my how old he was getting! Anyway, once I had finally completed the reversing mechanics, I rashly promised Bob that I would finish the loco off in time for it to run on Fence Houses at this year's York Show. Having grossly underestimated how fiddly I would be able to make the job (eschewing etched representations of pipes and equipment for wire and bits of brass), I am now in a race against time to complete the transformation from a demonstration of reversing valve-gear (as shown at the 2mm Association AGM last October) into a completed model. I think I can just about still make it as long as nothing major goes wrong! Since I last posted in the workbench thread here, the body of the loco is just about complete. In this first photo you can see I've added the handrails (from 8 thou steel wire) and fitted the smoke deflector plates. I ended up moving the deflector handrails closer in to the plates - even though I said they were OK, the more I looked at them, the more they stuck out. I've soldered a conduit for the ATC (from 0.2mm copper) along the bottom edge of the valance I had to leave a gap where the lubricators are, as they stick out too far (I built those bits many years ago), and having the wire go round them would just look silly. The kit has representations of the steam pipe covers which protrude through the bottom of the deflector plates, but there is a gap between the plates and the boiler where the pipes would go. From most angles you can't see behind the smoke deflectors anyway, but I decided to have a go filing some pipe/covers to fill the gap. These started life as cast steam pipes from the Association Black 5 range, but there's not much left of them. You can just make one out in the next photo: In the next view, you can see I've still ended up with a small amount of daylight showing through a small gap. This is a very cruel picture in several ways. The little brackets which join the very tops of the smoke deflectors to the smokebox weren't part of the kit. I made these by squashing some 0.2mm copper wire flat in the vice, then folding it and soldering it to the inside of the deflector plates behind where the etched rivets were. Unfortunately, a couple on the right hand side (left hand as you look at the photo) didn't survive cleaning up, and I had to try and replace them in situ once the plates had been soldered to the footplate - this time fixing them with cyano. The front one looks a bit low, and the second one is a bit wonky, but it was the best I could manage. The other side looks much better. I'm pleased with the look of the "face" of the loco. The smokebox darts are etched handrail knobs, with the shafts trimmed to length and rounded off with a #6 cut file. WR lamp irons are included in the kit, but soldering the second upright to the top lamp bracket was rather challenging! The vacuum hose is made according to Pete Wright's "bits and pieces" article, and comprises 0.6 (a touch over scale) and 0.2mm copper wire. The next view seems somehow less cruel, and shows off how discreetly the Electra coupling protrudes from under the front buffer beam. With Electras, not only do you get to keep your coupling hooks as there's no nasty lifting latch for them to foul, but you can have screw link couplings on display too! Incidentally, the screw link, and the lovely cast buffers, came as part of the kit. At the rear end on the fireman's side, I have managed to adjust the wonky valve operating spindle I mentioned in a previous post on the Workbench thread without destroying anything. The adjacent footstep has also been added, and one filal small diameter pipe from the top of the cab up to the manifold. One other thing worth noticing on this photo (which will probably become invisible once the chassis is painted and weathered) is the brass cover for the roller bearing on the return crank. This is made from an Association crank pin (non-flanged), but I managed to turn a little rebate on the pin head so it looks more like the real thing. I've still got a fair bit of cosmetic work to do on the chassis - brakes, some more pipework round the other side, and some representation of the chunky pipes up to the sandbox fillers. Their absence - at least for the rear filler - is quite conspicuous in this view! The view from on top in the next photo shows what I have dome with the safety valves. On the cast white metal version of the boiler, these had ended up as little rounded stumps. I opened out the holes in a couple of Association etched crankpin cap washers (which are about the right size) to just over 0.7mm, then forced them down over the stumps. The top of the stumps were then filed down to be just proud of the washers. Finally, we can have a look round the other side and see all that empty space under the driver's seat. Fortunately the pipework on this side is nowhere near as fiendish as on the fireman's side. The battery box for the ATC also needs to go under here. Next step is to finish off the tender body, which needs ladders, handrails, lamp irons, etc. fitting. Then the loco and tender bodies can be cleaned and sprayed with etching primer. While that's drying, I can turn my attention back to the chassis...

This thread seems to have gone fairly quiet, so I thought I'd inflict some more pictures of my 9F on it, which is still making glacial progress across my workbench. At last I have figured out a way to make the clack valves. (These are the one-way valves through which water is injected into the boiler.) As with all things 9F, they are quite prominent so need to look the part. The valve bodies were cast into the resin boilers that came as part of the original kit, but didn't survive the transition to the whitemetal upgrade. I have discovered, however, that a turned brass handrail knob can be made to look more like a clack valve body than it can a handrail knob! Hopefully the photo below explains exactly how. Don't worry about the gap at the bottom of the smoke deflector - it is only balanced loosely in place for effect. Speaking of smoke deflectors, here is the inside of one. The special short etched handrail knobs (so much finer than turned ones!) fold over on the inside of the plate, ensuring they all protrude exactly the same distance. Clever. You can see I've still got a bit of cleaning up to do before I can fix the plates in place permanently. The extreme magnification in the next shot makes the handrails look as though they're standing a long way off the surface of the deflector plates, but in real life they look OK. I took this picture mainly to check the chimney (a brass casting, and part of the kit) was sitting centrally and level. I think it is! You might be able to make out in the above photo a slight rebate in the hole up the middle of the boiler. I abused my digital calipers to make this, by locking them to slightly increasing measurements, and twisting the points round in the hole to gradually scrape the metal away. The reason for doing this (and I was surprised it worked) is so I can recess the smokebox door into the boiler casting. As it comes, the brass smokebox door casting has a lip round the edge, which as far as I can tell shouldn't be there. I carefully filed this away - see comparison photo below, original on the left - but that left the door quite thick. Rather than thinning it, I thought I'd see if it was possible to recess it slightly. The next photo shows the modified door balanced in place in the modified boiler casting. Once I've soldered on the dart, handrail and lamp iron, it will be epoxied in position. You can also see the right hand clack valve, and the sandbox fillers which have also been added recently. The next photo shows the sliding cab roof sections now in place, and also the ejector pipework and steam manifold permanently fitted, alongside the step on the firebox side. Getting the steam pipes to twist round each other convincingly while fitting the shape of the firebox and negotiating other obstacles like the reverser reach rod was not the easiest of jobs. Well worth the effort though. Looking down from this angle, you might also be able to make out how I made the body of the ejector steam valves, with the 0.2mm copper wires running through a sandwich of etched shapes. On the other side of the firebox, the steam pipes for the injectors come down and pass through a hole in the footplate. I had to make my own hole in the footplate here, and the steam pipes are soldered to the inside edge of it then cut off flush underneath. I hope I've managed to get the bottom half of these pipes, which are attached to the chassis, to line up and look as though they are joined to the top half. They seem to look OK from most angles. You can also see here the control rods for the valves passing through the front of the cab. This cruel close up reveals the top one is not quite lined up on the centre of the valve body. Will an attempt to adjust it make matters worse? Probably! More on those control rods - where they protrude into the cab, I have made little handles on the ends of them from cut-down etched handrail knobs. This is probably getting silly now, but you can see them through the fireman's cab side window. Of course, when the window is glazed and weathered, you probably won't be able to see anything through it! Silly or not, the kit includes several little etched bits to suggest some of the driver's controls - including the prominent "mangle" or "bacon slicer" style reverser - so it seemed only fair to give the poor fireman something to play with too. The rest of the backhead does look rather bare, so I'll have to do something about that in due course... There are still plenty more details to add - mainly a collection of handrails to both loco and tender - and the clock is ticking. York show is only 3 weeks away! At least the livery is unlined black... EDIT: Further updates about my 9F were reported on a separate thread:

A few more 9F bits have been making their way from my lathe and across my workbench... First are the steam valves for the injectors, which will sit alongside the firebox just in front of the cab on the fireman's side. These were turned from 0.8mm o/d brass tube, and the hexagon shape of the big nuts filed on the ends. These are then slipped over the copper pipes. Next, and more challenging to solder the pipes to, is the vacuum ejector. The loco I'm building is 92008 - the first to arrive on the Midland region. It had originally been intend to send it to the Western, and was fitted with ATC - which is what the round bit on top of the ejector and extra pipework was for. Where the little pipes for this equipment pass along the side of the boiler behind the cover, I have had to disguise the fact that the cover is a solid strip of metal. (The 9F kit provides two layers of etch for this, but I have only used one.) I have chamfered the end of the cover, and the pipes to splice them together, hopefully making it look more like the pipes go inside it... Finally, all this lot is to be epoxied to the boiler/filerbox casting before I accidentally squash it out of shape. I don't know how I lived before I discovered aluminium curl clips... Starting to look more like a 9F now. You may be able to make out above the front buffer beam the "double" lamp irons which were as result of its last minute diversion to the Midland region.

I'm not getting much time at my workbench at the moment, but my 9F is progressing slowly, with more pipework being added. Some of what you can see in the photos is not fixed in place yet, as further bits need soldering to it. The details on the left hand side of the firebox include the valves controlling steam supply to the vacuum ejector. The body of these valves is made from the etched components in the kit (suitably rounded off with fine files), while some of the other etched bits were used as templates for the copper pipework. The regulator rod passes behind the steam pipes, and had to be fitted first. I replaced the long straight sections of what was a one-piece etched part with nickel silver rod, and kept the cranks from the etch. No, it doesn't move! On top of the firebox is the beginnings of the steam manifold, with the whistle which was turned from brass rod. I'm hoping the surface of the whitemetal boiler/firebox casting won't look so rough as it does in these photos once it has been primed. On the top of the firebox, I experimented by covering it with a slurry of milliput, and once dry rubbing it over with very fine wet & dry paper.

Hope this isn't getting too boring, but I have knitted both forkfuls of spaghetti together (with not inconsiderable difficulty!) and added representations of the water valves. This pair of valves are based around a single piece of brass, which has been slit round the edges with a piercing saw. For anyone who doesn't already know but might be interested, the water comes in from the tender at the left of the picture (the pipe supplying the exhaust steam injector crosses to the far side of the loco). Spindles from the water valves will pass up through the cab floor, terminating in handles for the fireman to operate. The two pipes sticking up across the top edge of the picture bring in live steam from the manifold on top of the firebox - the valves controlling the steam supply are above the running plate. Of the three pipes that bend forwards to run behind the footplate valance, the large one brings exhaust steam (via a grease separator) and the two smaller ones carry the feed water to the clack valves near the front of the boiler. The two short pipes underneath the injectors are the overflow drains. There are a few more really small pipes that I haven't added (such as the water supply to the slacker pipe - which can only be used when the injector is running) but I think I will omit these... After all, less is more in 2mm scale! (Did I really just say that?!?) And just for a really cruel comparison, here is a photo from a similar angle of the real bits I'm trying to represent. I took this picture of Evening Star at York the summer before last, and it has taken me until now to pluck up the courage to crack on with the model...

This one took a bit longer as it was considerably fiddlier... it is supposed to be a Davies & Metcalfe Class K exhaust steam injector. Again, the main body was started on the lathe, this time from 2mm dia. rod, formed with a series of stepped cuts. It was then a case of filing bits away, followed by soldering bits back on. The lump on the side started off as a length of .5mm square brass wire. Thank goodness it will be completely hidden on the model, so nobody will be able to see those wonky square flanges! The live steam injector from the previous picture will be mounted in front of this one.

Manged to snatch a couple of hours at my workbench yesterday evening to make this live steam injector, as the first section of plumbing for my 9F. Because the spaghetti is so exposed, and is a something of a signature feature of these locos, I thought I should try to make as accurate a representation as I could. The injector body was turned freehand on the lathe from 0.8mm brass rod, and is 3.3mm long. Drilling the holes in it to locate the pipes was fun... The pipework is 0.4mm copper - a tad over-scale, but hopefully more robust for that.

In my Lancashire Carriage Works, I too use magnets to affix my coach roofs (didn't it used to be rooves?). These are 2mm dia. x 1mm neodymium magnets bought on line by the gazillion. On the masterclass resin roofs there is a convenient ridge in which to bury them - I drill a shallow hole and fix them in with cyano. They are attracted to a ledge bent up from 10 thou. strip steel, soldered onto the coach end. I found that 2 of these magnets each end gave the optimum fixing. The photo below should explain everything better than words... You may notice in the above photo I have also added a length of 1.0 x 0.5 mm strip (actually Association plain strip rail) above the windows for strength. I don't know if this is really necessary. You can see I have quite a few roofs prepared as part of a great carriage building project I may get on with once I conquer my addiction to building inappropriate locomotives... While I'm sharing my carriage-building secrets (and here seems an appropriate place), I have another couple of things I do to Masterclass coaches... I have finally hit upon a good way of fitting bogies to the LMS carriages, having decided I didn't like the fold-up boxes and washers included as part of the underframe etches. I solder a 10BA nut directly onto the underneath of the chassis, and a couple of lengths of 1.5mm rod (nickel silver in this photo) either side of it. These stand a gnat's whisker proud of the bottom of the sole bar etches. To fix the bogie, I use a 2mm Association phosphor bronze axle bearing, with the hole opened out to 1.65mm to clear the 10BA bolt. The hole in the bogie is opened out with broaches to be a running fit on the bearing. I find that the depth of the bearing gives just enough clearance for the bogie to rock backwards and forwards. The nickel silver rods prevent any side-to-side rocking, so the coach rides wobble-free - something I had found difficult to achieve in the past. The bolt can be done up tight, and won't vibrate loose. My final tip goes back to the roofs. For Stanier period coaches, the plain resin roofs need some representation of the strips covering the panel joints to be added. I have found something that doesn't look horrendously overscale in Jammydog micro masking tape. This is very thin paper tape, available in a variety of widths down to 0.5mm - which is what I have been using. Nice features are that I can see my pencil marks on the roof through it, and it is re-positionable. My method of application is to cut an over-long strip, stick it in position on the roof (checking with a square) and press it into the guttering with my fingernail. The excess is then trimmed off carefully with a curved scalpel blade aimed into the corner of the gutter. The adhesive isn't too strong, but once painted it won't go anywhere.

Inspirational stuff, Jerry. Those shots of the interior through the shed doors are already really atmospheric. So that's why it takes me so long to build anything! (He says, whilst at the same time trying to understand properly the pipe runs under the cab of a 9F... especially the tricky ones to the exhaust steam injector which is completely hidden away behind the live steam injector and it's own spaghetti...)

Well, here it is - the final part in my epic video series - bringing the total viewing time to a mind-numbing 10 hours 32 minutes. I'd like to express my gratitude to all those who have made kind and encouraging remarks about these videos as they've emerged. The project has been a lot more work than I originally bargained for, but the assurance that people were finding them useful provided plenty of motivation to keep going. Since finishing filming, oiling and a bit of running in has helped improve performance. I did discover, however that one of the driving axles had moved slightly out of quarter. Worryingly, it was much easier to re-adjust than has been my previous experience. So much for my love of tight-fitting muffs - it looks like I'm going to have to inject some runny superglue into these ones after all. I will post some photos of the detailing and painting of the body as and when it happens - but I expect that won't be for several months.

Yes, it is a 2mmSA flat can. I chose it for the Jubilee mainly because it was in the Association range, to fit in with the nature of the project. I have the same type in a couple of other engines - the ex-L&Y radial tank kit, for example, was designed around this motor. I thought they were quite decent, but it is rather worrying now to think they may have a relatively short life. I'll put some oil on the bearings and see how it goes...

Well, the "kit construction" part of my Jubilee is finally complete, following the modifications to the PECO loco and tender bodies to make them fit Nigel's chassis - including adding weight to make it run. In terms of running, I'm not sure if I made the best choice of motor - it seems very noisy, and it won't crawl without stalling. I'm sure DCC will cure the latter, but I might tempted to swap the motor for a Nigel Lawton one (or a larger can motor) at some point. Obviously there's still a huge amount still to be done in terms of detailing and finishing... I'm wondering just how far to go with the cosmetic improvements. Having put in this much effort so far, I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and remove the dome and top feed which are too far forward for a straight throatplate boiler. Maybe I will be able to replace them with Black 5 castings. Part of me is wondering if I should eventually paint it experimental green just to see how vile it would look... 45604 Ceylon is a candidate. But that's all going to have to wait until later on in the year, as I need to make space on my workbench for 92008. The 9F has a hot date at Easter, and needs detailing and painting. Video number 34 is still being edited, but in the mean-time, here's a photo of progress so far. The cab is wonky because it isn't glued back in place yet. Has anybody else got any Jubilee progress to report?

Part 33 deals with assembling the tender footplate, with its cosmetic outside frames. It is a very nice feeling getting to the point of having used every component from the etched fret (well, nearly all of them!)... Although the model is nowhere near "finished", the constructional aspect of the chassis now is, and we can finally get to see how it runs. If all goes to plan, the next episode will conclude the series by tackling the necessary modifications to the PECO body in order to complete the conversion. https://youtu.be/8V209RlLETY

Hi William, The pins supplied with the jig are actually wagon axles. (...being the most convenient way of supplying ready-made short lengths of 1mm dia. steel.) You are supposed to file the points blunt, and cut them to length - easier done with them in the jig. Once the pins are in the jig, they should protrude just enough for the 4 layers of the etched plates to stack up on them. The pins should be permanently fixed in the jig - they are probably a tight push fit to begin with, and then the holes in the etched plates can be opened out with a broach so they are a sliding fit over the pins. As others have said, it is a good idea to solder each set of 4 plates together. You have been watching my series of Jubilee videos - have another look at Part 17 and you'll see what the tool should look like with the pins in place. Nick.

Regarding my not priming the chassis/wheels - yes, this could be considered a failing. BUT, on the frames at least, I don't want to do a final paint job at that stage, as there will be some scraping off to be done anyway when I solder on the brakes and any other bits of motion work or details that get added at a later stage. For a part that isn't going to be handled, such as behind the wheels, I'm not too worried about the paint coming off in service, so don't bother with a primer. Obviously, if you look at the latest episodes, you will see that there is quite a bit of touching up to do already in certain areas. For painting metal bodywork, I do use an etching primer. I probably should do so on the wheels as well. The first of Nigel's kits I built was the chassis for the Dapol Ivatt tank. It is probably the easiest one with valve-gear. I like tank engines, because the complication of the tender coupling (physical, electrical and drive-train) is absent. I wrote it up in the 2mm Magazine nearly 10 years ago. The Princess is an awesome kit, but definitely not one for the feint-hearted!

I hadn't remembered Jerry's post, and hadn't spent time rummaging around the internet for a cheaper deal - merely pointed to where I'd got mine several years ago. I don't remember them being so expensive back then. However, the Cooksongold one isn't actually in stock at the moment. Maybe they will go up when they are re-stocked? Anyway, the vices probably are the same, so feel free to save yourself some money! Speaking of which, I wonder if the 2mm Scale Association members' discount at Shestos is still in operation? (Look in the members only area of the 2mm website for the code).

Part 32 is here, in which the valve gear is completed and inspected. I'm really pleased to have got to this point - only 6 months and over 10 hours of edited videos later! I reckon I've spent at least 40 hours on the actual construction. I know I'm not the fastest worker, but I'd be interested to know how that compares with other builders of loco kits. I don't dare think about how much time I've spent in front of the PC so far! Still, I will carry on until the kit is completed. One snag is that as I've been handling the cylinder block, I've found the soldered joints connecting the cylinders to the PCB spacer beginning to fail. This may be to do with me cutting two sets of gaps to divide the spacer into 3 sections, and consequently the areas left for soldering are quite small. In future, I would use a wider piece of PCB. In one corner, the copper of the PCB has de-laminated, so I can't just re-solder it. Rather than risk the cylinders dropping to bits, I've decided to solder them permanently to the main frames at the front. I hope I don't live to regret it - but there's definitely no going back now! Watching the video back brings it home just how tight the clearances are for many parts of the valve-gear. I have, however, managed to get away without needing to crank parts in and out in order to clear each other - something which is often necessary. It is testament to Nigel's excellent design work that everything has gone together so smoothly. https://youtu.be/PkLZazkD45g

Files have teeth. The teeth bite into the metal and shave a little bit off. Sometimes the tooth can bite too deep into the metal and pull it along rather than shaving a bit off. The harder you press on, the more likely this is to happen. If your file isn't sharp, you naturally want to press on more, which leads to the file snagging. The horrible file I've been using on soldered surfaces has large teeth relative to the size of the parts I've been filing, which brings more danger, so I've been using very light strokes. Swiss files come with a "number" cut. The higher the number, the finer the teeth. My finest file, e.g. for getting the edges of valve-gear components really smooth, is a #6 cut pillar file. My "normal" files are #4 cut. I also have #2 cut files for rough work. Rough here being a relative term! Vallorbe are a good make and are widely available. To hold these tiny components you need a really good watchmaker's vice that can grip right on the edge of very thin metal. This is the cheap version. The posh one by Bergeon is 3 times the price. (I have the cheap one!) A good vice and good files are absolutely essential if you want to build locos in 2mm scale. My soldering iron is an Antex 50W temperature controlled soldering station. It is obsolete now, having been replaced by a more expensive digital version. I love it, but you don't need one. Before I bought it I used a normal 25W Antex for everything. One good thing about the TC it is the very flexible wire (silicone?). Tip size is much more important than the number of watts... as is cleanliness, a tinned bit, flux and holding the parts still. Most of the Jubilee construction has used a 1mm straight chisel tip. You will will have seen that when I was soldering the bogie pivot I needed to change to a bigger tip so there was more heat flow through the larger contact area. I didn't alter the temperature setting on the iron - which (so long as it is above the melting point of the solder!) doesn't make much difference. As for my videos, there are only a couple of others. The links have been posted here on RMWeb. This is my first (and given the time it has taken me, possibly only!) series. Glad you're enjoying it though

Having a few days off work has seen me make good progress through the mountain of unedited video. While RMWeb was off-line yesterday I managed to put the finishing touches on Part 31, which is quite a bit longer than the previous two episodes. Here at last we come to the topic I know several people have been waiting for - making pivot joints between valve gear components. The valve gear will be finished off in the next part (I hope!), and then we're on to the last lap, with the tender outside frames to construct and finally modifying the loco and tender body mouldings to fit the new chassis. https://youtu.be/StNgsEyGNvY

Thanks for the tip - I must admit I succumbed to a red short-firebox Farish jubilee that was being sold second-hand at a local exhibition a few weeks ago. There must be limit to the number of Jubilees one person needs (especially with all the other kits waiting to be built), but they look so pretty! I just need to persuade that nice Mr. Hunt to design a kit for the Fowler tender with all the rivets on it... Well, I thought I was starting to assemble the valve gear, but then I found another little problem to correct, and an opportunity to add another little detail... Here's another short episode - Part 30 - in which I make alterations to the radius-rod/lifting link, add a mystery bracket, and chat a little bit about the real thing. Microscopic pivot joints next time - I promise!!! https://youtu.be/5jV6MYEWWtc

I am conscious that lots of 2mm modellers do not own a lathe, and I wanted this series to be an encouragement for people to have a go at building a loco chassis. Owning (and, more to the point, knowing how to use!) a lathe is by no means a pre-requisite to making models in 2mm scale. While having a lathe makes lots of jobs quicker and easier, most of them could be done in different ways. And when it comes to choosing lathes, there is quite a range of options available to the 2mm modeller. John has already mentioned the Taig/Peatol, which is a good choice. Andrew Webster wrote a series of in-depth articles on lathes in the 2mm Magazine (August / October 2006) which you should look up in the archive. (If you don't have a copy of the Magazine archive, get hold of one - you will find it FAR more useful than a lathe!!!) Since you ask, my own lathe is a Geneva pattern watchaker's lathe, which I bought about 11 years ago. It is one of the Chinese "Sincere" lathes, which are still available new via eBay. The advantage of these is that they are relatively cheap (though not as cheap as they were a decade ago) and a fairly wide range of accessories is readily available. I personally enjoy being able to turn free-hand with a graver - you can see me doing some of this part way through this video. To learn how to set up and use a watchmaker's lathe properly and make gravers, I bought a set of DVDs from TickTock productions. Without them, I would not have a clue what I was doing. I think these are available as on-line tutorials as well as DVDs these days. For doing anything larger than 2mm work, I would want a bigger lathe. If I had the space and the money, I would not hesitate to buy a Cowells lathe. I use my milling machine far less than my lathe. That is probably because I'm less confident in how to use it properly. I'm sure there are all sorts of other things I could do with it... Yes, there is. But the series is publicised on the front page of the 2mm Scale Association website. Once it is complete, I (or the Association) may wish to do something else with it. Anyway - you managed to find it, and surely that's the most important thing

Life got quite busy in the run up to Christmas, but I've managed to put together this very short episode to keep things ticking over. Once I started on the valve-gear, it became apparent that my fears about the slots in the valve-spindle cross-head castings were justified. In the end I resorted to enlarging the slots using my Proxxon micro-mill. I'm allowing myself this use of a machine tool, because if I'd been able to watch some idiot build one beforehand in a never-ending series of tutorial videos, I would have known what to do and simply enlarged the slots with a file when preparing the castings. (This only happened in Part 23 - but it seems so long ago now!) Unfortunately, I am that idiot, and so I needed to get to the point where I could see exactly how deep the slots needed to be before going back in time time and fixing them. Anyway, here's Part 29, explaining the nature of the problem, and how I fixed it... https://youtu.be/0qSh0yOhytQ

I'm surprised a knife blade could act as more of a heat sink than the brass wheel centre. If I was in your situation, I would try using a bigger tip on the soldering iron, and make sure it is tinned. I always countersink the back of the hole before soldering crankpins in. If I want to get one out, pushing from the back with a soldering iron bit will move it as soon as the solder melts. That would be enough for something like a knife (or the end of a cocktail stick) to get in behind the flange. Nick.

Hi William, I believe Peco rail is nickel silver, so I would expect it to turn green in such circumstances. When it comes to fluxes, it is really a case of finding something that works for you. Powerflow seems to divide people into those who swear by it and those who swear at it... but even Green Label leaves a corrosive residue which should be washed off. Personally, I don't find cleaning as I go along a faff - in fact it is a positive advantage. Apart from the fact that clean metal is easier to solder whatever the flux, giving the model a scrub with an old toothbrush is likely to expose any poorly made joints... I'd prefer to know sooner rather than later if a joint was going to fail. If I have to make a joint that will be difficult or impossible to clean (such as on previously installed trackwork) then I would make sure the metal was thoroughly mechanically cleaned (e.g. with a scratch brush) immediately before soldering, and if necessary use a non-corrosive flux such as rosin.

Part 28 sees a little cosmetic enhancement to the motion bracket... https://youtu.be/TnaqXJGsCGw