RichardW1

Hello everyone- I have been foolish and accepted (perhaps I offered?) to dust off Alan Martin's finescale model of Lambourn for an upcoming show. I acquired this layout a number of years ago, and it has rarely been shown since. I have to say I'm quite excited by the opportunity to get things running again. At it's last showing the shuttle failed, and I never got round to fixing it. The first task this weekend has been to (find) and renovate the layout legs. These are made solidly from 2" square timber with ply corner braces. Once located (Hidden in the loft) the accumulated dust was removed and the legs painted. The two pairs of legs are joined by plywood sheets, bolted in place with 6mm bolts and wing nuts. These I could not find, so a trip to the nice people at Screwfix provided me with new bolts, washers and pronged tee nuts, which in the space of an hour or so meant that the support frame was fit to be assembled. So as the legs were up, I took a deep breath, and put the layout on top! Alan's design meant that there are just two jumper cables connecting the three boards, and these were found in the box where I left them (Stunned disbelief!) and it was then that I noticed the loose wire on the fiddle yard board- tracing this through it was to the reed switch for the shuttle, which presumably is why it stopped working. It took a couple of minutes to cure that. A quick clean of the trackwork, and a rummage for the railcar, and to my delight it not only ran first time, but the AMR shuttle system works flawlessly. A real testament to Alan's skill in setting it to work. The layout must be what?..30 years old, and hasn't run for maybe ten years, so I am really very pleased. The power supply unit needs to be replaced- it was originally built into a wooden cigar box fixed below the layout. This will no longer pass scrutiny for exhibition purposes, so a new, safer unit must be made. There is some gentle work to do on the scenery- not much, a bit of dusting, refixing of some bushes and trees, and a bit of work on the stock, but all looks favourable for a gentle return to the exhibition circuit. Oh where I hear you ask? Well, it will be at Keen House on Sunday 17th November for an open day at the MRC. Official details for the day will be made nearer the date. Now I have some funny stock and green locos to service! Richard

Don I thought I didn't have enough room! I wish you luck with this, and look forward to the results Richard

Evening all, It's been a not very nice day today, overcast and cool-perfect for spending an afternoon in the workshop! Having cleared a bit of space on the workbench, attention has turned to assembling the cylinders. David's design produces a sturdy slidebar assembly, but you do need some small (tiny) files to size the apertures in the cylinder covers. Here I am showing one completed unit, and one with the cylinder cover off, to show the internal assembly. It was quite fun to make these up, now for the cross heads! Richard

I agree with the majority, it would be a shame to loose it altogether, and great as a backdrop for photography. Find a shelf and keep it Richard

For sure it's the said Eveleigh etch The next job is to start work on the cylinders and valve gear

Hi Tim It's a Maxon 8-16 Not cheap these days!

Ian Good to see the Servos have not been ditched altogether. I am now a strong advocate of these, and will certainly use them again. Looking at the underside of DCC layouts, it seems to me that there is always a mass of conductive tape, with soldered leads flying off to all the track work. Do you find this useful? Do you feel that it saves time, or is more effective than conventional wiring? Richard

I'm not sure what happened here, these pictures appear ok in the preview, I hope that this upload works ok.

Nor can I! Sorry chaps, I'll have a go at reloading them

The motor is mounted by machining a support ring which is then tapped to accept the thread on the motor nose. Once soldered to the chassis the motor can be mounted. I took care to align things such that when screwed in tight the connection tags are horizontal The balance weights are fixed in place on the wheels with epoxy And all are now ready for painting- 1st coat is cellulose red oxide

I would suggest that after the first clean (I use Vim, but other scourers are available) grit blasting will provide a good key for the paint. After grit blasting clean again in hot water and let air dry, without touching at all. For priming I use cellulose paint primer, red or grey, depending on the final colour. Richard

Great show chaps-thanks for letting me camp out in the 2 mm 'corral'. St.Ruth, Tucking Mill and Fencehouses , together with Paula and the roadshow did 2mil proud.

Hi Tim I sourced them a couple of years ago via the Internet, they were made to order (full set of 8 cutters) made in China. Cost was around

Here I have completed the 25t Mod0.3 gear, in brass, next step to make the split axle muffs to carry them, and the wheelsets

Following a good day at Railex in Aylesbury meeting old friends, and making new ones too, I have returned home with renewed enthusiasm This afternoon I have been mostly making gears for my Dapol GWR 2-6-2 conversion. These are to be M0.3 and the first is 14 tooth, machined directly onto a muff as the first gear in the final reduction train. The pictures show the milling set-up for this tiny gear, with the resulting muff ready for drilling to 1.5 dia for the stub axles.

Regrettably the rods on the etch have become bent (poor storage on my part I'm afraid) I will have to make my own, probably a compromise between the two!

At last getting round to fixing up the David Eveleigh kit for the Dapol Prairie

This looks really fine work,very clean soldering. Will the motor be hidden in the boiler? Richard

Whilst reviewing the photo showing the basic formwork for the ground it was noticeable that the siding has not been fitted with any buffers. So I thought I'd better provide some. Typical rail built Midland style buffers are described in MRJ issue 121, and now adorn the Northern end of the siding.

Now that the Servo TOU's have been installed, it is time to start thinking about groundwork. On Copenhagen Fields the majority of the 'world' is plywood, being covered with buildings. Here at Maxstoke I am going back to open country, so the basic ground former for the foreground land is based on artist's chicken wire stapled to plywood formers. Over this is painted on a liberal quantity of white PVA and strips of newspaper- both on top and under the chicken wire. Now chicken wire is ok, but can be very prickley to use, so towards the rear the ply formers are first overlaid with a lattice mesh of strips cut from a cereal packet (Curiously Cinnamon - for the record!). Again newspaper and white PVA is painted on; in layers. The buildings are sat on a plywood piece that will be removeable to afford access to the servo unit below. These are not the final buildings, but are used to give an impression of scale etc. I now need to go cut some more formers and buy some more cereal, if I were modelling a later era perhaps 'CO-CO pops' would be the preference, but as it's steam era 'Puffed Wheat' will be adequate.

Well I guess that if the layout is on the table, you must be finding some motivation. I echo Kris's comment, and it is good to see images from the layout again.

Always good to review older models-I agree with Orinoco, just park em up if you have the space- or consign them to a show cabinet. there is no point destroying old work. - The recent 'coming to light' of JJL's loco's, rolling stock, and buildings are acase in point. Just to see the progress the hobby has made since the days of this pioneer, ( not to say how remarkable this layout was in it's time) has been quite inspirational- just as your work may be in years to come. Richard

The Servo motors arrived this week, and to my great surprise the Servo4 board and Setting box worked flawlessly. A simple support cradle was swiftly assembled this morning from offcuts of ABS sheet. When assembled, the complete unit was mated with the turnout, and in-situ testing started. Unfortunately the turnout would not fully throw in one direction. A bit of discreet measurement showed that addition of all the working tolerances meant that the pivot point for the lever arm, was too close to the pin guide. A new pivot was quickly drilled and tapped, and the unit reassembled. This now works fine. Now that the trial design has been shown to work satisfactorily, I guess I shall be banished to the workshop to manufacture the remaining three units to enable the turnouts on Maxstoke to all be fullt operational- who knows, I may even get the mechanical aspects of the layout completed by Easter!

Rich- I'm looking forward to the working screw couplings on the batch build of coaches! - BTW the wargon's arn't going anywhere 'cos the vac pipes are separated! In all seriousness, these look really good. Well done.

The servos arrived yesterday- and to my great relief, the servo driver board and setting device all seem to work... next step is to link it all together.