Kaolin2FS

Very nice progress - looking forward to seeing this in the future! Love the sweeping curves at 3:00. And the 37 on tanks of course. Graham

Thanks Pete, I'm working through them in batches of 6, work's getting in the way a little at present but I hope to have at least the first lot ready by Christmas. The Minitrix model is still an excellent model, improved further by filing down the over-thick end hopper supports. And running behind a tractor, as you say! Cheers Jeremy, PM on its way. There are some excellent photos of the wagons new on Paul Bartlett's site (http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brcda) and weathered EWS versions on Martyn Read's site ( ) but I'm after wagons in the intervening time period, ie early on in their lives in ECC blue, especially around the time the labels peeled off which I think was around 1990-1992? I'll head over to the Cornish Railways section shortly but any help gratefully received!

Here's a couple of shots of work in progress on the first CDA conversion. The donor body for this wagon was a Minitrix HAA. After making an approach to Peco, they kindly allowed me to purchase a small quantity of unpainted hopper roofs and end discharge covers, which is allowing me to convert a small fleet of HAAs I've built up over time. The roofs require some careful filing to fit snugly inside the hopper body but once that's done I think they look the part. The second photo shows the prominent plastic roof roller guard which I'll replace with brass as per the third photo. Most of the detailing parts added to this one have not yet been painted, leaving painting, transfers and weathering in order to complete: As I've acquired a collection of different makes of MGR wagon over the last few years, I thought I'd give a quick run-down and visual comparison for those who may be interested. From left to right, the Peco CDA hopper (£13-16), which is based on their HAA hopper (£11-13). The hood is produced as a clip-in 2-part moulding and end housing is fitted as 4 simple press-in mouldings. Next, the Farish model from the China factory which can be picked up for about £9 in HAA and HFA variants. On the right is the older Minitrix version, now out of production but often to be found on ebay from £7-8. I've left the hoods off the Peco CDA in some of the photos and the Farish HFA in all of them. Top - Minitrix Middle - Farish Bottom - Peco There are mutliple small differences between all of them; the Farish model is the only one with correctly shaped curved hopper end lips and automatic discharge operating equipment but the end staunchions, although finely replicated, are a little flimsy; the Peco version sits slightly lower and also has closer coupling than the others but, I've just noticed, smaller buffers which could be enough to cause buffer-locking issues if mad enough to use 3-links ; and the older Minitrix is a little chunkier in the mouldings but can be had for the lowest price. My personal favourate at the moment is the Farish, but ask me again when I've converted a dozen or so... Graham

Very nice! I have a similar question - how many will you get in your second boxfile - about 6 or so? Graham

Pete, that's a very good idea. I was originally going to have different-length rakes of permanently coupled stock, but that could get tricky remembering where the 'join' is, and of course taken too far I could just as well fit DGs to the whole lot! I still need to see if it looks strange having a mix of DGs and 3-link in the same train. I will hone in on features I like from the various structures as work progresses but I'm not basing it on one at present. Thanks Jez, it was quite a colourful period all in all... Well, toned down with an all-over whitewash of course...

Never mind the passenger service - those Tullis Russell hoppers really do look superb. Will definitely be on the lookout for this on the circuit next year. Graham

Rich, absolutely superb wagons... and if you could find the time to show a photo of the instanter coupling you've made, that would be greatly appreciated. Graham

Actually, it's a bog standard household filler, in this case, Polyfilla I think; I'll expand more shortly! I agree that the clear rapido does look good, but bearing in mind the other detail I'm adding to the CDAs (which, if I ask myself honestly, will probably be very hard to make out at NVD too), I just couldn't compromise with rapidos. Thanks for the comments! Graham

As mentioned in the opening blog post, Trevanion Dries is a small facility with the run-around severely limiting train length. Before I plunge headlong into handbuilding any more 2mm pointwork however I want to make sure I've got a workable track plan which bears as much resemblance as possible to dries in the area bearing in mind the huge compromise I'm making with space. The current plan is below: From top to bottom: Line 1 - enclosed within the dries facility for loading of any wagon type --- Works --- Line 2 - beside dries facility, with canopy for loading of swing-top wagons/CDAs, run-round loop suitable for 6 CDAs or equivalent Line 3 - beside bagged/palletised clay loading area --- Raised hardstanding for loading of bagged/palletised clay --- Line 4 - other side of bagged/palletised clay loading area Line 5 - Loaded wagons for collection Off-scene, there are 3 storage roads, with plenty of space for handling - this could be replaced by a traverser, or interchangeable stock sections in similar fashion to Welton Downs: The boards on this 'tester' have been designed to store inside each other with the track (and stock) on the inside to make storage easy when the guest bedroom railway room is in use by visitors. I'll use a different design for the finished version. The track will be tweaked until I've got a plan I'm happy to go firm with in 2mm although the concrete area is pretty fixed for the time being! The concreted area will eventually comprise the visible areas of lines 1, 2 and 3 to just short of the pointwork at the throat. I'm also planning to increase the length of the boards on the final 2mm layout to allow for 9 or 10 CDA hoppers in the run-round loop. In fact, the whole scenic board will probably be increased by a minimum of 50% in all directions to allow for greater scene depth and train length. The concept of operation is a train will arrive in line 2, the train engine will run round in line 3 before shunting, or departing and leaving the shunting to the works 08. PAA, PBA, PRA, and Polybulks will use Lines 1 & 2 for loading, the VDA, VGA, and Cargwaggons will use lines 3 and 4. I'm still trying to work out where the slurry loading point would be for the ICA and TTA slurry tanks, but with a board extension I could easily build a slurry loading shed somewhere on Line 3. Here's another from a better viewpoint as track laying had just been completed. Line 1 is on the left with Line 5 on the right. All comments and suggestions most welcome! Graham

Thanks Kris, I was expecting trouble I have to admit, but I have tried pushing the rake backwards and was pleasantly surprised when they passed through all turnouts on my test track ok. I think I'll just have to be very careful with the min radius of any curves. The relatively short wb of the wagons and the lack of excessive sideways 'play' help. Graham

Thanks Pete - the marshalling yard of rolling stock is growing slowly but surely... roll on the Farish TSL Polybulks... Trackplan to follow. Graham

One of the reasons I switched to 2FS was the ugliness of the rapido coupling. I'm still not sure there's a perfect solution for its replacement but what I have done, however, is got hold of some 3-link chain from Mathieson Models (usual disclaimer) which is designed to replace the coupler on their wagons. These can be used on many recent Farish wagons with only a modest amount of 'persuading' - simply unclip the coupler pockets, widen slightly if needed, and press the Mathieson coupler lugs into the holes. This is an experiment with HFAs which are about to undergo conversion to CDAs, which in the real world have the 'Instanter' type couplings but in this scale who's going to be able to tell... A comparison: Farish HFAs with standard coupling at top and 3-link chain replacement at bottom, set on 2FS track: Difference in length for a rake of 4 (I've kept the rapidos at the end of the bottom rake to facilitate coupling for the time being, they will be replaced with DGs idc): Traversing N-gauge Peco medium-radius turnouts (inset into 'concrete' - more on this another time). No buffer-locking evident: Given the success of this experiment using the greater N-gauge tolerances, I'm not expecting any problems in 2mm, but I'll let you know... Graham

Trevanion Dries is the name of a long-term project in 2mm finescale. It's an attempt to re-create the atmosphere of the railways in the clay country of South Devon and Cornwall primarily from my memories of growing up in the area in the mid-1990s. The period will cover the CDA hopper operation and Speedlink wagonload services of the late 80s and early 90s stretching through to the introduction of the first EWS-liveried Class 37s... roughly 1988-1997. Trevanion Dries will be a small model of a fictitious clay dries located in the Trenance Valley to the north-west of St Austell. The facilities, including Buell and rotary driers, have not been modernised for a few years and production is under threat of being switched to the nearby Blackpool Dries. The limitations of the site mean that it can only accommodate small trains (in a similar fashion to the Drinnick Mill branch), a further reason why its future is not guaranteed. In the meantime, however, there is a reasonable amount of activity with the St. Blazey 37 fleet dropping off a wide variety of wagons for the works' ex-BR 08 to shunt, before being tripped to St Blazey, Fowey or further up-country as required. The occasional train of domestic coal in HEA hoppers, fuel oil in TTAs and timber traffic in OTA wagons may also appear en route to some private sidings a little further up the valley, but china clay will be the mainstay of interest. In terms of modelling, this will be a 2mm finescale railway utilising predominantly RTR stock with changed wheelsets, couplings, extra detailing and weathering. The intention is to have a super-detailed rake of CDAs as the centrepiece, complemented by visits from ICA, PAA, PBA, PRA, VDA, VGA, TSL Polybulk and Cargwaggon variants, with HEA, TTA and OTA making guest appearances on occasion. Control will be DCC and the layout will be small enough to be easily portable, albeit larger than box-file size. Focus will be on the stock first. I've started this blog for a number of reasons: firstly, there's rarely any better motivation than the positive or constructive comments of others - and as I'm often prone to starting more than I finish, this should help me focus my efforts! Secondly, having viewed so many excellent blogs on here over the last few months (especially bcnpete and rods_of_revolution) I wanted to share my own experiences of ways I have tackled similar problems - realistic couplings in 2mm and track inset into concrete to name a couple. Lastly, I'll definitely need help along the way as there are many gaps in my knowledge and skills - this is my first 2mm venture - so this is a plea in advance for assistance when I come unstuck!

Inspiring as ever, Pete... glad it's not only me that's not much use with a hot iron! Interesting the magnet works well with DGs through the wooden baseboard... what thickness wood are you using again? Graham