Richard Hall

That is really rather lovely. The Derby Lightweight is nicer than you are prepared to admit. Some good inspiration here, thank you for sharing. Richard

I didn't know that, thank you. I wonder if I can hunt down a signalling diagram for Billingboro? I haven't yet established whether it needs any signals at all: the Down Starter was out of use after 1956 but I can't see the Up Starter in any of the photos. It is possible that the branch was worked from Bourn as a single block section, with Billingboro North Box being nothing more than a covered ground frame. Back on 2mm topics, eyeing up a Farish Standard 4MT which, compared to the Roche drawing might make a tolerable Ivatt "Flying Pig" with some plastic surgery. The valve gear is a bit daunting though for a second bash at 2mm chassis building. Richard

Might be getting a bit ahead of myself here as I haven't started cutting timber for baseboards yet, but I think I have found a nice little prototype for my first venture into 2mm. Billingborough and Horbling was a through station on the Great Northern's Bourn-Sleaford branch. I grew up in Lincolnshire and have a longstanding love of hopeless railways so this one appeals on various levels. The branch lost its passenger service in 1930 and was closed north of the level crossing at Billingboro in 1956, although the northern section was used for wagon storage for a few years afterwards. Freight (mainly grain, potatoes and other farm traffic) lasted until 1965. (Photo: Ben Brooksbank) It's a nice simple station but with a bit of interesting trackwork (three slips). Attractive buildings, a decent goods shed and a lovely little GN signal box. The closed crossing gates at the north end make a good scenic break but I'll have to fudge the other end somehow. I don't even know what that bit looked like: from the map I suspect a level crossing. Billingboro had two signal boxes, which seems a bit extravagant for such a small place. The whole lot should fit on 8' x 2' (excluding fiddle yard) with B7 turnouts and not too much compression. In later years the daily trip seems to have been a Boston (40F) job. Ivatt 4MTs and ex GN J6s certainly worked the line, as did various diesel shunters in the final years. A Gresley K2 turned up on a railtour. Spot the problem? Apart from the diesels, none of the above are available even as kits AFAIK. However Boston also had several J39s (got one of those) and a trio of J94s in 1961/2, That is enough to get me started. If anyone has photos of this station, or other useful information, I will be most grateful. The Bourn & Sleaford branch wasn't exactly a magnet for railway photographers. Richard

These just popped up on FB. Just in case you haven't seen them already: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rtRealTrainspotting/permalink/6039228699424858 Richard

Thanks for getting back to me, but Bath is probably a bit far for my 22 year old Peugeot these days. Looks like a useful piece of kit, I hope you get a good price for it. Regards, Richard

Always very sad to hear of someone having to scale back their modelling activities. I might be interested in the milling machine: it would sit nicely alongside the Proxxon lathe I bought at the weekend. Let me know where you are and how much you want for it. Best wishes, Richard

Norfolk Area Group first meeting earlier today: there were four of us, three layouts and lots of cups of tea. We swapped ideas, ran a few locomotives, said "ahhh" when Jon brought out his exquisite J69, and hatched plans for an oval test track to be constructed over the next few months - dual gauge so we can bed in 2mm locomotives, and test N gauge ones to ensure they work before dismantling and rewheeling them. Future meetings will be bimonthly, Sundays at 11am, next one at the end of September. Thank you everyone for the huge amount of help I have been given in getting this group off the ground.

J39 is getting close to being finished. I need to reattach the sandboxes, a bit more attention to the weathering especially on the chassis, and of course some couplers: I haven't yet decided whether to continue developing my own "Magpie" coupler (so named because it steals design features from just about every tension lock ever made) or go over to DGs like everyone else. Overall I'm happy enough with 64705 as a first stab at 2mm. In the end I solved the adhesion problem with a variant of what I call the "wasp drive", which I originally developed for N gauge locomotives with tender pickups to avoid having to permanently couple the loco and tender. Here we have a long piece of springy nickel silver wire, projecting from the rear of the loco chassis and looking a bit like a stinger (hence "wasp drive") and "live" to the wheels on one side. Underneath the tender is a strip of PCB sleeper soldered across the frames and gapped at one end: this rests on the end of the wire, carrying current and allowing weight transfer from tender to loco. This one isn't perfect yet: I used 0.45mm wire which is too thick and tends to lift the front tender wheels off the track. 64705 spent most of the fifties at Blaydon, then went to Alnmouth for an agreeable 18 months on the branch lines of North Northumberland before being transferred south to spend its final years around Leeds and Wakefield. Perfect for Longframlington, my "might have been" Borders branch terminus. What next? Probably a J27: I scratchbuilt one in N gauge a while back, and though it is not a thing of great beauty I'm rather fond of it as it was my first attempt at building a locomotive from brass sheet and tube. Happily it resides on a Farish 57xx Pannier chassis which provides an obvious and easy route to a 2mm conversion.

You total and utter genius. I've had another tender wheel come loose on the J39 and really didn't want to have to take all the brake gear off to fix it. Thank you. Richard

Peterborough wagon works had an even more flimsy looking example. Can't find the original at the moment (date is on the back) but I think this was 1984.

Sometimes the simplest things are overlooked. Can't believe I forgot about that, especially as I was running an N gauge "K1" last night with precisely that arrangement. (Please don't ask to see the K1, it will make any proper modeller cry. Shortened Langley B1 body on a Poole Farish Black Five chassis. It looks a bit like a K1 from a very long way off, in the dark.) Richard

Handrail knobs? I've only recently started fitting my models with handrails... Spent an hour this evening snipping lead flashing into tiny pieces and glueing them inside the top and sides of the firebox, with some success. Previously the J39 would spin its drivers on the level if power was applied too quickly. It can now propel seven not too free-running N gauge wagons up an approx 1 in 60 slope (approx because my test plank bows slightly in the middle). There are still a couple more places I can add a tiny amount of weight, but the two stage gearbox is a bit of a space hog. Ideally I'd have the first stage reduction in the tender and the driveshaft hugging the cab floor, but it's a bit late for that now. Next time, maybe. Richard

Good stuff, Celotex. I picked up seven full sheets of 25mm for £140 last weekend to line what I hope will be the Norfolk Area Group meeting room. It's an old showroom and fully glazed so it was intolerably hot. Celotex is doing its job, must be 30 degrees outside but nice and cool inside. Now pondering on building baseboards out of the stuff, as per the article in the 2mm magazine a few months ago. Richard

I appear to have two working locomotives. I found a set of reprofiled Farish diesel wheelsets that I bought about 20 years ago, so I thought I would see if they fitted a new-tooling Derby-Sulzer Type 2. Unclip bogie frames, prise out old wheelsets, pop in new ones. Job done. The wheels are slightly undersize but not too obviously so. It runs very nicely. 2mm doesn't get any easier than that. Back to the J39 which initially ran like a three-legged donkey but is now rather better. I made a few mistakes: Drilled the holes for the crankpins fractionally oversize, making it difficult to get them absolutely square in the hubs. Only 0.1mm but it makes a big difference. Tried soldering the crankpins into the wheels with an RSU which heated and distorted them. I had to straighten them by eye. Pressed several driving wheels into the muffs slightly off-square. I was using an Association quartering press and haven't quite found the right technique. If the stub axle isn't exactly concentric with the muff it effectively increases the crank throw on that axle, so the thing runs as though the quartering is slightly out. I finally spotted it when I took the body off and powered the driving wheels while looking down from above. N gauge wheels wobble around all over the place but I don't think I'll get away with that much slop in 2mm. Not sure if this is a mistake or not but I went for very fine clearances between the crankpins and the rod holes. I wonder whether a bit more clearance might help. With all the problems put right it runs quite nicely although the gear train is a bit noisy. It crawls along at unfeasibly slow speeds which is just what I want for a branch terminus. However it is desperately short of adhesion, even though I have replaced the boiler weight with lead and added a cube of the stuff between the frames. I suspect I am going to have to pack bits of lead into every available space including the cab floor and possibly even the underside of the roof. I wondered if the tender might be dragging, but it seems to roll freely enough for something on plain bearings. Not a bad start: just need a layout now. I'm working on that. Richard

Managed to do a bit of sneaky weekday modelling, fitted the worm and shaft and played around a bit with mechanical bits to see what would fit. First job was to make up a drawbar. I'm quite pleased with this, uses nuts soldered to 14BA cheesehead screws , the screws double as body retainers and the drawbar transmits current on one side. I ended up fitting two flywheels to the motor - an Association one on one end, and one salvaged from a seized Farish V2 motor on the other. The motor will have to sit at a slight angle as the worm shaft on the loco is a bit higher up than I would have liked and there isn't a lot of clearance at the back end of the tender: if I ever manage to scratchbuild a chassis, Jim's "underdrive" sounds tempting. Driveshaft and yokes are Dapol spares from DCC Supplies, bit chunkier than the recommended bit of bent wire but they work and I already had them in my box of bits. Just need to sort out a motor mounting, a bit of wiring and as much lead as I can cram in everywhere. The loco has a ballast weight in the boiler but it is made of something light and aluminium-like. Presumably manufacturers can't use lead or its alloys any more. 0 Richard

For anyone not on the VAG, quick update. First meeting of the Norfolk Area Group will be Sunday 24th July 11am, in Banham NR16. Hopefully I should have the room cleared and smartened up by then. I will be digging my not quite 2mm layout "Longframlington" (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=32575) out of the storage box where it has sat since its last show in November 2019, seeing if anything works, possibly running some narrow gauge trains with oversized wheel flanges, and pondering how to go about reconstructing the layout in 2mm. Plenty of space for people to work on their own projects (unless the project in question is Copenhagen Fields). I will bring along my resistance soldering unit if anyone fancies having a go, there will be tea, coffee and possibly cake. If anyone wants to come along, drop me an email. Richard

I'm going to put this down to beginner's luck, but I appear to have a rolling 2mm locomotive. I haven't fitted the worm gear yet as I wanted to be sure the wheels would go round. After a bit of fiddling with the quartering, and pushing it back and forth along a length of Easitrac a few times, the wheels now rotate without locking up anywhere. There is perhaps a tiny hint of stiffness at a couple of spots which I am hoping will clear with a bit of running. In the end I decided (before reading helpful comments above) that since the muffs resisted filing very well they would be unlikely to wear in service. I shaved a bit off the centre muff to give a touch of sideplay, and after that it was all plain sailing apart from a couple of minor issues. I tried soldering the crankpins into the wheels but a couple came loose so I fixed them with cyano instead. And having managed to solder the crankpin washers on (using a bit of fag paper behind them) I decided to nudge a couple of them a bit closer to the rods and inevitably soldered the whole lot together. Luckily I'd been sparing enough with the solder that I was able to salvage the situation. Thinking about it, the slight binding might be a very thin layer of solder on the affected crankpins. Still have the motor, driveshaft and tender drawbar to sort out. Motor is likely to be a Chinese 1015 double ended flat can: I bought twenty of them from Bee Studio for about 30 pence each and they aren't bad. I have a ridiculous number of Chinese motors in my gloat box: 8mm and 10mm flat cans, weird 6 pole square cans, numerous 7mm coreless including some nice double ended ones, and some beefy open frame skew wound 5 poles which I suspect came from the factory that supplies Atlas in the US. I'll put a flywheel on one end of the motor and possibly another on the worm shaft. Not much time for modelling during the week, but hopefully a few more hours next weekend should see the J39 running. Not a bad starting point for a newcomer to 2mm, although the instructions assume a high degree of familiarity with etched chassis in general and 2mm construction techniques in particular. I soldered half the frame bushes the wrong way round before I realised the "top hat" flanges are supposed to be on the inside unlike every kit I have ever built, and broke off a couple of the spacer locating tabs before I realised what they were for. My only real criticism is that the etch doesn't include the lubricator drive: this would be a nice gentle introduction to the black art of 2mm valve gear assembly. Richard

Trigger warning: messy workbench and untidy soldering. The J39 chassis kit I purchased at Derby is starting to come together. Farish J39 was £20 as a non-runner from the local model shop. It isn't actually my first attempt at 2mm: I have a half-finished Jinty chassis from a previous brief dalliance with the scale about 20 years ago. But I think I'm a better modeller now than I was then, a more patient modeller at least, and I might stand a chance of getting this thing running. I have a scratchbuilt J27 on a Farish Pannier chassis which I think the Jinty will end up powering. Just about to deflux, prime and paint the chassis, and while the paint is drying I will have a go at rods and crankpins. Then I can see how well my shiny new quartering press works. I've been thinking about axle sideplay which seems to be limited by the width of the axle muff contacting the inside of the frame bushes. Presumably if I want a bit of sideplay on the centre axle I can just shorten the muff slightly and then slip slotted temporary spacers between the muff and the chassis frame to get the muff central on the wheelset? There seems to be plenty of room between the hub backs and the frames to allow a bit of sideplay: I'm wondering whether I need to shim the outer two wheelsets to stop the muffs wearing and giving me sideplay where it isn't wanted. Richard

Thank you Nigel, that's very helpful and very much in line with what I am trying to do here. I'm starting to think that what I really need is at least two other people interested in getting involved, then we can hammer out the basic aims and structure between us. There is scope for a smallish group layout or test track, but straight away you are into questions of funding, ownership and access which need to be sorted before anyone starts butchering innocent sheets of plywood. I know what I personally would like to see, but the idea is to set up a Norfolk Area Group, not a Richard Hall Modelling Support Group. Might be time to email the people on Jim's list and see what interest there is out there. Richard

Traditional all-scales clubs are, I think, very important for the hobby, especially in helping people who are new to it, but they don't really perform the same role as a 2mm area group IMHO. No reason not to do both, but existing clubs are just far enough from home to be unappealing for me: I work quite long hours so by the time I've got home and showered it's a bit late to head off for a weekday evening meeting 45 minutes drive away. As others have suggested, an AG being rather more specialised, people might be prepared to travel a bit further. I would.

I'm coming to that, thought it better to break my thoughts down into smaller sections rather than post everything at once. Venue, meeting format and frequency, group layout / test track and boring stuff like liability insurance all to be considered. Spoiler alert: I have a potentially suitable clubroom and it's free. Richard

Some thoughts on area groups. (I thought I was subscribed to the VAG but it seems not. I suspect I was bounced off a couple of years ago when I was late renewing my sub. Once I've rejoined I'll start a thread on there to mirror this one.) To kick off, why have an area group at all? If you can decide what an organisation is supposed to do, most of the decisions flow from that. · To inspire and encourage – not just new 2mm modellers, anyone can become stuck in a rut and get fed up with whatever they are working on. Especially when you get to that stage where you have a couple of unfinished locos and some half-built trackwork, and all you can do is push a wagon up and down a length of Easitrac. · To share knowledge – materials, techniques, tools etc. · To spread the word – 2mm presence at local exhibitions and on social media. · Above all it should be welcoming, friendly and fun. Something that people look forward to each month. Anything I'm missing? Something blindingly obvious, if I'm on my usual form. Richard

Would anyone object if I posted up my initial thoughts here on how a new group might operate? Looking to get a bit of feedback and helpful advice, especially from people who are / were involved in running area groups, as well as getting a feel for what people might want from a group. I've had a look through some old Newsletters and there seem to be quite a few different ways of doing things. Thanks, Richard

My solution to the same problem. Magnets are glued to a brass hinge which falls away under its own weight and is lifted up against the bottom of the baseboard by the servo arm: if the servo or its control unit fail (which will only happen at an exhibition) I can stick my hand under the baseboard and uncouple trains that way. This uncoupler serves two parallel roads.

Fair comment and I certainly wouldn't want to offend anyone in Norfolk, even if I am from Lincolnshire originally and therefore inclined to view all Norfolk people with suspicion. I was responding to GER_Jon's observation that none of the smaller scale societies seem to have local groups in Norfolk, and wondering whether it is just that there aren't that many people in these parts working in the finer scales. Perhaps one of the purposes of a local area group should be to promote 2mm modelling in that area via exhibition layouts: I can't recall seeing a 2mm layout at any of the local shows pre-Covid, nor very much in EM/P4. I bet there are a few N gauge modellers who could be encouraged to have a go if they could see 2mm in action, and actually running better than commercial N. Richard