Caley Jim

And each of these 12 months could well be Aprils. :-) Jim

This is one f the reasons why railway maintenance companies are now regularly employed on 'vegetation clearance'. Where once the grass and bushes on the sides of cuttings and embankments were kept in check by occasional fires caused by sparks from locos, they started to proliferate when diseisasals came along, resulting in the problems from 'leaves on the line' in autumn, among others. Jim

And where does Roswell fit into all this? Or is that another story again? Jim

I'm not familiar with that book, so can't confirm the author, but when I joined the 2MM SA in the late 60's, any articles on loco construction usual started with 'chuck a 1 inch bolt in the lathe...'. This being the starting point of making driving wheels. As I've never possessed a lathe, it was fortunate that the Association started to produce a range of driving wheels a few years later! Transformer laminations were the recommended material for motor cores. Jim

It's also worth putting a length of rod, the same diameter as the axles, through the bearings while you fix then. That way both bearings will be perfectly aligned. Jim

I've been rather busy recently drawing up etches for things for a couple of groups. One is for a second footbridge from Dunblane for the Dunallander layout, which had to be drawn up from photos as it is long gone and there are no drawings. I'll start a thread on the 2FS section when I start to build it. I'll leave the second set of items for the group concerned to describe when they get them. I hope to get the artwork files off to PPD before the end of the week. Jim

Or Trigger's brush from 'Only Fools and Horses'! Jim

If you read the caption to the photograph I read it as saying that it had been an 0-6-2st and then had been converted to an 0-8-0st. Jim

we have a member of our area group who spends all his time planning a layout. We refer to him as 'Mr Gunnado' as he's always gonna do something. Jim

As Andy says in the post before this one, the ticket is a monthly one! Potentially 6 return journeys per week for 4 weeks which equates to just over a farthing per journey ! Jim

Have you asked on the CRA website ? Jim

Make it into a series of such 'windows' and have multiple entries ! Jim

And I can give you some nice blue ones (without any fancy faces)! Jim

But they are all the right jobs! Jim

Looking at that mallet, 'mince meat' comes to mind! Jim

On Kirkallanmuir I've hidden the cassette fiddle yards behind the colliery interchange sidings at one end and the goods yard at the other. Jim

Mine are all to 2MM scale, and mostly scratch built or etched kits, the latter mostly my own design. There is little available in N for my area or period of interest (Caledonian Railway 1885-1914) jim

Aren't we all!! Jim (Note that while I truncated the post I did not delete the flag! )

Don't bother about which string it is. I think the finest you can get is 8thou, usually marked on the packet. Jim

I notice you have two pipes going to each gas lamp. On Caledonian coaches there was only one running along the roof, slightly to one side of the lamps, with a branch going of to each lamp and terminating at the last lamp. I don't see the need for two pipes, but then your coach may have had a different arrangement. Jim

As far as I am aware it was only oil lamps which were removable. By their very nature, gas lamps were fixed since they were attached to the relevant piping. Jim

Re holes near the bottom of the glazing. Rather than drill holes, cut inverted V-shaped nicks in the glazing? Jim

Nothing looks like coal like coal! get a lump of coal, smash it down and sieve it through a tea strainer. Fit a false floor in the wagon 2-3mm below the top, coat it with a thick layer of 5-minute epoxy (black if possible), sprinkle on a generous layer of coal, press it down firmly with a wad of tissue and leave for ½ an hour or so to set fully. Shake off the excess onto a sheet of paper and return to the jar. Job done! Jim

On my (scratchbuilt) Jumbo I made the tender sides and rear as one piece, including the top flares, in 5 thou brass. At the curved rear corners I cut the flare into four or five 'fingers' before forming it and then formed the curved rear corners, round a suitable rod, at which point the 'fingers' splayed out. I then soldered a length of fine wire along the outside of the top edge all round to form the beading and this allowed me to fill in between the 'fingers' with solder. The corners of the flares were then tidied up with fine needle files. Jim

I have my mechs all drawn out in CAD before I start, so I know pretty well how things are going to relate to one another and what the clearances are like. Another (thinner) way of providing insulation it to place a piece of tissue paper over the underside of the footplate and flood it with cyano, cutting away the excess once the glue has set. This can also be done on the insides of splashers etc if there is an issue with shorting. Jim