Caley 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

Presumably 'Sideways sidings' were accessed via a wagon turntable, or perhaps a traverser! Jim

I wouldn't worry too much about the pulling power of the small motor. What would concern me more is the adhesive weight, which is what I find limits hauling capacity of small 2FS locos. Putting the motor in the tender, driving the loco via a driveshaft, and then fitting as much lead as possible into the body is, to my mind, a more practical way to go. That is what I did with all my tender locos and what Alisdair Campbell has done with his recent Jumbo. I would add that I never, ever, build the body of a loco first, but get a working chassis built and then build the body around that. Doing it that way, you can check after you add each part to ensure that it isn't interfering with the fit of the chassis or causing a short. Clearances are so tight in 2FS that it can be difficult to determine where the problem lies in either case. Jim

Re coping stones. Would it not be easier to use plastic section and scribe it to represent the individual stones? I did this for Kirkallanmuir, producing a chamfer on the top corners by scraping along the strip. Jim

I have a number of mineral wagons lettered for fictitious companies, mainly fellow members of the 2MM Scale Association. In doing that I'm taking a leaf out of the late David Jenkinson's book! I've noticed when looking at photographs of PO wagons owned by small local merchants, who only had one wagon, that it is never numbered '1', but '3' or '5', always an odd number. Presumably this was to suggest that they were actually a slightly larger concern who could afford to own more than one wagon! Jim

Not sure whether this is the most appropriate place to post this, but the following is copied from the Caledonian Railway Association forum :- CR419 will be travelling around 4 preserved railways in England between now and end May. East Lancashire Railway 8-10 March Swanage Railway 29-31 March North Norfolk 5-7 April Gloucester Warwickshire Railway 25-27 May Jim

With difficulty! I have to confess that I've given up on that. Life is now too short! Whaur's the 'Cheeky b****r' button when you need it!! Jim

I'm intrigued as to why the two point levers on the left are the opposite way round, meaning they have to be operated with the signalman's back to the track , rather than facing the track? Jim

This is exactly the technique I use in 2mm, using thinned enamel. I found I needed to apply several coats to get adequate coverage, but that may be due to how much I thinned the paint.

It would depend on the time of year. Strawberries would be ready much earlier in Semblance than they would be in the Carse, or the Clyde Valley for that matter. The later crops up here would then go south after their season had finished. Remember, we're talking here of pre-pollytunnel days. Jim

I never use black on wagons or coaches, always a dark grey. It doesn't look as harsh and shows up the detail better. Jim

Ah'm sayin' nuthin'. (and keeping a low profile) Jim

Am I right in thinking that is the CBD of Perth (WA) I see in the background of the bike shot? Jim