Caley Jim

Thank you, both Brian and Poggy. Progress has been slow over the last couple of years due to a move of house and there is not likely to be much more for a wee while as I have received a sheet of test etches with a lot of items on it (see the OMWB thread) and they will need building first. You get a lot on an A3 sheet in 2mm! (Thinks - must deal with this addiction to wagons ) Jim

My own cassettes fit in a slot in the baseboard and mate with short sections of the same Aluminium angle which forms the running surface and lower sides of the cassette. Miniature bulldog clips provide both accurate alignment and electrical connection. HOWEVER, our area group has experienced problems with the same arrangement not providing accurate alignment. We found this to be due in part to small differences in the dimensions between the Al angle used for the connectors and that for the cassettes. One of the ways we are dealing with this is to fit small 'aligners' cut from pcb or paxolin fitted between the Al angles on the baseboard and projecting a couple of mm out. The cassette then slides onto this, providing precise alignment, both vertically and horizontally, leaving the bulldog clips only providing the electrical connection. When i tested these on my own layout, I was so impressed by them that I have fitted them to all 5 cassette locations. The photo shows the test one fitted on Kirkallanmuir. This also shows how we dealt with a cassette which had been made with much wider Al angle (15mm as against 12mm) HTH Jim

I've now got the signal painted. Although the post should be white, it's doubtful they stayed like that very long, so I only gave it one coat. I tried glazing the red spectacle by mixing some red paint into some Clearfix, but that came out a little too opaque, so for the green spectacle (the Caley used green instead of the blue used by most companies) I glazed it with Clearfix and them gave it a thin wash of green. This gave a much better result. I've tried to upload photos, but am getting 'This upload failed' messages. Will try again tomorrow. Jim

Cover it in onion skin paper (you know where to get that if you didn't lay in a stock of before you gave up the day job), soak that in superglue and when that has fully hardened, cut away the excess. That's how I insulate bodies and chassis. Jim (who did lay in a stock of said paper)

In general I would say that you can't have too much weight in a 2mm scale loco, especially a small tank loco, from the point of view of getting adequate traction. All my locos lose traction before the motor stalls. However, you have to keep the centre of gravity over the driving wheels. If you can get enough weight in the tanks and boiler to balance that in the bunker, then there shouldn't be a problem in an 0-6-2T. 0-4-4T's are another matter!! One other thing to bear in mind is that the bunker is a useful place to put a DCC chip, should you decide to go that way now or in the future. Jim

Thanks, Graham. That is a possibility. I designed the etch with an assortment of arms on it. The builder would have to provide their own finials and lamps, though, unless demand was enough to justify getting castings done. I will bring it to Model Rail and by that time i will hopefully also have the 40' one with co-acting arms for Sauchenford built! Jim

Success! The experiment has worked! The issue I was trying to address is that of signals being vulnerable to damage either in transit or when cleaning track. The answer to this is to have them removable, but if you make them removable how do you avoid having to do a lot of fiddling about under the baseboard to disconnect and then re-connect the operating mechanism? The answer? Tiny magnets!! On the right is the operating crank which has a tiny 2mm dia x 1mm thick magnet fixed at the end. This slides against the outside of a square tube which will project up through the baseboard. The bottom of the signal post is an interfrence fit into this. Crimped on to the signal operating wire (which runs up the centre of the post) is a small piece of tinplate and glued to this is another magnet, arranged so that the two magnets will be aligned and face to face. This photo shows how the crank, signal and baseboard will relate to one another. A fair bit of over-movement seems to be needed, but there is also the advantage that there can be no damage to the signal from excess movement of the crank (the limits of movement of the arm are built into the signal). To remove the signal, all that needs to be done is to slide it out of the tube and it can equally easily be replaced. The interference fit of the post in the tube on the operating mech ensures that it will stay in place. The small magnets are available from www.first4magnets.com. 50 of them only cost me £5.70. They do a whole range of sizes, with the pull increasing with both diameter and thickness. These ones are 0.09kg. Usual disclaimer. Jim (feeling chuffed)

My latest sheet of trial etches came from the etchers a few days ago and I've been building what is the second trial etch for a 20ft Stevens Caledonian signal (with CR spectacles). I was able to make a working signal from the first trial etch, but I wasn't happy with the way the post was formed, so redesigned it. It's not perfect by any means! The post is slightly distorted and there is a broken rung on the ladder, but it will pass the 2' test which I'll accept. I painted the arm before fitting it and intended to paint the post before too, but then realised that once I had fitted the ladder, I wouldn't be able to get at the back blinder to solder it onto the arm pivot. The finial is the second one I made, the first is currently residing either on the carpet or in some as yet unexplored corner of my desk! Before anyone comments, no, it's not illuminated and yes, I know the ball on the finial should be open!! Next challenge is to paint it without gumming the whole thing up, but before that I have a little related experimental etch to do. More of that later (if it works)! Jim

Treatment for flu :- Go to bed with a candle, a glass and bottle of a good Malt Light candle and place on table at foot of bed Drink whisky until you can see three candles (Get someone else to blow out candle(s)) Does nothing for the flu, but you feel a h**l of a lot better!! Jim

Oh yes they are !! (Oops, sorry, pantomime season's past now!) I'll get me coat. Jim

I have one too, as well as a GNSR open and a GCR cattle truck. My 498 class 0-6-0T is also a GH body. Jim

Nice, Jerry. Is that NB van scratchbuilt, or one of the old Graham Hughes whitemetal kits? Jim

The arrangement of sleepers was based on advice I got from a member of the team which is building 'Burntisland 1884' in S4. This photo is cropped from one he sent me of one of their tandem pairs. The wheels in the background are those of 'The Diver'! Yes it's the 'opposition', NBR, but PW practice was pretty similar across the board. The sleeper gaps can get pretty lengthy, but there is no other way of arranging them. I wouldn't like to be one of the gangers trying to replace a sleeper in the centre! As far as I know they were on standard 8'11" x 9" sleepers. The chairs are nearly always running along the sleeper, except for the sleepers supporting the nose of the crossings where that sleeper was always aligned with those on the main road. Jim

Three ways (properly called tandem turnouts) are a doddle!! Here's the first built of 4 on Kirkallanmuir. You just have to keep your its about you! Seriously, though, I'm sure you'll find the results in 2FS far more satisfying than N, especially as it seems that you're going to have to scratchbuild most things in any case. Go for it! Jim

I can visualize 8' x 4'. I'm d****d if I can visualize 24xxmm x 12xxmm! Jim

On my etches i make the tabs slightly tapered at the ends and slightly chamfering the long edges of them with a file can help too. The etching process is not an exact science, so there is always the potential for under or over etching between sheets etched at different times. As Agros has said, under etched holes and slots can be opened out, there is nothing you can do about over etched ones. Jim.

And a welcome from me also. There is also the Virtual Area Group (VAG), an email group on Yahoo for members only. Instructions for applying to join it are on p10 of the Yearbook which you'll receive in your joining pack. Be sure to quote your membership number (or your PP moniker) when you apply so I know who you are! Jim (VAG co-moderator)

I heard there was nothing in that story! Jim

Early CR wagons had the number painted on the solebar. Once Drummond introduced number plates on wagons - which was the only place on the side where numbers appeared after that - they were also painted on the ends, except for on end doors. Anyone taking the trouble to study my CR wagon fleet would find that there are a lot of 1's, 4's and 7's in the numbers, while, like hurricanes in Hertfordshire, 6's,8's and 9's hardly ever happen! Jim

An 0-4-2 presents no particular issues per se, other than that of traction limited by the low weight. I have a CR one, the build of which was described in the Feb., April and June 2003 issues of the 2MM Magazine. It has the motor in the tender driving the loco through UJ's with the drive shaft below the footplate as is my regular design. How it would behave on the sharp curves you suggest is a different issue which would be common to any loco with a tender mounted motor driving the loco. I can't comment on that since the tightest curve mine has operated on was 18" (457mm). Jim

You'd certainly need your seemit oan, (and probably at the best of times)! Jim

I agree, Don, but I still paint them on. The other issue for me is that there is no known register of CR wagon numbers, so you just have to pick one at random from within the numbers allotted to that type of wagon or one from a photo. Only a pedant is going to look up the numbers and comment! Jim

'Peaty' would be much browner than that! It was an attempt to simulate the sludgy appearance of water that has come off a burn up the hill somewhere and develops a light brown growth of algae along the sides of the tank. Not wholly successful! I recall being on holiday with my parents in North Erridale, Wester Ross, in the late '60's, where the water out the tap, which came from a spring up the hill behind the B&B, looked like it had come out of a bottle of uisce beatha (water of life)! Jim

After a long hiatus I thought it was time I did some more work on the layout, so I've built the water tank. Details of its construction are in the workbench thread of this area. The tank itself is an etch as it the drain and the timber base is built up from styrene strip. Two shots of it in situ with 391 about to top up. It has still to be fixed down and bedded in. Jim

Water tank now completed. Not quite in the same league as Tim's current project, though. And a couple of shots of it in situ with 391 about to top up :- Still to be fixed in place and bedded in. I'll probably try and get it a little nearer the turntable to give a little more clearance between the corner and the track leading to the exchange sidings (in the foreground of the last picture). Jim