aardvark

Who me? Yes, I think you're right (sigh). Many thanks to all who have replied - I would be truly lost without your guidance. The process described is pretty much what I did with the coal wagon. There, it was easier to see, as the tops of the sides and ends all align, and so could be easily assembled upside down on a flat surface. However, with this closed wagon, neither the tops nor bottoms of the sides/ends align. None of this is helped by the instructions, which merely say "assemble side and ends onto floor". I do admit that these instructions are better than those for the PC61 LNER 12 ton van, which instruct to cement both ends to the floor first, and then to add the sides.

The coal wagon is nearly complete, and I'm pretty happy with it - for a first attempt. I'll keep it for now, at least to practice painting on, but it will probably be destined for the bin when I can replace it with something better. I've started a PC61 LNER 12 ton goods van, and have fallen on my face. Again. The floor of the van sits on a step in the back of the end, while the sides are flush. The sides and ends meet with a bevel join, so the sides of the ends protrude past the sides of the floor. I've followed David Neat's lead, and had two steel blocks made up. These are square on all faces, somewhat like a 3D engineers square. I placed the floor on one face, then positioned one end and one side in place, holding them all in position with bluetack and rubber bands. Once everything appeared aligned and being cautious, I applied a small quantity of el-cheapo superglue to the floor/end join, allowing capillary action to draw it into the join, then waited a minute or so for the glue to set. On removing the rubber bands and bluetack, I discovered that I now had two bits of plastic stuck to a steel block . I've managed to get them apart again by sliding a scalpel blade between the metal and plastic, but during that process the end detached from the floor and I was back to square one. Then I threw the lot into the corner in disgust. The next attempt might be painting a sparing amount of limonene cement on the end of the floor and hoping that it won't stick to the steel block, but I'm open to suggestions

Anyone got any tips or tricks for attaching door springs to my coal wagon? The springs are quite small, with nothing to position them accurately. I tried a blob of bluetack to hold one in place while the glue set, but the blob obscured about half of the spring, and on removing it, I find the spring a tad wonky. Next time I'll try a smaller blob, unless someone can suggest another approach. I don't imagine there's a Brassmaster jig

Well, I finally have my wheels on, and the wagon rolls freely enough along a length of test track, with assistance from the Finger of God. Should there be any other beginners reading this, "my" process was: Use the Brassmasters Jig. I had to file out the slots to accommodate the axles, but I think this is normal/expected. Better that the jig be under-etched than over-etched (and sloppy). With the axles a firm fit, you have a single jig+axles to position, rather than two independent axles. Use a rubber band (as per jwealleans workbench blog) on the top (wagon side) of the axleboxes to hold the solebars+w-irons to the jig+axles. This squeezes the solebars onto the structural detail on the bottom of the wagon floor, a bit like a laundry peg. This process is a bit fiddly, so a little patience/practice is required. Since I hadn't seated the bearings properly, I had to pack the solebars out using 0.25x2.0mm styrene strip (thanks 57xx). I needed 2 strips on each side. I added these by gently pulling each solebar out from the wagon in turn, while dropping the packing strip in with tweezers. With everything looking square(ish), a drop of superglue on each end of the packing strips holds everything in place temporarily, then the rubber band and jig can be removed, and the wagon tested. Since all was good, the solebars can then be properly and permanently glued. I understand that the superglue bond is relatively brittle and can be broken so I could have a second go, should things prove to be out of alignment, but I was lucky and didn't need to.

Just a quick note of thanks to all who have assisted by posting to this thread. I went to order the Brassmasters axle jig, found it was out of stock, waited for it to come back into stock, waited for it to be delivered, and in that intervening period, lost interest and moved onto something else. Now, a couple of years later, I've dusted off the jig (literally), and folded it up, re-read the thread, and am about to tackle putting wheels on the coal wagon. Tally ho!

More Cameo 3 vs Cameo 4 differences: https://www.silhouetteschoolblog.com/2019/09/silhouette-cameo-4-vs-cameo-3-8-more.html

I see that the Cameo 4 is in pre-release, with a claimed 5kg of cutting force. I imagine that there will be a price-tag to go with that extra force, but perhaps the Cameo 3 will be on sale as the 4 become available at retailers around the world. Advance orders being taken by a US company here: https://www.swingdesign.com/products/silhouette-cameo-4. There is a craft-oriented review here: https://www.silhouetteschoolblog.com/2019/09/silhouette-cameo-4-review.html

The drive to revisit the engine shed drawing was caused by work on the Banff station building, where I discovered that I had windows in the wrong position only after I added the windows. The station building is a wonderfully eccentric construction, having been modified several times over its lifetime. It's more a granite edifice grafted onto a wooden train shed than your stereotypical Skaledale building-on-a-platform. Here's a couple of views of my work with their corresponding prototype photos. From NE: From NNW: From WSW: Some of you might be rolling your eyes at the effort invested. I know that there are many with years of experience who could take this on with not much more than a sketch on the back of a napkin (the late Allan Downes for example). I don't have that experience, and am happy to invest time here if that reduces the number of ways that I can screw things up later. Think 3 times, measure twice, cut once. As you can see, working in SketchUp allows me to easily rotate the drawing to different viewpoints to validate against photos. It also means I should be able to cut complex parts without trial-and-error by transferring the dimensions from drawing to foamboard. Here's one of the station building walls.

Me too

I've spent more time on detailing the SketchUp drawing of the engine shed. I said I wasn't going to bother just yet, but changed my mind when I realised details can help you judge whether you have bigger things right. The photo of the prototype for comparison is a few posts back. The drawing includes a 10mm foamboard "footing", which will sit directly on top of the baseboard plywood. The footing mimics the prototype footing, thereby (I hope) avoiding that floating look that some models have. The buildings will be removable to avoid damage when the baseboards are in transit or in storage, with the footing sloting into a foamboard socket on the baseboard. All hopefully disguised under model ground. At least that's the plan. I've heard that it's good to have a plan. Then you know when you're deviating from it.

Should there be anyone out there following these meagre offerings: I have to commend the work of Des Byrne to produce print-it-yourself kits of some GNSR buildings. In Des' words: Drummuir station , signal boxes, veranda and goods shed same as many others Blacksboat station and goods shed. This is the same as many other small granite stations. Oldmeldrum / Crathes / Milltimber station Kennethmont same as 3 others Macduff Peterhead Fraserburgh Alford engine shed. St combs / Cairnbulg station plus grounded van shelter. Despite rarely going there, I stumbled over a reference to Des' work in a Facebook post by Alan Sangster. Upon hearing of my interest in modelling Banff, Des produced a kit for the (apparently) unique single-road Banff engine shed for me, complete with bothy. I presume that this kit can now be added to the list above. Des can be contacted through the GNSRA. All proceeds go to the Maud Railway Museum.

Next mockup is the engine shed. I like to draw things up in SketchUp: I think that this particularly pays off if I'm going to make two versions of each building (mockup and real), separated by months ... or more likely years. At this stage, I haven't bothered with details such as windows and doors - just the openings for them. The drawing: The prototype:

Probably way to late to be of interest to the 45562, but just in case there is someone else following this tril, I am advised that the GNSRA now has "Kits of Great North of Scotland Railway Stations ; goods sheds ; signalboxes and engine sheds" available for sale. In the words of Des Bryne of that organisation: The kits are on a CD the price of the cd is £25. This weekend at £20. The buildings on the cd are Drummuir station , signal boxes, veranda and goods shed same as many others Blacksboat station and goods shed This is the same as many other small granite stations. Oldmeldrum / Crathes / Milltimber station Kennethmont same as 3 others Macduff Peterhead Fraserburgh Alford engine shed. St combs / Cairnbulg station plus grounded van shelter. All are in gnsr paint scheme OO gauge.

I made a goods shed. It's just a mock-up, but I'm pretty impressed with myself. I guess it's a good goods shed. First thing I've made since wearing short pants, and that's been a while.

I'm still on "holiday", but we're in the UK, and I picked up a copy of the June 2019 Model Rail. This mag includes an article by Paul Lunn titled "Make a 3D prototype", which suggests that a trackplan should be tested by making a 3D prototype. What a brilliant idea!! Albeit a tad late, since I've already built the baseboards. Nevertheless, this approach makes sense to me, so I'll have a go at mocking up the major buildings when I get home. There is probably little leeway to move things around much length-wise, given the per-existence of shaped baseboards, but it seems like a worthwhile exercise. So tracklaying will be delayed, yet again, but arguably for a good reason. I was also delighted to see something Scottish appear in the press: a somewhat uncommon occurrence. Apparently the April and May issues do as well.

Many thanks for the support, Martyn. There is progress, but not at any great rate. The legs are done, and the fascia on. I was also set to start laying some track, but I had forgotten that I would need somewhere to store the baseboards first. After consideration, I settled on some of that metal bracket shelving in the garage: the type where the bracket bearing the shelf slots into a vertical piece. In my case, there is no need for a shelf: the baseboards sit directly in the bracket. Here they are amongst the normal garage clutter: Of course, getting them up and down is a bit of a task, so I've taken yet another detour to add a bit more wood to the undersides to give me something to actually hang on to while swinging them around. There will be further delays while we're off on holidays for the next 5 weeks, including a train tour of Switzerland. If I have any money left at the end, then perhaps I can get some track down.

Bit further than half-way: 20:08.

Many thanks - all clear now! (Don't worry about the confusion - it's my normal state.)

Hey Gordon: Sorry to interrupt: this beginner is a bit confused about the Peco platform edging. I see LK-60/1/2, which is OO edging in brick/stone/concrete, but you're using Slater's, so either there's another type of edging I haven't found, or you're removing or ignoring the Peco textures. cheers Dean PS: many thanks for the tip many pages ok to print track plans on 160gsm paper!

Many thanks for bringing this to my attention, Ian. Whilst I have a few photos from this viewpoint, I hadn't seen this collection before. I might even have to buy a copy just to see what the sign on the partition on the right says. Something about passenger services. cheers!

After all that has gone before, I was completely delighted to read this sentence. May you have many more such times.

Today was a milestone, sort of. Work on the legs has progressed enough to allow me to setup the four baseboards for the first time (overall length is 4.8m without fiddleyard). Not exactly ground-breaking, but a milestone that's been 3 years in the making. Each leg is 42x42mm, assembled in pairs, that slots into sockets formed in each corner of each baseboard, and each leg has an adjustable (screw in/out) foot. There are five pairs of legs for four baseboards. My plan was for the legs to make a tight fit into the socket to avoid overall rickety-ness, yet be loose enough to be installed and removed with relative ease. I now realise these are conflicting requirements, so further work is required to ease setup. Setting up the four baseboards has also shown how this is really a two-person job: not at all what I had in mind. This is especially the case with the two 800mm wide boards which will be too cumbersome for a single person once they have track and paper-mache hills in place. It's obvious now that I should have made the boards smaller or of a lighter construction, but what would a beginner know about such things? Perhaps now is a good opportunity to review what I am doing and why - maybe there's a better way.

Shame. Gordon had such a convincing theory going there for a moment ...

I'm only the newest of beginners at this sport, but my limited experience suggests four possible scenarios for the loss of the mythical mojo: Your doing something, it goes pear-shaped, and you have no idea how to make it un-pear-shaped. Your doing something, it goes pear-shaped, but making it un-pair-shaped will involve undoing and re-doing hours/days/weeks/months of work. Your doing something, and it's all going fine, but you get bored, and start looking for something "challenging". You read a posting or magazine article, and realise that there is no way that you will ever be able to do what the author has done. Your doing something, and it's all going fine, but you've run out of some vital part and have to order more. Your doing something, and it's all going fine, but you've run out of some vital part, have to order more and the supplier is out of stock. Edit: added 5. and 6.

I've just been made aware of the work of Satoshi Araki: makes me wish I could read Japanese to access the books he's written. https://www.kotaku.com.au/2018/11/super-realistic-japanese-dioramas