Dave John

Thanks Caledonian. For a load it will be something heavy under a sheet. That photo from Compound is very interesting. I think it is a publicity shot, either for the MR or Stirling Boilers. The boiler is carefully painted, as if it is off to an exhibition somewhere. So the photo either says "we can move stuff like this", or "Our boilers can be delivered by rail." The CR trolley is 8' 1 1/4 " wide and that boiler is sticking out by a foot, so at least 10' wide overall. Therefore it must have moved as a special over a carefully planned route at fairly low speeds with barrier wagons to provide a handbrake. Nobody would want it arriving dirty, so I think it would be well sheeted for the journey.

Well found Compound, I think it is the D 34. If it is 1905 then it has had a repaint, the load and the Caley mysterious mark are clearly visible. Looks like it has a new buffer beam too. Interesting to see those trolleys together like that , since neither has a handbrake. I wonder where it is ? May have something to do with ; https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/1901_Glasgow_International_Exhibition

Mine are at 44 inches, but I'm short. When I was first thinking about this I did a simple experiment. Bit of wood, say 4 foot by 2 foot ish and some cardboard boxes. I sat boxes on a table with the wood on top, then put an old bit of track and some wagons on it. A few old buildings too. Then I played a bit. Moved a few wagons . Reached over. Sat on a chair. Tried different boxes. Squinted at it all. Played a bit more. That way I ended up with a height that suits me. Everyone is different, easy to do a mock up and adjust to suit.

I have the basic portrait cutter. It has been used a lot. Where it really scores is the ability to cut out large numbers of repetitive parts accurately. For instance those springs are laminated from 3 cuts , thats 24 needed, so cut 30. Same for the eight sides, cut 10. All the parts were cut from a single sheet of 10 thou styrene with room for a few strips of 1mm for the angle iron. I find the silhouette software very simple to use and you can download it from them to have a play about before you buy a machine. Given that I paid 150 quid for it I reckon it it well worth the money. Less than a rtr loco these days. All the buildings on kelvinbank, lots of wagons , templates for brass cutting and so on.

I have bought many magnets from "First4magnets ". Fast and efficient service , happy customer etc via the internet. I appreciate that you do not want to order online, but they do offer a telephone ordering service.

Nice. Making the hinge bar like that gives a far sharper finish than a plastic moulding

I think I just about got away with the frame spacing in EM, those are gibson wheels so are pretty narrow. Essentially I adjusted the frame spacing to suit the wheelsets based on the overall width from the diagram. Would look very cramped in the middle in 00 though. The frames do have a bit of a slot in the bottom, I might see if I can get some weight in there.

I’m not a very christmassy person, so it gives me a bit of time to make things. I decided to have a shot at this odd looking thing. This photo has appeared on rmweb before, but if anyone has copyright issues I’ll remove it. Built 1868, scrapped 1917, lived in Glasgow. It is in the diagram book which gives basic dimensions but not much more. Only one built and had the number 1. Should save on transfers. The original method of construction seems to be flitched. Four heavy timber beams with iron plates each side. The axles with four bearings dropped in from above and then the springs fitted to hold it all up. Unusual, should be fun to model. Some parts cut out and stuck together. It is thought that this wagon had 4’ dia wheels, I have some nominally 3’11” tender wheels which will hopefully work out about right. They run in tubular axles with springs and can be slotted in from underneath. Progress so far. It is very light, some sort of load under a sheet will be needed.

They also show red in safari when using osx. The issue is with safari not interpreting the colour profile from a grey scale image. If you want to correct it drag the image to the desktop and open it with preview.

Generally it was decided by parliamentary advisors at committee stage in discussion with interested parties. The basis is clearly geographic, however there was much legal argument over the finances. I note that the Act was on sale to the public, price two shillings and sixpence. So buy a copy, I'm not scanning all 90 pages in....

Would a Code 82 FB rail be close to correct size ? https://www.clfinescale.co.uk/online-store/CODE-82-FLAT-BOTTOM-RAIL-HiNi-Nickle-Silver-Rail-10-X-1-M-p128178198

Some very influential pics. Although I am kinda determined to do 1/50 scale on 20mm track I am open to ideas about all sorts .

I always wash plastic sprues ( and for that matter whitemetal or brass ) with a drop of washing up liquid before starting. If small they go in the ultrasonic cleaner , if large the sink with a sieve over the plughole. Assemblies are rewashed with a drop of cif to remove any lanolin traces before painting.

Just out of interest ;

All those fiddly details add up to a very good looking model. You have got an excellent paint finish, far more solid than a lot of rtr so I'd just let it develop a bit of natural grime rather than weathering it. I'll miss Eileens too, my last order from them arrived a few weeks ago. Perhaps we should go and upset the exotic wishlist enthusiasts by asking for a well moulded pack of empty buckets ?

I had a go recently with some wagon liveries. I found that choosing the base wagon colour, painting a sample and then scanning that into the graphics software to give a background colour for the white transfer paper gave passable results.

Going back the idea of 1/50th scale metre gauge. Although I have never seen Pempoul in the flesh internet video and descriptions played a part in tempting me to have a go. I had a play with some ideas last summer. The locomotive, though freelance, has some French influence in its overall appearance. My conclusion so far is that a 00 or EM tyre (and possibly wheel centre) running on code 83 flat bottom set at the correct 20 mm gauge looks about right.

Hmm, if the horse walks r>l then the "road on the chain?" goes l>r. The gear at the rh end rotates clockwise engaging with a larger gear denoted by the dashed circle which rotates anticlockwise. Thus the thing moves from r>l so the horse thinks it is moving forward. Or more likely the horse thinks " stuff this, I'll just get off and pull the train".....

Many thanks Mikkel. I have parts for a caley wagon on the bench at the moment and there are a couple of things that need fixed on the layout. Hopefully a pair of brake wagons too. The 1/50 th project will be about making some stock. A few components have been ordered, but to keep the cost down they have come from china so that takes a while. I enjoyed the challenge of doing something different with that build and now I have a working set of dimensions I can progress.

Bear with me for a moment while I approach the finescale debate from a different angle. Consider a wheel. Let's say an old Romford one, 20 mm dia. This would represent a 5 foot wheel in 4mm/foot scale. Nobody would call it finescale, too fat and the flanges too deep. If however you stop viewing it as a 00 wheel and just view it as a wheel then it can become a component for a model which is much more accurate at a different scale. Over the summer I had a go at something different. 1/50 th scale, metre gauge. There are no "standards" All a modeller can do is find some prototype drawings and scale from them. Thus I discovered that my ancient Romford wheel had a tyre which was almost perfect for a 1m dia wheel in that scale. So, is that finescale? A purist might argue that it isn't because there are no modelling standards for comparison. I'd argue that since it is an exercise in thinking about scale and gauge and working as closely as I can to original drawings scaled to size then it could well be described as finescale. Certainly building that made me think about the way in which modellers approach the whole subject of accuracy so from that point of view it was a useful project. Looking at components for what they are rather than what it says on the label has broadened my modelling mind, and was a lot of fun.

2022 was the year in which the politicians told us it was all going to bounce back to normal. Instead we have production and supply chain issues which are affecting far more important things than model railways whilst the politicians bounce off into financially comfortable obscurity. However the Caley staff at Kelvinbank continue to work day and night to get the goods delivered. A few pictures on that theme. Coal from the Lanarkshire collieries to the north Clyde ports was one of the main reasons for the construction of the L&D. A 29 class tank heads a westbound coal train, the 670 class trip working some empty cattle wagons eastbound. Archibald McGregor is just happy it isn’t raining yet. The coal train crossing the river, the 323 class heads a goods train east. The goods yard is busy, the scotch derrick unloading crates to a waiting cart. I suspect the carter is thinking about the snug in the Kelvinside bar. The task of unloading and bagging coal goes on into the late afternoon gloom. When that lot is shifted there are still the horses to be tended before a drink. There would be an increase in parcels at this time of year too. The signalman watches as a 92 class heads eastbound with additional npcs. I wish everyone the compliments of the season, I hope you all get some quality modelling time.

That has come out quite superbly.

I have Affinity photo 1 which does all I need. I think you can buy the photo software 2 on its own, or the set for a bit of a discount. I used to use photoshop but stopped when it became a monthly subscription thing

Wooden barbeque skewers , seem to be 2.5 mm dia ish ?

Ah, the airfix kits. I made a complete hash of building quite a few of those when I was young. I won't even mention the country cottage one that I thought would look suitably rustic illuminated with a candle..... I then progressed to melting whitemetal wagons and cooking bits of brass to death. Shorting chassis out, burning out point motors and generally making a mess of electrics. Now I can understand folk being nervous about starting an expensive kit. I still do a fair bit of humming and harring before cutting, bending and soldering. But you never learn unless you have a go, preferably with something inexpensive. One thing I know for sure ( and I'm singing to the choir saying this in WW ) is that the satisfaction in making something yourself and learning from the experience is for me way ahead of the satisfaction from just buying something.