VRBroadgauge

At the recent Australian Supermeet I was surprised to receive a lathe (!) on a long term loan (Mikey said the if he out lives me he’d like it back). Challenge accepted. I’d always intended to have turned funnels and domes on my locomotive fleet. I may now even have a crack at splashers and air pumps ala Tim Watson. Thanks Mike. Our 2mm family is all kinds of awesome.

I've been regauging Association wheelsets from 9.42 to 10.5mm gauge. I just made up a jig out of styrene (plasticard) and moved the wheels accordingly after some careful measurements. I've had excellent results. Is this what you're referring to?

A holiday at the coast. I managed to sneak a box of 2mm M wagons into the back of the car. I soldered one chassis (10’6”) together but because I forgot to pack the hold and fold I wasn’t entirely happy with the result. I’ve spent my time preparing about 20 chassis broaching out the many holes and cleaning out the appropriate slots. The etches are my own work as you can see in the photos. 2mm Finescale 10.5mm broad gauge VR prototype

The 2024 2mm Supermeet is done and dusted. The attached photos of Wansbeck Road don’t do it justice. If you get a chance to see it at an exhibition make sure you have a good look. Superb modelling by Mick Simpson. Great foresight by Kev and Dave to save it from a bonfire and preserve it. It’s a bit cheeky to pose my VR rolling stock on it but that’s how we roll in oz. A big thanks to Phil Badger for hosting and to Steve Curry for his talk and display of his scratch built (N scale) locomotives. See you all next year - hopefully in Yackandandah.

Little has happened in the 2mm world (moved house, sold a house, building a house c/w modeling room for impending Cudgewa). I managed to get a couple of 3DP bodies (U van and UB van) epoxied in place. Still a big fan of my tri-axled stock.

I'm enjoying the photos of your layout Jerry. I'm loving those big sweeping curves and how they open the space up. Too many layouts have tangent track and parallel baseboard sides. I'm hoping to capture some of this on Cudgewa sometime soon. I won't be getting a whole lot of modelling done this year due to building a new house and living in a rented house. Looking at your build gives me some inspiration to get stuck into mine when I'm able to.

Would those be the rods that I did for Laurie? I'm glad they worked out OK. @Sithlord75

Cause it aint. If you look in the background you'll see the diseasel's chassis which is an Association class 11 kit... The T class (Beyer Peacock 1874) is quite a bit shorter than the English Electric beastie. I didn't think about what was in the background when I took the pic. You were'nt the first to point this out Jim. I should've put the my agricultural body on it. :)

Finally sorted out the worm for the VR T class 0-6-0. After the initial problems with the bore of the worm being too large for the 1.5mm shaft, I sourced a 1/16 piece of material and cut a new one The worm had to be slightly broached out to accept said shaft as did the bearings in the gearbox. I popped out one of the bearings during this process and soldered it back in - backwards. It turns out that this was a happy accident. The worm is a much better fit in this configuration and I don’t need to install the agricultural washers that I made. My mathematics are still working. The motor lines up with the shaft and the tender with the loco. 2mm finescale 10.5mm broad gauge VR prototype .

I'm using 0.3mm NS for my models. Having used both 0.25mm and 0.3mm I find the thicker material a bit more rigid where it needs to be. Having said that I have a model on my drawing board that combines 0.3mm and 0.2mm (a sheep wagon with nearly transparent sides). Also 0.3mm is easier mathematically when you're designing etches.

Because I can’t do much heavy duty modeling in the next twelve or so months (moving house, selling a house, building a house), I can do some extended planning. The great John Allen of Gorre & Daphetid fame was an incredible planner. He never made a move without sorting it out well in advance. He made models of his models prior to construction and referred to them often during. Exhibit A of Cudgewa. I’ve designed the bench work and backdrop to suit. I’m confident most problems can be worked out before I start cutting timber.

2024 is a big year for Cudgewa. The start of the build. There’s quite a few planets that have to line up but I’m quietly confident. This post is probably a bit silly but excitement trumps reason. A package arrived yesterday from the Association. Contained within was enough rail and about a third of the sleepers required to lay my main line. My design is point to point so I’ll be starting at the fiddle yard and progressing to the buffer stops at Cudgewa. The plan is to do the main line first and then come back and fill in the gaps. The pic below shows 75 metres (240 odd feet) of track (need more sleepers). I haven’t been this excited about modelling since I learned to etch.

Hand laid track (particularly finescale track) trumps commercial track in both appearance and performance. Code 40 rail whilst technically not to scale in most applications is a city block better than Code 55. I’m no Laurie Adams or Mick Simpson when it comes to laying track but I’d back mine against any commercial version.

A present from my brother (who will become invested in the layout build). Aged new signage. One for the layout door and one for the front gate.

Merry Christmas Jerry. Have a great 2024.