A. Bastow

Back at the digital workbench after another hiatus - at least this enforced break was shorter than the last. Back on with doing the LMS D1659 brake van to 2mm scale. Just got a few lamp irons to do but that'll go fairly quickly. They need to go on the outside of the roof supports on the sides, and another on the roof support in front of the door. I haven't decided whether I'll put some guide holes in for wire handrails yet... I think it looks alright considering I did it from an outline drawing. I have modelled it to photos from Essery's book on LMS wagons. The plan for the chassis: I have decided to try and cut and shut one of the 8 brake shoe fitted chassis from shop 2 and slightly lengthen it to 12ft WB. I'll have to see if it looks the part once printed! Other projects have been bubbling away in the background too but I'm not ready to share those just yet!

Massive thanks for the reply. It does allow you to model a cab interior properly if you so wish!

Jim! I'm watching this thread with interest as I am planning a 4-4-0 in future (L&Y outline of course). Is there any particular reason that your motor and gearbox is arranged below the footplate? I am curious as to the design choice. Cheers, Adam

Is it by Recreation21? The boiler should be hollow to let you put some weight into the loco, plus any weights that you'll be able to squeeze in between the frames. You might need to make your chassis a bit narrower to accommodate a gear tower but that's about it. My L&Y class 28 steam loco was a printed one and it runs nicely - albeit with an etched chassis. Maybe the generic one supplied by Bob Jones or the association would work for a J27? Worth a look. Adam

Not worked on anything substantial in a while and after acquiring yet another loco (and accompanying chassis) etch, thanks to Dr Nick and Mr Hunt, I decided to move some things on that have been in my "in progress" box for a while. Two LSWR 6 wheeled carriages that I acquired from Andy Hanson - one from Derby last year and the other via the post after chatting to Andy at one of the L&Y meetings when he looked at me quite surprised when I produced the etch that he had put on the bring and buy. Both are of Etched Pixels provenance and both reside on some 6 wheeled chassis by Eastern and Midland Models. These were really my first go at doing some etched carriage kits. Asbestos fingers were definitely required for them! Or do I need to adapt my working methods? I'm sure I know which one I should do... Interiors still need adding but for now they can trundle around on a layout somewhere- probably on Yeovil when I go to visit Laurie Adams at the next NMAG meeting. Looking at that photo in all its enlarged glory I can see that one of the buffers is askew - need to fix that. With a bit of momentum behind me I also decided to build something else that wasn't to L&Y outline. Some MR wagons from parts in the 2mm shop(2). This is the first of two - the other being a 3 plank wagon with what looks like falling sides. I have one more etch without a top to play with. The midland railway study centre has some drawings on their website so the plan is to pick one of those to fit the midland 9ft WB chassis and draw it up for 3d printing. After these it'll probably be back on to an LMS brake van for 3d printing to diagram 1659. This is where it is at the moment. The plan is to use one of the 8 shoe fitted chassis etches from shop 2. The print will include cosmetic solebars and headstocks. The chassis will be used for the fold up bits and for the bearings, coupling mounts etc. - everything needed to make it functional. It's been nice to do some modelling after nearly two months of doing not much at all really - as always the pressures of life get in the way!

Thanks folks… not sure about them then if they are intended for a peco chassis- as nice as they might look. I’m actively trying to avoid acquiring anything in N! I might help clear out the etched van bodies instead.

Hi John, As long as you're sure it's the 9' MR chassis! I guess I'll have to get my order together soon then. Cheers

Morning all, Just been looking at some of the wagon kits on the 2mm Shop - namely the outside framed MR van 2-580. There are no chassis suggested for it or buffers and I can find very little information after a quick google. Has anyone else built some of these and which chassis and buffers did you use please? Or is there something that I've missed somewhere that lists the required parts? It's not listed on the LMS wagon parts list given in other parts of the wagon shop. Any help is greatly appreciated. Adam

That’s kind of what I was aiming at with my original question. I don’t necessarily want to make money from it. I just wanted to gauge how others did it as I didn’t want a pile of etches sitting around that weren’t getting put to use, gloat box notwithstanding! Like in my reply to Bruce, I suppose the way forward is to have made what I need and offer the excess to members.

Thanks for the replies. A test build goes without saying! At least in my book. I did wonder whether folks put feelers out for how many people would be interested in a particular kit. It seems then as you say Nigel that the best way would be to produce for myself and offering the excess for sale. I guess I’ll have to prepare some other bits to do a full sheet test etch. Cheers, Adam

Hi all, I have designed a kit for an L&Y 21' Covered Carriage Truck. The body is 3d printed and the chassis is an etch. How much demand do you think there is and would it be unreasonable of me to ask for indications of interest before the etch is sent to production? Or would it be better for me to order just a single sheet of the etch and see how it goes, ordering more as demand increases? Cheers, Adam

Low Moor was an L&Y station and almost certainly would have been serviced purely by the L&Y. There was an engine shed there as well.

Hi Simon, I’ve had a look in the L&Y wagons book by Noel Coates. It seems the Dia.71s didn’t last very long into the LMS. Some stragglers may have persisted until the end of the 1920s. The other two types (the covered goods) did persist into BR albeit sparingly, but were almost definitely broken up in the mid 50s. Some did survive under private ownership. Hope that helps! Adam

Afternoon everyone. I've been working away at my actual workbench and my virtual workbench over the last few months and figured that I should share my progress, while I wait for a delivery of bits to finish other projects off. So I've been working on one of Nigel Hunt's Radial Tank etches. This was my first "proper" full etched kit. It was an enjoyable challenge and I'm looking forward to building the other kits that I've bought from Nigel. Two more radial tanks to follow as well as one of the L&Y 0-8-0s. The photo is from the start of July. I did manage to get the roof on as well and spend some time drawing up the dome for 3d printing. As Dr Nick has pointed out in his video on the 2mmSA channel, the dome supplied by N Brass isn't quite right - Nigel kindly shared the drawings with me. I'll have to do a follow-up post when I get it printed. I've also been working on some more L&Y wagon designs (intended for the chassis kits provided by the association) as well as an L&Y CCT, for which I'll probably draw up an etch for the chassis. I have a mind to have a go at drawing up an etch for the 6 wheeler milk trucks that the L&Y had, as well as the horseboxes (both from Tatlow's book) and the 6 wheeler well/implement wagon. I also want to have a go at doing some carriage sides, ends and roof for non-corridor LMS period 1 stock - there's some outline drawings in the Jenkinson carriage book that I have. I find that the problem with doing the model railway stuff, especially designing things, that sometimes it's a bit of a black hole that you can just easily disappear into.

Hi Jim. You’re right, weight was a concern. The boiler has been filled with lead and there’s plenty of space to fill inside for extra, including between the chassis frames and in the firebox. The tender does need a bit of weight adding to it as well. All to come!

Hi folks. It’s been ages since I have posted something here. Mainly due to working away in the background on various 3d print bits. I decided to revisit an old project to see if I could rescue it. I attempted to scratch build an L&Y Class 28, probably about two years to 18 months ago. I published an article about it in the 2mm Magazine on what had been learned during the course of building it, with it ultimately being an unpowered loco that I can shunt around. I thought it was worth trying to use one of the milled gearboxes from the association. I’ll let the results, slightly jerky as they are, speak for themselves. It’s certainly not a work of art, and a bit of work needs doing still to get it running smooth- clean wheels will help! To have produced what essentially boils down to my first working scratch build, I am immensely pleased with myself to say the least! Until next time! Adam

I should really have had a look at doing something like that to be fair. Rather than drawing up wagons randomly, have a look at the plank widths, overall wagon lengths etc and categorise them and build them from there from quarter wagons as you have done. Too late now really as I'm 8 wagon designs deep with the Dia.15 already in the works. I suppose I could set up a standard base for the wagon and modify it as needed when doing a new design. Any suggestions for L&Y wagons that people would want drawing up? I am also thinking about doing some more carriages, that's if I can figure out how to make the detail extend down on to curved surfaces in F360.

Another L&Y flavoured wagon this week - to Diagram 12, "pitch wagon". Open wagon with a single tip end and side doors. This one ended up with a rather messy timeline as the measurements taken from the drawing didn't look right when compared with the photographs. So I went with what looked right as opposed to what I had managed to take from the drawing. It also didn't help that this wagon only has a single line of symmetry down the length of the wagon. With some of the others that I have done before, they had two lines of symmetry- one down the length and across the width, so I was able to draw a quarter of the wagon and then mirror/copy the parts up so it duplicates everything. Slowly working my way through the various types. Diagram 15 with falling sides next. Don't really want to think about the ones after that to be honest!

More wagon designing today. Probably spent about 4 hours on this off and on today, and with distractions from other things. L&Y 10 ton coal wagon to Diagram 4. I'm getting better at reading those engineering drawings and faster at transferring them to a 3d model. Really happy with this one. As is the danger with 2mm scale modelling, it's often a case of what to include and what to leave off - which led me to working on it half an hour longer than intended to include the banding on the inside of the wagon, with the accompanying rivets on both sides of the planks. I keep getting asked if I am going to make these L&Y wagons available to people the answer is yes. I plan to have listed on the 2mm association website either as a direct order from myself or as a CAD exchange with others who have files to share.

I'd also like to echo the messages of thanks for this thread. I managed to procure one from someone's gloat box a few months ago. I am sure this thread will help me greatly when it comes time to build it! Cheers!

Thanks to everyone that replied on this banana bend topic. It's settled in my mind that it's not a deal-breaker anymore if this happens. Lots of care up front and perhaps corrective action afterwards could save future builds. I have since however, completely disassembled the loco chassis. There were too many little errors that need correction. I enjoyed getting it to that stage though. Very satisfying to see what I had got right in the etch design and where I can improve. Now that's to bed for a while I think I might do some painting before tackling that loco kit that I've been threatening.

Hi all, When I built my latest loco chassis (see the workbench thread) I thought that I had managed to get everything straight and square, but when I came back to it after a few weeks it seemed to have developed a slight bend across the length of the chassis. It may just be me and my soldering. Is there anything I can do to stop this bending? Should I be making/using a jig to assemble rather than the axle steel through the bearings? Should I include sacrificial bits for the brass jigs sold by the association? Should I be using the PCB spacers sold by the association shop rather than the etched spacers that I have been using? I remember reading/seeing somewhere about using a block of wood to help construction... A lot to unpack there, and probably less of an issue than it needs to be, I was just curious as how others get it all straight and true. Cheers!

I posted a few weeks ago that I was working on a test etch for an LSWR A12. This is how far I managed to get. There are some things fundamentally wrong with the etch design- which is why I did a test etch really. This has come from the second sheet that I have drawn up and again tons has been learned. I got the worm to engage and turn everything, but I wasn’t happy with the worm housing. I believe the boiler sits too high by a millimetre as well. Since the photo was taken I have recovered functional parts that can be re-used and I’ve made a list of corrections. It almost looks passable doesn’t it? I thought it best to stop the project at this stage, make those fundamental corrections and start again in a few months time. Onwards and upwards!

And now we have a completed L&Y brake van. The chassis didn’t fit as I’d hoped so what I did was take the sides off the etch with the bearing mounts and trim them to length to fit inside. They are simply glued in place, as are the OLEO buffers. I used some two part epoxy putty to serve as a base to glue the couplings on (as pictured). Really happy with how it turned out. Next job I think is to get a loco kit built and get some painting done.

Hi folks! On the workbench this week is a test etch for an LSWR A12 “Jubilee”. Because oddly, having a go at this was less scary than tackling a radial tank kit… and I wanted to show it off at the NMAG meeting on Sunday… I already have a list of corrections to make to the artwork as well as to add bits I missed. The general shape is there though! For now I’ll have to scratch build the missing bits/cut from scrap etch and fill other bits. Adam