ikcdab

Yes. Years ago I used to live in Feltham and EMA model supplies had a shop in the precinct. They sold plasticweld under their own brand. It is several orders of magnitude stronger than mekpak and if you use too much, it will just melt your kit.

Standard mekpak. Also known as butanone.

Sounds an interesting episode. Is it on line anywhere to view now?

Crikey. I navigated my way around all weekend perfectly well without having to refer to stand numbers once. You just follow the map and after you have walked round once, it's all pretty familiar. These things easily get lost during breakdown and it is a pain to reprint every year, so I have every sympathy.

We have always had dogs and currently hage a 5-year old whippet. We now want to add a cat to the family and plan to get a kitten in the new year. What will be the best way to introduce the dog to the kitten so that they don't kill each other? Ian

Your confusing me... Gillingham Dorset is hard G Gillingham Kent is soft G

It's non-profit making in the sense that any surplus goes to support the club or fund next year's show. It isn't a "commercial" business and there are not shareholders taking a return from profits.

I can understand why you feel miffed, you told them what your rates were up front. However, I am surprised that Warley didn't then try and find someone else who was not quite so extortionate. 45p a mile does seem a very high rate for what is essentially a non-profit making exhibition organised by a model railway club...albeit a big one.

All this new innovation, lamps, synchronised smoke, wheel squeel etc.... Yet still no locomotive crews! Such a simple and cheap thing to fit, yet the overwhelming majority of RTR engines run around with ghost drivers....

Don't be so quick to dismiss this one. It has an interesting history. Keinton Madeville was a quarrying centre and a tramway to link it to Castle Cary station was proposed about 1890. Funding difficulties resulted in a longer (and more attractive) line being presented to the BoT in 1892, this is the line you saw on the map with the link to Evercreech. An Act was obtained in 1893 and construction started in 1894. By 1895, all of the branches and the extension to Evercreech had been abandoned as too expensive and only the Castle Cary to Keinton section remained. The local newspaper reports construction was in hand, but there is some debate as to how far it got. It was a roadside line and there is evidence to suggest that it was being used in late 1896 as a newspaper report tells of wagons being hauled by horses along the tramway. The GWR acquired all of the shares in 1897 and the local newspaper reported in March 1899 that the "Keinton tramway has now been finally abandoned". As noted above, the GWR then embarked on thae Castle Cary to Durston cutoff which opened in 1905.

Are you storing it (as you say) or building it and operating it there? Two totally different things. If just storing it, then wrap it up well in polythene or in secure boxes. If you want to build and operate your railway there, then that's a different question...

Hi there, thanks for that helpful reply. I am only doing a simple 0-4-0 to try and get one success under the belt. So far I have fixed the wheels on the unpowered axle. I found the wheels a very tight fit on the axles and I used a small machine vice to press them on. I have added one wheel to the powered axle and inserted it through the drive gear. I have fixed the coupling rod on one side and so I just have to press on the final wheel. So.... It is just a case of aligning the wheel by eye, pressing it on, adding the rod then testing. And if necessary, twisting the wheel round by trial and error until it runs smoothly?

BBC News - Worn-out tracks cause railway line closure https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-67524633 Seems like just over a mile of track has to be replaced. It's taking 16 days..... Only last week I watched this.... Seems like back 60 years ago a half mile(?) length was done on one Sunday.... Why does this new relay really take so long? I know they are also cutting vegetation etc, but that can happen at the same time.... Ian

I use Fry's fluxite for everything and have done for 40 years. Lasts for ever, I'm only on my second or third tin now. Works like magic.

Fantastic to you for handbuilding track. Norman knows his stuff FB turnouts are not easy, all aspects are complicated by the rail cross-section! There is a reason why the prototype continued with bullhead turnouts combined with FB plain track. I'm not sure what era you are modelling, I suggest you might wish to follow prototype practice and stick with BH turnouts on your mainline. Ian

I don't have a GW jig and I can't buy one in Asda like I can glue. I have inferred from the AG notes on his catalogue that no glue or loctite is needed. A plain interference fit is good enough. Is that correct?

another shout-out for MERG here. I use around 15 of the servo4 units. Utterly reliable. I ahevnt checked the price recently but i seem ti remember paying about £5. However, you can buy the pcbs for pence from MERG and bulk-buy your own components and save a few quid,

I'm M7DZQ Trying hard to master CW, getting there slowly. Ian

Hi all, over the years i have been modelling, i have attempted scratch and kit built chassis on several occasions. In every case, these have ended in failure. Or, to coin a phrase, I have learnt many ways not to do it. I end up with wobbly wheels, loose crankpins, wobbly crankpins, locked-up chassis and crankpins that keep undoing themselves. So, being a persistent chap, I am yet again attempting a kit built chassis. This time, I have chosen a simple uncompensated 0-4-0 in 16.5mm gauge on the basis that it can't get any easier.....but this is a small diesel shunter and has jackshafts - does that make it an 0-6-0? The actual kit shouldn't matter but it is a Judith Edge Ruston 165 DH Anyway, i have read numerous threads on here about how to use AG wheels and i have read the advice on the AG website. Some stages are still not clear to me, hence this question. I have a small unimat lathe and a good and comprehensive tool set and work bench. However, i do not have a chassis jig. No real reason, but i think i should be able to do this without one...The answer can't just be "buy a jig". My plan of attack is: 1. carefully chamfer the ends of the axles with a file and the axles held in the lathe. 2. using a countersink bit in my fingers, gently countersink the axles holes and crank pin holes on the back of the wheels. 3. screw the 12BA crankpin screws through the wheels. AG says that these will cut their own thread and be true. We will see! I will add a v small drop of CA as the screw goes home to lock it in. 4. mount a wheel in the three-jaw in the lathe, gripping by the rim. Hold the axle in the jacobs in the tailstock. Add a small smear of CA to the axle end and using the tailstock hand wheel, push the axle into the wheel. This should ensure it goes in square. Knowing the thickness of the wheels, i should be able to wind it in the right anount to get the axle end flush with the front of the wheel. 5, repeat for the other axle, so i have two wheels glued squarely onto two axles. 6. insert the undriven axle in the chassis and fix the wheel on the other end. I know that it doesn't have to be exactly 90 degrees, but aproximately so. I really don't want to get CA into the bearings, so my plan is to partially push the wheel on at around 90 degrees, add a bit of CA into the axle hole then push the wheel home. BUT how do i push this wheel on squarely? I do have a small hand-held tool vice that might help? 7. coupling rods reamed out to be a close running fit on the crankpin bushes. 8. Insert second axle, add coupling rods to the side which now has two wheels. 9. NOW the tricky bit...? then somehow , in one operation, push (glue) on the final wheel square and true, get it quatered to match the other axle, add the remaining coupling rod, test the chassis, adjust the wheel if (when!) it doesn't run right, trying to avoid creating wobble, but all the time the glue is going off and i am not sure if the error is in the quatering or somewhere else.... test again and end up with a free-running chassis.... 10. do something with the jackshafts and hope it doesn't screw it all up.... If anyone can tell me what the secret is in these final steps, please tell me.... Many thanks Ian

not sure i agree to the same degree. I agree these roles are not safety-crtitical, but for platform staff, PTS and the knowledge of what to do in an emergency is essential. At some point, someone will drop their phone (or something much worse) onto the track or will go tresspassing. station staff will need to deal with that in accordance with the rules.

That isnt as i understand it. The OP says he has a "file", not a drawing. I use Fusion360 and when i create objects at their full size - ie when i draw something in Fusion360, i specify its size to be its real, full size. My understanding is that the OP has now imported this into something like Chitubox so that he can print it at 4mm scale. To do that, in chitubox (or any other software) it needs to be scaled at 1.31%. Ian

none of that relates to the original question. The OP has a file at full size. every graphics package I have ever seen allows drawings to be rescaled. all he has to do is to rescale by 1.31% Job done.

Just some very basic DC wiring with simple isolation sections. Very straightforward.

You divide all dimensions by 76. Or if you are scaling it, scale it 1/76 or 1.31%

Quite. I suspect not a wholly disinterested person.....