Dr.Glum

Eastfield Mk1 was in the loft until 2013, Eastfield 2 was designed after a divorce and house move, and supposed to be made up of major elements from Mk1. Some of the redesign and rebuild was described in: Eastfield II - phoenix from the ruins - Layout topics - RMweb Last year, having admitted it affected living here too much as I was now trying to live with someone else in the house, so one day I admitted to myself I needed something more modest that I might finish and enjoy before the drink or old age finally caught up with me. So I spent some enjoyable time using CAD to design a four-track roundy-roundy. First I had to dismantle a lot of the existing boards. The photo shows stripping down a board that was made from an old door that has already been through two rebuilds from 1999 to 2016! Note the hole for a turntable. (My strategic reserve of bog roll is exposed!) I've removed the extension (leaning against the shed), stripped everything right off, and (since that photo was taken) cut the board to shape to fit its new location, repainted, covered it with cork to get a fair surface. Now I've been laying track - hooray!

Many thanks Andrew. Shows clearly I need something else, more 'plug 'n play'.

I'm going to seem really dumb about these WAGO connectors. I've looked at the Wago site, the Screwfix site and here in RMweb, but still am unsure! I want connectors for the two wires of my DCC power bus, to bridge joints that will rarely (if ever) be separated after the main construction phase of the layout is over. a) do they come in male female pairs? None of the photos seem to show that. b) in the Screwfix site, minimum cost seems to be over 20 pounds because they're in 50s or 100s etc. I'll need just 4 (or 5 for an unforeseen spare). c) The photo at the head of this thread may show something that could dangle from cable. Previous layout was joined like that. Or this time I could have one connection screwed to the underside and the other connector free hanging. Any clarity would be much appreciated.

I found them sturdy and for more than 10 years one of the large heavy boards of my loft layout rested on a pair. The sliding sideways was a potential problem so one corner of the board was bracketted to the wall and the very heavy adjacent boards were physically linked thus anchoring. Cannot imagine they'd be so practical for a portable layout?

Yes I am. I checked whether there was an exclusion before I posted my entry. I have had no contact with the judging process. Cheers.

Photo 01 the two wagons Summary: 7mm scale LNWR Diagram 84 10 ton open wagons. See “LNWR Wagons Volume 1”. Made from A.B.S. kits, Slaters wheels and couplings (joints in links soldered to fill gaps). Spray painted; very light rust weathering of underframe details. 1st wagon: barrel load; Slaters plastic ones and home-made ones from wood. Load tied down as per photographs (black cotton). 2nd wagon: sack load (not visible except as contours under the sheeting. Despite looking too big, the load is well within the loading gauge. Sheeting made from model aircraft fabric, painted and glued down with superglue to mimic the drape and folds. Numbers hand painted, lettering sprayed with home-made masks. No cross on sheets as I was unsure as to dimensions and location. (Have since seen confirmation of crosses in photographs. Photo 02: D84 loaded with tied down barrels Photo 03: top view of barrel load: Slaters plastic ones and home-made ones from wood. Photo 04: detail of wagon with barrels: restrained colours of underframe and fittings. Photo 05: D84 with sheeted sack load. The sheets are made to prototype size with the correct ties. It was quite a difficult load to sheet up and cover properly. There are two large sheets (one each end), but only minimum overlap. A good Goods Agent would properly have asked for a small sheet to be roped over the top, covering the horizontal join. I could not face making a third sheet! Photo 06: one end of sheeted sack load. The sheets were not one single piece of fabric, but correctly sized strips superglued together, including the triangular tie down flaps in the seams. Photo 07: top view of draped sheets. The wagon holds a plasticard former (box) on which some layers of sacks were stuck. Inside the left hand end in this photo, the former was stepped as though not all layers of sacks spread the entire length of the wagon. The sheets had to be pressed and glued down to ‘drape’ properly.

As part of the publicity for this Modelling Competition, Andy Yorks attended the L&NWRS Kidderminster Open Day on Saturday 21st July 2018, in the museum of the Severn Valley Railway. He videoed a piece with the L&NWRS Secretary Tim Birch. I'd not met Andy before - "nice to see you, Sir". The photo shows Andy with the day's organiser Ted Talbot, a not unknown 'name'. This is an annual event and includes a massive gauge 1 running track (electric and live steam) that fills the concourse of Kidderminster Station (SVR).

OK, a new email arrived, for which many thanks. The good news is I was able to get the offer into The Basket. The bad news is that trying to pay with a credit card merely opens a new small window saying Error An unexpected error occurred. Hah! I have not found any way to proceed. (As a PS I'd say the page that asks for your email address (to log in to BRM) rather lacks explanation - I don't think I had ever registered before, but there was nothing to say use the existing users password field to create the password you want (and no repeat the password field, which is good practice). Mmmm. Update to that: I went into Account, had a guess at the password I had used (luckily correct) and reset it to a more secure one. Then it would let me pay £1.99 for a recurring monthly subscription. Not the smoothest experience!

Anyone else have this problem? On Friday 6th midday I received an email from BRM@warnersgroup.co.uk offering This weekend only.... Download the BRM Digital Edition for just £1.99 a month 13 issues a year for the ridiculously low price of £23.88! When you click the link it just takes you to a searchpage for all publications. I've tracked down BRM via that or side menu for Special Offers and also for subscriptions. Nothing. Nada. No such offer visible! It's still the weekend as far as I'm concerned. Puzzled. Cheers, Tony

Hello RMwebbers, I am part of a project to transcribe the many letters from the late J.P.Richards, the noted 7mm scale LNWR modeller whose vast model collection was bequeathed to the NRM. When the project is finished the information will be made available in a searchable form. One of the letters that I have just finished was to a Mr.Cole, written in October 1957. It contains the following two passages: As regards axleguards. 14’ 6” Horse Box so far as I can see you will have to add a guide in front of spring the (Wills) 15 A.B, this is the same casting which you use for LNW 10 ton Goods Brake Van. 3’ 0” wheel not 3’ 7” alas. I agree with your solution for 16’ 0” Open Fish, use 11 D if the spring is 4’ 6”, this is the only one likely. Unfortunately at present I do not know if Mr.Cole was a 4mm or 7mm modeller. It would aid future researchers if we could identify what Wills called the items referred to only by their (supposed) product codes. It's a long shot, but does anyone have an old Wills list or catalogue? Many thanks, Tony

Yes, that's the organisation who contacted me, so I'd be very glad if they now knew, but piqued that they hadn't passed the good news and the answer on! Ha! But I don't think they've had any luck yet.

I have received a query about the wording of a (poorly) surviving sign on the outside wall of Mayfield Station, Manchester. As you may well know, the station was opened by LNWR and closed in the early 1960s. It was then used as a parcel depot until 1984 when that also closed. I show below the two colour photographs supplied to me by Steve Sanders, a member of the team tasked with the regeneration of the former Mayfield Station site. What is unknown is the wording below the large letters 'Mayfield Station'. ​ The following is an extract of the image where I have played with the contrast, but it's not much help. It is possible that the middle word is 'trains' ? ​ I am aware of the book "A Short Fully Illustrated History of Mayfield Railway Station, Manchester” by Raymond A. Wright, but Ted Talbot tells me Ray was unable to decipher the sign.

Yesterday I bought 2 lovely Oxford Rail Carflats, but when I got home and opened them, the first one had (loose) the detailing pack of ? wheel chocks ? and brake standards, and unfortunately the second one did not. I chose to ring Hattons about it (have never done that before) and was answered by Mike (don't know which one). In this morning' post today was an envelope with the missing parts, sent first class. Well done, Sir!

Yes fair do'; if one goes to the Oxford Rail web-site it says " A randomly chosen assortment of cars suitable for use on Carflat railway wagons during the specific decade. Please note assortment will vary." At time I was making my buying decision I was unaware of this. Neither of the two gentlemen on store duty yesterday were aware. As I have a preference for vehicles and liveries that were common in the era, it was fortunate I was able to see the product before ordering, and I'm very pleased with what I've bought.

I was in Hattons this afternoon and had a look at the 1960's 4 car set no. OR76CPK001 to go with the carflats I was buying. I decided I'd have one. John went and got one for me and when we looked, the contents were different, with only a black Citroen DS in common. In fact the one he sold me suited me better, having the DS, a red Austin A40, a grey Austin A60 Cambridge and a green soft-top tourer (Armstrong Siddeley? Alvis?). There are no individual labels on the 4 boxes. The set I didn't take had a Jenson and another large saloon that didn't look as 'ordinary' as the selection in my pack. So beware if you order on the basis of "I'll have one the same as the one my mate bought".

Creeping changes in my methods have come back to bite me! Look at the bad voids in the ballasting. I ran out of Treemendus ballast and switched to some (very old) ‘Rail-Road Scenic Exhibitions of Bradford’ Extra Fine Grey Granite Chippings. I’d also got in the habit of leaving out the drop of washing up liquid. I wrongly believed it was the cause of foaming in my syringe. (It wasn’t – I only had foam problems when I’d taken in air was well as Copydex while trying for the last drops out of my mixing bowl). The photo was taken after I’d run a small screwdriver down the middle of each void and hoovered up all loose stuff. It shows how the Copydex / ballast mixture had migrated from the centres. Today I made up a slightly thinner glue mixture, including a drop of washing-up liquid and applied a refill into the cracks on a test section. I left it to set overnight, and this is how it looked after removing the excess. It shows I should also re-fill the voids between some of the sleeper ends. The other possible culprit was the extreme dustiness of the ballast. How on earth do you wash tiny gravel? I decided that this was a case where thinking too much wouldn’t help, so I just held the margarine tub under the tap to see what happened. The water went very murky and I kept pouring that off until it was clear. I laid the sludge on plastic box lids. It dried overnight. The photo shows how the removal of dust has darkened the ballast. I need to find a source of the lighter coloured stuff that isn’t too dusty. P.S. while googling ‘Rail-Road Scenic Exhibitions of Bradford’ to see if the range still existed, I found this mind-boggling monster. (Apologies if it has a thread in RMweb) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2354421/Worlds-largest-model-railroad-draws-thousands-NJ.html

. . . . and I don’t mean a tube in the pocket! A couple of weeks back when I first took up this ballasting lark, I was very careful to keep the liquid Copydex away from my sleeves and clothes when I leant over the baseboard. However, unbeknowns to me, there was a board join that by capilliary action took the glue down through the joint until there was enough for a large drip. I now have an embarrassing ‘Clintonesque’ stain on the front of my trousers, just where you do not want such a stain. I only discovered that I had a problem when I spotted a white blob on the floor. I immediately applied lots of water and rubbed with cloth. Some came off, a lot didn’t. I googled for methods. The photo shows the only hopeful one I found. I tried an ordinary rubber, which just created lots of little coloured rubber bits, and then a Peco track rubber. This did remove some surface crusting, but either I gave up too soon, or the method just does not work. Any proven methods, folks? All sensible ideas gratefully received.

Thanks Allan, for your reply. Yes, when you've wandered with the cut on the outside, you can file or sand it off. What stresses me is when I find I've cut into the item itself. Bah b*ggery-b*ll*cks, and so on. Yes, you can glue patches on and fettle up, but I resent the time spent bodging up avoidable operator errors. Cheers

As a break from track laying and ballasting on Eastfield (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/118435-eastfield-ii-phoenix-from-the-ruins/), I’ve been desultorily making curved platforms to fit curves that vary between 30” and 36” radius. The shapes are marked in pencil on the board. I found that if I tried cutting conventionally (knife in right hand, working along the line across my front from left to right) the line I was following was hidden under the knife blade. The result was that I frequently wandered away from the line. This was tedious and the corrected cut was more ragged than it should be. The method I’m currently using to improve things is to work from right to left, making closely spaced indentations with the tip of the knife. As the blade in my old Stanley knife can move very very slightly (just enough to sometimes miss the pencil line) I tend to keep a fingertip near to confirm the position, then remove it before pressing in with the knife. After marking a short length of the line, I run the knife from left to right to join the marks. It’s not perfect, but it has improved my cuts a lot. How do other people accurately make that first cut on curved lines?

On the old layout, I rarely if ever used this spur off the Outer Loop (photo below). I had vague ideas of a loco refuge. I started making the platform in (it tells me on the underside) June 2008, and it isn’t finished yet. Goodness, if progress had been continuous, all the (massive) planned rebuild work and extensions would have been finished by now, and its tentacles would have reached into every nook and cranny of the loft! Anyhoo, this week I treated myself to a Heljan Class 128 Diesel Parcels Unit. I very carefully read the RMweb thread about this model before I made the purchase. I offer a big thank you to all those who contributed to that thread. I’m very pleased with it, even though it can only trundle back and forth along 15 feet of track. And it can only get into that siding via the ‘big hand in the sky’! In practice, I think I'm more likely to park a utility van or horse box there.

Got fed up with ballasting, and uncertain about how I’ll treat the ground next to the ballast shoulders, so I decided to start the island platform between the outer loop and outer main. Nothing ground-breaking here. [Groan] My material is 2mm greyboard, because I find it easy to work, and I bought a 25 sheet pack years ago. Below I am measuring up for the 2nd segment of the platform. I am using the sleeper ends to get a reference outline shape onto the sheet of paper by drawing a pencil along, reasonably ‘snugly’. Not too close, or the paper tears. I tape this to a sheet of greyboard, draw a ‘smooth’ pencil curve for inside and outside face (by eye), then use a scriber to mark a line of points into the card. I have to allow clearance for my longest vehicles (HST carriages) for the upper sheet (platform surface). so I made a strip of card of the correct width to apply the offset as I make the pricks through to the card. It has a 2mm notch in it, so I can use it for both the inside and outside of the platform. I have to repeat the whole procedure on another card sheet for the base of the platform, using different offsets to allow for platform overhang and the thickness of the side walls.

I’m getting the hang of it, but it’s so tedious. Even working close to the edge of the board, I’m hunched over so I can control the syringe, and it is doing my back in! Oh dear, I should have predicted this. It is very difficult to keep the barrel clean inside the Dermic Oiler. During one session it dried just a smidgin while there was copydex mixture in it, and the resistance proved too much for the glass, which broke. I’ve switched back to the small plastic syringe (which goes smoothly compared to my diarrhoeic large one) and have shaved the nozzle smaller so that it fits between the sleepers.

Doh! Forgot to mention above that the ballast was Treemendous ‘dirty ballast’. I like it and will use it on the running lines through the platform areas. I’ve re-read various posts about ballasting, but can’t work out from peoples’ descriptions quite how the loose ballast was caught in the tube of the vac. The following photo shows what I did in my ignorance. A sheet of kitchen paper was pushed lightly down the tube end (left in photo) and the nozzle (right) pushed over the rest of the sheet. Henry the hoover seemed to cope with the obstruction (although I ran it for the absolute minimum time for the job) and when I removed the nozzle, the paper had formed a pocket about 4 cm deep and the ballast was safely collected.

I’ve done my first length of proper ballasting. Less than 40cm done, and a very stressful hour I found it. I was overly concerned about the copydex setting in my syringe and so didn’t mix enough at a time. I used a new plastic 10ml syringe with a nozzle hole that proved to be marginally too big, so I got some glue on the sleeper edges occasionally. You cannot hope to clean it up: you just end up smearing it more. I had added the tiniest drop of washing-up liquid that I could manage, but again had trouble with bubbles. It also expelled the final liquid from the syringe with an explosive belch. That’s how ballast ended up stuck to the rail in a couple of places. The photo below shows a cruel close-up of the hoovered result, but before any fettling. (I leave it overnight before hoovering.) I’ve taken the following steps to make the next session less demanding and create less errors to tidy up. 1. I’ve acquired a 50ml plastic syringe with a hole that is slightly less than my narrowest sleeper spacing. 2. I have a bigger plastic pot to dilute the copydex in, and I’m not going to add any washing up liquid, because I left it out of the last mix in the first session, and I can see no visible difference in the laid ballast. 3. I’ll avoid the ‘last few drops coming out as a fart’ effect, by not emptying to that degree. 4. I have a stand to hang the syringe vertically on, with its nozzle in the mixing pot, so I can put it down without it dribbling, or rolling around. 5. My edges were not neat enough, so in future I will not rely on fingers to smooth the masking tape down, but actually run a large screwdriver along to seal down the boundary edge. [Edit: do not do this! The tape stuck too well, to the extent that when I was removing it, it tore and left behind a ragged narrow strip at the edge of the ballast. This was [much swearing] time consuming to remove.

Well done organisers! Nice exhibition with a useful selection of traders. I was very taken with the spectacular Colorado and Southern layout. Very good café. I got on the bus to get into central Manchester, and it easily started, and stopped. And it easily started again. And stopped. Result? We all got on RM1414 (to my joy), a bus I know I spotted as a kid, and quite possibly rode on, a long long time ago. Great day out. Many thanks to all concerned.