garethashenden

In MRJ 230 there is an article about using rtr rods on finescale conversions. May be worth reading.

Ordered two sets of set number 2 yesterday. One OO and one HO. Looking forward to their arrival.

TCS make micro connectors. Available from Digitrains. 2,4,6,8 pins available.

Being a student, funds are tight. Small bits can be acquired here and there but complete locomotive kits are out of the question. So when Empire Mills received a donation of a Hornby GWR 1400 I took the opportunity to do something with it. After letting it mature for about 18 months I decided the best thing to do was cut it up and make a 517 instead. This fits well with the Edwardian era china clay layout that will be Empire Mills' next incarnation. After studying a number of pictures and drawings it appears that the cab and bunker must go for any 517 conversion. To make an earlier 517 the Belpaire firebox must go as well. The piercing was was located, blade inserted and cab and bunker separated from boiler and tanks. The firebox next met with the same fate and everything was cleaned up with a couple of files. Most of the top feed was removed with the saw with the remainder and piping falling victim of a file. The state of things: More parts to be removed include the two boxes on the splashers, most of the detail on the smokebox door, and the buffers which will be replaced with Alan Gibson early GWR sprung buffers. As I mentioned in my last post I also have Duncan's 517 kit to build. This is an Alan Gibson kit in whitemetal and etchings. I will primarily use photographs as a guide but some parts, such as the cab, will be copied from the etched components. From now on I will refer to mine as 517[1] and Duncan's as 517[2]. With 517[1] in its current condition I compared what I had to the whitemetal tank castings from 517[2]. There was a quite noticable difference in height between the two tanks. Back to the drawings, it turns out that 517s have tanks which are 6" shorter than 1400 tanks. I also discovered that the boiler is mounted 6" lower as well. Now that would be a sizable amount of cutting and reattaching, something that I am invariably not going to get square. If I were just building one model I probably wouldn't bother. I certainly wouldn't have noticed. But since I have the two, and they could conceivably run together, they should both be as accurate as possible. So that's where things stand now. Trying to find the courage to cut things up again. For the mechanism I have decided to use Alan Gibson milled frames, a High Level gearbox, High Level CSBs, and split chassis pickups. I thought about using either the High Level or Comet chassis kits but I decided that by the time I had built it the way I wanted I would have thrown out too much of the kit to make it worthwhile.

Following yesterday's accusations that everything was my fault I must insist that actually, it's Duncan's fault. We started building the layout, then he moved to Portsmouth. I should probably clarify that my primary interest is in the Boston & Maine railroad c. 1950. So saying I know very little about EM gauge is an understatement at this point. But none the less, here I am in charge of an EM gauge layout with not much more than a vague idea of how to build it. So it is, as you can see for yourself, Duncan's fault, not mine. The layout has it's own blog so this will mostly be a blog of things I do at home. Some things that will appear: Gibson 850PT Gibson 517 (Duncan's) 517 from something that once was a Hornby 14xx Mainline Dean Goods Gibson 1076PT (Duncan's and almost finished despite what he will tell you) Gibson 850ST (Duncan's again) Bunch of private owner coal wagons (on the Empire project's blog) LNWR coal wagons (I've seen pictures of them in Cornwall, don't argue!) GWR red wagons A pair of bufferstops for Copenhagen Fields Finishing my 2mm Jinty. Etc. Should be done with that lot by the end of the day I think.

It cannot possibly be my fault. Both the layout as a whole and the china clay option were both your ideas. I may one day accept responsibility for taking the layout to LFORM 2015, but surely we are building it to go to exhibitions? Isn't that the point?

Always nice to see B&M layouts.

Water runs down hill. So, front and centre should be the wettest part of the layout because it it the lowest. I always find myself drawn to water on layouts so I thought I'd add something. The first problem is that there is no space for a sizable water feature. Adding to this, most of the basic landscaping had already been done, the hills are in place along with brambles and a tree so really all that can be done is the hint of water beyond the layout. The edge of a pond or marsh, even a small stream, just out of sight. Started off simply enough. Bit of plasticard, 60 thou I think. A4 sheet, cut about an inch off the short end. The sheet didn't need much trimming to shape as the carpet underlay grass has a fair amount of give. The plasticard was evostuck to the layout, careful to be level and flush with the top of the facia. Then painted grey and sprinkled with N gauge ballast. Once that had dried I spread a bead of PVA around the edge and everyone joined in adding reeds made from excess bits of underlay. That's the state of things as the moment. On Thursday I will have an opportunity to add a few different varieties of reeds. I also have some finer material to add in with the ballast. Once that's done I'll use a bit of gloss varnish to make it look wet.

It's not so much that you want a low-melt soldering iron as wanting low-melt solder.

My tastes in railways (particularly British ones) tends towards the unusual. I am completely uninterested in BR steam, for example, and find myself increasingly drawn to pre-grouping, if not Victorian, railways. While I can't claim to be a fan of the Great Western, Duncan's desire to model Edwardian GWR is at least the right era. While perusing the bay of E a few months ago I happened across a lot for five identical white metal kits for dumb buffered private owner coal wagons. Now dumb buffers tick the boxes when it comes to unusual. I know they haven't always counted as unusual, but they do now. While dumb buffered wagons were on the decline in our 1905-1914 timeline, they are not entirely out of place. So I bought the kits. They are Chatham kits, the prototype is a Parry wagon, quite common to the North London Railway. The kits arrived and I had a look at the instructions. This is where the problems began. The instructions say to fit the ends between the sides, add the etched floor, the solebars, and the w-irons. Simple enough right? Problem number 1; If assembled in this manner the etched floor is too long. If one of the etched planks is removed, however, it now fits. So that's what I did. Having so far assembled the body I then went to fit the wheels. Two etched w-irons are supplied, one of which can be made to rock if desired. While I generally think that compensation is a good idea, I wasn't too impressed with the rocking mechanism so I opted to build the wagon rigid. Using the semicircular ironwork on the solebar as a guide, I installed the w-irons. All was well, until; Problem number 2; The brakes don't fit! These wagons have two brakes on one side with rather larger wooden blocks. These are set to a 9' wheelbase. Unfortunately, the castings on the solebars are set to 8'6". A file was retrieved from the box of tools ans steel brakes were produced. Oh well, I've got four more anyway and variety is nice. Right? Wagon number 1: Wagon Number 2. About a week later I decided to have another go at these wagons. I figured I must have made a mistake somewhere with the last one, this time I'd do it the other way around, maybe that would solve the problems. So i fitted the sides between the ends. This made the wagon longer and narrower than the first, but the floor fitted with a problem!! Ok good, progress. It should be mentioned at this point that I decided to solder this wagon. Having superglued the first I thought I should improve my white metal soldering skills and that this would be the thing to practice on. So, the body is soldered together, now fit the solebars, done, no problems. Fit the w-irons, fit the brakes. The brakes still don't fit. Ugh. Got a new kit, opened it up and compared the parts. There are markings on the underside of the floor to aid fitting the w-irons. It's just a half-etched line to be lined up with a fully etched line in the w-irons. Not high tech (or actually helpful). When these lines were compared to the ironwork on the cast solebars the source of the problems was made clear. The detail on the solebars was in the wrong place. Ok, so here's the plan; two wagons with an 8'6" wheelbase, three with a 9' wheelbase. Keep things interesting. It was at this point that I compared the two wagons. Uh oh, those buffers don't line up. I went and found some other wagons and compared everything. The second wagon had had the solebars fitted too far out. The should have been trimmed to fit around the end. This will need to come off, be fettled, and go back on. Still on the to-do list. The underside of number 2 during construction. Wagon number 3 For this one I decided I would remove the erroneous details from the solebars before assembling the wagon. File, whitemetal, job done. Having learned from the mistakes of wagon number 2, I filled the backs of the buffers so that they will fit. I got a bit carried away with one and it will need some filler. Wagon and solebars assembled, everything looks good, still need to fit the w-irons. This picture of the three wagons shows the problems with number 2's buffers. It's the one in the middle. Wagons 4&5 For these I will build them as I built wagon number 1. Trim the floor, stick everything together. I will alter the wheelbase so that it is 9'.

I'm not entirely sure but I believe that is an Ian Rice technique. There is a foam camping mat in between the cartridge paper and the plywood. There were no major problems transferring the track, one slight kink in one of the line that was quickly corrected. All the chairs and rail are Exactoscale.

So we have the track for the permanent section of the layout, built on cartridge paper in two sections (as there are two baseboards). That was just before Christmas 2012. In late January or early February 2013 the baseboards arrived: The track laid down: And a train (with kindly loaned stock) running! The layout was exhibited in this state on the demonstration stand at Alexandra Palace 2013. Throughout the next nine months progress was slowly made, most notably the addition of the track on the two lift-out sections at the back of the layout. Which brings us to January 2014: The basis of scenery progressed with the addition of carpet underlay: By mid-March things had progressed to such a stage that there was even a sky! The arch really helps the layout come together. A closeup of a couple of wagons, Alex Jackson couplings much in evidence. And finally; the layout performing at Alexandra Palace 2014:

Made a Midland buffer stop from one of the Association etches.

Anything in particular? Have a look at DC kits: http://www.dckits-devideos.co.uk/shop/kits_modelling/plastic_dmu_emu_coaching_stock_kits_from_dc_kits_incudes_locomotives_/

Thanks guys. I'm coming to this from N where 9" radii are fairly common. I knew that 2mm would need more space, but it's nice now to have a number.

Is the Hudson tipper designed to tip? If not, can it be made to tip?

Is there an accepted minimum radius? I am aware that the choice of stock makes a difference, but is there a general rule? I didn't see anything in the yearbook about radii.

Micro Engineering offer 3 point track gauges for code 40. They are designed for flatbotton rail so I don't know if they will work for bullhead or not.

Can you extend the shaft that the worm is on to reach the other axle and then have another worm and gear there?

John, It's the Association replacement chassis with a Nigel Lawton 10x12 motor.

Been working on my Jinty chassis.

Just got the bits for a Jinty conversion from shop 3. So that's on my "workbench" along with the usual assortment of EM and American N stuff.

No there isn't.

I'm not about to build a layout right now, but it is something I'd like to do at some point. For the moment I'm just seeing what's out there and then maybe building a couple models.

I've remembered another onesince I posted, Etched Pixels do 3d printed carriages. Do you know who did the 2mm etches? I do have that book, picked it up on ebay a couple of days ago for a very reasonable £4.