Sithlord75

This isn’t widely known nor appreciated so perhaps a note in the magazine/newsletter from time to time with information on how to get the components would be useful for those who seek to dismantle.

G'day all, Happy New Year (although it is the 13th so maybe not so new). The first ZAG meeting for this year is this Saturday (14 January) from 1930GMT. Please adjust according to your location. I'll be MIA as, to quote Dr Adams, I've a three line whip being enforced due to the 14th being my wife's birthday and the 15th being our wedding anniversary - and we have a kid free weekend. As always, all are welcome to join in, and share what they have been building, ask for advice (and share their favourite tips for success) and generally have a chat about their projects. The link below should take you straight there or the ID and passcode. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83287616944?pwd=WGRnQkprN1IwcitVRm56OThtMUFVUT09 Meeting ID: 832 8761 6944 Passcode: 222372 I hope it is an enjoyable and productive meeting. Cheers Kevin

The block has one axle, the next axle isn’t in the block, then the 3 drivers and the trailing axle - so I can see where @Chris Higgs is coming from.

Already here Jim! (just under 9 hours of 2023 as I type - seems ok so far!) Let's hope it is a Guid one!

The Midland D418 Milk and Fruit Van was so much easier! (Particularly since @VRBroadgauge had done me a replacement chassis 😉)

Don't worry about glacial pace - I'll be finally putting track down on a 20 year plus project in the New Year! I may even write something for TCH about it but given it's 2mm... Hopefully 2023 is a better year than the last couple - in every respect.

Very nice - I’ve 11 in the “to do” pile. These pictures will help enormously. I take it the etch doesn’t include axle boxes? If not I’ll have to get on to Shop 2.

Back at the workbench this afternoon after the innings break in the 2nd Test and I got the first of four B7 (two left two right) Finetrax points out of the packet and made a start. Pleasantly surprised to have a working turnout by stumps - twelve overs later. This evening I added enough easitrac bases to fit an Ivatt 2-6-0 then 8 copper clad sleepers before building the LNWR buffer stop which according to my information was at the end of the platform at St Albans. So I guess we could say the first spikes have been driven. At some point I’ll spin the layout stuff onto its own thread but for the moment I’ll leave it here.

24th December Given we are hosting Christmas Day lunch (with 28 degrees C forecast!) and with my wife having German heritage, there wasn't any chance of me being able to do any modelling today - it was spent getting the yard mowed, desserts made, house cleaning before we started the Christmas celebrations this afternoon with German snacks (although given the temperature, the mulled wine didn't make an appearance but some lager did!). We are presently having a bit of an inter-regnum before heading off to Midnight Mass at our parish church before an undoubtedly early start tomorrow. Thank to those of you who have been following along with my count down. I have managed to either complete or make significant inroads into over 24 wagons (which was the goal - obviously doing a few VR K wagons helped as these are really easy) and I've learnt a bit (special thanks to Stephen Lea @Compound2632 for the various insights into Midland practice. I haven't been scared off the MR cattle wagon - I just haven't found the chassis to put under it again. Stored somewhere "safe" but I'll get it finished. I will also track down some information on the D418 since that's what I am building in the NPCCS realm). In closing all that is left is to follow @queensquare's tradition of a suitably inscribed photo - in this case, a photo of my highlight 2mm wise for 2022. A train I built (or converted in the case of the Jinty) on CF at Derby.

23rd December Over the course of this Advent, I think I have built over a dozen wagons or NPCCS items drawn by Bruce Cook (aka @VRBroadgauge). Amongst the items which he kindly organised etches for me, were some chassis for planned 3D printed bodies. These included some MR/SDJR 25' 4-wheel chassis suitable for the Milk and Fruit vans shown in Tatlow on P106 (yes, big fan for the Tatlow drawings). The idea being that either @nebnoswal or I would draw up the bodies to plonk on said chassis. And then... The 2mm Association publishes the PDFs for the Newsletter and Magazine in the Members Only section of the website and so it came to pass that I read the newsletter the day it was uploaded and noticed that @2mm Andy (I think!) had some etches going cheap of the aforementioned MR D419 Milk and Fruit Van (I don't know what the SDJR diagram was, but the differences include foot-steps at one end on the SD one for access to the oil lamp so you could see inside. Obviously, the MR staff ate more carrots or had lanterns or something and didn't need the light). Andy also had a bunch of other etches so I sent him, and email and it came to pass that a) I was first to ask and b) I was able to obtain a pair of etches for three different vehicles. The etches from Andy arrived today, along with the magazine and newsletter. I suspect that had I inquired tonight, the answer would have been too late! So with new etches in hand - both from Bruce and Andy - I set to work to see how the 30-year-old hand drawn artwork (which I think has been shrunk going by the gap between the items) matched up with the 2022 CAD designed chassis. Fortunately, it would appear both draftsmen did indeed work to the same scale, and everything lined up - even down to the buffer holes so the body was able to be easily located on the chassis. Like a few things I have been working on, this one will require a roof - but the artwork for that is much closer to completion. I also need to pay a visit to a LHS and see what they have in the way of nickel silver or brass sheet in suitable thiness. As usual, I will need to tweak something after seeing the photos - in this case the footboard!

22nd December Something for Yeovil again today - although to be honest I am not sure if it fits @Laurie2mil's chosen/preferred time period. However, as I had the chassis built up, I thought it would be silly not to use it and so organised a print, which was then painted, to go with the chassis, which was also painted before applying decals from my Modelmaster collection. I should tweak the file to do the uneven planked versions (I've done the ply) and change the vent around (along with possibly the ellipse for the roof) for the SECR. I'm really pleased with these bodies - not particularly useful for my preferred period to but a vast improvement on the Farish or NGS versions which sometimes are seen on 2mm layouts. The advantages of CAD to get an accurate scale model!

21st December I spent some time this evening (had planned on it being this afternoon but Management decreed we had to brave the second largest shopping complex north of the Brisbane River instead - and three days before the deadline!) getting a packaged ready for Noswal Couriers to take to @VRBroadgauge - so Merry Christmas Bruce, hopefully it won't matter your present is delivered on the 27th not the 25th! Once that was all sorted I went into my collection of unbuilt chassis etches from Shop 2 and grabbed the 11'6" GWR one (2-363 for those playing along). I purchased this to put under the W1/5 GWR Mex B 3D print which @Ian Smith had drawn up. Initially I obtained some (plus a W2 and W3) from Shapeways but Ian has since kindly sent me the .STL files so in due course I shall have to build a couple more chassis. Ian I think used the drop in W irons and cobbled up some suitable brakes from his spares box - being a GWR modeller of high skill I doubt this would have extended him much! My GWR spares don't run to much at all - I've built one GWR Chassis (under a V3x Mink - can't remember which one it is - my daughter built the other) and I've got some Open Cs on replacement chassis but I don't think they ended up with DC brakes. In any case, it wasn't that much effort to adapt the underside of the print to accept the basic chassis - so basic I didn't add the solebars nor the axleboxes. I will in due course (having discovered tonight I'd used up my stock of plug on springs and axle boxes doing the LNWR D13s earlier in the month) sort the missing bits but over all I am pretty happy. I had to reacquaint myself with how DCIII brakes go - fortunately the rain stopped long enough for a quick dash to the shed to get the finished wagon out - and I also had a bit of a time carefully removing the Shapeways resin (FUD? FXD? who knows. My file didn't seem to worry too much but I did use a cheapy rather than my good one) to clear the space. I'll have a look at the .STL and see if I can alter it to accept the Shop Chassis for the extra two or three. I tend to think a GWR cattle wagon making it to Herts is unlikely to have come alone and even with the options of a W2 or a W3 to accompany it, extra W1/5s would be welcome in the LAG where there are more Western interests. At some point I had added buffers to the print and painted it, otherwise, expecting the modifications to the base to allow the chassis to fit, it's how it prints. A roof shall be sourced in due course too.

Is that one which was needing work when I was there Nick? And when are you planning on modelling it? Lent?

Did you send the form to the email address on the form? If so, then at some point someone will read the email and get in touch with the PayPal invoice. AFAIK it still involves a human rather than a computer so won't happen immediately.

20th December Technically something for me day but given the opportunity mentioned yesterday of getting some of Bruce's wagons to him I decided to work on another one for him - last one for the year most likely! I think this makes it 53 or something like that - he'll have to count them up when he has them all. This one is a T type insulated ice van - the three hatches on the roof are for loading ice for perishables to survive transportation in the Australian summer - particularly in Victoria where if a Northerly or Northwesterly wind sets in it comes from the Red Centre bringing soring temperatures and the risk of bushfires. Currently they'd probably welcome it a bit as the Riverland up near Bruce has been quite wet (like most of the East Coast in 2022) and the Murray River looks like reaching a flood peak in Murray Bridge (my mum's home town) as high or higher than 1956 (when she was 11 years old and a Girl Guide riding her bike around delivering messages - I don't imagine the Guide Unit doing such things in 2022!) A bit of weight in this one - not sure particularly why to be honest although I guess with the solid walls rather than the open sides of the M cattle wagons, there is a bit more metal in it. I didn't think to take a shot of it next to a M wagon to show the different heights, but it is significant - the advantages of the 5'3" loading gauge I guess. One other job I did today was paint the M wagon from yesterday - and then realised I hadn't put the shunters steps on it! This has now been rectified so touch up painting tomorrow, a bunch of wagons to have decals put on them in the morning and then clear sealed in the afternoon before knitting tomorrow night. Back on the UK wagons tomorrow. Something simple - GWR DC Brakes for some cattle wagons I have from @Ian Smith.

19th December Playing catch up on the Calendar - and trying to get as many things finished to send to @VRBroadgauge via Noswal's Courier Company before Christmas (opportunity to utilise the services of same was suggested at the weekend) had me back into the VR wagons and another M type cattle wagon was the result - I've lost count on how many of these I've soldered now. I know I'll need to get some more paint tomorrow as having painted almost 50 wagons for Bruce so far, I seem to have run out!!

18th December (a little late!) I had planned on posting every day (I mean what's the point of an Advent Calendar if it misses a day?) but unfortunately, I managed to wind up with one of those 24 hour bugs which come and go just after lunch yesterday (about when the South African team was two wickets down and still 63 runs behind) and the progress I had made up until that point on the LSWR 21' horse box (Tatlow again)@VRBroadgauge had designed for me (and for @Laurie2mil although he didn't ask! We think he may find a use for a couple) was halted until I was feeling better today. As I have come to expect from Bruce's designs, it went together very easily, and it'll make another welcome addition to my horsebox fleet.

Now there’s an idea…… What colour do you think they’d be?

17 December SEQAG Christmas party today so lots of talk about modelling, particularly with Matthew Wald who had escaped Cornwall for Queensland and brought some of his models with him. At least one of the AG members was heard to be muttering about wanting to give the card-built wagon bodies a go so we shall see what develops there. In the end the combination of a much later finish than we had anticipated, the excitement of the first Australian Test Captain to send the opposition (in this case South Africa) at the Gabba since 2000 (or anyone since Nasser Hussain thought it was a good idea in 2003 - in both cases Australia won comfortably) in - vindicated by SA being rolled for 152 with Australia 5/145 at stumps - meant the previous plans for the evening were scraped and so a proper build oppotunity came my way. I decided to do the second of the two GNR Horseboxes which @VRBroadgauge drew up for me - the D352. Contruction was straight forward, and I'd run out of etched bits (still have to put the footsteps and brake leavers on - plus add a couple of bits from the spares box) just on two hours after starting. Once again, this hasn't been cleaned up with the wire brush - just put through the ultrasonic cleaner to remove the flux. The pair of them in the same orientation as the drawings in Tatlow. Very happy with the results. Still none the wiser as to what colour they should be, but they look ok in North Somerset Light Railway livery.

16 December I got in early today and did a private owner wagon - and then realised that it was an even date, and I should have, if following my own rules, done Something for Someone - oh well. Rules are made to be broken! This particular wagon has its origin from Shapeways - specifically some LNWR wagon bodies which @Chris Higgs designed. However, I found when I went to make it as a LNWR wagon, the file was incorrect - it should have had rounded ends, not flat ones. No worries as Chris kindly sent me the corrected .STL file so I could print my own but what to do with the bodies? I've got four and rather than waste them I thought about making them Private Owner Wagons - after all, these seem to come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. As part of the grand plan, I designed some decals to suit (a fictional firm of coal merchants) and sorted the wagon by building a 9' wheelbase chassis, painting the body with a rattle can I chose at random. It was while all this was drying (nice day for it down here) that I realised the date. Anyway, I finished it off. Pretty happy with the result. The AG part is my wife's initials, KP mine. We both love York. When I took the picture, I hadn't added the coal load but had fiitted the former for same. Doing the Challenge tomorrow is going to be interesting - we have the SEQAG Christmas lunch (with the Hon. Sec. of the 2mm SA joining us) and then we are going away for the evening. Hopefully I'll find time to do something.

15th December I didn’t have a lot of time today what with ferrying kids around (summer holidays down here) and doing some welding jobs for one of the LAG guys (he’s collecting Saturday) so I dug up a started but not yet completed LNWR D88 van and got it sorted and primed. Bit of a let down after the MR D326 I know but they can’t all be exciting challenges - most wagons were boring everyday jobsworth types!

I think the result is that Bruce now knows he can design etches for practically anything. As for a load - none of the pictures I’ve seen show them loaded and I’d imagine they’d be very specific types of loads. Mine is staying unloaded.

14 December @nebnoswal and I used to hold a knitting club on Thursday evenings but at the behest of Management we have moved it to Wednesday evening and tonight was only the second time we have convened to knit at the new time. As it is an even number in the Advent Countdown I set out to do Something for Someone. The question is, whilst I knew what the Something was, who was it really for? What I did, was build a Midland Railway D326 Deep Case Wagon using the etches designed by @VRBroadgauge following a challenge (request? Dunno really - one of them can tell us) from @Nick Mitchell who has an interest in the esoteric wagon I believe. This one took a bit of doing as I only had the drawing and a couple of pictures contained in Essery's MR Wagons Vol 2 to go on - Bruce gave up writing instructions for me for his etches when he realised I never read them! I did send some pics to him during the build asking for advice but given he drew these some months ago, he couldn't remember what his thought process was! I'm going to build a second one for either him or me - this one is either going to be for me or him I think as Nick is getting his own etch. I'll write some notes when I do the second one (after Christmas) based on what I have learnt (I didn't learn this but was reminded tonight for the first time in a while, that touching the pointy bit of the soldering iron with your finger is a very silly thing to do!) Anyway I think it has come up well - I'm going to put coupling hooks and three links on it (and the second brake lever which wasn't on Bruce's info but is definitely there in the picture I have) and then draw up some decals (anyone interested in having one of these beasties will get a set of decals thrown in - we're nice like that) and then it will be put in the display cabinet carefully labeled "Dr Nick's Folly" as that is what Bruce and I have taken to calling it!

13th December I didn't get to do anything during the day today (summer holiday chores and my wife has come down with her traditional end of school year illness - basically needing to sleep to recharge so I was on keep the kids quiet) so no work until this evening. With that in mind I decided I should have a look at a second horse box from the etches @VRBroadgauge did for me. I chose the LNER D351 (ex GNR) which is depicted in Tatlow's NPCCS on Page 78 (left hand drawing). Took about two and a half hours to run out of bits on the etch but this was interspersed with messages back and forth with the designer. Probably a two hour build for the second one - particularly as I now have worked out a bit of a game plan. The battery on my Dremel ran out so I havn't run a wire brush over it to remove the excess solder and the roof hasn't been fitted. Owing to the need for vents and what have you I am thinking about 3D printing a roof to plug in so I can glaze with glass first - and have the torpedo vents etc already printed in place. I also need to find out what colour they were - I assume brown or a faux teak finish. Bruce drew up the D352 (right hand drawing from the same source) which I plan on building on Thursday evening - Something for Someone tomorrow.

12th December Whoa, halfway there... (go on, some of you will have sung it!) Today I got back into the Something for Someone zone and put some paint on the K wagon I did for @VRBroadgauge - whilst I was at it, I did the last couple of wagons on his list and got paint on the lot. Just need to organise the (very) small lettering and these'll be ready to ship down to Wodonga. Not enough axles to sort that part out - Bruce is doing the assembly of those and rather than post them to me for me to post them back, he gets to fit them. He really loves that job.... Thought I should arrange them in a kind of Christmas tree patten - possibly works better if you look at it upside down from the UK.