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2mmMark

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About 2mmMark

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    http://www.nn3.org

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  • Location
    A stone's throw from 70B
  • Interests
    2mm Finescale, Nn3 narrow gauge

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  1. Thanks Bob, very useful information as I've also acquired an NGS Hunslet for British Oak. I was planning to use 2mm driving wheels but seeing your photos, I shall follow your option of thinning down the flanges. I'm wondering if it's worth making some new axles to suit the increased width over the outside faces of the wheels set to 2mm back-to-back standards. Mark
  2. I think so too and what you've done is to mirror history because the steel drop staithe replaced a wooden tippler staithe. Interesting to read about the hoppers because my 2mm model of British Oak uses a quartet of finescaled Dapol 21T hoppers. I'm planning to replace them with four made from etched brass kits so each one is subtly different. Here's my "unloading" method. The coal load is shaped black foam in which a steel pin is hidden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KbKjQ01z-I
  3. I have a couple of these Japanese wheel cleaners I use for my narrow gauge locos. One has failed because the conductive foam that the wheels press on to has ceased to conduct. There's no obvious break in the material but tests with a meter show a lack of continuity. The second one still works as designed. However I think the Minitrix style cleaners work better. I've modified one to have a terminal block on the end to which wires from a power supply can be directly wired. This makes it easier to use. I also have a Kadee wheel cleaning brush which has a small enough seperation between the brass bristles to work down to Z scale. https://www.dckits-devideos.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1259 That also works well.
  4. An easy way to make spacer washers is to cut a slice of empty biro tube to the appropriate thickness, cut it to make a split washer, then slip it over the axle, leaving everything else undisturbed.
  5. On my 2mm scale Irish NG cameo layout, I faired in the corners of the box using sanded down polystyrene ceiling coving, which gave a nice effect when covered with a skim layer of filler and undercoated with white primer, ready for backscene painting. I built the layout in the early 2000s and don't know if this product is still available. It may have fallen out of favour with modern building regs. A possible alternative would be quarter circle sections of 32mm or 40mm plastic waste pipe with the cut edges sanded very thin. Mark
  6. My model is inspired by a design that Paul Lunn did in a book on layout planning. His design was an adaptation of the real thing, as is mine but Paul did provide an accurate drawing of the steel drop-unloading staithe. It was built to serve as a worked example for a 2mm Association publication "The Beginners Guide to 2mm Finescale Modelling". It's reasonably accurate as far as the staithe and canal wharf go but the surrounding scenery I've modelled is nowhere near as bleak as the actual location was. I think I had about 3 or 4 photos of the real thing and that was about all. Since building the layout, a lot more photos have come to light, along with some video that was on Youtube for a while (since removed as it was probably from a DVD and in copyright). I've not seen the Scale Model Trains article. Paul sent me a scan of some of it and also of an NCB subsidence plan of the area. I've also obtained the two IRS Journals in which the layout was featured and two paperback books on the Calder & Hebble Navigation. Another 2mm modeller, Richard Caunt, has built the British Oak staithe and the loading screens in 2FS. His model trumps mine in that the hopper wagons actually work. Michael Andress described, drew and modelled the staithe in a late 1970s Railway Modeller. Something I did find out was that British Oak was very busy during the 1985 miners strike.
  7. Merry Christmas from the workbench. Recent activity has been narrow & transatlantic. Some proper photos soon. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FQcbVUerIpc?feature=share
  8. Yes indeed. With a little bit more effort, Bob Dylan could have become just as famous.
  9. I think those pigs need some more room. I'm going to call Hamnesty International.
  10. With his guitar & harmonica rack, I think he missed a trick by not strapping cymbals to his knees, a drum on his back and adding a kazoo.
  11. I do recall blackened buildings in London of the early 1960s. Even so, I would personally still avoid any form of dead black in 2mm scale. Muted shades of grey will give the right sort of effect, along with careful consideration of where soot would build up. The soot effects need to be built up slowly or there's a risk that it'll end up looking like an Ian Futers BR diesel.
  12. It's a grave mistake to make 2mm/N models too dark. If anything, it's better to make a them bit lighter. Keith Armes reckoned to aim for a pastel-type approach to scenery colour and I think he was right. Copenhagen Fields does get dusted from time to time but as you can imagine, it's quite a task. When not being worked on at Keen House, the scenic sections live in sealed boxes. This keeps them in pretty good condition. Tim posted this image on his Facebook page yesterday. It's the amount of fluff collected after a days running at Warley
  13. I'd recommend a clock cleaning solution. Various types are available. I've been using Horolene and it works very well. All you need to do is leave the parts in the solution for about 30 minutes and they come out very clean.
  14. I would agree with that, having had a pile of similar but incomplete castings. Unfortunately they went AWOL after loaning them for display at our 50th anniversary Expo. N Brass do some nice boiler fittings and a smokebox door for the C. In fact they do a complete kit for one but it duplicates the contents of the old Assocation kit. The castings I think were done by Ks and they're pretty good, even by today's standards.
  15. Denys Brownlee made a super little model of the Sentinel with one of his handbuilt motors in it. Not sure where it's ended up but it was, I think, his smallest loco, smaller even than his Midland 0-4-0 saddle tank.
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