2mmMark

For those who may not be aware, the 4 track Chiltern Green main line is laid to a dual 2mm/N gauge standard using code 55 rail. Luton Hoo is laid to solely 2mm finescale standards. When I last saw the two layouts at the Centre, they were on seperate display in a BR Mk1 carriage. The video mentioned will show the two sections when joined. The visible section of the whole layout when joined together is 22ft by 5ft. There were turntable fiddle yards for either end of Luton Hoo and a series of loops for the Chiltern Green fiddle yard but I can't remember seeing those at the DRC.

An important point to note about the controllers I mentioned. They need a maximum 12v DC supply and do not come with a reversing switch. They are simply a speed controller. For a power supply, I would recommend a stabilised plug-in transformer in the region of 1 amp. Some 12v power supplies need a load on them in order to supply 12v. Off-load, they could be delivering a much higher voltage. It's also not possible to reverse the DC output by reversing the DC input. Do not on any account feed them an AC input. I've got a plan in hand to revise British Oak's electrics to incorporate an on-board DC controller with the option to plug in alternatives if required. It's just a pile of bits on the workbench at the moment but I will be writing it up.

The push along range had some copies of Tri-ang "Transcontinental" models, including a replica of the original semi-freelance cab unit diesel with its odd squared-off nose style. Lone Star had a healthy export trade for their other toys, having a number of overseas offices. It looks like there was a tie-up between the US retailer Montgomery Ward and Lone Star. Of course, the big advantage was the ability to have a wider range of liveries of US and Canadian railroads, some of which are now highly sought after. The F-unit diesel is a good model for its time. It's to 2mm scale so bigger and heavier than the UK outline models. The ones I have definitely run better than the UK equivalents. The US models are definitely colourful and very appealing, just like the OO Tri-ang Transcontinental range. Here's one overview of the early days from a US standpoint http://davidksmith.com/birth-of-n/lone-star.htm and here's a link to some info from a US enthusiast http://www.irwinsjournal.com/a1g/a1glocos/TrebleO.html http://www.irwinsjournal.com/a1g/a1glocos/TrebDocuments.html

To cut a long story short, the Lone Star "Locos" push along OOO range were half-size replicas of 1950s Tri-ang and Hornby-Dublo models, with all their little foibles and issues. That's why the gauge was 8.25mm. The track closely resembles Tri-ang OO gauge standard track. When they went motorised with the Treble-O-Lectric range, they visited their local model railway club, (De Havilland Model Railway Society) for advice and asked what was the "most accurate model railway gauge" at the time. The answer they were given was EM (4mm scale 18mm gauge for our overseas enquirers who may not know this). This is why their 2mm "OOO" scale models ran on 9mm gauge. I believe Stuart Goss was the main designer of the system. He was a good friend of 2mm modeller Denys Brownlee, who recounted a lot of this history to me. Finescale OOO (which later became known as "2mm") was on 9.5mm gauge with a refined and proven track & wheel standard, aimed at scratchbuilders. However, Lone Star were after the train set market and needed something more tolerant of use and misuse. Rubber band drive made for easy assembly in the factory by unskilled workers. At the same time, Arnold were working on 9mm N gauge. I don't know if there was any cross fertilisation. An American army officer and OOO modeller, Ted Brandon, was a consultant to Arnold, he may also have had links to Lone Star. Ted was stationed in Germany and is fluent in German. I ought to ask him to document these early days. For a toy system, both flavours of Lone Star OOO were very high quality. I've never seen any which show signs of Mazak rot. The only real issue is the slightly fragile nature of the plastic mouldings of the 9mm track. Drive bands are readily made from 1/2" neoprene tubing, sliced into 1/8" widths, which is how the factory made them - on a wooden mandrel with a razor blade! Later on in the late 1960s, push along Treble-O-Trains appeared in places like Woolworths, which were a mix of the two ranges, but to 9mm gauge and on a plastic track system. Lone Star 9mm gauge items will run on N scale track but have their own unique coupling system, very much like the Tri-ang tension lock. In the late 1980s, the Hatfield factory was cleared out and the last remaining OOO items appeared on the market, mostly unpowered Sulzer type 2s and Baby Deltics. Development of new moulds and products pretty much stopped by the mid-1960s. In later years, I think Lone Star considered re-entering the N scale market and a prototype HST was made.

A cracking good read!

Not an 2mm specific question but someone here may know the answer - Gresley full brakes, would they have standard or heavyweight bogies? I'm working on some NPCS for Copenhagen Fields. Addedum - I think I found the answer at https://www.lner.info/stock/npcs/index.php , it's heavyweight.

Ever since the invention of cyanoacrylate, we've all glued ourselves to trains at one time or another...

Quite right. Let's stamp out that sort of thing.

Worth having a look at coloured tile grout. It's available in all sorts of useful colours, greys, browns etc.. Any branch of Topps Tiles will have a colour chart of the various options. It has the benefit of being adhesive, so it could be spread while dry, then misted over with water with a drop of wetting agent. The ash from barbeque briquettes is worth saving, assuming you can get the things to ignite in the first place. Colour is a bit subjective but my choice would be to err on the side of being too light, which can then be modified with a darker overspray. It's much easier to do it this way rather than trying to lighten a too-dark surface.

I'll just leave this here and make no comment.

I wonder if we'll see Stern Steve taking over editorship of Model Boats magazine.

I believe you get better grip with a solvent based contact adhesive but having said that, the Easitrac adhesive is non-solvent and that seems to hold very well. The reason for letting Evo-stik go off is that you're not trapping wet glue within the joint. Mark.

Agreed, from the this issue it's looking very promising. The only problem with infrequent publishing is keeping track of the publication dates. Incidentally, the online price includes UK postage so that explains the extra quid.

British Oak seemed well received at Scaleforum this past weekend. We had significant interest in 2mm finescale, gaining one new member and selling a good quantity of 2mm books. Even though the layout still has much to be done, smartening up the presentation was worthwhile. The photo below shows the display arrangements. The layout sits on its carrying case which usefully raises it above table top height and provides somewhere to attach the pole for the LED spotlight, which proved quite sufficient to illuminate the layout. The hall lighting at the Stoke Mandeville venue is much improved. Alongside the layout, I had my notebook PC showing photos and video of the real thing. While I was away from the layout, I'm told that someone cheekily photographed the articles about British Oak contained in the Industrial Railway Record magazines in the picture. Tsk tsk whoever you were! Throughout the weekend, I was using one of the amazingly cheap Chinese-made PWM controllers similar to this one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-8v-3v-5v-6v-7-2v-12v-2A-30W-DC-Motor-Speed-Controller-PWM-1803BK-Adjust-Y6F5/123841954827 fed a 12v dc supply from a plug-in transformer. It gives very good slow speed control on a variety of mechanisms so I'm considering fixing one into the layout permanently. Incidentally, if anyone decides they'd like to do the same, look for controllers that have a 0% to 100% duty cycle, which means than when the control pot is set to minimum, no power is being provided. Some don't go down to 0% which allows locos with a low current demand to creep. Overall, Scaleforum was its usual informative and enjoyable self, this year featuring several larger layouts. A personal highlight for me was meeting my former design & technology teacher, Denis Griffiths, again after about 45 years. Denis started working in P4 in the Studiolith era. I think Denis was pleased that at least some of what he taught me sank in. The school is now gone but at the time we had a superb set of very well equipped workshops for both wood and metal.

Somewhat of a minimum space odyssey then? I've definitely found that keeping a portable layout in an enclosed box pays dividends in keeping everything clean and fresh. I expect you've found the same with Chapel Wharf.

I suspect there are times that Cecily suspects she might well be married to CG&LH and CF!

I can't help with a chassis recommendation as I prefer to keep my Lone Star collection original. If you want to try using the original chassis, the drive bands can be cut from 1/2" neoprene tubing. That's what Lone Star themselves did. A weak motor is usually down to loss of magnetism. They can be remagnetised which if something I'm intending to try. Small self tapping screws are readily available, I got a batch of various sizes from eBay, down to just below 1mm in diameter.

You might try Di-Limonene as a solvent for polystyrene sheet. It's much less aggressive and less prone to causing warping. Evo-stik also works well for laminating plastic sheet to dissimilar material if used very thinly and allowed to nearly dry before fixing. Mark

I quite like the idea of a GWR Pannier in early British Railways express loco blue livery.

Just a quick note to say that if the M4 is on anyone's route to Scaleforum, there's a full carriageway closure between junctions 5 Langley and 6 Slough East from 20:00 on Friday 27th Sept. (today) to 06:00 on Monday 30th Sept. I guess the diversion route is through Slough on the A4. That is likely to be sloooooow!

Progress update just before Scaleforum Among the photos that Paul Lunn provided was this intriguing grounded van. It's obviously had a lick of paint during it's non-wheeled retirement and possibly has been re-roofed. I had already made a grounded van using the 2mm Association's Iron Mink kit but this one I feel has a lot more character. The colour is interesting, it makes you wonder if they simply found a job lot of cheap unfashionable paint and slapped it on to weatherproof the body. I can't imagine that a great deal of artistic "Farrow & Ball" judgement went into the job. The first job was to make a concrete hardstanding, which I did using a section of printed concrete from the Scalescenes sampler kit for a warehouse. The detail in these card kits is excellent. The only thing I felt was that the colour was a little too blue, so it got a wash of Pollyscale "Aged Concrete" paint. Concrete is a very elusive thing to represent, I find. The next job was to find a van body that was close enough to the one in the photo. A rummage in my box of part-made wagon kits revealed an LMS van body, made quite a long time ago from an 2mm Association kit. While not 100% accurate, it had the right look about it. Some thin paper strips were attached to the roof and plastic strip sleeper sized bearers were glued to the floor. The fun bit was the painting & weathering, which I did using Vallejo Modelcolor acrylics. The pea-green colour was mixed up to match the prototype. The roof used a flesh colour. Various browns, red & greys were used to weather the van, aiming to match the weathering on the real thing. A final wash of dark grey and a coat of matt varnish and the job's a good 'un. Something which has been under consideration for a while is the treatment of the scenic break, which needs some sort of "endscene". A search on the Internet for images of the Aire & Calder Navigation showed up a few possible images including this one from http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/aire/acn34.htm http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/aire/acn516.jpg My intention is to paint the details on the "endscene" as I'm not really a fan of photographic backscenes but this proved to be a useful image for trial purposes. The image was suitably cropped and resized to suit, printed on some thin card and placed into position. I've been reading Mike Raithby's excellent guide to backscene painting in the June 2016 & August 2016 editions of the 2mm Magazine, the recommended paints have been ordered so the next step will be to attempt to replicate the scene.

You can't fool me, I've seen you in a tweed jacket. And the answer, obviously, is yes. It's the reason I get so little modelling done.

Have a look at the DVD catalogue of Camden Miniature Steam Services https://www.camdenmin.co.uk/ and a test of your French, or how good Google translate is https://trains.lrpresse.com/CT-471-dvd.aspx LR Presse also publish very good books on the subject, albeit in French.

Personally, I think the scratchbuild challenge is just a distracting embarrassment. "Here's some shite we found in a bin and we want you to waste time trying to make something of it". Gives entirely the wrong impression of scratchbuilding. However, I do grant you that sitting down with some nickel-silver sheet and a jewellers saw won't make for gripping TV.

It does fit within the size constraints but it would be very cheeky indeed to enter it. Just like An Clár accidentally turned into a "cameo layout", Britsh Oak could be an accidental DJLC entry, but rest assured, it won't. Mark