2mmMark

I was delighted to find this while out and about on Saturday. As mentioned previously, I passed my test in a G reg HB Viva. This is the GT model! It's a very elegant little car I think. Obviously competing with the Ford Escort at the time. Mark

I think it did. There's a consultation going on about whether the MOT exemption should also be a rolling 40 years. I'm in two minds about this. It would good to be rid of one more burden of bureaucracy but an MOT is a good second pair of eyes and despite people's dread of it, it's only a basic safety test. Most classic vehicle owners take the roadworthiness of their pride and joy very seriously but it would only take a newsworthy accident and tabloid headlines to provoke demands from a rentaquote backbencher that "something must be done". The problem comes in finding a test centre that has some knowledge of older cars and can approach the test with some sympathy. Mark

And hopefully, the Cav won't drive you "loco"

OOO!

I think you're wise to hoover up all the parts you can from the scrapper. The guvnor at my regular car MOT place is a fan of Mk1 & Mk2 Escorts and the prices he's had to pay for things like new wings are eyewatering. Vactan looks useful. I use a similar chemical called Fertan, which I found when looking for coach enamel. I'll have to compare the prices. Fertan is a touch expensive. I would also recommend ACF50 which is an excellent preservative for bare metals. It'll be good to use on parts like the wiper mechs and brake lines. It's also die-electric so you can use it on the wiring connectors. Just put some onto some rag and wipe it on. You'll find that compared to a modern car, the Cavalier will be delightfully simple to service and maintain. I'm thankful that I'm into bikes rather than cars. The ones I'm interested in tend to suffer much less from rust than cars although keeping my Russian sidecar in good fettle is a bit like working on old car bodywork but the Fertan is doing a good job. Once the house extension is finished, the next project is to unearth my two Laverda 750s and get those back on the road. One already qualifies for Historic (i.e. nil!) VED and next year, the other will. The DVLA are consulting on dropping the MOT requirement for vehicles over 40 years old. Currently, pre-1960 vehicles are MOT exempt. As I understand it, the Cav will be nil VED eligible in 2020 so not long to wait. I love Vauxhall's "feature" list for the car. It's almost as if they're saying "...and it comes with a wheel at each corner..." Mark

If that bike is homeless and begging, I'll give it a home!

I passed my car test in April 1976 in a 1969 Vauxhall Viva HB so I have a lasting affection for that car. We'd inherited it from my Grandad and it replaced a somewhat unwieldy Morris Oxford. The Viva felt a lot more sprightly to drive. It did have one foible though. To engage reverse, you had to lift the gear stick and the retaining plate had an endearing habit of coming undone, leaving you holding a disconnected gear stick at a somewhat awkward moment, fortunately not on my driving test! Eventually, rust killed it, like so many cars of that era. I always felt the British motor industry never got full credit for that remarkable innovation, the sunshine floor.

Country and Western?

The check rail gaps will still be wrong for N but I don't use the roller gauges to set them for 2mm finescale anyway. Instead I use slips of aluminium strip of the required thickness. You should be able to find some which suits the N scale clearances. If you're using a consistent back-to-back and modern wheel profiles, you ought to be able to tighten them up somewhat compared to the whopping great channels that Peco use.

Hi Pete I've done the same to convert the Association gauges for narrow gauge use. It's a workable solution but I found I had to tighten the threads somewhat by using a smaller than recommend tapping drill. I looked at the normal clearance on a BA thread and even on a 8 or 10BA bolt, there was a fair bit of slack. The thread and locking nuts do make the gauge a little bit unwieldy. I set the gauge using strips of rail accurately soldered onto a piece of PCB. The other gauge in the picture is one shortened and mounted on a tube of brass, using original slow-setting Araldite, which easily withstands soldering temperatures. Mark

It looks like you've used the components that Nigel Lawton uses for his MPD18 chassis. I built one of those to make a powered van to push my Aveling & Porter loco. Initially, it had similar symptoms to your chassis. One of the worm/wheel (Tenshodo I think) sets meshed perfectly, the other was a bit fussy and I resolved it by shifting the wormwheel slightly off-centre. I think this was because I'd opened out the axle holes after adding some washers to widen the axle bearing surface and the mesh was slightly altered. Mark

Old in design, if not in actuality, my 2001 Ural 650 combo "Rhubarb & Custard". ¼ tonne of solid Russian steel. Mark

They are a touch on the brutal side and that massive boiler probably daunted more than a few firemen. It's a loco that's functional and I quite like that.

Are you going off your Wickham trolley?

The Beginner's Guide to 2mm Modelling has a fairly detailed set of instructions for finescaling the J94 but I see that's listed as being temporarily out of stock in the 2mm shop, so I'll provide an extract from the publication. J94-1.pdf J94-2.pdf J94-3.pdf J94-4.pdf Apologies for splitting up the pages, the complete section was larger than the permitted file attachment size. If you have a decently running loco, it's a viable conversion but as Nick says, don't expect very fine slow running as the gear ratio is quite low. The 2mm chassis kit isn't too difficult to build and it's a good choice for a starter chassis. The earlier conversion Nigel mentions is actually harder to carry out. My recommendation would be to do the simple conversion detailed above and build the 2mm chassis kit alongside it. That way you'll have a working loco until you're happy with the new finescale chassis. RT Models do detailing kits for the J94 http://www.rtmodels.co.uk/rt_models_009.htm Mark

There's quite a few Industrial Railway Record articles available online here: http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/back_issues.htm I've often thought working your way through "Boulton's" to build a model of each loco would be a hobby in itself. Oakwood Press published a book of drawings reproduced from The Locomotive magazine "Boultons Sidings including Contractors Locomotives" ISBN 0 85361 3974. A heady £5.95 when it was first published in 1989. Compiled by Mike Sharman, who else?

Here's an addendum on the Citizen coreless motors described earlier in the thread. (eBay item 191907647343) The gear they come fitted with is steel, has 12 teeth and meshes with a 100DP gear. The gear is easy to remove with a 0.95mm dia. punch, provided you can grip it strongly. It's a press fit but I wouldn't describe it as an interference fit. Behind the gear are 2 washers and it appears the gear or something like it is absolutely necessary to control the motor shaft end float. Looking at the motor, it's definitely not suitable for mounting a worm on. The shaft only projects about 1mm beyond the motor body and it's 0.97mm diameter. However, the front bearing looks pretty strong so anything involving a side-thrust or avoiding end thrust would be fine, i.e. gear, pulley or u/j connection. I can't see any easy way to press on a replacement gear or pulley so a sliding fit with Loctite or similar will be needed. The motor body has a 5.5mm mounting thread so the 2mm Scale Association's Maxon and Faulhaber motor mounting bush part number 3-261 would suit this motor. Can dimensions are 24.6mm long, 9.95mm diameter. The M5.5 mounting thread projects 2mm beyond the main body. Taking the prefitted connecting wires into account, the motor needs about 30mm in length to accomodate it, so that points towards a larger tender. Weight is 11 grams which is useful and points towards a substantial build quality. As suggested earlier, a "top-hat" type of adapter which accurately cups the gear is an alternative way to get a drive connection. The 12 tooth gear is 3mm overall diameter. For the price being charged, I think they are definitely worth considering. Mark.

It's a panel-mounted H&M walkabout controller for controlling driverless trains.

A good place to start is with a reduced AC input voltage if you have a controller requiring that. 15vAC or more is way OTT for 2mm use. I've used 9vAC plug-in transformers with great success with several controllers (AMR feedback, Varipulse, Gaugemaster, Pentroller). The very cheap PWM controllers available on eBay for two or three pounds are pretty good. The only thing I've found where they come up wanting is with my Z gauge based NG models. They will run then smoothly enough but will not give a satisfactory slow start. For these, I like the System Joerger controllers specifically designed for Markiln mechs. The PWM and System Joerger need smoothed DC input, so I use either rechargeable PP3 batteries or a switch-mode 9vDC power supply. You shouldn't need more than 500ma for either AC or DC power supplies. Another good option are the Medvend controllers. I only have a simple battery version so I'm not fully up on them. The one controller that some people have found disappointing for 2mm & similar is the Pictroller. They seem OK for steady speed running but have been found lacking for slow-speed stop-start. It's thought that the motor sensing program on the PIC isn't coping well with very small motors.

I mostly model tank locos. Avoids getting a tender behind. Mark