2mmMark

The PCB is definitely going into the Association's Shop 3. Details should be in the June Magazine/Newsletter. Interesting tip about the earlobe. Must remember to put down the soldering iron first...

Jerry, I'm going to suggest to the Sales officer that pieces of 0.8mm PCB are stocked in Shop 3 for this very purpose. I found the SRBP material very easy to saw & file into shape. Fibreglass backed PCB would be much harder. There is a small downside - nowhere to solder footsteps to. No insoluble but it needs a bit of a think. Mark

One of the things I'm pretty good at is starting a new project before finishing off others. Not sure why but I do like the planning & construction phase. I like to get a model running and then it can wait ages to enter the paintshop for final finishing. I also have a lot of unmade kits awaiting their turn on the workbench. I've recently done an inventory and have found at least 17 different locos of various types to build. Getting a little bit scary! One that's been on the to-do list is an N-Brass Peckett saddle tank. Looking through my stock of wheels, gears & motors, I found enough parts to make a start. With a small loco like this, I prefer to have an erected loco body to provide a clear idea of the space available for the mechanism, so step one was to assemble the main parts of the body and footplate. I've chosen to build my Peckett as an inside-cylindered K class. Railway Bylines Summer Special No.2 contains a useful article on Pecketts, which gives principal dimensions for most classes. The N-Brass loco is designed to fit on a Bachmann 0-4-0 but is actually pretty close to scale for a K class. Inside cylinders mean that the chassis is a simple no-frills 0-4-0. 7mm diameter wheels won't need a very high gear reduction to get good running. The etch is a fairly straightforward one to build, as I'd chosen to take up the option that N-Brass offer of a pre-rolled saddle tank. Nick Tilston, proprietor of N-Brass has a former around which the tank can be shaped. This is a big timesaver. A few hours work has got me to this stage: When assembling a kit like this, I use a variety of means to make the bends, mostly blocks of tool steel or gauge plate to ensure good right angle bends. I've never tried a "Hold 'n' Fold" but I'm sure it could be useful. I did acquire some new tools though, a pair of Xuron photo etch shears and a pair of Tamiya photo etch scissors. These made cutting & trimming the etched parts very easy. Money well spent I feel. Addendum - referring back to the Bylines article, I've just realised it's actually a Y class Peckett I'm building. Faulty memory. For those with the books, the phoot I'm using as reference is on page 47. For soldering, I'm not one for making "thingies" to hold parts in position. I rely more on tweezers and cocktail sticks to hold parts, sometimes resorting to fingers if I can stand the heat. Nickel-Silver is much better in this respect. The heat transfer through brass is very quick. Still, fingers cool down if blown upon... As I'm going to use a split-frame chassis, I decided to use a piece of single-sided PCB in lieu of the etched side valances. I cut & shaped a piece of 0.8mm PCB to the right profile for the sub-footplate. The 0.8mm thickness is just right for the depth of the valances. The copper face will be against the body and the chassis frames will butt up against the insulated face. And that folks, is pretty much where things stand at present. The next move will be to make a set of frames. The kit does provide some etched frames but these are quite thin. I'll be using 0.5mm phosphor bronze as this provides a strong chassis with ample bearing surfaces for the axles. Mark

Point taken, Jerry! I've used a Peco RCH wagon kit, which is a quite excellent little moulding. The motor will be covered by a water tank and there will be some coal in the wagon by the tank, plus a few tools, oil cans etc. Mark

Intriguing. I'm curious, what's your thinking for using two motors? Are they well harmonised/synchronised? Just wondering if they had slightly different starting voltages, if they might fight each other. Unless you've achieved perpetual motion with one driving while the other generates...

3 chairs! Hip hip...

And you also get through a scary amount of material. I scratchbuilt a 7mm scrap wagon and used several entire sheets of plasticard.

Well, that's not quite right. The advantage with my arrangement is that lead can fill pretty much the entire tank area over the wheels, just leaving sufficient clearance for the shaft and worm, which need a lot less space than a can motor. I could have accomodated the motor right up close to the worm. There was plenty of space. When I found I could "adjust" the shaft, it gave me this convenient alternative. Word of warning - the shaft on Mashima motors probably cannot be moved in the same way, they seem much tighter. It might be possible but it required more force that I was prepared to apply to the motor. I've still got an unmade Fencehouses J72 kit and my procrastination in building it has reaped the benefit of smaller motors becoming available. I wasn't looking forward to cutting down a Tenshodo/Mashima!

The Association can motors I bought at the Expo earlier this year conveniently came with a turned 1mm to 1.5mm adapter. The controller debate will run & run. I have seen a forum posting (can't recall where) where someone said they had been using PWM controllers with RG12 & RG16 gearboxes for many years with no ill-effects. If in doubt, it's very easy to make a non-feedback controller which will suit coreless motors. Hint - darlington pair... I have a high regard for "motors that came out of the ark" as Chris puts it. The very similar Tenshodo has a shaft that can be pushed along in the armature, making it a single ended motor, enabling this: http://www.zen98812.zen.co.uk/060chas.html These motors are very robust and run just as well as coreless motors. Motors are quite light and getting as much ballast over the coupled wheels as possible is hugely beneficial to haulage and pickup. Mark

Fascinating project. I'm local to the area and live not far from what was 70B. The "Britain From Above" website has one image of Hounslow SR but coverage of Feltham and westwards to Ashford is better. The Feltham images show the line into the RAOC depot which used to run from the SR line partly in the road, across Feltham High Street and along Browells Lane. This was still extant in the late 1960s and you can still see where it entered the depot. As I recall, it was gated and came out between two shops. This would make an interesting model. Hounslow SR was definitely the poor relation for passenger traffic, it's some way from the main town centre. Unless specifically heading in that direction, I tend to avoid the Hounslow loop trains as that's a slow way into Waterloo! A lot of inter-regional freight went down that line though. Mark

Maybe they're trying to avoid a colronic irrigation?

As Count Arthur Strong would put it, John's not on the "Ilfracombe". However, I'm sure the layout can be well documented by proxy. A good few years ago now, I helped operate John's "Bodmine" layout at quite a few shows. This ran impeccably and set me a standard for quality of operation of 2mm models to which I still aspire. I've seen bits of Wadebridge under construction over the course of time. It's great to see it now progressing. Mark

From my discussions with the executor of the estate which contained the Langridge models, it appears that the "Swanhaven" layout was built into a very substantial piece of furniture which ultimately proved too big to move. Hence the layout was broken up but quite few buildings were saved. This means it's unlikely to have been at any exhibitions. Also amongst the models I shot was an LSWR Gate set. I wouldn't mind betting that there was a fairly wide interchange of stock in the period as there will not have been large numbers of working 2mm models available. Here are the photos I took: http://s1155.photobucket.com/albums/p555/MarkFielder/JJ%20Langridge%20Locomotives/ http://s1155.photobucket.com/albums/p555/MarkFielder/JJ%20Langridge%20Coaches/ http://s1155.photobucket.com/albums/p555/MarkFielder/JJ%20Langridge%20Buildings/ http://s1155.photobucket.com/albums/p555/MarkFielder/JJ%20Langridge%20Wagons/ Mark

I remember the treasurer of the MRC speaking very highly of "Major Provo's" 2mm layout back in the 1980s. It does seem otherwise very elusive. P.D. Hancock's 2mm Gleish Valley Railroad featured in the Railway Modeller for January 1953 & February 1954 with borrowed rolling stock and the C14 itself was described in August 1960. Earlier this year, I had the chance to photograph some early 2mm models by J.J. (Jack) Langridge, one of which was an LSWR C14 from the mid 1920s. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67296-1928-model-engineer-exhibition-silver-medal-winners/ I'm told that Jack Langridge built 2mm models on sub-contract from H.B. Whall so it's possible that the Langridge C14 might be a predecessor of the others. The construction is certainly very similar to the loco described in the August 1960 article. Even with the intervening period, the technology hadn't progressed greatly so a 1950s built C14 would be very likely to be similar to a 1920s built version, scratch built wheels, motor, gears etc. The only departure I can see are spoked wheels on the early loco and disc wheels on the Hancock version. Time/price considerations maybe? There was a cohort of pioneer 2mm modellers in the SW London area (Whall - Kew, Langridge - Isleworth & A.R. Walkley - Wimbledon) and they were certainly in touch with each other. With Cherry's being based in Richmond, perhaps that's another connection. Mark

Sadly, I think there's no real substitute to turning a shallow taper between centres. If you have a lathe and no tailstock centre but do have a tailstock drill chuck, you could use a 2mm assn phosphor bronze axle bearing held in the chuck and turn down the posts from 1.5mm (or 1/16") brass rod. Provided you don't spin the rod too fast, the bearing should be well up to the job if lubricated. Mark.

"Doctor, I'm having a problem with my stools..." However, the Foden is excellent.

Provided it's fully cured and the surfaces to be joined are clean, the original slow-setting Araldite makes a very strong bond.

If you delve around in the uk standard gauge industrial section, you'll find a thread on my Peckett. The inspiration comes from the saddle tanks used at the Guinness brewery in Dublin, although those were Hudswell Clarke locos. Mark