2mmMark

So what sort of track are you after, Iain? I can send you some 2mm finescale bits if you want some delicate looking track. Are we talking Penrhyn style chaired bullhead or spiked flatbottom track? It'll be code 40 rail (1mm high) so possibly a bit too light for 4mm NG. Mark

The 2mm Scale Association has recently made a significant investment into 0.8mm PCB sheet for sleeper production. It had to be specially manufactured overseas. There is now a supply for the foreseeable future. 0.8mm fibreglass PCB sheet is available but it's hard to work, sawing demands carbide tipped blades.

Nice to hear that, Richard. I'm sure Alan will be pleased too. Lambourn is constructed very robustly.

Do you think they should rebrand as Strangeways?

Intriguing design for a simple but effective layout. Do tell us more! Mark

Here's an example of Samson dry stone walling, which I guess must have originated from Lionel Currie's tissue paper technique Quite amazing.

Aha, one of the first "digital" control systems...

One of the papers does feature some dry stone walling and now you describe the use of tissue paper, I can visualise how that might work, albeit slowly as you mention!

As Allan requested, here are some examples of Lionel Currie's artwork for the Samson building papers. I've tried to protect the images and I hope no-one will be tempted to use them. They must be getting on for 20 years old now but still very good. I suspect they may be photographic reproductions of original modelled and/or painted textures. I also found a packet of "Downesglaze" windows in with them...!

The leaf blower to end all leaf blowers, I feel. You probably wouldn't have had much of a garden left after his visit. Remember the Daily Mail London-New York air race from 1969, where the Harrier left from the former St. Pancras coal yard... When I laid the 28ft by 16ft concrete slab for my workshop and was waiting for my custom built shed to arrive, I was tempted to paint a white circle with an H in it, just to wind up the neighbours.

OK, I'll see what I can do, bearing in mind the need to protect copyright. It's possible that the Samson papers were a bit ahead of their time. If they could have been marketed as online downloads like Scalescenes do today, they may have had wider exposure. Mark.

Very interesting to hear about Lionel Currie. I met him at one of the Imrexes at New Horticultural Halls (around 1992 I think) where he was promoting the "Samson" range of building papers. I then invited him to display at a subsequent 2mm Expo. The building papers did get marketed but not widely. I bought a stock as they are very suitable for East Anglian vernacular architecture. The artwork is superb but they were quite expensive. I don't think they sold very well, maybe people couldn't see their potential or perhaps a bit too area specific. Certainly at the 2mm Expo, Lionel said to me he was thinking about "going back on the tools" At Imrex and Expo, he had some examples of his work on display and it was fantastic, really delicate work in card & paper. Truth be told, the sizes of the brick on the Samson papers are a touch large for 2mm but the colours are excellent. I shall be using mine in due course. Fascinating to read about some of the antics of people who commission models. Mark.

Hope the move back to London goes well Pete. Although it's disheartening to have to break up completed work, what you'll have gained is priceless experience. When I look at what I've built, I sometimes (often!) think "well, if I had my time over again, I'd have done that differently". I've not yet had the courage to break up a layout but I have passed them on to new owners.

It's the lack of opposable thumbs that handicaps them. Mind you, in Germany, dogs are trained to do attic conversions. They are known as the Loftwoofer. Mark

Very nice wagon & chassis but I hate to say this, the angled strapping is unusual. Not to say that it's necessarily wrong (I'm sure there's a prototype somewhere) but the purpose of the angled strapping is normally to stop the ends bowing outwards, so the load is transferred from the top of the ends to the middle of the floor. I have a rectangular tank wagon with reversed brake gear. I assembled a 2mm "Uniframe" chassis incorrectly but I like to claim it's a one off oddball wagon... Mark

Looks very nice Alex. I agree very much about working on chassis & body together. You need to know the size within which you've got to work. Are you going to get some nameplates for it, such as "Hugh"...?

I reckon that most of the ecological harm is done in the construction process of a car, so owners of older vehicles have a right to expect nil VED, as they've amortised any environmental ill-effects over many decades.

I picked up an interesting project at Expo. Allen Doherty had some examples of his Irish narrow gauge kits on display and we got chatting about them. Apparently, there's one example doing the rounds which has been badly (i.e. wrongly!) assembled using superglue. Allen & I both bemoaned the lost opportunity so he gave me the part assembled Letterkenny & Burtonport 4-6-0 body to continue on with and mount on a suitable chassis. http://www.worsleyworks.co.uk/Image-Pages/Image_NG_Irish-Locos-N.htm The photos below show where things had got to. So after the Expo, I set about the loco body to see what could be done. As it was assembled as a demo, it had been tacked together with solder. The basic shapes had been formed well, so I dismantled the body by unsoldering all the joints using a blowlamp. Unfortunately, this distorted and corroded the footplate but the remaining parts were fine. No matter, making a footplate would be simple and after all, these are "scratch aid" kits. I reassembled the body with fully soldered joints, making solid seams. This went pretty well and gave a nice accurate result. Two pieces of nickel-silver were cut out, one of 10 thou to form the footplate and another of 20thou slightly smaller to form the valance. These were then solder together. The I dug out some K&S brass tube to form the boiler & smokebox. The larger brass tube was opened out to a u shape and soldered over the smaller tube. Then a large part of the tube was sawn and filed away to leave a section of boiler which would sit on top of the tank/cab/bunker assembly. About 3 evenings work, quite satisfying, going back to manually shaping bits of metal to fit each other. No CAD, no 3d printing, just simple rough pencil sketches of dimensions followed by marking out and filing. So this is where things currently stand. Next step is to saw out the footplate to accomodate the Marklin chassis and then assemble the parts together. I'm going to see what boiler fittings might be suitable in the N-Brass range. The chassis will gain a 4 wheel pony truck and possibly some cylinder wrappers. It really should be an outside framed chassis but I'm not going to go quite that far. Mark

I forget exactly when it was but at a 2mm Expo a few years ago, I was sitting next to Richard Wilson, each of us doing different demos. Richard was working on something that caught my eye. It was a little cast white metal traction engine which looked rather nice. However, cleaning up the wheel spokes was taking rather a long time. I recalled I had the same kit in my gloat box. If I recall correctly, it's a Fleetline Aveling & Porter. Thinking laterally, a good way to avoid the wheel refining chore would be to put it on rails. Once back home after the Expo, I dug out my kit, found some suitably sized wheels (10mm & 7mm disc) and cut out some frames from brass sheet, getting to the stage below. Only the main boiler casting was used, sandwiched in some plasticard to insulate it from the split frames. The next question was how to motorise it. The intention was to have a battered RCH wagon behind as a sort of tender, as was done for some Scottish "pugs". This would contain the motor, driving the 10mm wheels via a UJ to a worm & wormwheel. Well this was great in theory but after two or three abortive attempts, it became apparent that this was somewhat ambitious. The drive wasn't very smooth and tractive effort from a single brass driver with not much weight over it was limited. So it was put aside and dragged out from time to time while other ideas were considered. Then at ExpoNG, a solution presented itself. Nigel Lawton had introduced his MPD18 drive unit for OO9, which had an 18mm wheelbase - perfect for a 9ft wheelbase wagon in 2mm scale. As a plus point, the wheels were fine enough to be used on 9.42mm gauge as they stood, making a small alteration to the back-to-back dimension. Above is the basic chassis etch assembled. I did beef up the bearing surfaces by laminating bits of scrap etch as I felt that the axles running in the 10 thou nickel-silver frames might be a touch under-engineered. Next I sorted out a body. I had some 2mm Association RCH wagon kits but I'd put these away carefully in a safe place... They'll turn up one day! Instead I used a 2mm kit for a LMS van, teamed up with a Peco 9ft wheelbase underframe kit. The plastic body & underframe would avoid any shorting out, useful as the clearances are a bit tight. This brought me to the stage below with everything fitting into place nicely. The MPD18 chassis was completed and with a little bit of fettling, runs quite acceptably well. The rubber drive belt is definitely quieter than a pair of spur gears but there's still some noise from the final worms & wormwheels (which are Tenshodo products). I did wire in the suggested 15 ohm resistor but found it to be unneccesary, so it's been bypassed. I made a rear buffer beam for the loco, fitted some couplers and the ensemble has been trundling up & down my test track nicely. It's slightly wierd seeing a box van moving independently! Anyway, it's now functional and will hopefully be visiting one or two layouts at 2mm Expofest tomorrow & Sunday. In the fullness of time, the van body will be replaced by the originally planned RCH wagon "tender". In the meantime, the loco crew will have to use big wing mirrors when running in reverse!

I thought it is about time I documented some of my projects, partly to see if anyone else had similar odd interests and partly as an incentive to getting some of them finished, or perhaps just even started! I am a terrible procrastinator & time-waster. Why the name “Notlob” you may be thinking? Well from 1864 to 1898, Isaac Watt Boulton ran a locomotive conversion and remanufacturing business, taking cast-off early locos and rebuilding them as industrial locomotives, which were then hired out to contractors. As everyone of a certain generation will know, Notlob is a palindrome of Bolton*. I’m aware it’s “Boulton” not “Bolton” but “Nuotlob’s Siding” just seemed silly. Anyone who’s curious about the real Boulton’s Siding could do worse than finding a copy of "The Chronicles of Boulton's Siding" by Alfred Rosling Bennett, first published by the Locomotive Publishing Company in 1927, reprinted by David & Charles 1971, ISBN 0-7153-5318-7. The reprint can be readily be found either as a paperback or hardback. Oakwood Press produced a nice little paperback volume of drawings of Boultons Sidings locomotives ISBN 0-85361-397-4 "Volume 6: Boultons Sidings including Contractors Locomotives" by Mike Sharman. Mr. Boulton's activities closely resemble my own modelling in 2mm & Nn3, where for ages I’ve been trying all sorts of shortcuts in the construction of models. This usually turns out to be nothing of the sort and it probably would have been quicker to scratchbuild in the first place. But hey-ho, it keeps me entertained. I also have the attention span of a grasshopper and am easily distracted by interesting diversions. This is why I have five different small layouts and am contemplating yet more. I did once give myself a severe telling off and determined to find a theme and stick to it. I did, for a while...and then my all good intentions failed. I've long ceased to worry about it. Anyway, that’s enough for now. The next instalment will be a lucky dip into my store cupboard of eccentric projects. Mark *I refer m'learned colleagues to Monty Python's Parrot Sketch…

That looks rather good. Where did the etching come from? Are you making any tramcars to go with it?