Greengiant

A special event weekend of the year for all train enthusiasts! The Engine Shed and museum will be open hosting the Invicta Model Railway exhibition with 13 layouts for you to view, alongside our own large model railway. Complete with 5 Trade stands, this event caters for the seasoned hobbyist to the newly inspired! The steam and diesel locos will be out on the 2 foot narrow gauge line pulling passenger carriages to the Station in the woods, where the Bredgar collection of engines, tractors and vehicles can be seen in the main field, along with visiting engines. Tractor and trailer rides can expand your visit to the Yew Tree Farm School on site, who are providing animal talks/displays, crafts, and activities and entry is included in the overall ticket price. Ticket prices online* Adult (17+ years old) £15.00 (plus £0.72 booking fee) Child (4 to 16 years old) £7.50 (plus £0.36 booking fee) Child (0 to 3 years old) Free Family (2 Adults and 3 Children) £40.00 (plus £1.92 booking fee) *All online tickets must be purchased no later than noon the day prior to the event. Ticket prices on the gate Adult (17+ years old) £20.00 Child (4 to 16 years old) £10.00 Child (0 to 3 years old) Free Family (2 Adults and 3 Children) £50.00 Venue Bredgar and Wormshill Light Railway The Warren Bredgar Sittingbourne Kent ME9 8AT www.bwlr.co.uk Layouts Somewhere in France OO9 • Southwark bridge N • Ospringe & water N • Lemanis Light Railway OO9 • Coalhouse OO • Cato Cove OO • A Load of Balls ball bearing mazes • Arunvale OO • Merston OO • Ty Bach OO9 • Corkscrew Green N • Surrey & Sussex Black Sheep - Frem0n30 Modular Layout • Bletchinghurst OO Traders Invicta Model Rail Andy Lynch (secondhand) Heritage in Motion (Transpost DVDs) Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway trade stand Harrison-Brown

My 10W laser upgrade arrived, along with the mesh cutting support, lid and ribbon cable. Transpires I need a new Z-axis belt as well, being an early machine mine is glued to the mount. Darkly are kindly sending one to me.

https://darklylabs.com/product/laser-unit-10w-e2-core/?fbclid=IwAR1S6KJvoEF5lBW7RAd_Z3RWR0Msxbw5lInT5x7rWejsr39B-kIWLDxa3a8 Martin

Darkly Labs now have a 10 watt laser upgrade for the E2 and Core. Those with the Core will need uprated glasses, those with the early E2s will need an upgraded lid to cope with the new light strength. E2 users could have the glasses to use with their current lid. Martin

Not long to go now. The cheaper online tickets close today at 6pm, save £5.00 on the gate price and buy online. Martin

Two more layouts booked to appear at our model railway show weekend. Scrapworth End Somewhere in France Martin

Two layouts booked to appear at our model railway show weekend. Wantage Stoneycroft Junction More details on our website www.bwlr.co.uk. Note for this event kids go FREE! Martin

Two weeks to go now until our Event weekend and model railway show. Tickets cheaper in advance online. Kids go free for this weekend. Martin

Thank you, now corrected. Martin

Invicta Model Railway Show at the Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway Saturday and Sunday 6-7 August The Warren, Bredgar, Sittingbourne, Kent ME9 8AT www.bwlr.co.uk BWLR FaceBook Ticket price includes unlimited rides on the two foot gauge steam railway, tractor and traction engine trailer rides (weather permitting). New this year Yew Tree Farm, a working farm with livestock. We have a Tea Room serving a wide selection of food and drink, a BBQ with additional tea and coffee stand. Layouts attending (provisional) Fintonagh 7mm Somewhere in France 009 Bletchinghurst OO Missoula OO E Sussex N gauge N Blacksheep ON3 Lemanis 009 Scrapworth End OO Stoney Croft OO Little Totson (Thomas) OO Lockdown Sidings OO Ilston OO Wantage Tramway 3mm List of Traders / Societies Invicta Model Rail Andy Lynch Harrison Brown Models Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway

I wanted a nice flat finish to the windows so I used glass microscope slide cover strips. These are easily cut using a scribe and then snapping. I think the end result was worth it. I have also started on the weathering of the steel sides. Not living far from the prototype means getting reference is easy enough. I used MiG Oilbrushers and Ak Interactive weathering pencils. The pencils work best when sharp, but I do not waste the shavings, they can be mixed with water to make washes. I used an iPad to display the photos while I was doing the weathering. Some WIP photos. Finally in place on the layout. Martin

Overbridge roofing needing a fixing method that left access should we need to repair the lighting. So I made some fixing plates up from brass. Plus roof bolts which double as pillars, these made from ally tube and BA bolt threading I had in the spares box. The plates fitted before the outer roofing is finally fixed. The roof can now be removed by undoing the nuts under the floor. Roof bolted down. Martin

I have now cut all the windows for the overbridge, I cut them from two layers of 0.6mm PolyBak. The main roof panels were cut from 2mm MDF and skinned in 0.6mm PolyBak in a wing rib type construction. In place on the layout when we had a test running session on Saturday. I am undecided on wether to leave it floating in mid air or build part of a retaining pillar where it in real like meets the opposite bank of the cutting, but our layout is not wide enough to accommodate the top of the cutting. One thing I will do that I had not originally planned to do, is add interior lighting having seen the station buildings on the platform lit up for the first time. An overall view of the layout showing the righthand boards with extra vegetation on that will eventually be done on the other boards. The curved back scene boards are yet to be acquired, which having tested some, will be 3mm Foamex sheet. The curtains for the layout worked well with the magnetic clamps we laser cut and 3D printed, it made putting up and taking down the curtain a quick job. The fiddleyard with plenty of storage space. Basically four loops with three storage roads each and a couple share an extra road. We have two mimic panels and after operating for a while decided on two handsets for each loop mounted in pairs either side of the mimic panels will be our best option. One of the mimic panels that shows point setting routes and train detection positions. We are using MERG controllers, held in our 3D printed holders. Some photos from the running session. Martin

I have at last got round to making the final version of the overbridge. First I drew it up as a main base unit for the strength using Adobe Illustrator with the sides as decoration, this way any slot and tab construction is hidden. The Illustrator file I then import into Lightburn and use this to drive the laser cutter. Windows are yet to be finalised in this version of the drawing. This is the main beam unit being assembled, the ribs are there under the floor on the real thing, but in reality on the layout they are unlikely to be seen unless you are kneeling on the floor looking up at the layout, but they do also help make the structure rigid. I had to make the floor in two units because my laser bed is not big enough to do it in one unit. The main unit test fitted to the step units. The windows I am cutting out in a new material to me, that of Polybak, a resin board. This window is cut from 0.6mm Polybak, I have some 0.9mm in stock as well to try. So far very impressed with how clean it cuts, the thinner bars are 1mm thick, I will try 0.5mm to see if I can get away with it, 0.6mm may be better though. ...to be continued. Martin

Just stumbled across this thread. I am one of the team who built the rotating fiddle yard. Why did we do this? Basically we did not want to use cassettes and a traverser would be too wide for the six tracks we wanted. So we thought why not have a rotating yard, not seen it done before and will be a challenge. One of our group is used to making aircraft camera mounts and used their skill to devise and create the drive system, This is a video of the first powered drive, Martin

As has been said, email their support team, they are very active. Their tech support guy Lliam is also a regular on the ‘Emblaser 2 laser group’ Facebook page, which also covers the Core and E1 and eventually the new E3. Martin

It is a resin impregnated fibre board, I believe very similar to laserboard. I have some wagon containers to make for the crane, I think this might be ideal for the slimmer framework. Be interesting to see how it behaves when laminated together. As a sheet it is quite flexible, but once cut into small pieces seems quite firm, rather like a thin MDF. Sounds like you are able to make use of the Trotec. Martin

Finally had a chance to have a play with some PolyBak, early trials look promising. It is not super smooth like MDF but has a texture only detectable by touch, rather like some heavy weight cards. I bought a batch of 0.6 mm and 0.9 mm thick and did some very rough timings on cuts. The first was the 0.9 mm which I ran at 2.5 mm/sec, 2 passes, 100% power, 0.45 mm Z-axis drop. I did try 3 mm/sec but the parts needed a gentle push to pop them out. The second was the 0.6 mm which I ran at 4 mm/sec, 1 pass, 100% power, 0.3 mm Z-axis drop, the cut dropped out. I did try 5 mm/sec and the parts needed a gentle push to release them. I am yet to try gluing and painting but I think this material shows great promise, particularly useful for stock bodies made up from various overlays. Martin PS No idea what is going on with the forum software it keeps uploading one photo twice!

Very frustrating Giles. I am off to Hobart’s tomorrow to pick up some batches of a new material to them called PolyBak, it is a resin impregnated laserboard coming in 0.9mm and 0.6mm thicknesses. Will let you know how it cuts and performs. PolyBak Martin

I made these 4mm scale windows using Trotec laser card and stuck them together with 3M Spraymount. They are made up of 3 layers. Martin

For card windows I use Deluxe Materials Roket Card Glue. https://deluxematerials.co.uk/collections/emulsion-adhesives/products/roket-card-glue Another glue I use is Super Phatik which would do ;the card to acetate joint. https://deluxematerials.co.uk/collections/emulsion-adhesives/products/super-phatic Martin

Giles, Late 2018, always struggled to get a clean on the E2 with Trolase.

That is the problem I have, tried all sorts of settings of speed, power, passes and always have to clean up the edges. Martin

Is this any good at Machine Mart? https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/2in-reinforced-hose/ Martin

Interesting Giles. Two thoughts, first one, thin shims of plasticard over the magnets would effectively reduce their power to each other. Second thought and far more fun, just fit radio controlled brakes to the coach, that would stop it lurching to couple and hold it firm when you pull to uncouple. Easy for me to say, I will leave you to solve the problem and report back! Martin