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Portchullin Tatty

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Everything posted by Portchullin Tatty

  1. Thanks for the link Ian, that indeed is a good half an hour's watch! Even a good chunk of Aaron Copeland to help the story along the way! For those who might want to acquire the DVDs, they are on ebay at rather less than Ian paid (sorry Ian!). The maroon observation cars were something I had not known much about. I am familiar with the old beavertails and the converted DMU end cars, but what are these. I am only looking at them on a small screen but are they (or at least one of them) a converted Thompson?
  2. You need to get the dirt out Robin; there are a lot of clean locos in the stud now!! The last Dave Franks chassis I completed was constructed as a split chassis with cast brass AG wheels. It was pretty simple to do but does lead to a little loss of the brake operating gear but this is invisible under the front footsteps.
  3. I have developed the habit of carefully (aka very carefully) measuring the centre to centre of both the coupling rods and the chassis wheelbase. I do this with some vernier callipers. If you insert the prongs of these into the coupling rods to measure the minimum distance across the holes and then repeat for the maximum distance. If you sum these and divide by 2, you have the centre to centre distance. Repeat this for other coupling rod and the wheelbase. Be very structured about it, do the rear first and get this right, then repeat for the front. It takes a bit of getting used to, the main things being that you can apply more or less pressure to the callipers such that you get different dimensions. However, I reckon I can measure down to circa 0.02mm. Even if I can't, I can mismeasure consistently and it does not really matter if I measure the right distance, only that it is consistent. With regard to quartering, I sight through the spokes. Make sure that you are looking square onto the axle and then see if the one behind lines up. Again, whether it does or not is irrelevant, what you need is consistency. And one final suggestion.........sign yourself up for the forthcoming Missenden Autumn Weekend (booking for which will open soon I hear) https://www.missendenrailwaymodellers.org.uk/index.php/autumn-weekend/
  4. Jonathan As others have said, the design is like the Scalefour Society's compensation units at the time. Unfortunately, they did introduce a load of drag which was fine for a coach or two, but for a whole train, it just didn't work. It is in part why I developed some sprung Fox bogies https://miscellanymodels.com/future-plans-and-dreams/fully-sprung-fox-bogies/. These are a lot more effort than those you have, but they do glide when in use so they make the coach look realistically heavy. This shows it under construction https://highlandmiscellany.com/2018/04/01/dia-51-test-build-fox-heavyweight-bogies/ The D&S kits normally come with a fixed bogie. I now routinely throw this away to fit my own design. If you can wait a week or so (I am on hols at the moment) I can easily post a set to you as I do have a NER coach to do soon. PM me if this is of interest. Alternatively, you will need to acquire either the Bill Bedford sprung bogies or those produced by Brassmasters. They are only the functional innards of the bogie, so you will have to sweat the D&S frames on to get a sensible Fox Bogie.
  5. And a very helpful forum if you have not already found it..................
  6. Looks good. Apologies if the answer is in the thread, but where did you source the pictures for the backscene/get it created? Fairly obviously the north of Scotland!
  7. But the question would be whether the landing after a fall of 100+ feet will kill them before they bleed to death from the cuts the plate glass causes when they break it to start their fall.......
  8. Hi Dave I will be embarking on one of these before too long too. However, I decided to decline the use of the compensated bogies provided in the kit. I have never been a fan of the split bogies that Alistair Wright designed. Instead I have designed a sprung bogie based on my standard Fox bogie. You can see some pictures of the artwork in my 8 June post on the Scalefour Society forum https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=1345&start=275#p76129 It will be interesting to see how the two solutions compare! Mark
  9. My guess (and it is only a guess) is that they will have used 3/16ths inch thick steel sheet, possibly 1/4th. That scales down to 0.1mm. Obviously a compromise will be required and the comments about the Parkside minerals are all agreed, but etching is the place to start. Geriant, if I unearth anything I will let you know offline. Mark
  10. The diagram is repeated in the LMS Society's publicly available list of drawings See page 77 of this I will make an enquiry as to whether there is anything further they hold; there is a fair chance they do. Do any still exist? I would say it would be a challenge to do this as a 3D print, getting the thinness of the sides to be convincing and then the underframe will be pretty open too so again would need delicacy. It would be a pretty significant task even as an etch...........choose something easier Geriant?
  11. These croft cottages are normally known as "but n bens" See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/But_and_ben It probably had a division wall between the two rooms and definitely would have chimney breasts. Looks good though!
  12. I wonder what 'too many railway books' looks like. Simple - no such thing!
  13. Jon, can I make a suggestion. On your signal ladders, run a piece of 0.3/0.4mm rod front and back of each of the two side rails and then file the outside face flat so that the two piece of rod and the etch sandwiched between appear as one piece. In addition to looking a lot more prototypical, it stops the tendency for a flat etch to pick up waves and curves that look terrible! It doesn't take long.
  14. This is an intriguing trackplan for which I am trying to work out why it existed. Do I assume that there was a significant gradient in the down direction from Bagthorpe and Zeen Valley? This is the main justification I can see for having a pair of down lines but only a single up to effectively allow two trains to occupy the block (parallel blocks, I appreciate)? And there is either no passenger service on the Zeen Valley line or it always ran through to a destination in the Babbington Jct direction as only trains from Bagthorpe can come into the bay? And why have crossover 46 when it was effectively repeated by that at 88 for no apparent advantage except possibly leaving the yard without blocking back on the Bagthorpe down line? And what is signal 68 for unless the junction for the Bagthorpe and Zeen Valley lines is close (in which case why bother with the third line). And why five shunt signals 22-25 & 33? I suspect you know some of the answers; can you share as it is doing my head in!
  15. Another option you might want to use is to have a set of Markit/Romford wheels for use in setting up chassis. They do manufacture P4 length axles and of course these wheels to go on and come back off many times for multiple locomotives without any real bother (and you have the advantage that you can test the chassis comfortable that quartering is not a problem). Obviously it also allows them to be removed for painting. Then, as Mike says, only put Gibson wheels on once. And if you use Gibson wheels I would say it is important to gently chamfer the last 1/2mm of the axle before mounting them - the steel axle can have a very sharp edge and damages the wheel boss irreparably. Mark
  16. Hi Iain, That does look really good; a significant part of which is the gentle flow of the curve. It will be really important to keep this consistent; it is very difficult to do this with a shallow curve. I would suggest you make a template. Maybe get Tim Horn to laser up a template (as long as possible) or glue a templot print out to a sheet of plasticard and then cut to one of the railheads. You only need to do one line like this, the others can be set out from the first one (again with a jig or template of some description). Keep up the good work and the defence against all the east coast layouts that seem to be on this forum!! Mark
  17. I have struggled with primers for a while so i asked my local car body shop; this is what they recommended and I have to say it is the best i have encountered but it does need a couple of days to fully harden.
  18. Woodbine I use servos and I have come up with a little solution such that the servo is fitted to the signal base but the whole signal can be taken out for building or maintenance. I came up with a number of tips associated with building and operating signals which you can find here Or more generally on my signals as a whole see here I prefer the MERG servo controllers but some of this is because I am used to them rather than they are necessarily better.
  19. Try Mousa Models although I think there are delivery problems at the moment. https://mousa-models.co.uk/product-category/4mm/4-coaches/coach_sides/liner/page/2/ Bill only does sides, so you will need to source the rest from Comet or MJT.
  20. I stopped using Cleminson chassis, they are not as easy to use in practise. Instead I now use sliding axles and wouldn't go back on them. Details here and you will see that the RTR plough uses the same concept.
  21. ...........that's called P4 isn't it? Written by a P4 modeller by the way, we are not all hair shirts!
  22. Hi Sean Like the idea, my house (well technically my garden) sits astride one of the bits of the line to Cromarty that was built in Jemimaville. It proved to be a problem when we bought it because that portion of the land wasn't owned by the house vendor and we had to purchase it of the local laird. There is a little booklet available locally in Cromarty on the line, I keep meaning to get it! One observation is that the stone on the Black Isle (on which Cromarty is situated) is a characteristic pink colour. There is no way they would have imported stone to Cromarty, so it really ought to be pink. Google pictures of Cromarty or Fortrose or Rosemarkie and you will find the colour quick enough. Your amazingly hopeful to think the line soldiered on to the 1980s.............but rule no 1 does apply! Mark
  23. Good to see the thread and another Highland based layout. Did you know that the bridge at Achnasheen has been drawn up and published in my old man's book the Dingwall & Skye Railway - A Pictorial Record? There are a couple of photos too but I have lots more because I measured it up!! If you want these let me know via PM. I also have a batch of photos from 1982, which is presumably dated about right? I would need to ask someone to release them to you, I suspect it will be fine. Mark
  24. Still struggling, I will prompt the person I have been speaking to. It is hard work! Mark
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