richbrummitt

My 'modelling' at the moment is trying to write some articles. Easier than doing some actual modelling badly. I haven't done anything constructive since mid year. Some posts here and attending Farnham show have helped with the cba factor reducing.

I think now the body is sorted this will be flying along... Sorry - I'll get my coat.

btw nine should be IX.

I've given some (not a lot) of thought to this and come to the initial conclusion that a solution with sprung buffers is the way forward. When the association buffer castings finally appear (I live in hope/belief) then this may well be quite easy...

Prototypically I'm pretty sure you should have gone for 7' bogies though. Sorry.

Some days I can't survive on £10. I do know people who have lived on £15 a week, but they weren't paying board.

What mountain bike part are you looking for? I have quite a collection of offcasts spanning 10+ years of upgrade and abuse, even though I don't ride very much any more. Standards change every few years in mountain biking depending on model and component manufacturer. Then lower end bikes use the older stuff for ages.

Oh wait this is a model railway forum. Sorry. Reading your post just reminds me why I didn't bother to start mine.

Plan 2 has a major advantage in my opinion that the trains always face the direction they should travel. Unless every train is going to have an identically formed return working then I don't think that Plan 1 wouldn't work for exhibition.

If I was building a roundy roundy then I would probably do it with a traverser at the rear for a single track line. A double tracked line may be easier with loops.

I tend to agree with DavidLong. Those pictures of wagons with all the strapping picked out in black were probably specials for the makers or possibly 'as delivered' once in service they seem to be below the solebars black the rest body colour. As solebars in early days were usually wood I presume it was natural to use the body paint. Whereas the iron work was painted black except it would have taken longer to paint the ironwork on the body a different colour so that was just painted with the body. These were humble wagons and the paint was only for protection.

Donw

It's difficult to know. The grey is somewhere between the colours that I paint Midland (almost the colour of my etch primer) and GW (quite a bit darker). It's not as dark as it looks in the second picture - it has been rainy for the last few days and new camera also means that I haven't got everything looking quite right. I took some with flash, but that made everything richer and distorted the colours to my eyes.

Regarding the underframe, if it had flitch plates (which the LNWR were big fans of) then they would be black if they were on the outside of the solebar along with the rest of the underframe metalwork?

Rich

we were discussing the signalling on the Saturday and whether any trains crossed there... ... No mention of that happening at Littlemore though.

Regards Donw

Ah, now I know who you are I didn't think that trains passed there. It was interesting to hear your thought on the signalling even though neither of the home signals are actually on the layout. I still believe that the signal at the end of the platform is an early distant signal though. Does your book tell you anything else about the station? Which book is it? Ta.

Would you like to make mine too? :cheeky:

I thought that most cast axleboxes/springs were back in stock. If you can get used to doing the etched ones reasonably well they do look better imo - and you'll save a few pennies (or eurocents). I hate this part of assembly too - once the central hole gets smaller than the top hat and there is no location (why can't we have stepped top hats to provide location for the outer layers and make this easier?) You can get solder off with glass fibre pencils and all manor of scrapers such as Geoff had on display last weekend, but it's so much easier to put a bit less on in the first place. Make them nice and dirty, especially below floor level and they'll look fine.

I know you looked at my set up but I didn't meet you for it to be explained and there are parts that are neither visible or obvious so here goes: I've used an Easitrac check chair for my loose heel switches. This spaces the rail perfectly at the heel. It remains to be seen how robust they are long term but I'm taking my chances - I can always fix it later! I feed the switch rails from the L shaped operating wires that are soldered to the underside of the toe. As you have identified these need to be fairly robust. These are connected to a copper clad sleeper strip tie bar that is gapped with dropper wires on the ends of it directly connected to the dropper wires from the adjacent rail. There is a pin or wire link from the sleeper strip to the telescoping brass limiters and thence by an omega/bent wire to the operating switch. If I were to do it again I would combine the sleeper strip part and the limiters in a neater unit.

Thanks all. I received a bunch of positive comments and a lot of interest as a result of Mick's Easitrac seminar.

Kris,

It's all that could be fitted in the design. They are okay as long as the adjusters are extended so that the cassette portions are tight against the ends of the main boards, then if you knock them the whole thing moves as a unit.

Missy,

No, I've had a Worsley Works railcar for quite some time. Oxford had them early on for routes such as the Thame branch and the many others in the locale. I don't know if I'll ever get round to building it because they are relatively modern. It might be easier than it looks but I struggled to get my head around it the few times I've distracted myself to it.I think I know which coaches you refer to - I've got loads of coach fits from most of the known sources. The 4 wheelers that I've been working on are the ones that come as a set from Worsley Works - 2 van thirds a 5 compartment third and a 4 compartment first. More to come on these - I want to get them off the work bench.

Nick,

No problem. I actually think it's a pretty good solution that I hit upon in a proper light bulb above head moment.

Andy,

How many wheel sets did you try before finding the right ones? I looked up about wheels: The first disc wheels appeared on diagram AA19s (I think the Farish van most closely resembles AA24 or some other later type) in 1927 and 3 hole disc wheels were used progressively after 1930 so your van should probably have discs. Sorry. Maybe it could have had some replacements and spoked were to hand?

Bryn,

Sorry. I was around most of Saturday, forgiving 15 minutes to grab lunch from upstairs, but not so much on Sunday. My point operation could have been implemented much better but I really struggled on the design and had to fit it on after. I think it is a decent idea that could have better execution with some forward planning.

Pete,

Great to meet you. I copied the track plan straight from that reproduced in one of the line history books. I'm not the only association member that enjoys the 3 link. I was told that it was better to solder the links up once fully closed to prevent them stretching open and falling apart by someone with a bit more experience than myself.

Doh. Something else I missed. Ah, well it was good to meet you. When the layout comes to the UK it will be great to see it. If not we may have to visit Barcelona. It is one of the places in Spain that we wished to visit but haven't fitted in to our travels.

I seem to recall hearing that it went in a skip after there was no interest when it was advertised for sale and the space needed to be reclaimed.

You'll get it sorted. I know. It has come too far for you to give it up I think. I really like the colour reproduction and the attention to detail is mind blowing. I think you actually have far more patience than you let on. It is certainly a huge step forward from last time that I saw the layout in Oxford and a huge step in the right direction. I also love your Q1. As a general rule I hate Southern locomotives but it is portrayed beautifully grotty and neglected with the same level and attention to detail as the rest of your work. Keep up the good work because it is certainly inspirational.

I had real problems with the transition from cassette to layout. I also made my cassettes fractionally too wide. It was better on Sunday after I made some alterations (a central plasticard lump to keep the wheels centred and guide on and of the layout, but not perfect. Locomotives stopped moving entirely on Sunday at about 2:30-3:00 time. I presume it will work again when I try again in more normal climate.

I agree with the comment about the lights. The lighting in the hall was particularly good for an exhibition hall so it was less of a problem. Unfortunately you don't get much light out of those LEDs, they glow more than illuminate. Fine when you are looking directly at them becasue the intensity if not related to distance, but when you try and light something with them the actual amount of light provided reduces as the square of the distance! Perhaps a straight swap for traditional filament lights in the next January sale would be an easy fix? Otherwise there are some small well packaged fluorescent fittings people are using with good results. I particularly liked the colour balance and reproduction on Highclere.

You're all too kind!

It seems that my broadband is kind of back (speed is up, but still suffering drop out), and we have a reconditioned sky box that allows the telly to work again.

I'm still managing to distract myself too much though. I have to go and cut some wood and see if the layout will actually go into the car... ...then I can carry on with other items like couplings.

I didn't know that you needed a controller to play push-alongs on a paper plan

I'm glad that you have found something to be getting along with again. Will the other layout get finished now, or is it destined for the dump?

I have a pair of kits for coaches formed in B sets. They are from 5522 etches and have quite a lot of detail parts. You can have them for very sensible money if you would like, just drop me a pm.

I had a solid guitar case punctured on a flight to South America. Something went right through the wood in a couple of places. This also happened to someone else I was travelling with. Luckily our guitars were okay. Oddly the third guitar that had been packed in an ordinary soft case wrapped in sweaters survived the trip far better.

I'm not saying don't do it, or that it's necessarily a bad idea considering the limited options available to you. There is a chance they'll get hurt - or as you said, end up somewhere else! Of course we could just have been really unlucky.

See a previous posting with a pannier tank with one of these motors in (and a flywheel). It is a squash though and the flywheel is very visible in the cab. They are nice motors though.

How is the pannier chassis retained in the body and does one have to use a coreless motor?

Erm, at the moment it isn't. I think I said they were nearly finished. There are some holes on the sideframes that act as drilling aids for the fixing holes in the body. I haven't used them, prefering an alternative.

The motors are 8mm because that is all that will fit without major butchery. It may not even be possible to fit a 10mm motor. (The 0-6-0T did have a 10mm FH on for a bit before fitting the body and that ran really nicely, but I took it out for a large number of reasons, including those given.) I don't know of any currently available 8mm motors that aren't coreless. I really like the Mashima flat cans, but even the smallest is too big for most 2mm models.

I hope somone does 2mm scale instanters

You could. The method described in the files area of the Yahoo! groups for making links for couplings could be adapted to make instanters. Unless you need the ears on the lower part to use a scale shunters pole? They could be problematic!

I have two questions:

Best glue for pink foam?

Can you please fix the wonky chimney tops? Otherwise this looks excellent.

i love pointing man

Seconded.

Build the body etc up, then cut the spars. It should be strong enough by then to lose enough material for the motor shafts to fit through. If possible the motor should always be attached to the chassis rather than the body in my opinion.

I honestly dont know what state the layout is going to be in at the Expo in July!

It will be more complete than I can hope to be with my effort considering where I have got to thus far.

Don't worry. Be happy.