Lisa

I have found your Kyle in a Boxfile, and thus the comming shelve reincarnation very insprirational. I have only one further question will you be exhibiting it soon! Lisa

Hi All The trackbase for 2FS Easitrack is moulded in scale 60 panels. Once the code 40 rail is inserted, whether you have chosen the wooded or concrete sleepers it looks the part. But for beginners it is difficult to lay sweeping curves, without kinks occurring at the join between the trackbase sections. This was first pointed out to me by Noel Leaver at a 2mm event some years ago. This blog entry is the result of my musings on the problem! My considered solution, this may to some appear to be a bit of a faff, but the technique should not be beyond the skills of a beginner. The resulting track sections can be laid using the same techniques as for example laying Peco Streamline track. By inserting the extra piece, using the same material, from which the track base is manufactured from, using the Easitrack glue. The result is as shown below. Lisa

Hi I told you that you could do it, and you have proved me right. You don't need to be a computer scientist to produce your own blog! Lisa

Yes, it is Alton Model Shop!

Hi All Railways have station and halts, whereas tramways have depots and wayside stopping places. Tramways generally have very rudimentary signalling if any at all and where they do it is often not interlocked with the points. It was the drivers responsibility to check that the points were correctly set. On rural tramways, the points were indeed often operated by the tram crew, usually on steam operated tramways, by the fireman. Points were often operated by lineside weighted levers, photographs exist of these levers, in books about the Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway, later refereed to as the Tramway section of the West Sussex Railway. On tramway loops the points were and still are on the Croydon Tramway spring operated, and trams entering the loop are required to traverse these points at a maximum speed of 5 mph. Thus all down trams will use the same track in the loop, regardless of whether an up tram is present. A loops the service operates on a timetable basis, if the timetable says the trams will pass at the loop then the first tram to arrive cannot proceed until the tram in the opposite direction has arrived, regardless of how late it arrives. On urban electric tramways, since trams are frequent this does not present problems. In the past in this country,and often on mainland Europe and other parts of the world tramways convey freight, which is transferred from the railway at a set of transfer sidings and either conveyed on the tramway by a special locomotive or as tail traffic on passenger services. Another difference is that tramways often have much sharper curves and steeper gradients and many ungated level crossings than railways. The points are usually much smaller radius and trams and as a result usually traverse then at 5 mph. Tramways are regulated not by the Railway Inspectorate, but by the Tramway Commissioners, which these days are part of the Department for Transport. To build or extend a tramway does not require an act of parliament, but simply the tramway commissioners to issue a Tramway Order and outline planning permission. Many links between mainline railways and industrial plants e.g. cement works, were constructed under a tramway order, and are officially refereed to a Mineral Tramways. Previous blog entry - Chagford - Building structures for tramways and light railways,was posted 4 days previously and can be accessed using the link below. http://www.rmweb.co....light-railways/ Lisa

Hi All I have recently been building a platform for a friends N gauge layout. This is a colonel HF Stephens line and the platform is composed entirely of timber. A major problem with this is to make the model strong enough to withstand being transported and not have the timbers, in scale terms, too large. When you consider 1mm equates to 6" in the prototype, I feel that the size of the timbers used in the fence are oversize, but I am pleased with the overall effect. I need however to complete the booking office and then paint and weather the whole platform. The height may appear too high, but the model is designed to be fixed directly to the baseboard surface. By the time that ballast and rail height is taken into account, bearing in mind that Peco track uses code 80 rail, the installed height is about correct. The roughness of the surface, and the patchwork of the joints between the planks on the platform surface capture the feel of the KESR halt at Junction Road. The word 'Junction' in this instance is used in the sense that it is a road which joins two other roads. The day before this entry was dated, I posted 'Chagford - Latest version of my Ebook Micro Layout Design' entry! To access it use the link below. http://www.rmweb.co....-layout-design/ Lisa

Hi The ULR below will enable you to download the latest version of my Ebook on Micro layout Design. The image shown below is the title page, and clicking on it will only load the Micro_Design.jpg and not the complete Ebook. URL: http://www.diane.me-me.me.uk/Micro_Design/Micro_Design.html Lisa

Hi The other possible problem with Adobe Dreamweaver is it cost, the professional version I use costs £800+ and the lite version cost £200!

I use Adobe Dreamwearver, but it's not a package for beginners! I recommend using Microsoft Word, there is a macro that you can get to export the file as a .pdf file. If you don't have a copy of Microsoft Office, you can download a copy of OpenOffice, for free. This has a similar macro supplied as standard.

Hi All I have been writing an Ebook about designing a micro layout. This contains information which I have learned so far. It can be found at :- http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/32111-micro-design/ Lisa

In the sence of taking pictures of small models the camera never lies, unless of course you edit them using photoshop type software!

Hi All The previous photographs taken were taken using a white background, and the whole setup is placed on my kitchen window shelf, the window is a large one facing east. I think that I need to adjust the white balance on my camera because the pink fringing. I've then spent an hour reading the disk based manual for my digital camera, and I have found that I have just as much control over the camera, as when I use my manual reflex camera. The time of day in which the photographs were taken, affects the light quality, and therefor the quality of the resulting photographs. I will have to experiment to see what settings give the best pictures when working in macro mode! The results are shown below. The slight change of background colour left to right is due to shadow. All I now have to do is improve my colouring skills! Lisa

i've just spent an hour reading the disk based manual for my digital camera, and I have found that I have just as much control over the camera, as when I use my manual reflex camera. I will have to experiment to see what settings give the best pictures when working in macro mode! Lisa

As you can see in the photograph of the setup I use a white background, and the whole setup is placed on my kitchen window shelf, the window is a large one facing east. The photographs were taken in daylight. I think that I need to adjust the white balance on my camera. Lisa

Hi I seem to have a problem with my photographs, the photographic background that I am using is white, but the photographs it appears slightly pink. Lisa

Hi All The first photograph was the result of the previous attempt to paint the cottages. The next photograph is using the macro and flash with a simplified setup, without tripod shown below and the next photograph below it used macro and no flash. Both were taken in front of a window, i.e. much more light. The problems with the last attempt at painting the Chagford Gas Company houses, was due to technique is applying the brick colour and the photographic techniques used. Using the macro facility takes photographs that are unforgiving of errors in modelling technique! The first process I carried out was to wash the previous paint, under a warm water tap. The result is shown in the photograph below. The model was then painted the whole non roof area the mortar colour. The doors, windows and the brick colours were applied using the crayons. The painting of the surfaces allows the crayon to stick to the models plastic surface. The colours used for the bricks were too dark, and by using lighter colours the final appearance more realistic. Also the use of the side of the point of the crayon will mean that the colour is more even and allows the colour to be applied to the bricks and not into the edges of the bricks. But the paint did dry unlike the first attempt where the paint did not dry for weeks after it was applied. I have experimented with using the macro facility on my camera. I allows me to take pictures very closeup to the subject of the photographs. I still need to check it by taking the photographs using natural lighting. I hope that these changes will improve the results achieved! Lisa

Usually the GWR did not spend money that they could get away without spending. Therfore in most locations they did not use full arms to signal movements into single dead end sidings, as shown in the case of signals 9 and 22 on your diagram. They would have used ground mounted or signal post mounted disk signals instead. Lisa

Hi How do you get your photograph to appear on the blog entry preview listing? Lisa

Hi My digital camera has a macro facility, but as yet I have not used it! The book provided by cannon is A5 and nearly 20mm thick. I can see from looking at the link in Nigel's comment that might be a help. I also take the point about using natural light. Lisa

Hi All One of the problems which I have had whilst writing this blog, is taking photographs of very small models. This problem is made worst because I have problems with hand shake, when trying to hold them camera still. The above problems are more sever if I use the optical zoom function on my camera. What I have been trying to do is take hand-held shots of work in progress, because I feel that this gives a more spontaneous feel to the blog. In order to get better quality photographs it will be necessary to stage shots in order to use a tripod to hold the camera. I have experimented using flash and using additional lighting. With the flash there is a tendency to get pictures with areas in the centre of the picture which appears shiny, this happens because the flash is reflected by shiny surface of the plastic surface. The additional lighting requires careful setting up in order to get fine surface detail in the photographs. I hope that I can find a way to get photographs which capture the feel of the project, but are of a higher quality than so far achieved. Lisa

Hi All When I wrote the the blog entry 'Chagford - Building Homes for the Workers 2' entry I assumed that the acrylic, water based, paint I assumed that the paint would dry within hours. I have been surprised that weeks later the non diluted paint, which I used to paint the brick colour onto the base coat coloured the mortar colour, has not dyed. My previous experience with acrylic paint has been on paper, card or foam-core card base. All of the above are water permeable, whereas high density styrene is not. Therefor the only way for water to leave the paint is through the layer of paint. As the paint dries it becomes increasing more non permeable, so the water has nowhere to escape, and thus the paint does not dry. My experience in some ways flies against the above, since the most dilute paint dried more quickly and completely than the non diluted paint. I had to make a decision of what to do with a building that has remained tacky. My decision was to wash of the paint and start again. I applied a thinned coat coloured the mortar colour and then use a technique from an article in Model Rail, which used wax crayons to colour the bricks and then applied a varnish to protect the finish. Lisa

Hi All I've been experimenting with DG couplings to check if they will work around the 75mm radius curves into my fiddleyard on my layout. I found that with the wagons round one way the back wagon de-railed and with them around the other way not! Closer inspection of the wagon chassis proved instructive as the chassis was not square, and in fact one end was 0.5 mm wider than the other and what was happening was one wheelsets was sloppy and once this was corrected the problem with the couplings disappeared. In order to make the DG coupling work around the 75mm radius the rectangular coupling hook, was removed and replaced with a round section one. In the picture below the front wheel of the second wagon had fallen out and hence the couplings are not at the same height! This proves two things, the best laid plans of mice and women and you should not assume things, and instead you should check the obvious things first! Lisa

I haven't seen capstans used in a railway context, but they are used on our local canal, when I lived in London, for a similar purpose. They are used to allow a tractor to pull a barge out of a dock on the opposite bank from the tractor. I my opinion the capstan is the correct size, bearing in mind that if the chain or cable comes up an not in contact with the capstan the whiplash will cause savagery injuries to anyone standing in the vicinity.