Glasgow Show Update

Anyone who took time out to travel to Glasgow Show will know that it was worth the effort. If you were an exhibitor, however, food had to be brought by those wishing to eat it.....! Yes it came as something of a surprise to me too. It did not spoil our enjoyment of the event. Look at the concentration on the face of Miles Sissling. Sometimes we couldn't even get in to play. As many will know the venue is similar to Warley but it is smaller, easier to get to and costs less to park than Warley. The organisers did well to produce what they did. I bought another blue diesel (class 37) for the DCC layout that is being formed in my head so don't be too surprised to see things like that (and DYNAMIS) turn up at Group Meetings in future...............!

One casualty was the red bus. The rechargeable battery gave up the ghost and was only holding a charge for one trip. That has been the first job since arriving home. I have converted the power suply so it now runs on 1.5v battery similar to those that can be obtained for digital calipers that everyone has (or should have by now). It runs very slightly faster than it used to but that will slow as the battery gets low. This is without a resistor so I think that's pretty good. I will monitor to see how long the battery lasts. The beauty of using these batteries is they can be bought in Tesco at 2 for £1.89. I'm happy with that so far. Another failure was the J94 - but that too is repaired and ready for the next outing to Macclesfield on the 8th/9th March

It's good to see others doing a bit of posting here again but to enhance the NEAG Blog experience I have added further links to other 2mm modelling websites and blogs. Have a look and see whats going on around us.

Keep the posts coming everyone. Mick S

Passengers Waving (Sinking not Waving)

Couldn't you just scream sometimes? Everything seems to be going to plan then a small error blows up in your face. With hindsight it all seems so obvious, but then if I had prior hindsight...

First up, we are fabricating the curved bits of footplate, front and rear and then inserting them along with the representation of the frames at the front:



Simple enough, no? No. My first error had been in the placement of the valances (see earlier post). These were too far back. Only slightly, granted, and mostly due to the relation between them and the front buffer beam. Also there are no tab/slots to guide placement. I should have been alerted when the front lamp irons were slightly skewed backwards when the front curved footplate was fitted. As a result, the rear curve sat behind the main footplate and not under it.

The cab was folded up and a trail insertion made. I expected this to be tight, but it was nigh on impossible to insert the footsteps through the slots and then get the cab to sit down flat; the curve on the cab repeatedly fouled the bend in the footplate.

The result was that I had to unsolder the valances and squeeze them forward a smidgen (all good technical terms, I know!) before reseating the rear curved footplate. All a bit hair-raising and the end result is not quite the perfection one would aim for, but now that the cab overlays are in place (photos to follow) the outcome is more than acceptable. Meantime here are the bare bones pictures. The gap evident here seems ghastly; it is less so now the cab overlays are done. Honest!

Tomorrow, I'll botch the rest of the loco body (or try to avoid doing so!)

There and Back Again

A tad delayed, here is the update on the D49.

We are now on the final part of the build; construct the loco body. First up is the footplate. The basis of this is a fold up etch over which we are going to layer different etches to produce the finished item. We bend this to its basic shape including bending up the splasher sides. A full thickness overlay is then tacked onto this to represent the raised part of the footplate.

There are two valances to be attached to the underside of the footplate; these fit into some half etched grooves. We are instructed to clean all cusping off the etches prior to assembly; this proves rather tricky on a delicate piece like the valance. I clean the top flat which will fit into the groove and then do the rest when I've soldered it in place.

Once the valances are tack soldered in place, the footplate starts to look more convincing. The square bit protruding from behind the rear curve will apparently be filed away fairly soon. Next up, we need to add the curved bits of the footplate (after we've curved them of course!); should be good for some fraught nerves...

Time Flys By...

Doesn't it just? Where are all the posts then?

My excuse? Well we did have a weeks holiday in Wales, and the usual preparation beforehand and sorting out on return meant I lost about a fortnight of modelling in all. But we had a ride on the Festiniog and bought an Ivor the Engine book, so not all was lost! This in turn prompted me to buy the Ivor DVD on return from said holiday and that in its own turn prompted me to buy the Trumptonshire DVD box set. So thats probably where the modelling time went. As they say, "Time Flys By..."

Back to the workbench and I need to get this D49 thingy cracked and then bang on with the layout. Through Edward, I am looking to get Alan Smith to make a "baseboard kit" for Brafferton to give a professional job. If I do it all myself, it's going to be rather rougharse; woodwork was never a strong point for me. Whilst I wait on that, better progess the D49 hadn't we?

Next job on the list was to insert the worm and complete the drive train. This was relatively straightforward; I'd done worms and stuff before. However the kit includes etches to manufacture the universal joints; a new idea to me. So these needed building up.

No, these aren't to deter 2mm vampires. They're the two halves of the ball part of the joint which are each made up of three layers of etch. The two halves are then soldered around some spring steel wire and the whole slots into the slotted tubes on the drive shafts.

What is not overly clear in the instructions is that these etches need a fair bit of meat taking off once assembled to enable them to work in the joint. Once one end had been done, I tacked half of the second assembly to the other end and check for length before fully soldering all parts together. My guestimate was quite good and I didn't need to shorten or lengthen the assembly after the trial run.

Once fully soldered, I gave the lot a right good clean and a dab of oil before checking the finished assembly for fit...

A quick wobble up and down the test track (no weight yet!) proved success. Now onto the loco body. I've done a bit this afternoon, and I'll try and post an update tonight or tomorrow. I'd hoped to get to Glasgow this weekend to see Mick and co at Model Rail Scotland. This is now looking unlikely due to work and family commitments. Shucks...

Trundling Along

It's been a while since my last post on the NEAG blog, but progress has continued on a few different projects over the winter.

This is the latest model to grace my workbench (aka the dining room table).


Masterclass Models GC Lowmac

This is an etched nickel-silver kit which will build into one of several variants of this long-lived design. I've chosen to construct mine as one of the Great Central Railway wagons (mainly because I have some suitable transfers). The photo shows progress to date - I need to add brake levers, buffers and couplings before it can be painted. Then I need to think about adding a load of some description! This will then join my rake of pre-grouping stock.


I have also decided to enter the Golden Jubilee Layout Challenge, and have spent a bit of time working on the plans for my entry, although they are still far from complete. The basic idea is to model a small North Eastern Railway wayside station based on those in the Ryedale area of North Yorkshire, complete with a small goods yard. The layout will be set in the 1950's/60's (a few years before closure of most of these lines), for the simple reason that there is a far greater choice of locomotives and rolling stock than earlier periods. As the deadline is a little over 2 years away, I figured that the less I had to build, the more chance I had of completing the challenge!

Baseboards will be constructed from foamcore (a polystyrene/cardboard sheet material commonly using in graphic design) supported on Ikea 'Ivar' bookshelf components.

Ikea 'Ivar' bookcase components (the ones I'm using aren't as tall as these!)

Progress has been limited so far to building a sample of baseboard (to see how robust it would be) and soldering-up a few lengths of straight track (using the recently introduced Versaline components). I'll try and post some progress updates here in due course.

Andy

Meeting Update 020208

The NEAG meeting yesterday was well attended as can be seen by the photograph and we were treated to a demonstration of the latest offering from Stephen Harris whose new etched 16 ton mineral wagons look to be about the easiest etched wagon kits ever to put together.

Just prior to the meeting there was a test run of one of the new Class 37's from Bachmann on Wansbeck Road. Quite impressive with analogue control. DCC should be really good.

Chris Mills was at the helm for the session and in under an hour he had constructed the wagon body, which consisted of 3 layers of etched sheet that all lie one on top of another. They are held in place by register holes that rely upon top hat bearings which are a tight fit in them. If solder paste is used instead of tinning with solder then the whole job can be done quite easily as Chris demonstrated. Bear in mind there is always a fair amount of audience participation at these sessions so sometimes the concentration can wander while answering questions and generally entertaining those present (which Chris has been known to do...!). However even though interruptions were evident sufficient progress was made to enable those present to see the worth of these kits. I do hope Stephen will continue to make these available because I think there is a definite future for them.

Chris has written a review of the kits which I hope will find its way into the next issue of the 2mm Magazine.

Mick S

Don't tell him, Pike!

Stupid boy!

Yesterday I wrote "no mistakes" at which point Uncle Bob e-mailed me and pointed out the glaring error. The bearings for the pony truck go through the link, but ARE NOT SOLDERED so that when you tighten the retaining screw, you have a pivot. What a bufoon I am! Thank you Bob. Bearings have now been removed, the link cleaned of solder and new bearings merely PLACED in the holes.

On a brighter note, I've tweaked the brake assembly and this now sits in place without fouling any moving bits. Whether I get any farther tonight or tomorrow morning I don't know.

If you're coming to Bournmoor tomorrow afternoon, you can see it in the flesh (no, the D49 I mean!).

See you there