New Workshop

I was ashamed to find out the other day that it has been nearly two years since I last posted anything on here so thought I had better start doing some updates and give our lone contributor of late (Mick) some support. Unlike some I have no plans to de-camp to the now commercially owned Warners Group RMweb. The standard of moderation there continues to be less than impartial and piss-poor in my opinion. There are plenty of good people on there and some excellent modelling of course, but I'm happy enough to stay 'local' and blog here.

Not much actual modelling has taken place over the past 18 months whilst the house has been subject to major alteration and improvement. About 5 years ago I blogged about my then new little workshop in a large broom cupboard under the stairs. Well that has now been handed back to the domestic authority and is now full of freezer, beer/wine cooler, vacuum cleaner and other assorted household paraphernalia.

I am now resident in what was the smallest bedroom before we converted the loft and the family all moved up a room size. I've fitted the room out myself, the cabinets were custom made for me to oddball sizes by a good customer from work.



View looking down the room towards the workbench with my portable workstation under the window for natural daylight. The position to the left will have my small spraybooth permantly set up in due course. The shelf under the workbench has my DCC 'power tower' on it and feeds up to the switchable DC/DCC test track on the workstation

Those 2mil wallclocks don't half tick loudly!

I will try and do a seperate posting on the workstation soon.



Machine shelf with cupboards under and over. I've been building up a selection of Proxxon kit for a few years now and its nice to be able to keep them all out at once. At the far end is my new Warco 'big' mini lathe which with MT3 headstock and MT2 tailstock gives me much more capacity and flexibility than my old Toyo derived micro lathe.

The shelf puts the machines at a comfortable height for operation whilst standing.

View into the left corner. The TV/DVD combo was bought cheaply on offer from Asda and is used to play my collection of railway DVD's as I model! I've also started to load kit instructions onto my iPhone as PDF's and can punch them through onto the screen via a little AppleTV gadget.

The shelf seen under the workbench is to stand my airbrush compressor on.

The pictures are prints of some of Mike Raithby's excellent work, often used on the cover of December 2mm Mags.

View into the opposite corner with stock boxes up on the shelves. The work bench along the wall here is a folding one and can be dropped out of the way when I need to free up space to work on a layout module. The brackets are very heavy duty and the whole thing is rock solid when up. I can work on one 1200mm layout module at a time with access to all four sides. 'Niddbeck Bridge' at 1500mm also fits but access is only from three sides.

I suppose I am now running out of excuses for not getting any modelling done! I have dusted off the boards for my 'Haromthwaite' micro layout and am looking at restarting that soon. The other major decision I need to make is wether I should restart work on the 7200mm of  'Pool in Wharfedale' or do another small 1500mm layout to utilise the expensive flight case I had made for 'Niddbeck Bridge'. Both schemes have their attractions and otherwise.

Edward S





Haromthwaite 2: Baseboard Assembly

Ok, nearly 17 months have elapsed since the first installment, but in mitigation I have been busy out on the circuit with 'Niddbeck Bridge', the 2mm Roadshow, helping to organise Golden Jubilee events etc. The recent brilliant Oxford Expo has also given me a kick up the arse and got me all fired up again!

The board 'kits' were assembled using aliphatic resin wood glue (Deluxe Materials Super 'Phatic) and a couple of joiners try-squares.

Some chisel-work then ensued to mortice-in the 51 x 28mm brass cabinet butt hinges (satin chrome plated). The screws were very near the inside edges of the ply sides so small thickener pieces were glued in place first. The hinges were fitted with sufficient knuckle projection to allow 2mm thick ply or MDF facia and backscene to be fitted at a later stage and still allow 180 degrees of fold.

Opposite each hinge position is a simple 8mm turned steel furniture male/female dowel for board to board alignment. These were epoxied in place.

To hold the boards together in the open position cylinder mortice magnetic catches with 6kg of pull are used and epoxied into place. As the layout is designed to sit atop a trestle table on the front of the 2mm Roadshow it doesn't really need anything more secure. 6kg of pull is sufficient force to hold the boards together during operation and easy enough to break apart for folding at the end of the session. Magnets will probably be also used to hold the boards together in the closed position but these will be installed at the same time as the facia/backscene panels.

Next up will be the 'fiddle sector plates' at each end. I am also conscious that I need to give some background information on the prototypes that are the inspiration for this little demo piece, and a track plan.

Haromthwaite 1: Getting On The Case (or In It)

Welcome to a new Blog thread from me!

Since taking over as the Association's Publicity Officer in October 2007 I have gradually been refining the 2mm Publicity Stand with new display materials and features. I've had a lot of help from other members on the way of course and the '2mil Roadshow' is starting to get noticed and invited to more shows. I think Society stands are so much better if they have some sort of movement on them, whether it be a live modelling demo or trains running and being shunted etc. With this in mind I have determined to build a compact demonstration layout as an adjunct to the Publicity Stand. I have also decided to enter it into the GJLC to give me the incentive to hack it within 12 months or so.

What am I aiming to achieve with this new micro-layout?

a) It should be a long and thin layout that can sit on the front edge of a standard 6 foot trestle table and still allow plenty of room for the stand staff to model, hold court etc.

b) For ease of transport to and from exhibitions itt should pack away as small as possible in one hand-held carry case.

c) The track plan should be simple and yet prototypical.

d) It should showcase the latest Association products and techniques.

e) Simple shunting operations should be possible using electro-magnets and various delayed coupling systems. Reliable delayed action auto coupling systems always impress the punters!

f) Designed for both DCC and DC operation, according to the preferences and stock available of those manning the stand.

g) It should be modelled to a high standard in all respects but at the sime time appear as something achievable by a potential member viewing it.

At about this time I was having a clear-out at work and came across an old lock sample case that was fitted out with a custom cut foam interior. The foam was soon discarded leaving a sturdy case ideal for housing a small layout:



The interior dimensions are approx 20" x 15" x 4". I have been much impressed by Anthony Yeates' micro layout that folds in the middle and lives a box-file. It didn't take me long to work out that if I made a layout that folds in two places I could have three boards each 20"x5", giving a total size of 60" x 5", ideal for the front of a trestle table and have it fit snugly in a fairly decent case that had cost nowt (as we say in Yorkshire).

The three baseboards are to be made from 10mm birch ply and were very kindly donated to the project as a kit of ready-cut parts by friend and member Alan Smith. Through his business Alan has access to some high-tech CNC woodworking machinery and can knock out baseboard components very quickly - see the curved boards for Tony's 'Braffertion' project which are from the same source. I collected them from Alan at Ally Pally last weekend where he was demo-ing Easitrac turnouts to great acclaim.



The shot above shows the three track deck boards laid into the case and the shot below shows how the boards will fold sideways.



The shot below shows the kit of plywood parts for one board, which will be glued and screwed together. However before doing this the end pieces and intermediate cross members need hole-sawing to provide wiring ports. The intermediate cross members will only be added once turnout postions have been finalised. With each board only being 500 x 120mm I'm looking forward to being able to work on them at my normal workstation - they are really tiny compared to the one-piece 1500 x 500mm of Niddbeck Bridge and the 1200 x 600mm boards of Pool-In-Wharfedale.



In the next instalment I'll reveal the general layout design, it's track plan and the prototypes that inspired it .