December 2024 Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

The last meeting of 2024 was held on 14th December at our usual venue of the Edinburgh Society of Model Engineers. 10 members attended - Simon, Stephen, Andy, Stuart, Alistair, Alastair, Alisdair, James, Jim and Tony; a welcome guest from the Grampian Area Group.

(Both Press Officers had the temerity to not be in attendance, hence this terse and much belated posting by a grudging stand-in. The late posting along with a lack of notes and photos contribute to the brevity of this report.)

There was the usual rash of individual projects going, but Mearns Shed made an appearance at last and was having some paving laid inside the shed along with the mock up of inspection pits between the rails. Nae piccies so just imagine it.

Tony was working on his conversion of a Farish Ivatt 2-6-0 using Nigel Hunt's upgrade etch for the valve gear and tender chassis. He was busily beavering away on the valve gear, in grave danger of a carelessly directed sneeze scattering his work far and wide...

Andy was knocking up a turntable for making life easier when making his signature trees from twisted wire.

Stuart was putting together a rather pleasant set of terraced houses for his Norther English mill layout. On a curve and rising gradient, the geometry of the roof was a bit of a challenge.

Alistair was pottering away sketching up a plan for a quick and simple layout.

Stephen brought along his latest batch of N gauge goodies. Lovely stuff, but I'm not sure where the nuclear flask carrier would fit in on Mearns Shed...

After a recent lull in production Simon had been very busy churning out rolling stock for his Glenfinnan layout. Some nice weathering there.

Jim's latest magnum opus is a 3-car London Underground set for Caledonian Road. (They must have fooled him into thinking the Caledonian Road had something to do with the Caledonian Railway.) Mostly etched, he has been assisted Graham 3D-printing the roofs and seating. 

James was showing a neat little TOU made using a model aeroplane aileron servo (which moves to and fro, rather than round and round).

Alastair was continuing his work on a wee diesel shunter, the most of which is his own 3D-printed work. (including coupling rods - interesting to see if that works.)

Alisdair brought along his recently finished converted EFE Austerity to show off. However, he had failed to close the cap properly on the bottle of Easitrac glue in his bag and some of it found it's way into the mechanism of the loco. Many sweary words and tears ensued from one individual, but the rest of us had a good giggle. (Luckily, the glue was still wet and some swift dismantling and washing under the tap(!) seemed to have saved the day.)

Next meeting Saturday January 11th 2025.

November 2024 Forth and Clyde area group meeting

Attendance at our monthly get-together at ESME's Almondell centre was better this month. Alisdair, Alistair, Alastair, Graham, Simon, Stuart, Jim and James met to opine on matters 2mm. The cooler November weather came as a contrast to the long hot Scottish summer, and took the Almondell heat pump operator by surprise, as it does every year. Not so the Forth and Clyde members, who had come in their winter-wear. Fingerless mittens with 2mm branding might find a market, if the head shopkeeper is reading this.

Before we settled down to our individual projects, Alistair requested a group effort to help him visualise a long backscene which he had volunteered to paint for the ESME N-gauge layout which occupies one wall of their large meeting room.

There was a lot of hand-waving and pointing, and artistic pursing of lips.

Afterwards he got busy painting the white backscene paper with white artist's undercoat. Either that, or he was playing a practical joke on us. It can be hard to tell with Alistair.

Dammit... he seemed to be smiling...

At least the rest of us were taking the meeting seriously. Alasdair was working on 3D print designs for Caledonian water columns, destined for the Grampian group's Dunallander layout.

Stuart was advancing the scenery for his textile mill project.

Alisdair was installing brick drain pans for the water columns on the group cameo layout, Mearns Shed.

Jim had been working on his Underground train etch.

The etches for the 1906 gate stock motor car looked crisp.

The gates, even more so. Breathe carefully in case you inhale the part.

The chassis design has gone to a third iteration to gain an extra fraction of a millimetre of clearance.

Graham had contributed 3D printed details, including louvre ventilators...

and a roof. This is an trial print to check the fit.

James has been working on his Association Class 04 chassis. The motor now has a Neoprene linkage to the worm.

James attached the balance weight overlays with superglue, but found it rather ineffective so he tried soldering... but the flux attached the steel tyres...

so it was back to superglue. Finally the wheels are ready for painting.

James has also fallen victim to the siren song of AliExpress. He discovered (and promptly purchased) a rolling road for under fifteen quid. (Try googling "N gauge rolling road"). 

 Some discussion about how to adapt it for 2FS followed.

Simon has been quietly working away at home on some of the kits he picked up at the Derby expo bring-and-buy stand. He brought some of the results to show us.

 A rake of tank wagons. Railtec transfers were used.

A Gresley gangwayed passenger brake from the Ultima kit. Glazing still to be added.

An LMS 6-heeled fish van from the Association kit. Awaiting wheels.

A BR 20T brakevan, again from the Association kit. And it looks like it's glazed.

All in all an enjoyable day's modelling and a successful meeting which recharged our collective creative batteries to see us into December. As usual, thanks to ESME for making us welcome in a bright, clean, spacious environment.

October 2024 Forth and Clyde Area Group meeting

Our October meeting had fewer attendees than usual, for the second month running. The usual excuses were made... two members moonlighting to maintain an ageing P4 layout... 'flu bug going around ... dog ate my homework... However, Alistair, Alisdair, Alastair, Jim and Graham made their way to ESME's Almondell premises and unpacked their toolboxes. There was some discussion of the recent weekend workshop at Beckingham, enthusiastically attended by four FCAG members, who commented favourably on the spacious venue and superior catering. This was the scene on the second day.

Back at Almondell, our "Mearns Shed" project was, once again, not available, so we resorted to working on our own models. Alistair worked on backscenes. Alisdair worked on ... something ... he had his tools spread out anyway. Jim had brought along a trial motor bogie for an Underground train. The motor, temporarily located by a blob of blu-tak in this view, is displaced to one side to keep the height of the bogie within the motor coach envelope.

 

Jim is not happy with this iteration - lessons have been learned, components will be recovered for re-use, and the scrap man will take the rest.

Graham had 3D-printed some power car side louvres for Jim's project.

He spent the time trying to add Simpson springs to a Fence Houses J72 chassis which had been the focus of his weekend workshop endeavours.

Alastair was also busy with a 3D printer project - in his case, for a Class 04 shunter, which grew out of last year's FCAG chassis-building session. Several of us worked on Farish replacement chassis using the original Association kit design, and found its fold-up gearbox to be a source of frustration. (The design has since been changed). Alastair started to investigate a 3D printed block to take Association bearings, and ended up printing the motor mount, side rods and body as well. The project (a skill-development exercise as much as anything else) continues.

The sun came out in the afternoon. Through the meeting room window we were diverted by the sight and sound of a rake of 7" gauge Gresley coaches behind a blue diesel. It was hard not to take a closer look.

The owner generously birled all five of us us round ESME's extensive woodland circuit behind his battery-electric model of a Glasgow Eastfield diesel-electric (37408 "Loch Rannoch"), then we were all offered a shot behind the controls. The Chairman, just a wee laddie at heart, got first go. As a qualified passenger guard he was impressed by the vacuum train brakes and spent some time applying and releasing them. Finally, off he went.

Jim makes no secret of his lifelong scorn of the Diesel engine and the East Coast companies, so he was torn, but as a fair-minded man he overcame his doubts and stepped forward. Onlookers detected the ghost of a smile on his features as he completed his circuit.

 

He'll be forever known as "Diesel Jim".

September Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

Our September Meeting was a relatively small affair, with just three regular members, Martin, James and Stuart attending, although our numbers were bolstered with the attendence of Tony, a stalwart of the Grampian Area Group who had decided to travel down to the Central Belt to join us.

It was reported that the Highland Railway Association held their AGM conflicting with this meeting, and with some of our members dual (or more) hatted, they had attended this AGM over our meeting. "Tsk, Tsk" I hear you intone, what could be more important than 2mm Modelling?

There was no overarching theme for the meeting, and for the first time in a long while, Mearns Shed was not in attendance, and as such, we were all labouring on our own projects.

Stuart was continuing work on his very impressive Mill building.  He was continuing adding roofing strips, manufactured to custom order by York Model Making to Stuart's specifications.

Stuart intends to take the complete building to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Society's AGM, which is planning to visit the prototype!

Our guest Tony, was working on finescaling a Farish 4F.  This will form part of the fleet for running on the Grampian Area Group's layout, Dunallander - see the Grampian Area Group Blog for more details on Dunallander.

James was working on some PCB soldered pointwork.  He had eschewed chairs, and was instead, soldering rail straight to the sleepers.  He intends to build a short dockside shunting plank/test track to fit in a Really Useful Box nominally designed to take wrapping paper.  James has previously built chaired turnouts for Mearns Shed, and decided that these turnouts and plain track will be buried in the concrete and/or cobbles of the dockside, and thus, that level of detail is probably not required.

Martin was also working on PCB soldered pointwork.  He intends to use Easitrac for plain track, and soldered construction for turnouts, even considering classic Scottish interlaced turnouts in the Goods Yard for a bit of additional visual interest.  Martin spent most of the meeting making up a pair of common crossings which will form the main element of the crossover.  He uses the crossing nose web etches available from the association, necessitating the use of chairs, which, whilst he has with him, have not yet been deployed in anger.

(Martin swears he took a photograph of his work, but it isn't on the camera reel for his phone.  He may take a photo at home and add this to the blog later...)

After a few hours of modelling, and the ingestion of lunch, the tools were gradually put down and conversation began on topics such as life, the universe and everything, interspaced with more modelling and more conversation.

Our next meeting will be once again at Almondell on Saturday 19th October (note the later than usual meeting month).  Further details in the Association Newsletter.

(Updated for spelling and grammar - Martin's first language is allegedly English...)

August Forth and Clyde Area Group meeting

Alisdair, Alastair, Alistair, Jim, James, Stuart, Nigel, Steve, Andy and Graham convened at the Edinburgh Society of Model Engineers' spacious Almondell clubrooms for our August meeting.

Members worked away quietly (for the most part) at their personal projects. Stuart is installing lighting in his mill building using Woodland Scenics' "Just Plug" system. This includes a diffusion film which is applied to windows to disguise non-detailed interiors - apparently Stuart does not propose to spend the next few years modelling textile looms.

Alasdair was making up Electra couplings using Tamiya long-nosed photo etch pliers. He prefers to work without a jig, instead using a detailed drawing he rustled up in SolidWorks, which shows the relationship of the coupling to the mounting he includes in his 3D wagon prints. 

Alisdair was working on detailing an EFE Austerity tank, adding finer handrails and the smokebox "star" added by many Scottish drivers to their locomotives in pre-grouping days. The tradition has been followed at the Bo'ness and Kinneil railway, where Alisdair blows his whistle and wields a fishbolt spanner, on their No 19. Here he is explaining the matter to James.

The main business of the day, apart from the usual conversation and discussion, was a short presentation from Nigel and James on "doing DCC properly and cheaply", prompted by recent interest from group members. This focused on the options for inexpensive control systems, rather than on DCC technology itself or its installation in models. The notes below are via the imperfect filters of my brain and notepad, so any errors or misunderstandings are mine, and not due to to Nigel or James.

We learned about four potential routes to a low-budget but effective DCC control for a typical 2mm modeller: these are MERG CBUS, DCC-EX, SPROG, and JMRI.

MERG's system at its most basic has four elements: a command station, one or more handsets, a plug-in point for the handset, and a DC power supply. The first three come as kits from MERG which the modeller assembles. A minimal setup  costs about £90 currently (plus £29 to join MERG for a year) with additional handsets at about £40 each. A module can be added for connection to a computer's USB port, or to boost power above one amp (for larger scales). Its main attraction is the excellent, highly ergonomic handset; its high success and satisfaction rate; the good documentation and community support from MERG; and assembly using normal 2mm soldering skill levels with through-hole technology components rather than surface mount devices. Points against are the lack of a "recall stack" to select quickly between a small pool of models; and (depending on your point of view) the effort required to cut through MERG's enthusiastic explanation of all the other things they do to focus on basic DCC. The modeller is left to make their own choice of enclosure for the elements, which can be as compact or spacious as desired. Here is Nigel's, which uses a diecast metal enclosure principally because he had one available. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of James' version, which uses a plastic enclosure.

DCC-EX is based on the Arduino microcontroller. Elements for a basic system are an Arduino Mega; Arduino Motor and WiFi shields; and (depending on various factors) a voltage regulator and/or power supply. A mobile phone or tablet is used as a low-cost user interface. It is possible to make a basic system for £40; a kit of parts (without case) costs around £90. Its advantages are minimal soldering and simple access to automation functions. Disadvantages are the lack of a low-priced physical controller; support requiring use of the Discord social media platform; and the need to invest time in understanding the software architecture. Here is Nigel's DCC-EX implementation:

A third possibility is the SPROG, a commercially-manufactured family of DCC controllers. At its simplest, this offers a single-board solution with a USB connector at one end and connections for power supply and track feed at the other end for £80 including a power supply. Unlike the MERG and DCC-EX solutions, a computer must be constantly connected for the system to work, and physical throttles are restricted to relatively expensive devices such as the Train Control Systems UWT-50.  It excels as a simple and portable test-track controller using a laptop.

Also mentioned was JMRI, an open-source, very capable, very elaborate software suite for model railways, compatible with almost all DCC systems. Decoder Pro provides a visual interface for programming DCC CV values: it is compatible with most decoders and keeps an audit trail of changes as they are made. The user interface for layout control is from a computer screen or from a mobile phone.

In conclusion, choice between these four is driven by personal preference for the various user interface options, and (for the choices requiring it) whether a computer is available. As for most things in life, there is a simplicity-flexibility payoff to understand and factor in to a decision as well.

The talk was very illuminating - thanks Nigel and James for generously sharing your knowledge and experience.

The rest of the afternoon passed in gentle contemplation of these and other matters, and by 5 p.m. everyone had gone home peacefully.