Jim, James, Alistair, Alasdair, Simon, Jack, Graham and Stephen attended the group's July meeting.
Mearns Shed was brought out for testing after some remedial electrical work.
The test loco was Jim's Caley Jumbo.
Jim had also been working on his etched chassis for the Caley diagram 70 prize cattle van from Lothian Railway Models. The 7mm wheels are distinctive. This is a test fitting under an unpainted body.
Jim also showed us some recent painting work, lining a steel-sided coach (a shot-down etch from the 4mm range of Caley Coaches).
Jim's usual technique for panelled vehicles is basically to flood the panels with a number of very thin coats to build up a solid colour, and to line on top of the beading with a mapping pen. This time he had to find a different way for the lining since the steel-sided coaches have no beading! He did this using the method he developed for lining locomotives: Sellotape on a ceramic tile, painted, then sliced with a scalpel and steel rule into thin strips, then the paint is gently separated from the Sellotape and coaxed into place on the model. This was used to form the chocolate-brown uprights and the gold (yellow plus a tiny drop of red) lining. Rather than soften the paint strips in varnish before application, he found it worked better to apply a thin line of varnish to the vehicle then place the paint strip on it to soften, teasing it into place with a couple of cocktail sticks and (one presumes) large amounts of patience and concentration.
The rest of us got on quietly with a range of projects. Alistair worked on a Highland diagram 19 coach. Graham pondered adding Simpson springs to the tender chassis of a part-built J39 acquired at the Derby bring-and-buy stall: the plan is to replace the tender drive with a coreless motor in the boiler, but retain current collection from the tender. Simon footled about with coach couplings. Alasdair enlisted James' help to debug some MERG kits.
The previous weekend the group had its summer outing to the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway. This was an all-day affair, starting with a trip behind an ex-colliery 0-6-0 tank, in a restored Thomson third. Great fun.
Simon is often ribbed over his penchant for buying Thomson coaches at every show he attends, so unsurprisingly he was delighted to be on the real thing.
After that we had a run in a Class 117 DMU - also great fun - then we had lunch in the café. Next, thanks to some string-pulling by Alisdair, it was on with the hi-vis vests and over the sleepered crossing to visit the signal box.
This was followed by a guided tour of the loco yard and carriage shed. The yard tour provided a chance to grab some detailed photos of Class 26 mini-snowploughs and buffing gear.
We tried out the newly-opened viewing platform in the erecting shop, where D49 62712 "Morayshire" had its boiler out, and several other projects were under way.
We wrapped things up with an extensive visit to the Museum of Scottish Railways.
In fact our group remained there until closing time and had to be gently reminded that it was time to leave! Thanks, Alisdair, for organising such a successful outing.
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