Monday 11 March 2024

March Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

 The second Saturday of the month harkened the assembly of those stalwarts of the 2mm Scale Association who reside in the Central Belt of Scotland.  This month's meeting, despite clashing with Scotland vs. Italy in the Six Nations attracted some nine modellers, Alisdair, Alastair, Alistair, Jim, Graham, Andy, Stuart, Simon and Martin.

This correspondent unfortunately had a slight issue with his alarm clock and arrived late, missing some of the action, so what follows is a somewhat incomplete recollection of events.

The main hive of activities surrounded Mearns Shed, the Group layout.  With only four short months until it is booked to attend the Perth Model Railway show, (29th/30th June 10:00 - 17:00, Dewars Centre, Perth (Scotland)) work on the scenics is in full swing.  Alisdair and Jim are seen here carving polystyrene sheet to make up the basic landform.


The Glorious Leader has taken the layout home to glue down the groundform and give it a coat of lightweight plaster to make it look marginally less like sheets of polystyrene.  An offer of ground textures and static grass was made for the next meeting by a helpful spectator holding a camera.


The Glorious Leaders, seen here wearing the Official Optivisor of Office is working on a former for the embankment slopes.  Proof he does occasionally do some modelling at an Area Group Meeting...

Jim had brought along his latest creation, a Caledonian Railways 900 Class, known as a Dunalistair III.  It has graced this page since it was but flat etched sheet, and now it is presented in glorious technicolour.


Jim is still working on the lining, but the blue basecoat is in place.  This blue is a different shade to other Locos in Jim's collection, this being closer to the blue in which the SPRS' CR419 was in prior to her most recent makeover, as opposed to the darker shade in which CR828 which normally lives in Aviemore is painted.  This prompted a discussion on Caley Blue, and what colour it actually was, or wasn't - including mythbusting relating to Perth and St. Rollox having different paints etc.  This was only stopped later on by a discussion of NBR brown and cowpats...


Talking of the group layout... Alastair had brought along 3D prints of Caledonian style water cranes.  These have been painted and weathered ready for planting as the scenery allows.  Alastair had brought along his Class 03/04 chassis, started for the Loco Chassis day last September, and as yet unfinished.  Seen here with its 3D printed body, the loco nears completion.


Although not present in person, Richard had sent, via Martin, via Model Rail Scotland, his contribution to the layouts scenery.  A workers bothy and tool van,  The bothy is scratch built based on images provided of the sorts of building found around small steam sheds.  The tool van is an association kit, heavily modified - it has a fully detailed interior, which, sadly, is in shadow in the below photos.




Away from the Group Layout, Simon was working on an MSE/Wizard Models signal kit for his own layout Glenfinnan.  Seen here he's finished the post and arm, ready to start the process of painting and/or motorising it all.  Having built a similar one in 4mm, seeing this in 2mm is very impressive


Chris had brought along his 4F and his test track and was spending the meeting checking that the stay alives were functioning.  At one moment, with us all crowded around the loco, our Glorious Leader nearly had a heart attack, thinking he saw sparking inside the tender, only to discover that Chris had fitted an LED to the stay alive circuit to help with fault finding.  The flickering was caused by dirty track/wheels!


Stuart was working on his Magnorail system.  This is a chain driven system used for driving cars, vans, busses and such through a scene.  On display here is the return loops and motors, whilst a length of the "chain" guide can be seen underneath.  Through the meeting, Stuart was fitting kerbs to the road surface which will live above this system.


Finally (and with apologies to those whose work I arrived too late to photograph...), Martin was working on a signal box.  This is a laser cut plywood kit from Pop Up Designs - a company Martin has been watching for some time, however, it was only a chance conversation at Model Rail Scotland with the proprietors that he learnt that their previously only 4mm range was now available in 7mm, and more usefully 2mm.


This is a Caledonian "Standard" Signal box as it was by the end of the meeting, still requiring details and steps.  One advantage to writing the blog is the ability to take another photo 24 hours later showing the complete model...


Martin has managed to mangle the staircase, however, this should be salvagable, but now the kit is complete, with the steps, the window cleaning platform and the various brackets the Caledonian Railway festooned their structures with now attached.  Just visible at the side of the shot are elements of the Ratio "Signal Box Interior" kit which will be used to detail the model - it might even be fitted with an LED or two.  The background shows another set of under-construction kits.  But more about these another time...

The next Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting shall be Saturday 13th April at our usual haunt, Almondell Model Engineering Centre, near Livingston.  I say it every time, but we are a welcoming bunch, and accept visitors from other Area Groups who happen to be in the area, and may even accept the occasional visitor from other scales, gauges and societies.  Further information and contact details are in the Association Newsletter published alongside the Magazine.


Monday 12 February 2024

February 2024 Forth and Clyde Area Group meeting

While the cat's away, the mice will play. The Association Chairman, who moonlights as our group organiser, had let it be known he'd miss our February meeting, being otherwise engaged in a pleasure-dome somewhere in the Highlanns of Skawlan.  He kindly sent us a list of do's and don'ts by e-mail instead. Nothing was said about diet however, so it was not long before some healthy snack options made their appearance, courtesy of Jim Watt. If they'd been brought out when the Chairman was around he'd have pulled rank and scoffed the lot, naturally, so this was a golden opportunity.

Jim had also brought along a treat of the nickel-silver variety to work on: his Caledonian 900 Class "Dunalistair III". The latest addition is the safety-valves.



Alastair W had been busy making designs with Solidworks and had printed a number of North British 16-ton mineral wagons.



The task of the day was to paint the buffers he'd printed. A squirt of black from a paint pen was applied using a sharpened matchstick.

One of the Chairman's edicts was to get a move on with a model of a Caledonian water crane in time for the forthcoming Glasgow show, where we plan to display "Mearns Shed" on our recruitment table as a conversation piece. Alastair had turned a scale drawing into a very nice print - here, the printing supports have been removed with the pips yet to be trimmed off with a sharp scalpel.

Chris had come intending to work on his Raithby 4F, but had inadvertently broken the pins off the mains plug of his soldering iron, thus he had to repair the damage first. 

The 4F itself was in better shape.

Stuart was working on installing the Magnorail roadway system on his layout. We are all intrigued to see how this turns out.



Graham had made small advances with the 3D printed brickwork for Mearns Shed, thanks to Martin Stewart who kindly shared his "recipe" for emphasized mortar courses to provide a better visual impression. The result is seen on the nearer of the two prints here; the other has the original, closer-to-scale courses which are practically invisible.


Simon was working on Foxhunter LNER fish van underframes from the Buchanan Kits etch.


The Chairman's instructions previously referred to were, basically, to extract the digit regarding the buildings and backscene for Mearns Shed. This led to a flurry of activity and discussion.



Alistair M took the chance to measure up the various items of scenery which will impinge on his backscene.

I had to skip the afternoon session so can't tell how most of these activities ended up! But at least they all started well. Normal service resumes next month, with the Chairman back to keep us in line.

The next time the FCAG comes together will be at Model Rail Scotland on 23-25 February at the Scottish Event Campus by the bonnie banks of the Clyde in Glasgow ... if you're visiting, do stop by the 2mm Scale Association at Stand B26 to say hello.

Monday 15 January 2024

January 2024 Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

At a Top Secret location, deep in the heartlands of Scotland, it was the first meeting of the year for the Forth and Clyde Area Group..  To mark a new start to the year and perhaps some resolutions to advance the various projects and railways of the Group, we had twelve in attendence, Alisdair, Alistair, Alastair, Graham, Simon, Jim, James, Nigel, Andy, Chris, Stuart and I, your humble scribe, Martin.

There was no theme to this months gathering, however it was announced our wee layout - Mearns Shed - has been promised, dead or alive, for the Finescale Zone at the Perth Model Railway Exhibition, less than six short months away and so the Glorious Leader, a Alisdair has started to insist we call him, spent a bit of time instructing us all to remove various appendages from various orifices so that the layout is fit and ready to be viewed by the General Public.


Various elements of how we'll exhibit the layout were discussed - the plan is to have a box which accompanies the layout to have it at a decent viewing/operating height - The Glorious Leader had brought along a crate that apparently belongs to the Group, it was brought along and set up to test the height and stability - here Andy and Alisdair assess the height.  The crate also contained a DC controller and some black curtains, both of which may prove useful!


Stuart had brought along one of his baseboards.  Stuart has been wrking on the mill building at the front at previous area group meetings and now we can see it in situ.  The viaduct at the back is the next challenge for his building technique.  For those just joining us, the mill buildings are made from 1mm Acrylic sheet, cut to size and glued to shape, the outer faces are made from 1.5mm mountboard, cut to shape, windows excised and coloured with a mix of acrylic paint and weathering powder.

The mill isn't quite complete, but it's an impressive feature - this board measures 4' x 3' and dominates the foreground here.  This is the central board of Stuart's railway, another 4' section will be added at each side, before a loop round to a rear fiddle yard. There will also be rail served sidings in front and to the side of the mill, and a canal in front of the mill with lochs leading off to the left hand side of the image.

Stuart was in the process of sizing up part of the board to include the Magnorail system so he can have busses running behind the mill.  Stuart had brought along two packs of the Magnorail and was showing us how it all goes together.  

Stuart is an N Gauge modeller, but plans to operate with Code 40 rail, and intends to keep things as close to finescale as he can without fully converting.  I include this comment not to disparage Stuart or his layout - I'm blown away by the detail and complexity of the Mill to the extent that I currently have some sheets of mount board running through the Cricut as I write this update to see if I can replicate Stuart's techniques for my own nascent layout.  Rather to show that our Association (because for all the jokes about the benevolent dictatorship of the Glorious Leader, it is *our* association), is a broad church, and that we can both teach and learn to/from our course-scale comrades.



Graham took the admonition of the Glorious Leader to heart and was busy in a 3D drawing program, tinkering with the design for the Shed itself.  Graham intends to 3D Print the shed in a series of sections and combine them to create the whole.  Some test prints have previously been discussed on this blog - Graham had brought these along to discuss the mortar courses, however the project had stalled at this point, as many do, and he was using the Area Group meeting to go back to the project.  I didn't quite catch the conversation here, but I was assured it related to 3D CAD software...


Alastair is one who normally uses the session to work on his various 3D print designs, however today we caught him doing some "Proper modelling", working on a turnout for his intended layout.  By the end of the session Alastair had completed this turnout, now having two complete, hand built turnouts.


Jim was working on his new project, a Caledonian Railways 900 Class, better known as the Dunalastair III Class, these are express passenger locomotives, this one from Jim's own etches.  Readers of RMWeb, might have seen Jim's progress to date, and his recent issues with the brass tube for the boiler and issues with his stay alive circuit.  The boiler issue had been machined by Tim of Copenhagen Fields fame, but Jim had found issues bending the tube to form the firebox sides - Nigel came to the rescue with his Resistance Soldering Unit (more in a moment), and between Nigel and James, progress was made on the stay alive circuitry


The Dunalisdair III in its small scale glory. The level of detail on this wee beastie is something that has to be seen to be truly believed.


James and Jim ponder the intricacies of the stay alive circuitry that Jim will fit into the tender of the locomotive.

As mentioned above, Nigel had brought along his Resistance Soldering Unit, and was assembling buffer stops, and gave a demonstration on how it works.  If you excuse the dodgy photography, Nigel had set up some scrap etch and showed how to make it glow red hot.  Then how to solder with it...




Nigel's unit is from London Road Models, and retails at £245.  Whilst this is significantly more than either of the soldering irons I've bought (which together come to about £50...) Nigel did demonstrate it's ubiquity and usefulness for those doing a lot of soldering.  At about the price of a DCC Sound locomotive, it's food for thought.


Simon was working on some British Railways Mk1 Carriage Battery boxes.  Someone who will remain nameless had sold him a Farish RMB at the Scottish Minimeet last year which had apparently come without a battery box.  Despite searching high and low, the offending part could not be found and so one of the association etches had been procured as an apology.


Simon had also brought along his Christmas present, a Metro-Cammell Lightweight DMU (latterly BR Class 101).  Simon had been busy, adding drivers, passengers and weathering the loco.  He described a photograph from Mallaig of a unit sitting in the bay platform that he had used as reference to weather the loco.  It was certainly looking the part.


Chris was working on his Midland/LMS Fowler 4F, or specifically detailing the tender.  This is the now unavailable Mike Raithby etch and is certainly looking lovely.


Alistair was planning the painted backscene for Mearns Shed.  He'd constructed a 5mm =1" model of the model from foamboard to help him visualise the scenery and the required shapes and textures.  This will allow Alistair to paint the appropriate shades and features onto the backscene.

On the subject of Mearns Shed, although not photographed, the Glorious Leader (Alisdair), was working on ash pits for the layout.  The holes for these were cut around this time last year and have been awaiting filling since then.  By the end of the session, at least one was done, proving that Alisdair can do some work at an Area Group meeting...

An ongoing house move has removed Andy from his projects and tools, and as such he spent some time talking to each of us, discussing our projects and techniques on show.

James, who sat opposite me for most of the meeting, making my absence of knowledge as to what he was doing inexcusable, was working on some circuitry as well as assisting Jim with his stay alive problems.  James have brought along donuts, which kept us fuelled as we modelled and worked.

Now, unless I've miscounted, that just leaves me (Martin), who remarked to several people "I need to remember to photograph my wee project at the meeting because I don't think I've remembered to since I became Junior Assistant Press Intern".  Then promptly forgot to take any photographs...


Back at the last Perth model railway show, I had displayed some 16T mineral wagons behind the Glorious Leader's Black 5 (in Lieu of me having any 2mm locos...), and had been admonished from using a 1/506 Brake Van at the rear of this formation as these wouldn't have run with unfitted wagons.  As such, I'd picked up some of the last, now discontinued LMS Brake Van etches from the Association.  I'd started a 16T variant at a previous meeting, but had found my 25W iron wasn't cutting the mustard with the brass etched kit.  

Now equipped with a 50W iron, I returned to the van, and by the end of the session had completed most of the structure and attached the W Irons.  The eagle eyed reader will notice the above photograph also has handrails fitted - this was done after returning home.  The roof is still to be soldered on, but 3D printed axle boxes are planned, and as such, the running boards will also need glued on.  The plan is to have this finished for Model Rail Scotland so it can be displayed alongside my Mineral Wagons.  Maybe by Perth I'll have a loco to put them behind.  Notice I didn't mention which year...

Our next Area Group Meeting shall be Saturday 10th February at the Edinburgh Society of Model Engineers premises at Almondale.  Further details are within the Association Newsletter.  Whether you're one of the people named in this article, a member of the Association who's in the area, or someone curious to see what we do, please get in touch.  We've mostly stopped biting...

Thursday 14 December 2023

December Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

 'Twas a dark and stormy day, rail fell in its gallon, wind blew through, shaking the roof tiles.  An Amber warning was in effect for storms.  Or, as we with a Glasgow postcode call it, Saturday last, was the final 2023 get together of the Forth and Clyde Area Group.

An accident caused significant delay on the M8 for us heading East to Almondell, but it didn't put off the nine stalwarts of the Group, consisting of The Glorious Leader (Alisdair), Alistair, Alastair, James, Nigel, Andy, Graham, Simon, and I, your humble Scribe, Martin.

Despite the late arrivals of several of the Group, modelling was well underway from some of the Group, whilst others were partaking in the usual rounds of conversation and pontification that such a gathering of like minded modellers usually prompts.

This was all in preparation for the main event - at 14:00, a show and tell session was had, our first, and last, of the year.  There were three shows and tells, from Alisdair, James/Nigel and Martin.

Alisdair showed a new bridge that he is constructing for Lawrie Adam's Yeovil layout.  With Yeovil being about as far south as one can go from Glasgow before getting your feet wet, Alisdair had not been able to conduct a site visit for photographs/measurements/observations, but was instead working from a blown up section of scale map (from the National Library of Scotland's excellent archive), made to w2mm/ft scale, and some photographs from the layouts author.

Alisdair was using a new technique (for him), which I am absolutely certain we will see grace the pages of the Association Magazine (won't we...?) using a cheap pre-mixed filler to form both the structure and texture of the outer walls of each pier.  He would apply a thin layer of the paste into a Plastikard former, then draw another formed piece of Plastikard over the top - this one with grooves, almost like a very short comb, which gave the horizontal indents to replicate stonework - with a piece of scrap etch held in a pin vice to make the upright indents.


Some of the piers were available for viewing - His Excellency had forgotten a box of parts, so only part of the bridge was available for display.  Alisdair had constructed a Plastikard template to ensure the brdge fits in its final position down South.


Alisdair also showed some progress on painting.  He noted that acrylic paints seemd to sook into the plaster at an alarming rate, whereas enamel paints seemed better.  Nigel suggested varnishing the surface would help with this - Martin adds many days later, that painting a thin layer of PVA glue over the top has a similar effect.

James discussed progress on the Group layout - Mearns Shed. - with some input from Nigel.  Nigel had been working on the fiddle stick, and had appeared with an offcut of ply which will, by the next meeting, be our proposed fiddle stick.


James has been hard at work on the electrics side of the model.  He has been working on the MERG controller and two DC supplies for lighting inside the lid.  This will be a single box, into which plugs the DCC Controller and a single lead which will connect to the layout and do all the stuff.


There was some discussion around failures and how we'd deal with the controller going down, or the cable breaking etc. without carrying a huge box of spares.  We'll keep this mostly secret for now, as we don't want to reveal the tricks of the various electrickery and wizardry that happens behind the scenes of a Model Railway!

Martin shared some progress on his CR439 build(s).  Martin's prototype is based around the Cathcart Circle in Glasgow, which was almost uniquely ran by the venerable Caledonian Railways 439 Class until the introduction of LMS and BR Standard tank engines later in the lines history (we'll deal with the complexities of valvegear constructionat for these prototypes some point in the future...).  As such, he's looking to build "at least two" to haul the eventual passenger rakes he enviseges.  When he's got track down, anyway...

He's also an idiot and forgot to take pictures of his own work.

There is currently no N Gauge CR439 and the only available kit is a Scratch Aid from Worsley Works.  This is a fantastic fret of etches but is somewhat lacking in some parts, and also wasn't desiged for 2FS components which has caused some headaches for Martin.  However, The Glorioius Leader had made an offhand comment back at the Perth Show about the Dapol LSWR M7 Class - "You could hack one of these up and make a 439 if you tried hard enough".

Martin had done some research and found that this is because they had the same designer, Dugold Drummond who was Chief Mechanical Engineer of both railways in his lifetime.  A forlorn search of Shop 3, looking to see if the J94 Chassis was back in stock (hint), and discovery that the Association makes an M7 Chassis etch prompted Martin to buy one, and well, it's close enough for Government work (sorry Jim!)  Nigel had suggested making the loco an 4-2-2 to help with the wiggle that 0-4-4s sometimes have in miniature, and the M7 does come with a tab to help with this, it is however, about 5mm further forward should be on a 439.  Watch this space...

Around the rest of the room... Simon had brought some of his American outline N-Gauge stock to run around ESME's club layout.  I didn't manage to get any action shots of this, as by the time I arrived, got settled, had some lunch and started taking photos, the loco had decided it didn't fancy running and Simon took it to bits to get to the bottom of the issue - the underframe of what looks like more fish vans for his Glenfinnan layout forgotten on the mat.  With some assistance from Nigel, the loco was back to full working order by the end of the session.



Graham was sat with laptop open ("there's more laptops than soldering irons!" exclaimed Alisdair at one point in the meeting.  Graham had open some photographs from the Caledonian Railway Archive of a junction he suggested would make an excellent scale model, with multiple slips and crossings.  In this photograph the Grande Fromage is enthralled by Grahams's description.


The Captain (or is he an Admiral currently...?) had brought along his Admiralty Vicualling Inshore Craft (I got it first time!), this is it in its finished glory.  Alisdair said it had been a great experience and highlighted how much he doesn't know about modelling, and that skills from building model ships or aircraft would probably find a home on the railways. the scale model ones that is.  He'd decided to scratch build a number of components to compliment the kit, and intends to build a display frame for it to.  

Sadly, he hadn't brought along anything with which to christen the Isabel...


Finally, or at least the final photos I took (apologies if I missed your modelling!), were of my own work.  I (Martin) had been working on my Class 08 started at the Beginner Locomotive Chassis Workshop, back in September.  I have been struggling with getting the motor mounted and meshing - the wheels spin freely by themselves, as soon as the motor had been applied, nothing seems to want to work.  Alisdair had a look under magnification and discovered that the skew gear appeared awfully sharp - which he assures me can cause issues, and suggested application of a steel brush in a minidrill.  Again, watch this space...


With that, I hope I speak for the whole of the Forth and Clyde Area Group in wishing you, dear reader, a most Merry of Christmasses or Festive of Holidays (delete as appropriate) and the Happiest of Hogmanay's.  We hope Santa is good to you all and many frets of etches and other 2FS goodies are found in stockings and wrapped in boxes under trees.

Our next meeting, the first of 2024 will be Saturday 13th January 2024 at Almondell.  We accept waifs and strays of all types, visitors from elsewhere in the Association and the occasional non-2FS modeller.  Contact details are in the Association Newsletter which accompanies the Magazine.

(Edited for typos. It's been a long week...)