July 2021 FCAG Meeting

A different author this month. Our Press Officer, Graham, has done a sterling job over the past five years, setting up and maintaining this blog. It's time to give the willing horse a rest, so from now on, expect different authors each month, although, just to be nasty, the Press Officer will be pressed back into service now and again, if only to show the rest of us up. Thanks, Graham! Your dedication to the cause has been (and will be) much appreciated.

 

This month's FCAG jamboree was once again held at ESME Almondell. Unfortunately, due to the unexpected weather conditions, (a strange yellow thing in the sky was scaring the bejabers out of many of us who have the good fortune to live in Scotland) only three of us turned up for the jollifications in West Lothian. Alastair, Chris and Alisdair braved the extreme temperatures (which had reached double figures Centigrade - jings!) and talked 2mm matters for a short while then told each other tremendous lies about those not present. Certainly I hope they were lies; I really don't think that can be done without stripping the copper off sleepers, even between consenting adults.

"Enough of this twaddle!" I hear you say. "Never had any of this nonsense when there was a professional in charge!" OK, I'll get on with it.

As our tame representative of ESME, Alastair took Chris for a tour of the works going on at the site to build the various circuits for 7", 5" and 3" gauges. It's extremely impressive with a turntable being built outside the meeting room. It will be hand operated. I suspect they don't fancy the challenge of getting a stepper motor adjusted.

Alastair had brought us some photos of his current locomotive construction; a 5" gauge LMSR 2P 4-4-0 tender locomotive. It looks like it will be a very impressive beast. No problem with counting rivets there.

 

It must take some time out of the progress he is making on making his 2mm layout baseboards using foamboard and his own 3D printed components. He is also involved in the construction of an ESME N Gauge layout in the same room as we were meeting. We forgave him for his heretical behaviour, because we're nice and aren't as bigoted as some make out. Still, he was sent out to the corridor for an hour to consider his errant ways.

Chris showed us his highly impressive Fowler 4F constructed from a Raithby kit. This is his first locomotive build in any scale (I think) and he is making a superb job of it. He showed us a video of it operating under DC (it will be a DCC model) and it is running extremely smoothly. Here's a non-moving image of the beastie with chimney and dome precariously balanced on top of the boiler and smokebox.:

 And one with Chris' piece of fluff:

 Lovely stuff. And now he is working on handwheels for the cab. Such joyous madness!

Alisdair had been playing with his Silhouette cutter to ease the pain of making Highland Railway timber building with their planks with cover strips, using plastikard with sticky paper on top. The sticky paper was cut through after sticking on to the plastic and then removing the unwanted bits. Reasonably successful and much easier than individual strips stuck down. Here is his experimental mens' lavvy

 

He also showed his N Brass hand crane and Buchanan Kits horse lorry:

 

In the afternoon, five of those poor folk who had been so comprehensively denigrated earlier in the day, joined us by means of the magic of Zoom for the discussion subject of the day: Servos. Andy, Graham, James, Mick and Roy joined in what we hope will become a regular feature every second month.

James led the servo discussion with an excellent presentation on the differences between analogue and digital servos. He talked with clarity on the subject, using words of one syllable for the benefit of the luddites among us i.e, me. Some elementary explanations were provided

Leading to James' conclusions. He was of the opinion that analogue is fine for turnout operations, but digital suits signal operation much more effectively due to its finer control.

 

There was some discussion as to whether low noise is necessary or not. Depends whether you are in an exhibition (remember them?) setting.

A couple of the members use servos with their electronics ripped out to operate points and signals, effectively just geared motors operated by centre-off switches under manual control. Mick showed us how to remove the electronics and a demonstration set-up for operating a signal using such a beast:

 Alisdair showed his decidedly low-tech approach to turnout operation using a similarly stripped-out servo. It uses a laser-cut support produced by former Group member, Martin.

 Moving off the subject of servos, but still with electronics, Nigel briefly showed us some comments he is using in development of wagon recognition for a friend's 4mm layout using RFID technology. (For others like me, I just had to look it up; it means Radio Frequency Identification.)

Nigel had also been working towards the fateful day when FCAG will be producing copper-clad sleepers for the Association. Using Fonly technology, he has produced a sleeper gapping machine to replace the existing one, which apparently is fairly non-portable, needing hire of a 20t mobile crane. (I may have exaggerated the weight somewhat, but that's my prerogative. So there.) Simple, but ingenious.

It was agreed that incorporation of the Zoom meeting, for FCAG members and loons of the Grampian Area Group, had been a success, so worth repeating every second month.

Our next meeting will be back at Almondell on Saturday 14th August. Hopefully, more than three of us next time.