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...)

November Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

 It was a damp and driech morning at the Edinburgh Society of Model Engineers premises at Almondell near Livingston.  Not that this discouraged attendence at the monthly Forth and Clyde Area Group meeting.  Some eleven members assembled for some or all of the meeting - Alisdair, Alistair, Alastair, Graham, Jim, James, Stephen, Andy, Richard, Stuart and Martin being in attendence.

The main theme of the meeting was a presentation from our comrades of the Grampian Area Group on their project, Dunallander which was recently shown at the Aberdeen Model Railway Show.

Dunallander is the legacy of the late Neil Ballantine which was taken on by the Grampian Area Group after his passing.  The 8.5 x 2.4m layout is based on Dunblane, but strays from the prototype and so bears a name drawn from Dundee and Callander, two places important in Neil's life.  The presentation went into the history of the layout, it's acquisition and development to the present day.  Our thanks to Roy, Tony and John for the presentation.

Less thanks go to Graham who, to much jeering and grumbling, asked "so what can we do to help...?" at the end of the presentation.  The motion of discommunication and associated voting slips shall be in the next Association Newsletter...

Dunallander is due to be displayed at the Perth Model Railway Show held 29th and 30th June 2024.  And for the benefit of those members in the Southern Hemisphere, Perth, Perthshire, Scotland.

For more information on Dunallander and its development, the Grampian Area Group website/blog has tracked the project.

In addition to the presentation there was a great deal of work going on around the room.  In the case of this Junior Press Assistant, so much he forgot to take photos not only of his own work, but of several other people's too - so my apologies if I've missed you out.  The motion of discommunication and associated voting slips will be in the next Association Newsletter...

Jim, The Glorious Leader (as Alisdair now insists we call him, what is it they say about power...), and Graham are seen here working on the Group Layout, Mearns Shed.  The trackwork has now passed the Track Engineer's testing and is released for general use, allowing us to start populating the scene and thinking about making it pretty.

Several of the Area Group had been volunteered into making some sort of structure for the layout, and one-by-one we were called over and given clear and concise instructions by The Glorious Leader as to what we'd "agreed" to do and what it was to look like.  Markings were made on the baseboards to indicate rough positions.

There was additional discussion, with heavy involvement from James, regarding electronics, electrics, supply and storage of all the associated bits in relation to a layout.  There was a suggestion that an additional box would be required, and this should be of a suitable size to allow its use as a pedestal for the layout to sit on should the table at an exhibition be too low to the ground for most viewers.

Elsewhere in the room, Stuart was working on more scenics for his layout.  Having completed the behemoth that is the mill building, he was continuing to work on the various outbuildings and what looks like a card former to help inset it into the layout.

Alistair had brought along some drawings of a rather complex farm building he intends to manufacture in Plastikard to practice building structues in this way.  The top drawing shows the structure broken into seven simpler structures.

Stephen had brought along a new purchase - an N Gauge BR Stanadard Class 5 with a rather potent wee speaker that ran, much like the 4F of a few months ago, on DC, although it did highlight some areas of ESME's track that needed cleaning.  Sadly no photo.

Alastair continued working on his Class 03 chassis from the workshop at the end of September.  Here pictured attaching the crankpin washers to seal the coupling rods in place.

Other, unphotographed work was ongoing, with Graham sweating over his soldering iron, removing and replacing the innards of his Class 08, and Jim with a new wagon etch, both sadly unphotographed, and I had brought along some heavy machinery to assist with tracklaying - motivation having abandoned me about May and now resurfacing as the nights draw in.  Four pieces of track were ready for gluing by the end of the session, with holes drilled in the baseboards for droppers and turnout motors.  Sadly no photographs for this blog as I forgot...

Our next meeting is the final of the Year, to be held at Almondell on Saturday 9th December.  Any interested parties, or waif and strays from the broader assocaition can make contact through the email address in the Association Newsletter if they are in the area and fancy attending.

October 2023 Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

 Jings! Not to mention Crivvens!! And even Help Ma Boab!!!

Anither Forth and Clyde Area Group meeting. Can the world cope? 

Yes, folks, another earth shattering event was held at a secret location in the woods of ESME, Almondell, when six stalwart 'ssociation members gathered to yatter and blether about 2mm finescale modelling (after the appropriate secret handshakes and codewords had been exchanged - one can never be too careful, can one?) It felt like the first day of winter, with a sudden plummet of external temperature which was not much tempered inside the clubrooms. However, the hot air being spouted by the half dozen on Jim, James, Al (just one), Graham, Stuart and Chris soon melted the thinner glaciers in the room. 

The immortal (or does it just feel like that, seeming to have been on the go forever?) Group layout, Mearns Shed, was there. It was having the trackwork further put through its paces by Jim and James, using a number of wildly varying models of kettles: 

That's a Russell Hobbs 5MT in the foreground with a Kenwood Jumbo in the background. Other steamy ephemera included an exNB 4-4-42T and, a Caley 2-2-WT. (When the latter was running, a moratorium on sneezing was declared to avoid an inadvertent long distance trip being taken by the wee beastie...) It was decided the track is as good as prototype locomotive shed i.e. just about acceptable.

Unfortunately, due to the absence of the Assistant Press Officer and some adroit and nifty footwork by the Senior PO, it was left to this shambling wreck of a scribe to try and reach the heights of literary description involved in the essays produced by said gentlemen. Said shambling wreck forgot his duties to such an extent that he omitted to probe the further works of Jim and James, which looked quite technical (so wouldn't have been understood by the scribe, anyway). Apologies to those fine gentlemen.

Coming back to the subject of the everlasting layout, later in the day, some butchery was carried out forming ashpits in what will become the apron in front of the shed entrance, involving the wielding of a very sharp Stanley knife in a rather concerning manner. Nevertheless the job was done without loss of fingers or any other appendages.

In other parts of the room, members were busy beavering away. 

Chris, returning to the fold after a spring and summer of yo-ho-hoing and running up the ratlines on his clipper in the mountainous seas off Tibbie Shiel's Inn, showed us the lovely little vacuum ejector on his 4F. A very neat job indeed, particularly considering it was done in his hammock during time off from yo-ho-hoing etc. (presumably).

Over on the left was Stuart, the master mill builder who was mastering mill buildings to an impressive extent. He had brought along his current progress. Looking absolutely the part, you can't but agree. 

And still he maintains his enthusiasm even after cutting all those windows by hand. He claims he retains his sanity...

Speaking about enthusiasm, Graham still retained his, after the recent Loco Chassis workshop and was beavering away on his Class 08 chassis, meeting and overcoming the inevitable niggles on the way. He did manage to use some surprising words which aren't in my school dictionary, though. I must ask him what they meant at the next meeting.

Alisdair was brave enough to show his face after spending the last couple of months, not railway modelling but straying from the One True Way, by making a wee puffer.

To make matters worse, it's not to 1/152 scale, nor even to the much-mocked 1/148, but to 1/144!  Somebody will have to have a word with him. He did try to recover some of his dignity by showing a couple of  railway ED wagons he had been working on. Still don't know if he can be trusted though...

Now for a bit of Forth and Clyde Area Group history. Way back in the 1970s, when the group was formed, Fergus was a keen member. Although he has long forsaken 2mm modelling (he now makes very fine stuff in 4mm), he had kept the 2mm models he had made. He has donated them to the Group and James brought them along. Here's some of the scratchbuilt stuff. Showing it's age, and a wee bit knocked about, it is a reminder that 2mm was not always as easy as it is now.

Ah, the Good Old Days! And many thanks to Fergus for his kind donation.

Finally, what a nice pleasant surprise! We were treated to a wee trip behind a steam engine on ESME's big layout in the woods outside.

The smell of coal burning was highly evocative and the wee machine fairly hurtled through the forest with some impressive acceleration. Thanks very much to Peter of ESME who owns the loco and was the driver. Great fun!

Next month, we will be convening on Saturday 11th November, when we will be being treated to a talk by the Dunallander team on their progress to date.

Beginner Locomotive Chassis Workshop

Those who follow this blog regularly will have seen some discussion of an upcoming Beginners Locomotive Chassis Workshop.  There had been a great deal of discussion within the area group of locomitive building, it was seen by some as a barrier for entry - the soldering together of the chassis block itself is relatively simple on the face of it, however, knowing how to bring the rest of the components together to form a functioning chassis was eluding many of us.

Alisdair, our Glorious Leader and an accomplished locomotive builder, was badgered by a number of us lowly new-starts at various Area Group meetings to an extent that the Area Group could host a specific workshop to focus on our problems and give the poor man some peace...

As such, on Saturday 30th September, a number of us gathered at the ESME premises at Almondale to focus on locomotive chassis building.  Alastair, Alistair, Graham, Simon, Andy, Martin and, visiting from the North East Area Group, Tony, gathered to hear from the experiences of Alisdair, Jim and James.

We had been set homework - to work on a 2FS chassis from the range of conversion kits available on the Association website (3-630 - 3-691).  Some of us paid closer heed to this than others, as I (Martin) had been working on the Association Class 08 kit.

I will apologise, photographs and descriptions are relatively sparse as I spent most of the meeting trying to sort my chassis out, but I will do my best...

Alastair was working on his Class 03/04 Chassis.  He had done a CAD Drawing and 3D printed a body to go over the association etched chassis.  By the end of the meeting the chassis was running under its own power (well, track power), with wheels quartered and coupling rods held on with the traditional wire insulation.

 

Simon and Alistair were working on 3F Jinty's.  Progress was steady through the meeting, however, no photos were found.

Andy was working on a chassis he had converted himself but wasn't running particularly smoothly (I'm sorry Andy, I think you said it was a J-something but I forget...).  It went through a phase of not working after Alisdair had fiddled, to working again and running under its own power by the end of the session.

Alisdair floated around the room pointing out tweaks and suggesting the root cause of problems.  We catch him here discussing Alastair's 3D printed body for his 03.

Graham was also working on a Class 08 - this one 3-681, the Graham Farish Conversion etch rather than the Association kit (3-711a and beyond).  He and James were discussing gearing here if my notes are correct - one of the learning points from the weekend was Visually Inspecting each of the gears and using either a very fine file or some 400 grit sandpaper/wet and dry to polish each of the teeth and remove any burrs etc.

Tony had brought along one of his myriad of Black 5's made from the Association "kit". I think he's got 7 or 9 of the kits to do - see 2020s Blog entries!  He had admitted work had stalled, and had brought along his kit to seek advice on bending/rolling some of the bodywork.  He and Jim also spent some time discussing valve gear - Jim loudly saying thanks to Messrs Sinclair, Connor, Brittain, Drumond, Smellie, Lambie, McIntosh and Pickersgill of the Caledonian Railway that they had seen such things as unnecessary in their locomotive design.

Tony had also brought along some converted stock, part of the fleet for the North East Scotland Area Group's Dunallander layout, being exhibited at the Aberdeen Model Railway show at the end of October.  He and Jim spend some time looking over these so they would be fit to run.

A final shot of Graham working on his Class 08 - the gears are in, the wheels are in and quartered by hand.  He'd used the association quartering jig to help insert the wheels, however, the jig is set up for more traditional wheels and struggles with the external cranks of the Class 08, meaning fine tuning was done by hand.

I, typically, forgot to take photos of my own work and am writing this from the common room of a hostel in Germany and was forbidden from bringing any modelling supplies so cannot take any photos...  

However, I had brought along my 08 and my J94.  The J94 issues appeared to be related to a stripped worm, and a new worm was fitted which improved running, however, necessitated removal of the motor, and will still require the gearbox to be fixed on the free side - some 0.4mm and 0.8mm PCB has been procured.

The 08 started as a bare chassis and by the end of the meeting was fitted with gears and wheels with quartering complete, and requiring the motor mount fixed in place.  There may be more of an update at the next Area Group meeting.

Overall this was an incredibly useful session which helped develop our skills.  There was discussion about holding a more advanced workshop at some point in the future, looking at things like rolling boilers and valve gear - for me, who has at least one Black 5 in my future, say nothing of some BR Standard and LMS large tanks in my future, this sounds incredibly useful.

It was suggested that we each keep a locomotive on the go to allow us to have these more focused sessions on a halfly or yearly basis to help us progress the various projects.

Our next meeting is the usual Area Group Meeting on the 14th October.  Visitors from other Area Groups and those of no fixed abode are always welcome.  We've mostly stopped biting.  Contact details are in the Association Newsletter which accompanies the Magazine

September 2023 FCAG Meeting

Saturday was the monthly meeting of the Forth and Clyde Area Group, where eight brave souls ventured out in soul melting heat to model the railways of yesteryear in the Finest of Scales (see what I did there?)  Alastair, Alistair, Jim, James, Nigel, Stuart, Graham and Martin were in attendance this month. 

There were two distinct themes to this months meeting, with the modelling projects falling nicely into two discrete categories, the Group Layout and locomotive works, with only minor diversions along the way.

Work continued on the Group Layout.  Jim had been beavering away at home continuing the wiring and testing with his fleet of Caledonian Railways locomotives, some of which were on show.  However, it was pointed out that there had almost certainly been no diesel traction gracing the irons.  Well, Nickle/Silvers.  And so, several of these locomotives, from Class 26, to Class 37 to Class 121 were ran through the various turnouts in various orders to check gauging and movement - with Jim's admonition that "Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseasels" ringing in our ears.

This did throw up a couple of issues running under DC which were rectified in short order by Jim and Nigel, and before lunchtime, all of the roads and turnouts had been tested under the wheels of several diesels, and one or two of Jim's CR locomotives.

This work also threw up a couple of running issues with Martin's Class 26 and 37 - the 26 wasn't running at all under DC, and the 37 was making an awful noise - and no, not the agricultural sound of the engine for Martin has not fitted the loco for DCC Sound (yet) - something was clicking in the mechanisms, somewhere.  Confessing a lack of knowledge in how to remedy either of these issues, Nigel stepped in to inspect the issues and help remedy them, resolving the issues through careful inspection and fault finding.

The Caledonian Railway "Jumbo", resplendent in the "goods black" livery of the Caley, one of Jim's newer constructs, from his own etches.

Another of Jim's vast loco fleet, this time CR No.29, the flagship of the 29 Class, equipped with condensing apparatus to allow working underground through the Caledonian Railway routes under the city of Glasgow.

On the subject of the Group Layout - Alistair had constructed a miniature mock-up of the layout to aid in understanding how the backscene would go together.  He continued looking at various books and photos for inspiration, a plan appears to be coming together.

Nigel and Jim discussed the "fiddle stick", the exterior attachment to the layout to allow stock to enter and leave the scene without the hand of god, or at least a 2FS modeller, reaching in and out at random.  Jim had prepared a sketch, which he and Nigel discussed and debated.  The hole to the real world was cut into the side panel too, with a couple of locos used to test clearances.

Graham, in his first of two entries this month, had brought along some 3d test prints of the engine shed which will be the primary focal point of the layout.  Based on the design of Forfar, he had been testing brick spacing and course depth to create the optimal structure.  There was some discussion on painting the brick and mortar, with three strategies suggested:

1. Don't - it's too small to see in 2mm

2. Paint the mortar colour as the basecoat, then drybrush the brick colour over the top.

3. Paint the brick colour first, then varnish.  Apply a wash of a very thinned down sand/offwhite oil paint, leave for around an hour, then use a cloth/cotton bud dipped in thinner to wipe the excess of the top surface, leaving the lighter colour in the appropriate places.

Not falling into either of the two well defined categories, was Stuart, who was continuing work on his N Gauge Mill building(s).  Last month we saw how he used 1mm clear acrylic to make the main shell of the building, using the white backing paper to create the window detail, and used mountboard to create the outer shell, with windows cut out and brickwork scribed in.  This time round he was painting the whole of the mountboard with a grey acrylic paint as a base.  He paints both the inner and outer face to prevent warping, and ensures to get the insides of all the windows so none of the card colour shows through.  The next step is to use Humbrol weathering powders to create texture and colour more towards the brown of the prototype.

For those who may be new to the Blog, this is the first scratchbuilt building Stuart has ever attempted! "I've got a thirteen arch viaduct to do next" he told us as we looked on in wonder.

On the locomotive building front, four of our members had brought chassis to work on.  The idea of the Beginners Locomotive Workshop, being hosted at the end of the month, is for those of us who haven't bult a working chassis, or have to limited success or confidence, to have a go and make a good attempt at getting something running, then use the experience of the tutors to correct any issues and get a clean running chassis.  Several of the Group have evidently left the whole "have a go at building a chassis" to the same last minute as this reporter, and were using the session to make a start, or progress.

Graham was working on a chassis for a Class 08.  He'd opted for the Graham Farish conversion etch and had procured a body in Network SouthEast livery (we really are a broad church...), rather than the Association "kit" which allows one to build both the chassis and the body (see below...).  He had the chassis together and square and was proceeding with gearing ready for the beginners locomotive workshop being held at the end of the month.

Alastair was also working on a chassis, this time for a Class 03.  Sitting down to start the process of gearing he realised he didn't have any axle steel and was at a loss at what to do, until a kind soul donated a length.  

The build progressed at a fair pace with gearing installed by midway through the meeting.

Alastair had also been busy with his 3D printed North British wagons, some now progressing through the paint shop.  His next step is detailing and numbering before weathering.  Whilst the Association does stock the Modelmaster NBR transfer sheet, Alistair is toying with the idea of 3d printing some stencils to apply the markings in a more prototypical fashion.  He was also displaying his first PCB built turnout, now complete and tested.

Martin made a start on his Class 08, between servicing the Diesels, taking photos and joining in with the conversations and discussions, he made it as far as putting the PB bearings into the frames.

This Class 08 the full "kit" from the Association.  This differs from the conversion etch in a number of ways (for one, having the cab/body to build and detail oneself), but primarily in the lack of the cantilevered gearbox seen on other etches, with the worm being sat directly on the skew gear using the Associations 3d printed motor mounts, for which there is a flap in the etch with appropriately sized holes for the feet.  There is potential for some etching in Martin's future, as a couple of the locomotives he wishes to run either aren't available in N Gauge to convert, or don't have specific conversion etches available and he thought this setup was a very clever idea he may "borrow".

Martin had also brought along his J94 chassis, now running under power on the rolling road.  Mostly.  He had found that the cantilever gearbox, previously discussed, has a tendency to flex whilst the motor is turning, disengaging the worm from the skew gear and preventing the wheels from turning.  This was an issue a couple of the others had seen, and the suggested fix is to solder a sufficiently gapped PCB Sleeper to the open side of the gearbox and the opposite frame to hold everything in place.  This may be reported on again at the loco workshop.

James had brought along his chassis to work on, another Class 03, but in setup of his MERG DCC controller and test setup (see last month's blog), a buzzer was sounding which indicated a fault, however, it wasn't clear which fault the buzzer was specifically indicating! so James spent some time fault finding, dissessembling and reassembling his controller.

He'd also brought along his Volt-Wagon.  That is not a typo, rather a novel idea for testing track voltage "as the loco might see it".  He and another P4 modeller had created one from a proprietry van during the 2020 lockdown, James designing the electronics and his compatriot building the van.  James wanted to test whether it was possible in 2mm, and so, using a spare Peco van, he was in the process of installing the electrics to turn it into a voltmeter, on wheels.

The P4 compete model on the right, with the 2FS model under construction on the left

The P4 Model "under test" so as to show how it works.  An ingenious idea!  This also shows James' home built controller, capable of running DC and DCC to both the test tracks on top, and via a set of leads a whole layout - much of the testing of the Group layout was done using this setup.

And so concludes this month's FCAG meeting.  Lots of modelling going on around the room, lots of projects underway.

Our next meeting will be the Locomotive Workshop on 30th September - there are still places available, if you are at all interested in visiting the Central Belt and joining us, details are in the Association Newsletter which accompanied the last magazine.

The next monthly meeting is due to be Saturday 14th October, guests always welcome.