Perhaps it was to shelter from the unnerving radiance above us, or perhaps because it made the drive more pleasurable, but this month we had near record turnout with Alisdair, Alastair, Alistair, Jim, Graham, Simon, Stephen, Andy, Miles, Stuart and I your humble reporter, Martin in attendence. For those with their bingo cards and have missed their full house, apologies were passed from two of our members who also dabble in the 4mm/ft world as they had other commitments.
Before we delve into the reports on the various ongoing projects, you may have noted that our Press Officer was in fact in attendence, but someone new(ish) is writing the blog. Fear not dear reader, this was not Graham's final outing, he has not (yet) been excomunicated from the Association. Rather, he has been promoted to the lofty heights of Editor in Chief of this high quality source of 2FS News, whilst I have been graced with the title of Trainee Assistant Junior Intern Press Underling and given access to the blog. Graham will, I am sure, contribute on occasion, but the buck has been passed to me - or as it was described to me "You'll do all the work, and I'll claim all the credit!"
With this out of the way, time for the interesting stuff!
There was much modelling on the go, with everyone, except our Chairman, working on both the Group layout and individual projects across the room. In no particular order:
Both Simon and Alisdair had brought along their 2FS(ish) Clyde Puffers - which did ellicit a suggestion of a new Special Interest Group, though the uptake was lukewarm around the room.
The prototype for these Clyde Puffers, or more properly Admiralty Vicualling Inshore Crafts (VICs) - say what you will about the Royal Navy, they certainly know how to come up with a catchy name - were built during WW1 to allow the transfer of goods and victuals from shore establishments to the vessles of the Royal Navy, Merchants and allies. After the war, many were sold into Private service and plied a trade across the West Coast of Scotland (and further afield), carrying small amounts of goods and supplies to remote communities.
These are resin cast kits with various detailing parts which the pair had acquired and started working on. Simon's eventual goal is to build a model of Mallaig which had (and has) a harbour close to the station where this will sit. In the above action shot, Simon is continuing to build Fish Vans which will take the catch from Mallaig, through Glenfinnan and down to the fish markets of the central belt.
Alisdair just thought the model was pretty.
Jim, much recovered, was working on the Group Layout - Mearns Shed - there had been an issue with a turnout not throwing, and Jim was just the man to fix it.
Much fiddling and swearing later, it turned out that the Tunout Operating Unit had been overtightened, so causing an excess of friction that the wire-in-tube mechanism was unable to overcome. Jim spent a good portion of the time before lunch fault finding and fettling until smooth operation ensued. Having never worked with wire-in-tube turnout operations (I've got DCC Concepts Cobalts, and have previously seen and used SEEP motors), this was a very educational session watching over Jim's shoulder at another way to do turnout control.
The time after lunch was spent lifting and relaying the shed roads, as someone who shall remain entirely nameless, had laid them slightly askew, then dug the ash pits into the baseboard... This was short work for Jim who had the lines up, straightened and back down before 4pm, ready for electrification to commence (under the boards, it's not that kind of layout!)
Jim had also brought along his recently finished rake of Caledonian Coaches - painted and detailed to the usual exquisite standard of Jim's models. These are two 65' "Grampian" 12 wheeled Brake Thirds and a First comprising the Caledonian's Edinburgh-Glasgow Direct stock - though they were seen in such exotic places as Gourock behind 766 Class (Dunalisdair II) locomotives which Jim is considering for his next loco build. Jim has catalogued the build of these coaches on RMWeb
Alistair was continuing his preparations for creating the backscene to the layout, taking measurements and searching for coninued inspiration
Stephen had brought his usual collections of railway press, and a couple of recent acquisitions. A Sonic Models J50 ("should be easy to convert, it's the same underframe as a Jinty!")
And a GF Midland Fowler 4F, lightly weathered, and what's that noise? A chuffing? Yes the locomotive is fitted for DCC sound, which, even on a DC rolling road elicited a nice background ambience for the steam modellers in the room.
I've never been all that enamoured with Sound fitted locos, but I have to say, the sound quality off this wee beastie (which wouldn't be too out of place on my own layout) was very good, both the quality of the sound and noise it made. Those with less impulse control than I may have been very tempted to purchase one, as conversion to 2FS can't be all that difficult... (can it...?)
Stuart continued work on his very imposing mill building for his Finetrax N Gauge layout.
He'd had a conversation with York Modelmaking at the York show (where Peter Kirmond's 2FS representation of th eponymous LNER station was on display, as reported in April's Railway Modeller, and by Peter himself on RMWeb), about roofing slates. And now he was studiously cutting out individual rows of tiles and transferring these to the card frame of the roof.
He and Alisdair had a conversation about Alisdair's experiments with a siloutte cutter to produce similar results - as described in the annuls of this very publication. Again, a very interesting discussion to listen to - Plastikard has been the method of construction I've employed in the past so to see how other people are building things - in a medium I've not necessarily thought highly of in the past is another great thing about Area Groups and the discussions had.
Alastair was continuing work on his 3D printed North British mineral wagons for his planned Queensferry layout. As reported in months past, Alastair had tried to print these as a single piece but found various issues, and had been through a series of design iterations. Today, he brought the newst prints, the W Irons and underframe as one assembly, the body as a second. With association axle bearings added to the W Irons he was cleaning the wagons off the print base and supports, and gluing the two parts together.
At the start of the meeting there were none, and by the end a short rake of three wagons, with a fourth on the way, were sitting ready for the paint shop.
Some discussion around couplings ensued - Alastair has an idea for a home made 3D printed coupling (patent pending), which I am sure will feature here in due course.
Andy continued his work building turnouts to convert his layout to 2FS. Andy has two parts to his layout, the first, Lomand Bridge, which was displayed at the Scottish Minimeet a few weeks prior, is a branchline terminus, the second is based on Aberdour, which was a relatively small station with regular stopping services, but serving the line between Edinburgh and Aberdeen over the Forth Rail Bridge would routinely see A4 Pacific hauled expresses, so gives a good variety for running - from the local pick up goods to fast non-stopping expresses.
Our Esteemed Editor in Chief, unburdened by the task of reporting, spent a lot of time in conversation with first Simon, then Alisdair, with topics ranging from the Constitution of the Association (See the magazine suppliment!) to a prospective "putting the world to rights" night in Glasgow through to the role of the Clyde Puffers.
However, after a while, he settled into the manufacture of the LNWR Goods Brake van, acquired at the Association Diamond Jubilee show in Derby where it caught his eye. Progress was made as the kit started to come together
So relieved from rigours of journalistic duties, Graham was the last to pack up!
Miles was working on his fourth Class 03/04 shunter Chassis - after attending the recent Loco Building Workshop in Bradford, he wanted to continue his work towards a running chassis.
This prompted some discussion with the other members present regarding locomotive building - it's all well and good building wagons, but we do need something to haul them. A quick survey of the room showed that only a handful had attempted building a loco, only three had running examples, and only Alisdair and Jim have working fleets - many of which have been shown off in various states of build in past editions.
This led to a proposal for a "Scottish Loco Building Workshop" under the tuteledge of our more experienced members - not so much limited to the building of Scottish Locomotives - though with Jim's fleet uniquely Caledonian Railway, and Alisdair having a fondness for the Highland Railway and Scottish locos in general... - rather a similar arrangement to the recent Bradford event up here in the wild frontiers of the barely civilised Central Belt.
In true executive fashion, Alisdair has actioned Miles to investigate the possibility of running this at Almondale after the busy summer period. More information to follow.
This once again prompted the question of which chasssis are the best for newcomers - the general consensus was that the chassis offered by the association for conversion of Graham Farish/Dapol locomotives were a good starting point, as was the Associaton 08 Shunter "kit", whilst the scratch aids of the likes of Worsley Works were good and useful, but required some more thought so were perhaps not ideal as a first attempt unless one was an experienced locomotive builder in another scale.
Unless my memory (and any subsequent editing) is playing tricks on me, this leaves me. Saving the best till last? More likely that I forgot to photograph my own work, so intent was I in making sure I spoke to everyone else and took a note on what they were working on. Ah well - the advantage of being the reporter is I can take my photos at home...
I was putting the finishing touches on a pair of the ubiquitous BR 1/108 16T Mineral Wagons. I've recently finished painting another set of four of these by a "new and novel method" (for me at least) and was preparing more to head towards the paint shop. An almost step-by-step is found on RMWeb. There is a cunning plan afoot, but more of that on another day.
As with Alastair, I was questioned on couplings - I have a couple of frets of DGs in various states of construction as I've been taking Shop 2/4 orders over the minimum required for free postage, but find the wire bending, and the soldering of the dropper quite challenging - so I put them back in their box and built some more wagons - I have been experimenting with building the whole loop out of the magnetic wire, but found this more challenging to bend. Maybe for next month I'll have some of these ready, or maybe I'll just build some more wagons...
I did have a conversation with Alisdair about Elektra coupings as favoured by some prominent members of the association - I have previously discussed the Alex Jackson's with Jim who has hundreds of them built, but feel these are potentially beyond my skills. I'm tempted by the Elektra's, having helped run Alisdair's "Aucheidh" at the NEAG Anniversary meet last year, but they do look less forgiving than the DGs, so I may attempt these before committing to fitting DGs. Maybe....
This was not a meeting about couplings, but it does, I think illustrate that, as with everything in 2FS, there seems to be many ways to accomplish a goal - there are at least three types of "commerically available" coupling mentioned in this blog alone, and that's before considering 3-links (Jim assures me this is possible in 2FS) or B&B or even things like Kadee couplings or people designing their own variations. Speaking as a relative newcomer, I think it's important to have these discussions, try things out for oneself and decide on the best way of doing things for you.
That concludes this report of the goings on of the second furthest North area Group. It was a great wee get together of like minded folks and is a great forum for the exchange of ideas. We are always welcoming of guests, and new members, if you find yourself at a loose end on the second saturday of the month.
The Forth and Clyde Area Group will be flying the 2FS flag at the Perth Model Railway Show (again, the one in Scotland) at the end of the month. If you happen to be in attendence, do feel free to pop by and say hello - we don't bite (much...)
Our next meeting is scheduled for the 8th July. There are whisperings of a trip to the Bo'ness and Kinneal Steam Railway later in July. Anoraks not essential.
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