Our February meeting took place at ESME's Almondell clubrooms on a sunny morning with ice on the puddles after three weeks of grey, wet weather. Eleven members turned up: James, Simon, Alisdair, Alastair, Alasdair, Angus (special prize for longest journey), Stuart, Chris, Graham, Justin and Steve.
Chris was working on his L&YR 2-4-2 chassis from a Nigel Hunt etch. He was looking for advice from experienced builders, which Alisdair was happy to provide.
Simon had responded to appeals for yard lamps for the group's Mearns Shed cameo. The posts are from brass rod, the lamps from 7mm pinpoint axle bearings, and the 'glass' shades are made from clear plastic sprue from model aircraft canopy parts, simply filed to a suitable shape. Simon went on to add crosspieces and insulators for the overhead electric cables which powered the prototype lamps. Steam shed yards were poorly lit, even in BR days, with a four-road shed typically having a single electric lamp (and before that a single gas or oil lamp at a much lower level). Presumably enginemen found their way around in the gloom using flare lamps.
Simon has also started an experiment to create an ex-NBR J36 0-6-0, based on parts for a SECR "C" class which he picked up at last year's Derby Expo. A scratch-built Holmes cab certainly gives the character of these small, long-lived locomotives. The boiler fittings are too large (and the cab has no roof currently) but further work in this area is planned.
He finds solder fumes irritating and wafts them away using a portable fan online bought online for £15. Not a bad idea.
He'd also brought along the signals he built for Dunallander from his own etches. Presumably the plastic box is some kind of propagation device which provides the warm, wet conditions signals require to multiply. You can ask him at the Derby expo in May. Other etch parts for Dunallander are in progress.
Alasdair was continuing the design of his layout subframe. This will use standard aluminium square tube, with three-way elbow connectors either bought commercially or printed with FDM. Pop rivets will be used. At joints where a tube-end butts onto a continuous section, a rivnut inserted in the latter will accept a bolt through a commercial or printed connector, onto which the second tube-end will be pushed.
Stuart gave the day over to thinking and planning. Some of the buildings for his mill layout, and the canal lock, require to be fitted over baseboard joints and he was working with prototype photos and a full-scale layout drawing to decide exactly how this will be handled.
In the afternoon, Alisdair gave an informative video presentation on his experience with Electra couplings. With the help of slow-motion video we learned how exactly, and why, the dropper or tail of the coupling must be at a shallow angle to the hook when seen end-on (to prevent recoupling after the electromagnetic uncoupling action); why the rear of the hook must be a minimum of 0.5mm in front of the buffer face (so the hooks engage and couple before the buffers kiss); why the pivot tubes must be 0.5mm-0.75mm off-centre, and accurately orthogonal to the headstock (to ensure consistent operation), and why the bend for the weight tail must be at 45 degrees (so the coupling hooks hang correctly for the coupling action to succeed). Use of an Electra construction jig is recommended. A very helpful presentation indeed, for those swithering over coupling choice.
The group will be manning the 2mmSA roadshow at Model Rail Scotland's 60th anniversary show at the SEC on March 27, 28 and 29. Come and say hello if you're visiting, we'd love to see you.
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