March 2026 Forth and Clyde Area Group meeting

 Almondell saw only six stalwarts attend the March meeting of the august Forth and Clyde Area Group of the, even auguster, 2mm Scale Association on Saturday 7th March. Unfortunately neither the Press Officer or the Assistant Press Officer was present so the POTUS* was forced to record the meeting.

Despite the shortage of attendees, it was a productive meeting. James was working on sorting out someone else's class 37 which is not running. (I've forgotten who that someone else is, but J does know...) He also had in front of him, his own Poole era class 37 to which he had added a DCC chip.

James had also been doing his homework, completing the viewblocker warehouse building for Mearns Shed.

A nice building but a tad clean for being located next door to a loco shed. By the end of the meeting it had been carefully weathered, but the POTUS forgot to take a photo. (By the way, the big stick in front of the shed, is actually a bit of rail in the process of being used for creating doorstops along the front of the shed.)

Talking of Mearns Shed, Alisdair was preparing it for its next outing to Model Rail Scotland, with buildings being fixed in place with repair of the surrounding terrain to follow up as homework. 

Across in the other corner of the room, Alistair was applying colour to a brake van. He was using modellers' acrylics for the first time and was expounding on the difference between those and the artists' acrylics he usually espouses.

And in yet another corner, yet another Al, this one with the moniker, Alastair, was continuing work on planning the support structure for his wee NBR layout CAD. 

He did shamefacedly admit that progress was being slowed by his concentration of his scratchbuilding of a racing motor car (the make and model names flew over the POTUS' head as its it's irrelevant to wee train lovers). The body being shaped out of thin wood, the photos shown to POTUS impressed with the workmanship. But, come on laddie, a scale of one to twenty-five and a half - what sort of madness does that represent? Everyone knows, the One True Scale is one to one hundred and fifty two and two fifths. Nice and easy to work out in the head...

Alastair had also brought along a Unimat SL lathe (from a deceased member of ESME, I think),as Simon had expressed an interest in acquiring a lathe, but Simon had the gall not to be there. The machine might be a bit dirty and perhaps the cable could do with being replaced but the bearings feel fine and all the bits seem to be there.(There was box of bits which hid from the camera, as it was very shy.)

Last but not least, by any means, Jim was working on a couple of brake vans made by the absent Simon from Jim's etches. As Simon had only been using them for soldering practice he has given them to Jim for him to add AJs and to do the lettering. Here's a  somewhat fuzzy photo of the little beasts.

And that was that for a productive day.

Our next event will be Model Rail Scotland in Glasgow on Friday 27th March to Sunday 29th March. We'll have the 2mm Roadshow along with Mearns Shed. If you're at the exhibition, come along and say hello.

Our next Area Group meeting will be on Saturday 11th April, when we should be having a demonstration on DG couplings.

*POTUS - Press Officer Totally Useless. Mind you, wouldn't it be nice if only the other POTUS could be persuaded to spend all his time 2mm modelling...

January 2026 Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

Inclement weather in January! In Scotland, that well-kent tropical paradise! Who would have thought it! But that explains why only a few stalwart individuals braved the black ice and snowdrifts to make their way for their monthly dose of FCAG joy at Almondell. Unfortunately, the Press Officer and his Deputy did not show sufficient stalwartism so it is left to this, ever so humble and self-effacing scribe to produce deathless prose describing the efforts of the brave.

Stewart, Alastair, Alisdair, James, Chris and John faced the weather and road conditions to attend.

Stewart was having a change from his usual production of buildings for his interesting N-fine layout; "Copy Pit Line : Lydgate Viaduct and Robin Wood Mill". He's going to need lots of long trains, so he was painting up a pile of minerals. Never one to do things by halves, is our lad.

Alastair was working on a support structure for his embryonic layout.

Not a believer in the good old 2" x 1" topped with Sundeala (remember that?), he's going for a lightweight board supported on an aluminum square tube section contraction which can fold don. The middle bit holds stock boxes.

A wee bothy/store for our Mearns Shed layout was being constructed by Alisdair

Apparently the hole in the ceiling is to allow Big Eck to stand up after he's finished his piece.

Meanwhile, across on the other side of the room, James was displaying his Class 37. (Or was it an English Electric Type 3?  I get so confused.) He has replaced the motor with which it was born with a Tramfabriek motor, much to his satisfaction with the improved controllability. He also brought along the warehouse he is building for a wee corner of Mearns Shed. 

Sharp-eyed readers will notice that space has been left for Big Eck in the attic space.

Chris had brought along his wee test track and his ever-lasting 4F. As it is his first loco build, he really can be pretty chuffed with what he has achieved. The paint needs some touching up then some weathering, but it is really looking the part. 

As it hadn't been out the box since painting, it needed a lot of running up and down to get it running properly, but by the end of the day, it was moving nice and smoothly.

Last but not least, John, new to 2mm and our latest member, brought along his first effort, a mineral wagon built from our taster kit. A neat job, it had only been tested on the wee straight length of track that comes with the kit. So, the acid test. Would it run through a turnout? Nae bother on Chris' wee test track.

John has just started a J39 conversion kit and was working on the tender underframe

So a busy day, but we cut it a bit short given the possible weather conditions to let everyone get home in the daylight.

Next meeting will be on February 14th when Alisdair wil give wee talk on his experiences on Electra couplings along with a wee demo on how he makes them.

 

December 2024 Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

The last meeting of 2024 was held on 14th December at our usual venue of the Edinburgh Society of Model Engineers. 10 members attended - Simon, Stephen, Andy, Stuart, Alistair, Alastair, Alisdair, James, Jim and Tony; a welcome guest from the Grampian Area Group.

(Both Press Officers had the temerity to not be in attendance, hence this terse and much belated posting by a grudging stand-in. The late posting along with a lack of notes and photos contribute to the brevity of this report.)

There was the usual rash of individual projects going, but Mearns Shed made an appearance at last and was having some paving laid inside the shed along with the mock up of inspection pits between the rails. Nae piccies so just imagine it.

Tony was working on his conversion of a Farish Ivatt 2-6-0 using Nigel Hunt's upgrade etch for the valve gear and tender chassis. He was busily beavering away on the valve gear, in grave danger of a carelessly directed sneeze scattering his work far and wide...

Andy was knocking up a turntable for making life easier when making his signature trees from twisted wire.

Stuart was putting together a rather pleasant set of terraced houses for his Norther English mill layout. On a curve and rising gradient, the geometry of the roof was a bit of a challenge.

Alistair was pottering away sketching up a plan for a quick and simple layout.

Stephen brought along his latest batch of N gauge goodies. Lovely stuff, but I'm not sure where the nuclear flask carrier would fit in on Mearns Shed...

After a recent lull in production Simon had been very busy churning out rolling stock for his Glenfinnan layout. Some nice weathering there.

Jim's latest magnum opus is a 3-car London Underground set for Caledonian Road. (They must have fooled him into thinking the Caledonian Road had something to do with the Caledonian Railway.) Mostly etched, he has been assisted Graham 3D-printing the roofs and seating. 

James was showing a neat little TOU made using a model aeroplane aileron servo (which moves to and fro, rather than round and round).

Alastair was continuing his work on a wee diesel shunter, the most of which is his own 3D-printed work. (including coupling rods - interesting to see if that works.)

Alisdair brought along his recently finished converted EFE Austerity to show off. However, he had failed to close the cap properly on the bottle of Easitrac glue in his bag and some of it found it's way into the mechanism of the loco. Many sweary words and tears ensued from one individual, but the rest of us had a good giggle. (Luckily, the glue was still wet and some swift dismantling and washing under the tap(!) seemed to have saved the day.)

Next meeting Saturday January 11th 2025.

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.

April 2023 Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

Throughout Central Scotland, the sound of scurrying feet could be heard last Saturday. "What could be causing such a commotion?" was the cry from the worried populace. Was the End of The World nigh? Truly scary times, what with the sky having mysteriously darkened the previous afternoon. However, thankfully, in due course the said populace was able to heave sighs of relief. (Point to ponder - why are sighs of relief always so heavy as to require heaving, as opposed to gently lifting?) 

Of course, those cognoscenti wot read this blog, will already have been aware that it was the second Saturday of the month, when the scurrying feet are sure to be those of the keen members of Forth and Clyde Area Group of the Two Millimetre Scale Association making their way to their monthly conventicle at Almondell.

This month, the numbers were slightly down, due, no doubt to the fashion of taking holidays around Easter time. For those errant members, such backsliding will result in a period using the Blunt Scalpel of Repentance at the next meeting. Yese have been warned! However, the Faithful were represented by only 2 Als, but two J's along with solitary examples of a Simon, a Nigel, an Andy and, back for a second time, Stuart, groping towards the light.

More home sledgehammer work had been undertaken over the preceding month, with nearly all the track on the Group demo layout laid:

 

Nigel and Jim duly got to work on making switches on the turnouts operational, by linking up the already installed Turnout Operation Units (Association 3D printed, for youse nosey wans) with double throw single pole switches by rod in tube. 

Successful, except for the one at the entrance to the coaling stage (the nearest on in the photo above), with the run proving too long and convoluted to allow satisfactory working. Thoughts will be garnered as to how to sort this out - probably involving a stretch of rod with crank. Once that is done, we can run stock over the track using the Hand of God, as leccy has yet to be introduced, to start checking the trackwork. The next stage will be wiring, after which we can get on with the full track check.

 

There was some discussion over the best way of attaching the backscene, which will have to be removable to allow the layout to be packed away. Not yet sorted out, but some ideas were starting to formulate. Inspired by this discussion, Al the Artist was sketching away at some possibilities for the backscene:

Meanwhile, Simon had brought along an American N Gauge train (whit!) to run on the ESME layout. It chuntered its way round very effectively nearly getting some words of admiration. At least the gauge is correct for scale, with it being American N. But, still, that sort of apostasy needs to be stamped out, before it gets hold of his soul...

However, he is not totally lost to perdition, as he had brought along (yet more) fish vans being built to the One True Scale which he was bringing to fruition:

New chap, Stuart, was progressing his mill building, which he had brought along last week. He was applying acrylic paint to it to simulate the millstone grit with which the prototype was constructed. It was coming up a treat with some subtle variations bringing it to life. Unfortunately, the subtlety doesn't show in the photo below:

 Andy, who is in the throes of converting his extant N gauge layout to 2FS, had brought along some lengths of Easitrak into which he was threading rails, using his Great Rail Threading Machine (patent pending) :

Lastly, although I have been trying not to reveal the shame of it, one of our members just sat at his table and got steaming with a piece on electric chips. (Ahhh! Piece on chips! Magic!)

Fear not though, gentle reader, for it was not the sort of steaming which is all too common in the West on a Saturday, but the creation of water vapour by magic, by means of a sort of electronic gizmo, apparently called a piezo-electric chip (must get my hearing checked), creating steam and the subsequent water vapour, from water drawn up via an absorbent cylinder in the bottle below:

Why this madness? Well, James is a two-timer who is also involved in the 4mm East of Scotland mob's magnum opus, Burntisland. Apparently, he is hoping to use it to bring some atmosphere to the loco roundhouse. Your scribe is amazed at the things some can do with volts.

Anyway, that's it until next month, when we will meet on the 13th May. That's only one week before the World Famous Scottish 2mm Association Mini-meet also being held at Almondell. An event not to be missed. Be there or be a equal sided rectangle.

November 2022 Forth and Clyde area group meeting

Nae luck, O Gentle Reader! Despite the knowledge in advance of the date, time and location of  the November meeting of the 2mm Scale Association Forth and Clyde Area Group, The Press Officer swanned off to browse and sluice with some effete southrons, leaving me, his Modest Understudy, to provide the intellectual verbiage to ease the bated breaths of our loyal fan base. To the relief of those many thousands, it is time to cease with the harmful bating of breath, as the secrets of the November Conventicle of the bold brethren  are released into the wilds of the web. These secrets will be swept to all corners of the earth where keen readers, in such far flung places as the Atlantic peninsula and the Atacama desert, can catch up on the doings on a bunch of Central Scotland misfits. (Whether or not they do so, is, of course, a moot point. Arguably, it's difficult to think of a point more mooter.)

Anyway, this month, nine bold brethern consisting of the usual 3Als, two Js, and one each of a Nigel, a Simon, an Andy and the Keen Youngster, attended that temple of Eastern Scottish model engineering owned by the Edinburgh Society of Model Engineers, at Almondell in sweet West Lothian. 

The everlasting group layout was there, as usual. There was Progress, but, once again with the preceding adjective of Slow. We decided (after a couple of hours of haggling, shouting and a few blows) on the angle of the track layout will make with the baseboard.

The bits of paper were stuck down and left to dry. And that was it... No doubt next month, a hole might be drilled to accept a track feeder, but, then again, more haste, less speed.

Meanwhile, James was showing us how he had created the prototype of a turnout operating switch which was wired to show a lighted diode in the path to which the turnout was set. All without the use of electronickery and, as far as the Modest Understudy could see, any visible means of support from above. This was in response to a request from a prominent member of the North East Area Group, also is also a country member of the FnC. Lucky chap!

Those fortunate individuals who are members of that select organisation, the 2mm Scale Association will be able to read all about it in a future edition of the Magazine. Just as well, as I can't remember what he said, now.

Over on the right, Nigel was waving a hot soldering iron in a threatening manner in the direction of an Association etched buffer stop. Here we are at an early stage in the proceedings:

Jim had brought along his, almost completed, 65 feet Caledonian Railway 12 wheeled First. 

(Those who read the First Edition of this important part work, will know that I had originally described it as a 65 foot Third. Of course, as the more astute readers will have jaloosed, Thirds were 68 feet long with an extra two compartments for the plebs to squeeze into. Jim, unaccountably, refused to amend his model to a Third by inserting another two compartments and stretching it by 6mm. Would only have taken a few weeks. If only he had done that, I would only have had to replace a single digit, rather than 5 letters. My poor wee typing finger is now worn down, nearly to the bone. Jings! No wonder the Press Officer sloped off; it's hard work this, with the Press Commissioner coming down hard on touchingly human mistakes.) 

Painting of the outside was well underway. Meantime, the interior was being fitted out to save the poor passengers from standing all the way from Glasgow to Edinburgh. (Difficult for this Weegie to understand why anyone would want to make such a journey, but there's no accounting for taste.)

Martin put the Auld Yins to shame by bringing along his scale model of his putative layout. The buildings in the background are based on standard Glasgow Corporation Type B Tenements . He'll have great fun doing the washhooses and middens in each back court. And broken glass along the top of each wall. He is also working on a Worsley Works Caley class 439. Puts us all to shame...

Meanwhile, an Al (the one with an I and a D) was plodding away on some LNER coach bogies for his long -awaited Craigendoran to Arrochar push-pull train. Just as well Mr Gresley was somewhat quicker in production of them things.

Another one of the Als, this time with an A and a T, was using Association jigs to make a soldered turnout, with some good progress made during the day.

Another A but without the undoubted benefit of an L, oor Andy, had been building a Finetrax turnout. Shown in its unfinished and fuzzy (but I think that's the photo) state here, it was finished off by the end of the day and will subsequently appear as the entry turnout to the coal road on the Group layout.

The third Al (I and T this time) had brought along track plan(s) for his future layout. However, he was mostly involved in reading up the magazines brought along by James. Just as well, as our usual Librarian, Stephen, hadn't made it.

That's it folks! "But what about the ninth chap?" I hear you cry. Well that was the Soo'sider, who sloped off early before the clockwork in the Modest Understudy's phone had been properly wound up, so no record of what he was doing remains.

And that will be it until next month's meeting on Saturday 9th December. From two points of view, thine and mine, it is to be hoped that the Press Officer will have returned to his duties by then. Really, it's been so hard to get reliable staff since the war.