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.

August Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

Last saturday hosted the usual get together of the Forth and Clyde Area Group, at our usual meeting place at the premises of the Edinburgh Society of Model Engineers, near Livingston.  Numbers were increased  on last month's gathering with ten attendees present.  We boasted a full compliment of the Al's, Alisdair, Alastair, Alistair, Jim, James, Andy, Graham, Simon, Stuart and Martin.

Work progressed on the Group layout - Jim spent most of the session hidden beneath the board, still working on the electrics.

There was a steady stream of quiet, and awfully polite, cursing as droppers magically detached from the rails, and a section that would be towards the back of the shed turned out to have never had a dropper soldered at all.  Whilst not quite complete at the meeting - Jim has reported that, after some faultfinding relating to a short, a loco has now ran across all the wired sections successsfully under power.

Jim had also brought along the finished Water tower, pictured, in-situ, below:

On the theme of Mearns Shed, James was working on the control system.  As a paid up member of MERG, he was working on the boards and other sorts of electronicy trickery required to make the Group's own, dedivated DCC Control system.

For those previously as clueless as I - thank you Google... - MERG is the Model Electronics Railway Group - a companion group to many of the scale societies whose purpose is to advance and support the use of electronics in model railways.  They provide, much as we in the 2FS Association do, publications, journals, advice and kits to support this aim.  A new member they may have found...

Sold as a "pocket money kit" by MERG, both the DCC control unit and handset retail (through the members shop) for around £35 a piece.  Whilst requiring some assembly, the kits are (I am assured by James) easy to put together, with excellent instructions.  Given some DCC systems can be in excess of £400 - my own Prodigy Express set me back ~£200 - this seems a devent way in for, not an awful lot in the grand scheme of things.

Alistair continued to sketch ideas for the backscene, taking measurements for a technical drawing to assist.

There was much discussion about the upcoming "Scottish Locomotive Workshop", namely appropriate models for construction.  Andy had brought along a Fencehouses J38 etch he'd sourced some years before, which was admired by many of the Group - some even trying to work out how to convert to another, similar locomotive for their prototype.  The recommendation of those organising and mentoring the Workshop were for one of the RTR conversion etches offered by the association.

The discussion continued around which of these was most suitable for a number of the members needs and/or interests, the J94/Austerity tank being brought up on a number of occasions, allowing me to show off my current WiP and discuss moving forwards with the flexing gearbox and body, which led on to some more discussion on 3D Printed bodies, their pros and cons - particularly relating to weight of the loco.  One compromise was perhaps to use something like the P&D Marsh cast boiler/saddle, or an ex-Farish body, and 3D print the cab/bunker.  With the detailing kits available from RT Models it was felt this could be a good way forwards.  However, with the recent Bachman/EFE Rail annoucnement of a J94 and Association conversion etch TOS, this discussion was put on the back burner and other prototypes discussed in a similar vein.

Talk of 3D Printing segueways nicely (almost like I planned it), to Alastair who continues his production of 3D printed wagons.  Regular readers will remember last month Alastair had been working on the 3D CAD for a NBR 3 Plank wagon (no judgements, we're a broad church in FCAG, well, mostly no judgement...)  This month he'd brought along some of the initial prints.

The eagle eyed reader may notice towards the rear of the photograph are prototye prints for an NBR Brake van (daigram no. escapes my memory suggesting I should start taking real notes...).  Alastair explained that these still required the underframe to be developed, as the wagons run on an identical underframe to his previously shown mineral wagons, but the CAD work on this was ongoing.

As well as showing off the 3D Prints (which garnered a great deal of attention from the rest of the group), Alastair was working on a turnout of the PCB sleepered variety.

Talking of turnouts (I'm getting good at these segueways), Alisdair was also working on a turnout - in this case a Finetrax one which shall be framed with descriptive information to display the finess of this scale for the various shows that we attend with the Further North Roadshow.

The look of surprise was at being caught actually doing some modelling at an Area Group Meeting...

Stuart, who models in N Gauge, admittedly using the British Finescale Code 40 range for this scale (see, I said we're a broad church), continued work on his Cotton Mill buildings.

Stuart had chosen to construct the shell of his buildings in 2mm Acrylic sheet to provide a rigid frame, the white colour seen inside is actually the protective backing paper from the acrylic sheet, not yet removed.  A template was then applied and the windows marked, allowing the protetive sheet to be removed in these areas only and provide the detail of the windows themselves.

Next, texture is skrawked onto 1mm mountboard using a pen, and if necessary a scalpel to give the stonework.  It was this long and laborious process, which does provide exquisite results, which Stuart was engaged in during the meeting.

Stuart announced to a stunned audience that this was his first building he'd ever made.  Talk about diving in at the deep end...

Talking of the deep end - Simon, one of the founder members of the Steamboat Special Interest Group, had brought along his pair of Clyde Puffers, well, one Clyde Puffer and one Admiralty Victualling Inshore Craft, which were progressing beautifully.

Unhappy with certain aspects of the kit, Simon had fabricated masts, propellers and the likes himself to enhance the detail on show.  Alisdair, another founder member of the SSIG, recounted how he'd lost, then found mangled the fine etch of the aft-handrails to many pained expressions of those listening.

One of whom was Graham (yes, it's getting more tenuous).  Graham, once again relieved from press officer duties by this Junior Assistant Intern writing, was continuing work on an LNWR van which he'd been building, on-and-off (by his own admission, more off) for several weeks.  The underframe was mostly complete, with the body well underway.

Graham even had the instructions out, a sign of just how seriously he was taking this assembly.  Sadly, due to a double booking I had to sip away early and so there are no further progress photos of the van.

Finally, I, Martin, was working on a whole host of things.  I'd spent the weekend before the meeting with my in-laws, who graciously gave me a corner of the kitchen table to sit and work.  And so, I'd managed to churn out 14 wagons of various types and designs

The first activity was to roof the vans.  This is something I'm not particularly good at, however, I like to think I improve with every attempt, and by van no.6 it was starting to look the part.  Hopefully, the forthcoming trip to the paintshop will hide some of the sins.  I also fitted the upper bogie blocks(?) for the three LMS 57' non-corridor coaches currently plodding along on my workbench, these being the parts from the Assocation bogie etches which fit to the coach bottom and house the nut to secure the bogie to the underframe.

Between the various discussions, interviews for this publication and photograph taking, I also made a start on an LMS 16 tonne brake van from the now out of print Associatione etches.  I have two of these and two 20 tonne brake vans to attempt, but found that my 25W soldering iron was struggling slightly with the brass, and so decided to retreat until my 50W iron is recovered from the in-laws...

If you've read this far, thank you for your interest.

Places are still available for the "Beginners Loco Chassis Workshop".  The suggested build is one of the RTR conversions from the Association website - further information is in the Association Newsletter.

Our next meeting will be Saturday 9th September at 11:00 at Almondale.  We do welcome visitors and strays from other Area Groups if you find yourself in the Central Belt of Scotland on that data and fancy meeting some like minded modellers - we don't (really) judge and we've mostly stopped biting visitors... Contact details can also be found in the Association Newsletter.