May 2022 Forth and Clyde area group meeting

This month's meeting saw a slight dip in attendance ... not due to any virus, but to holiday fever. Most of the group were unaccountably absent. Perhaps they were in Italy for the Eurovision song contest final? At least one was talking about a foreign trip, although it transpired that "foreign" meant Berwick-upon-Tweed.

The loyal few who remained true to our 2mm vows met at Graham's home in Edinburgh - no names no pack drill - and registered a symbolic protest by doing very little modelling, but much talking and tea-drinking. A little gentle Humbrol enamelling of a 2mmSA Toad E kit was undertaken, a propelling pencil applied to a sketch pad ... there was animated discussion of the monthly illustrated papers: nothing too strenuous.

We expect normal service to be resumed next month - the meeting (hopefully back at ESME's excellent Almondell headquarters) will exceptionally be on the first weekend of June, to allow a pause before the 2mmSA Diamond Jubilee show in Derby and the Perth exhibition on the 18/19 and 25/26 weekends respectively. See you there!

April 2022 Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

 

"The spring has sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where the 2mm chappies is?" So wrote our national barr, Robert de Irn Bru, in his epic poem "To an Easitrak Turnout". Of course, the answer came yesterday, when nine of southern Scotland's finest 2mm modeller chappies (as such all were) wended their way to the fine premises of ESME in picturesque Almondell. Those finest did not not include those usual stalwarts Al#1 and J#2, but Graham, J#1, Stephen, Nigel, the Junior Als #2 and #3, Simon, Andy and Martin made their way in the weak spring sunshine for the monthly blether session.

As usual, there was much talk before settling down to a bit of modelling. But hark! What was that sound of sobbing heard from the dark corner where Al#2 was lurking? It turned out that the eejit had forgotten his tools, so Martin and Andy rummaged through their own toolboxes to keep the overgrown toddler quiet. Al#2 then proceeded to do nothing much with them anyway, but others were beavering away on their Particular Pet Projects. (Ooooh! Wull ye look at thon! Smart Alec's daein' alliteration noo! Getting above hissel', so he is! Ah kent his faither, ye ken. Always had ideas above their station*, so they did!)

Those others included  Graham who, after many sair trauchles, had completed his turnout for the as yet embryonic Group layout, and brought it along to prove it. Despite his own self-deprecation, we (who are normally quite happy helping with his deprecation) were duly impressed.

On the day, he was working on an Association kit for an amphibian of the LNER variety. There was much pondering amongst the motley crew as to why the LNER had aligned itself with the ungodly GWR in naming it's brake vans. 

J#1 had come along with his completed tandem turnout for the Group layout. As expected from one of his experience, it looks the part. As Simon had already produced one, we'll have to invent some sort of  blind testing to choose which will have the honour of being place in the layout. Hmm...

Jim had also brought along his rather special Caley Conner 2-4-0 nearing end of its construction. It was set upon rails and made to run, which it did, but still with a wee bit of rubbing causing slight stutter. Knowing the maker, this will soon be dealt with to create a smooth running beastie. His (as yet unfinished) lining is a wonder to behold.

Talking of Caley matters our neophyte member, Martin, has been churning out rolling stock faster than St. Rollox back in the day. He is certainly putting us auld yins to shame. As well as adding to his burgeoning wagon stock, both scratch and kit built, he is now prodigiously constructing some 45 feet carriages, starting with the Worsely Works etches.

And he has also been playing with Easitrak turnouts, both old and new versions.

 

 

Nigel has been resurrecting some old coaches, which, some time ago, had been put away almost complete, but not quite. (I'm glad it's not just me...). They are some rather attractive Wisbech and Upwell Tramway vehicles, both the earlier 4-wheel and the later bogie varieties. They are going to make rather attractive vehicles with their low floors and verandah railings. However, the combination of those two features are giving Nigel a challenge in terms of getting a good fixing for the buffers which are above the level of the carriage floor. Knowing the man, there is no doubt a clever solution on its way.

By the way, the W&UT was the prototype for the Isle of Sodor Railway. I wonder how the faces are going to be fixed to the ends?

 

 

Still on the rolling stack, Alastair was drawing up a North British mineral wagon with the view to 3D printing them for his planned South Queensferry layout. Source material and sustenance to hand.

 

When they eventually roll off the production line, there is bound be demand for more from others. Although, I doubt that Jim will be...

Alistair also brought along some brackets he had 3D printed out from Nigel's model. These are to be used for assisting the construction of the layout to be cut from ply laser cut by Chris.

Meanwhile, Stephen had been on a spending spree, bringing along some N gauge goodies which he had recently smuggled into the house, on the basis that it is easier than an O gauge loco. The boxes contained a class 92, a few Caledonian Sleepers and the recent NGS Hunslet shunter. Just awaiting the procurement of some 2mm wheelsets. He had also brought along his usual stash of magazines which kept the rowdier members of the Group quiet for a while.

Next month's meeting will be on Saturday 14th May.

*Partick Central

March 2022 Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

That mysterious rhythmic thudding sound which resonated across Central Scotland last Saturday has now been identified as the sound of the eager footsteps of the 2mm Scale Association's Forth and Clyde members approaching their monthly devotions at the altar of Tooemem, in the broad bright uplands of Almondell. 

This months' attendance consisted of 3 to the power of two members, being 4A + 1C + G + 2J + M. It should have included an S, but that letter had been laid out with a lurgi. The meeting was supposed to incorporate a Zoom session for our far flung members, but unfortunately they had been flung too far to reach their computers so the meeting remained with The Nine who were physically present.

Prior to lunch, whilst the blethering did not reach the great peak of last month, there was still a sterling effort to amass much gossip and spread rumours and nonsense. However, eventually, all members settled down to some physically distanced modelling, prior to stuffing of faces. After their repast, members somnolently gathered round to watch the displays of current projects being undertaken by some members. Although the Zoom session was shut down when nobody tuned in, we were still able to display the various sets of photos on the laser display screen - one of the advantages of meeting at ESME is the availability of good quality digital projection equipment.

Andy was getting back into modelling after a hiatus caused by such nonsense as home improvements and had dug out his work station and was knocking up a soldered turnout:

Andy had also brought along some photos of our old layout, Sauchenford (now retired to a safe house in Dumfries and Galloway). Amongst the pictures was one showing Colin, our late Area Organiser, working on the construction of the boards in Andy's garage, with our Senior Member, Alistair, in the background.

Seguing on nicely from our longest serving member to our most recent recruit, Martin showed his continuing development of a pre-grouping wagon fleet showing his expanding rake of Caley wagons (mostly from the Buchanan Kits range of member, Jim) along with a scratch built covered wagon.

He is also working on a Worsley Works Caley 45 foot Third carriage.

Speaking of Caley matters, our resident Caley expert, Jim, has been working away on his tiny, wee Connor 2-4-0 and is now at the stage of having the body on the chassis. Unfortunately, although he had hoped to show us it running on a test track, when he had put the body on to the chassis, it had badly affected the running of the previously sweetly controllable chassis. He thinks it is probably due to a lack of clearance between body and gearbox causing unwonted friction in the drive train, but had not yet had time to get all diagnostic with the wee beastie. Still, it made a fine sight in all its nickel-silver glory.

The other J, James, had been working on an Easitrak point kit. He had been introducing his own method of making the necessary internal electrical connections. He also showed a hand knitted turnout operation unit (using dauds of Plastruct) with microswitch for electrical switching of the crossing.

Graham, had also been working on turnout construction, but of soldered construction using the Association etched chairs as cunningly devised by Laurie Adams. He had had a precious attempt which had been a frustrating failure, but, with some lessons learned, he was much happier with the progress of this one.

Graham was finding the wee jigs he had made with his 500MW soldering iron (see the November blog) of great assistance. He also noted that he found that construction following the "official" method was not always working for him. This led to some discussion with James, who has previously built a turnout using the same method, as to various tweaks to the construction methods which suited their own ways of working. They have been prevailed upon to write an article for the Association Journal to spread their ideas (not always the same as each other). Note for Graham and James - Prevailing upon will prevail until such times as an article is delivered unto The Editor. You have been warned.

To Jim's horror, Alisdair had been working away upon his scratchbuild of a push-pull fitted version of an ex-NBR class M (LNER class C15) 4-4-2T. It is progressing in a two steps forward, one step back fashion, but slowly getting there. The main part of the body is still to be attached to the footplate in this photo. He likes to keep the two separate to make it easier to add small details, but the moment of truth is coming soon, when the two will be forever forged in an unholy unity.

There remains a great deal of pipework to be added in and around the loco. Graham, as a member of the North British Railway Study Group, is very generously donating his time in seeking out photos and drawings to assist and has identified a gentleman in New York(!), also a member of the aforesaid Group, who is providing further information. Alisdair is going to have to take back all he has previously said about members of said Group...

Next meeting will be on Saturday 9th April.

February 2022 Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

A rather reduced number of FCAG regulars made their way to Almondell on Saturday, to celebrate getting back to physical meetings again after the virtual meeting of January. So this was the first proper meeting of 2022. Hopefully the pandemic is really on the wane, and we won't have to revert to Zoom only meetings again.

Only seven attendees this month, with a few regulars being unable to attend for a number of reasons. However, The Three Als, Chris, Chris, Graham, James (bereft and pining for the other J.) and Stephen took their socially distanced places at scattered tables in the ESME meeting rooms. Much to everybody's relief, Al#3 had arranged for the heating to be on, thereby avoiding the near-death cold experience of the December meeting.

The Area Organiser, in his vast and boundless wisdom(?), had high-handedly decided that we would only have demonstrations every second month as his extensive neuron network is far too important to be wasted on such trivialities as dreaming up a subject. As a result, everybody had been forewarned to arrive with a project. And everybody did. But not much projecting was done, as blethering reached a new peak, even for the FCAG. A wide range of subjects was covered, such as what exactly is the enjoyment in playing rugby, prohibition of the teaching of technical subjects and the forcing of dead language learning on the unwilling. Occasionally, the subject matter would stray to railways, but not long before it would be headed off again in another abstruse direction. However, on a near miss, conversation did hover over the subject of machine tools for a good long while. Unfortunately, by that time the Mad Machine Tool Man had left to watch a rugby match or two on his televisual apparatus, before retiring to his basement to caress his wide range of tame machine tools and whisper sweet nothings into their belt wheels.

Just before he left, your scribe, rather belatedly, snapped a picture of the result of Graham's work as it was being stashed away. In case you can't work it out, it's a rake of crossing timbers duly cut to the appropriate length, gapped and filled with green filler.

You have to admire the dress sense of a chap who wears his best togs to a Group meet. No other attendee could match his dapper appearance.

In a reversion to the days of stagecoach travel, Graham was charging first class fares for an inside seat of his horseless carriage, so Al#1 held back until the car was leaving the car park to dreep down from an overhanging tree branch onto the roof rack for a lift home. That's my recollection anyway. Other versions may differ. Before he ganged awa' he had been showing us various photos in various books which may prove inspiration for the Group layout (if it ever gets inspired).

Chris, in the meantime, was ignoring the undignified scramble to the door by his near-neighbours, preferring the company of the more dedicated individuals who remained staunchly at their respective tables houking away at their respective 2mm coal faces. In Chris' case, this was doing something for his well-advanced Raithby 4F which involved a vernier, a book and a computer. I think the poor chap was working out what he needed to do to create a master for moulds for the tender axleboxes.

Meanwhile, Al#3 was threading rail through Easitrac sleepers in preparation for installation on his wee layout based on South Queensferry. His task was much eased by James providing him with his hand-knitted jig for carrying this out. His baseboard, using an Ikea* shelf can be seen in the photograph.

*Other furniture makes are available.

Meanwhile, Stephen was beavering away on creating a revised layout to fit his railway room having realised that he could make a much better space by knocking down a wall. (Apparently he managed to source some skyhooks on Ebay which will be very useful to prevent the master bedroom becoming entangled with the railway.)

The RM in the foreground is evidence of Stephen's generous provision of a railway magazine reading room service to the assorted bods of the group. He must spend a lot of time browsing station bookstalls to save us the bother.

Now, time for a confession of the gravest order. You will be shocked to read that your correspondent who has been trusted with the sacred task of presenting the activities of our Area Group to The Outside World, has let the nobility down. He committed the crime of failing to take notes or photos of Al#2 and James efforts because he was talking too much. Sentence will be handed down from on high. Perhaps he will released form his duties and banned from doing so. We live in hope.

The next Group meeting will be Saturday 12th March. 

We will be taking the 2mm Association Roadshow to the Model Rail Scotland exhibition (also known as Weegie Rail) at the Scottish Exhibition Centre in Glasgow on the 25th, 26th & 27th of February. Our first exhibition since the same event in 2020. Hopefully we will meet some of you there. 

If you are coming, please note the SEC restrictions due to Covid. They can be found here:

https://www.sec.co.uk/visitor-information/covid-19-customer-update

January 2022 Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

 A sort of happy New Year as the random collection of individuals who form the FnCAG failed to meet in person, not, as some may think, to avert needless violence nor to avoid the sub-zero conditions of the December meeting. The group had made a decision not to have a physical meeting this month, to avoid assisting Mr Omicron in his bid for world domination. As a result, we reverted to a virtual meeting held by means of the technological magic called Zoom.

Hence it was was a virus-free and warm meeting for the fourteen chaps (for such they all are) who gathered round their computer screens on Saturday afternoon. So that was two Als, an Andy, one Chris, Graham, two James's, Martin, a Nigel, the far-flung Roy, Simon and Stephen. The more numerate among you will have realised that this list does not total 14, not even a baker's dozen, but only an ordinary mortal's dozen. That's because a special mention and warm welcome has been reserved for Ian and Mark, two new members of the Group, who joined us for the first time. Both of them are refugees from the tyranny of the N Gauge regime of wide checkrail gaps, narrow gauge and funny scale. (1:148! Really, what were they thinking? Could they not just have used the pre-existing logical scale of 1:152? After all, 6.5789477mm to the metre is surely easy enough for anyone to use? Was it all really Cyril's fault? Or was it, as some believe, a secret underground cabal meeting of The Coorse Scalers? Were there really secret N-gauge meetings in the gardens of a Downing Street residence? The questions are endless and really deserve a public inquiry, but The Establishment will never let that happen as names could be named and They can't let one of their Own be shamed. Source: Q-Anen)

Anyway, back in the real world, the subject on Saturday was "Carriages" or, if you prefer "Coaches". A number of folk gave small presentations with Jim being furst (to quote the Lanarkshire vernacular) to strut his stuff. He talked us through the construction of a Decent Models 45 foot Caledonian carriage which he had had lying about for some time, but had been spurred into action by the death of John Boyle, the originator of the etch. It ended up looking like this:

Rather nice, you'll agree. And here it is in a train on his layout, including some earlier builds of other carriage diagrams.

Jim has written up the build on RMWeb at https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/154447-in-memory-of-john-boyle/

Next up was Roy, who has a large number of various Masterclass Models kits to make up. These were produced by Chris Higgs as limited edition etches, and Roy built up a stock of about 30 kits which he has slowly been working his way through, although this massive programme of carriage construction has been disrupted by Roy's work on Dunallander. He showed the starting point of a particular kit:

Followed, after an explanation of the build, by some completed and partially completed items

Roy has also been building some Worsley Works carriages and finding them, although not so complete at the Masterclass etches (as you'd expect in something which is sold as a scratchbuilder's aid), certainly very useful, although, in the example he showed, there had been an error in the bogie spacing - easily corrected. 

All good stuff and, when finished, will give Roy a fine collection of various rakes of coaches, well removed from what can be done using proprietary stock (which, of course, would be in the wrong scale anyway...)

Although, of late, Nigel has not been doing much in the way of carriage building, he showed us some North London vehicles which he had built in the past from some David Eveleigh etches. He showed us some construction photos including this one demonstrating the noble art of soldering the roof onto the sides. This method of construction has its strengths in getting rid of the difficult to hide the joint between the roof and sides rather than the usual method of construction with the body soldered to the floor pan or underframe. 

The kits made up into very nice stock as the finished articles show

Martin, as a beginner, recited his experience with his build of another Masterclass etch, for a BR Mk1 coach. He had had some difficulty with making the etched bogies which rely on getting the axleboxes to align on the bogie by using the bearings to line them up. This works well for the first couple of etches but gives problems on the outer etches as the bearings aren't long enough, causing difficulty in keeping those bits of etch aligned when soldering. Nigel pointed out that it is easier if you have resistance soldering iron, as you can keep the iron on the job after turning off the current, until the solder has cooled. (Once again, your scribe yearns for such a beast to help with his extremely untidy soldering.)

Martin was also having some issues with ill fitting parts on the underframe and keeping things perpendicular. All the same, he is making progress as photos of the body show.

Martin is also having a go at a Worseley Works 45 foot Caley carriage.

Martin's talk led on to general discussion of cleaning up before and after soldering, with fibreglass brushes being recognised as a last resort, given the difficulty in getting rid of short bits of fibre. The use of a Garriflex brown block being good for cleaning up a large surface. Using Cif (other cream cleansers are available) and a toothbrush under running water was accepted as being a good way forward. Just remember to put the plug in first and wash your partner's toothbrush afterwards. Another good alternative is use of a jewellery cleaner dip solution.  Best way might be the use of a cheap ultrasonic jewellery cleaner, using just water. Pop your manky metal in the cleaner after every modelling session and after drying it will be nice and shiny for your next session.

Alisdair showed a number of pictures of various carriages he has built over the years including this one of three Highland Railway passenger brake vans.

From left to right; a Bill Bedford etch with Association bogies, the same Bill Bedford etch cut down appropriately with a hand-knitted 6-wheel underframe and a 4-wheel van from a nice little etch produced by The Editor of the 2mmSA Journal - All hail to Anthony!

Well that was it. Disappointing not to have met in person, but Zoom has its strong points for doing presentations and it does let our far-flung members attend more often than they would otherwise.

Next month's meeting, on 12th February, may, or may not, be physical. We'll have to see.

December 2021 Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

Picture it, a dreich, dark afternoon in the post-industrial wastelands of West Lothian; lowsing time for a bunch of dishevelled chaps, blue with cold, haggard with overwork and with the light of the joy of life dulling from their eyes, trudging out of the 2mm Scale Association Turnout Strip Sweatshop which had been temporarily set up in the meeting rooms of the Edinburgh Society of Model Engineers. Yes, it had been the Forth and Clyde Area Group's introduction to the harsh reality of the production of those nice shiny bits of copper-clad which emanate from the Association's Shop 1.

Eight doughty individuals made their way to the meeting place on Saturday, little realising the  "pleasures" in store. As well as Overseer Nigel, the labour consisted of the usual 3 Als, only one Jim, Graham, Stephen and, for the first time in his physical manifestation, Martin, who had previously managed to attend a number of Zoom sessions, but that nasty four-letter word, work, had prevented attendance in person before.

Given the current concerns over the Covid Omicron variant and the recent Scottish Government guidance, we were all wearing masks whilst circulating in the meeting room, and windows were kept open to assist in prevent the blood from circulating in the once warm humans in the room.

Anyway, as you may have gathered from the foregoing, The Area Group has taken on the mantle of producing copper clad sleepers and turnout strips for the Association, under the direction and guidance of Nigel. Our first session was to produce a batches of 50 turnout strips. Nigel had brought along a guillotine and the patented Blackburn Sleeper Chopper Machine; marvellous in its ingenuity and powered by a motor sufficient to dim the lights throughout West Lothian when starting. Nigel took a couple of victims willing volunteers to show them the ropes. It turned out to be really quite simple in the end, and very few fingers were sacrificed to the Sleeper Chopper Machine (SCM). Here we have the Nigel guillotining the sheets down to size to fit the SCM, Jim on the SCM itself and, hiding at the back, Stephen on Quality Control, weeding out those bits which did not come up to scratch.

The other part of the operation involved Martin counting and Alastair bagging the strips. There is a set of scales behind the detergent box which was used to avoid counting every strip. However, the battery ran out part way through the session, probably discouraged by the temperature in the room, resulting in resort to counting, which did give problems to one of the more arithmetically challenged amongst our number. (That's why he was taking this photo.)

The scales weren't the only thing affected by temperature. After a while, the reject rate of strips became much higher. It was decided that this was probably due to the brittle behaviour of the material in low temperatures, so the operation was abandoned. However, we had produced a goodly number of bags and had proven that we could churn the beasties out in fairly quick time, providing enough people were present to create an efficient production line. Perhaps we'll have to limit our production sessions to warmer days, at least until opening of windows is no longer required in the battle against Covid.

Our former Press Officer, Graham, has produced a wee video of the process:

As not everybody could be employed on the production line, folk had brought along their own projects to work on. Graham was producing etched chairs using the doofer demonstrated by James at a previous meeting. He has had much more success with that than the "official" way by using the 3D thingummy available from Shop 1. Yet again, a case of finding what works for you.

Stephen, with his other hat as a 7mm modeller on, was drawing up a plan for an 0 Gauge compatriot (i.e. he was drawing up a plan for a layout to be received by that compatriot, not for a companion in that strange scale) . Disciplinary measures are underway.

 

New boy, Martin, had brought along his first 2mm model, a scratchbuilt Caledonian Railway outside framed covered van. An excellent start, particularly on what is not exactly an easy prototype. He was busy creating another on the day. Masochism clearly runs deep in his psyche.

Alistair ("i" and "t") was beginning to cut out the walls for his farm building. It's his first essay into using styrene sheet, having been previously a user of mashed and flattened dead trees, and he was tentatively picking up the differing techniques necessary.

Alastair ("a" and "t" this time) was also doing some builderwork, knocking together a wee Ratio hut for his embryonic South Queensferry layout. It's building into a nice wee model.

And the third of the Als (with an "i" and a "d") was wielding his piercing saw on his slow voyage towards the depiction of an exNBR C15 4-4-2T. The class 37 in the background definitely had a Not to be Moved sign, so he was unlikely to get run over.

Over in the far cornet , Jim was churning out another 7ton Caley mineral wagon, made from his own Buchanan Kits etch. "How many is that now, Jim?" "Never enough. Can always do with another one or two. Now be off with you and your impertinent questions!"

The first line of the above paragraph contains a typo; Jim was not working inside a brass wind instrument, but was working in a corner. Sincere and humble apologies from the author to any who may have been misled.

Nigel was finding the cold all too much... We had to point out that lying in front of the 37, was not going to result in a swift release from all woes.

And so, that was the last meeting of 2021. Given the situation, it might be our last physical meeting for a while, but we'll have to wait and see. Our next meeting, on Saturday 8th January 2022, will have a Zoom session anyway, which may be all we have. Ah, well. 

Best wishes for Christmas to all our dedicated readers.

November 2021 Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

Another Conventicle of the Forth and Clyde congregation of the 2mm Scale Faithful was held with the purpose of upholding the cause of the One and Only True Scale. Held  on November 6th in the woods at a secret location in the wastelands to the south-east of Uphall, participants undertook the precaution of arriving long after the official time for the gathering, thus avoiding the N Gauge troopers wielding the Oath of Abjuration lying in wait amongst the pines.

When, eventually, the Conventicle assembled and the roll call was taken, it was noted that it consisted of Nigel, Andy, Graham, Steven, Simon, 3 Als and 2 Jims. Those with calculators will note that this means that a total of ten people attended. This, indeed, was a record since the Group started meeting at the secret location of the ESME club rooms at Almondell. Although there was a Zoom session planned for later in the day, nobody Zoomed in, so, forlorn and abandoned by the outer world, those present girded their loins and set their minds to maintaining the faith by blethering (and blethering and blethering and blethering ...) about the joys of 2mm modelling, cabbages and kings. This involved much standing around and drinking cups of tea.

Eventually, some of those present took out their tools (oo-er, missus!) and proceeded to do some modelling, or in the case of N#1, enlightening the more technically recalcitrant as to the use of an Arduino to control servos. He advised that beginners could do much worse than obtaining an Elegoo Super Starter kit which comes with copious instructions. (Apparently Elegoo is compatible with Arduino.)

N#1 then proceeded to show the use of the bits in the kit for controlling a servo, showing how it easy it is to control speed and limits. Whilst simple stuff to the cognoscenti, there will be a steep learning curve for this scribe (who has just received his starter kit today.) Thought I'd taken a picture, but didn't so you'll just have to shut your eyes and imagine. 

A#3, having decided that etched chair turnout construction was not for him, was experimenting with using Easitrac sleeper base as the basis for interlaced sleeper turnout construction. He found that slicing off the moulded on chair from a sleeper would allow the dropping in of a pegged slide chair. That may prove to be the basis of an entire turnout from Easitrac components. He'll see what happens with check chairs for the crossing area. It looks like an interesting concept, which will be very useful if it proves viable.

J#2 was also playing about with servos, and showed us the fruit of some experimentation with ways of helping the wee beasties cling on to the underside of layouts by a variety of mounting brackets.They operate in similar way to a Tortoise with a single arm moving about a fulcrum, but tend to take up a lot less room than the aforesaid shelled animal.

A#1, keeping the true faith defiantly non-digital in the face of the above attacks on the One True Way, was scribbling way furiously on his sketch pad with a plan for a small layout. 

When, saddened and bereft by the lack of company from the nether regions of the Group who were not in attendance at the putative Zoom session, a couple of the brethern attempted to cheer us up by showing what they had been working on in recent times in the privacy of their own homes.

J#1 showed the progress on the goods yard of his Caledonian layout, Kirkallanmuir. Looking good with the various buildings in position along with the derrick half-inched from Connerburn.

A#2 also showed progress, this time on his accidental Highland layout, Aucheidh, with various bits and pieces in position on the layout along with some stock to fill out the gaps. Interestingly, the hand of J#1 can also be seen in this layout as well, as he had produced the etch for the station platform fencing, giving a very nice touch.

Lastly, but by no means leastly, we come to the toolset which G#1 had brought along to enable work on his next attempt at an etched chairplate turnout. (Contrary to the announcement in the previous edition of this broadsheet, he has not given up on this method of construction, only on his first attempt. The journalist responsible has received a severe censuring and has been hauled up before the Disciplinary Elders, where he or she received the severe fine of provision of a pint of refreshing amber liquid to G#1 in the Horseshoe Bar)

"Nothing surprising here!", I imagine the intelligent reader will exclaim when perusing the above daguerreotype of the toolset, "That's only what one would expect." Ah!, but what does not appear in the image is G#1's secret weapon, developed by the Swiss Army. Not sure what they developed it for, but perhaps it was for burning stones out of horses' hooves. (Try that now and hunt saboteurs and public outrage will ensure that you will be thrown out the Pony Club. And rightly so.)

He claims it is a 100 Watt soldering iron and showed us it in use making alignment pins for holding rail. It certainly seemed to do the job soldering pins onto brass strip. The smoke emanating from the ends of the fingers which held the brass strip, lent a certain piquancy to the atmosphere in the room. Whilst the instrument was certainly efficacious in applying heat, the downside was that the owner was late for his tea as he had to wait for six hours before packing it away to ging hame.

The rest of us departed after a few rousing choruses of the Association song. The next meeting of the faithful will be sometime in December at a secret location near Uphall.