July 2023 FCAG Meeting

A smaller than usual group met this last Saturday at the Edinburgh Society of Model Engineers, comprising of Jim, James, Nigel, Andy, Alastair and Martin.  Apologies had been received from several members owing to holiday season and other such frivolous commitments which stand in the way of the progress of 2mm modelling.

I arrived slightly late to the meeting and arrived to find a huddle around one desk where discussions regarding the water tower for the Group Layout were underway.  Jim's latest sheet of etches had arrived with the windows and door and tank sides for the Water tower, and he had commenced building.

Left is the Platikard building shell, held together here with sellotape for reasons that will become clear - on the right is a paper mockup Jim made to check size, scale and position (as well as produce the etches...)

The discussion underway was regarding the colour of the brickwork and quoins, well, more the mortar, for the building.  From the prototype Jim had been working from, the mortar seemed to be very bright, so he had tried this in white when making up the texture paper, however, on printing this was far too bright, and so Jim had prepared a couple of different shades by saving the texture as a picture, opening in the MS default picture app and playing with the picture settings.

A decision from the six present was the top one - or right as you look at the photo.  Jim didn't get a chance to continue to work on the Water tower at the meeting for reasons that will become evident shortly, but at last report, the building continues, with the structure starting to be introduced to solvent and etched components ready for instillation.

The main focus of the meeting was starting on the wiring of the Group layout.  Until today, the only wires on the layout were droppers, not connected to anything but the rails above the board.  And, yes, for the pedants amongst the readership, those wires within the tubes which control the turnouts - but they don't use electric(!).

Nigel, Jim and James took charge of this operation, and the rest of us stayed mostly out the way., occasionally coming across to offer moral support and/or look on in awe at what was going on.

It may or may not be evident from the latter photograph, but significant progress had been made by the end of the meeting, with around half of the layout wired to a bus. James took custody of the layout this month (it having lived on top of Martin's for the last two months and providing an excellent excuse for lack of progress on tracklaying...)

Some other modelling was taking place around the room from the others of us not involved directly in the wiring.

Andy continued his turnout building to convert his home layout to 2FS

James, when not working on the Group Layout, was running in a newly converted Class 24.  Also of note and/or on display was his home built control station, built using MERG components for testing and programming of locomotives in both P4 and 2FS, all contained within a nifty wooden unit he'd built himself.

Alastair was working on the 3D CAD for his next 3D Print - this an NBR 3 plank dropside wagon.  It's built on the same underframe as the previously reported mineral wagons.  The finishing touches were underway here, ready to be sent to the printer next week - hopefully by the next meeting we'll be able to see these models in the flesh.

Another action shot of Nigel and Jim working on the wiring.

Saving the best for last - or perhaps I just forgot to photograph my own work again and have had to pose it at home... Martin was working on LMS 9' Bogies from the Association etches.  Building a suburban passenger terminus, it turns out, requires quite a lot of coaching stock, something I should have considered before designing the layout...

Four sets of Bogies complete since Saturday - only one set completed at the meeting and a second halfway done, reuqiring the pedestal fitting and folding into the appropriate shape.  Now to start on the coaches themselves...

Our next official FCAG meeting is scheduled to be Saturday 12th August at ESME's premises at Almondale, however there are rumours of an organised trip to the Bo'ness and Kinneal Steam Railway in a few weeks time.  Watch this space.

Perth Model Railway Show 2023

Several of our stalwarts headed North this weekend to Perth, Perthshire, to man the Further North Roadshow and demonstrate all things 2FS at the annual Perth Model Railway show.

A whole host of layouts were on show of varying gauges and prototypes, from the courser scales to several P4 layouts including Cadhay Sidings where some of our dual hatted members spent their weekend.  The trade support was also out in full force, allowing us to replenish boxes of tools, gloat, and stock alike.

The Stand wih a number of members and the general public engaging in some discussion regarding 2FS and railway modelling in general.

Richard's colliery buildings for his Fenwick Pit project on display for the first time, his journey into designing and etching his own NCB coal hoppers was on display including a 4mm mock-up used to help him understand how the etch would need to go together.

Alisdair's C16 Push Pull set sits on a West Highland Line inspired diorama constructed by Simon in the centre of the 2FS Stand.  The set, in a prototypical setting was well received by many passers by and was a talking point for several members of  the public who remember seeing or riding on the real thing.

Thanks must go to the team from the Perth club who put on the show, I'm sure we'll be back next year!

Our usual program of meetings resumes on Saturday 8th July at Almondell, near Livingston for the Area Group meeting.

June 2023 Forth and Clyde Area Group Meeting

A strange mystical orange orb shone down on the Central Belt of Scotland through a blue, cloudless sky on Saturday as the Forth and Clyde Areas Group assembled at the grounds of the Edinburgh Society of Model Engineers for our monthly get together. What better weather to sit indoors and huff the fumes of solder, flux and glue?

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.

May 2023 Scottish Mini-meet

Was it really five years ago? The last time the two Scottish area groups of the 2mm Scale Association attempted to explain themselves to a select group of invitees was in Perth in April 2018. (The original Perth, Kevin, not the one in Western Australia).

High time then for a follow-on event. Public halls available for hire at pocket-money prices have become even less common than five years ago, so we were fortunate that the Edinburgh Society of Model Engineers stepped up with the offer of their large conference room for our 2023 Scottish mini-meet. This gave us space for eight layouts in various stages of development, two specialist traders, and two demo tables.

Alisdair Campbell's "Aucheidh" started life as a test track but then took on a life of its own as (according to the show guide) "a highly unlikely minor Highland Railway station somewhere near Granny's Hielan' Hame". Highly unlikely or not, an intensive train service of green locomotives and green-and-white coaches was to be seen:

Those who went camping or caravanning in 1970s Scotland may recall that "Granny's Hielan' Hame" was a real place not far from Dornoch. Perhaps they built it on the site of Aucheidh goods yard?

Andy Peggie's "Lomond Bridge" is a development of his N gauge layout based on elements of Leslie in Fife. Regauging is still under way.

Martin McIntosh only put saw to timber in late December, but his baseboards are ready for tracklaying in earnest with most turnouts already built from Finetrax kits. His terminus layout, "Cathkin Central", is inspired by the Cathcart Circle in Glasgow but with aspects of other locations added in to the mix. He had some of his Caledonian wagons, from member Jim Watt's Buchanan Kits range, in the goods yard.

A backdrop of low-relief tenements is planned and the first cutouts for these are propped against the back board.

 Simon Hadwin brought a couple of boards from his West Highland Mallaig Extension project - the station boards from Glenfinnan, now with track more or less complete - and a selection of stock including a 20-van fish train.

The Forth and Clyde group's own cameo project, intended as a conversation point for the 2mmSA Further North roadshow at exhibitions, was also on display. Alistair Mearns took the chance to measure up for the backscene he will paint for the layout.

FCAG member Jim Watt intended to bring "Kirkallanmuir" but had to withdraw at the last moment due to a "heavy general" repair at the NHS main works. The boilermakers did their job and outshopped him in good order but put him on gentle running-in turns for a few weeks. We missed him, and wish him a fast return to top-link duties.

The Grampian area group brought a section of Dunallander, their development of the late Neil Ballantyne's layout based on Dunblane near Stirling, with three of their members making the journey south to explain their work. Their blog has more details. A variety of locomotives were in their stock box.

 

The North East (of England!) Area Group provided 2mm finescale inspiration before the Scottish area groups got going, so it was fitting that two of their stalwart members brought their established layouts to the event.

Mick Simpson (who also had a "heavy general" recently, but who is happily back on main-line duties with his bone-crushing handshake intact) brought Callaton:

and Anthony Yeates brought Corrieshalloch, with stock from both HR and BR(ScR) periods:

The fiddle yard cassettes are worthy of note:

Chris Gough, who is well-known for his P4 layout "Cadhay Sidings", is also a FCAG member who in the past has given us some memorable demonstrations of his 2mm scale building techniques. He offers a complete layout design service as "Model Layout Services" and had brought some of his laser-cut baseboards along:

 

 

Martin Stewart, who modelled in 2mm for some years and had "Ketton Cement" on the exhibition circuit, now  runs his own design firm, "Architectural Railway Models", producing laser-cut and 3D printed building components in 2mm, 4mm and 7mm scale. His West Highland station elements are a particular delight for those who know the buildings: they capture their subtle textures better than we've seen elsewhere. He's used them on several of his own West Highland layouts.

All the shots below are of the 2mm versions, straight from the cutter or printer. The different media fit each other very precisely.

Martin is contactable on archrailwaymodels (at) gmail.com or 07536 677756 ... we hope to see him at FCAG meetings again when he can find time.

FCAG member James Batchelor was demonstrating various elements of getting started in 2mm scale, as well as the piezoelectric steam generation technology he is building into the P4 "Burntisland" layout:

 

Ray Nolton, another who works mostly in P4, had the next table to James.

Ray brought along his 1:144 ship models with a beautifully-observed diorama including 1:152 wagons. He was seen to depart with an Association starter kit, so we await furher developments with interest!

We had a healthy number of visitors from outside the 2mm scale fraternity - strong contingents from the N Gauge Society and the Scalefour Society's East of Scotland and West of Scotland groups, and individuals from the 3mm Society and of course from the larger scales favoured by ESME members. By mid-afternoon everyone had settled down to the kind of contented chat familiar from other Association mini-meets.

The event was certainly a success for the attendees, and we signed up a new member, paid our hall fee with something left over for local Area Group funds, and sold a good number of 2mmSA publications. Thanks to all the exhibitors, traders, demonstrators and visitors, to Alisdair Campbell for organisation, and not least to ESME for tolerating the 2mm folks. We look forward to the next event, hopefully this time sooner than five years away!