A couple of photos of the station buildings below (taken with my cheap “point and click” camera):

And of the engine shed:

Traverser (with the Manor), and a view of the freight yard:

Paul Martin took some photos with his “real” camera, just before the layout was dismantled – no doubt they will appear on the 2mm website or in the magazine in due course.

A few piccies to give an idea of what will be on show at the Expo in Keighley next weekend. I’ve been busy doing the last bits to make the layout presentable. It won’t be “finished” as the factory in the corner still needs to be done, but most of the rest is in place. There is still a lot of weathering and toning in to be done plus all the detailing and the subtle bits still to do.

The layout will be in Modern mode as this was the simplest to complete, although really it is fundamentally a layout based in the 1930s. Station nameboards, people, vehicles and signals can be changed to differentiate the periods. The engine shed changes as will the cattle dock and goods shed once they are completed.

I will have few items of the old stuff with me to ring the changes at Expo but the pictures here concentrate on these just to give a taster.

The Manor’s chassis is close to being “productionised” as a kit, so this combination will hopefully be available to others soon.

Nigel's Llangerisech

A HST approaches Llangerisech

Dave's layout

Dave's ingenious lever frame...

...which works as simply as this.

Richard and Guy at work.

Thanks to Nigel for the photos.

It’s not pretty , particularly the moving tie-bar, but it is only destined for the test track. It was built to test out the fs160 gauges kindly made for me by Alan Smith.

For those that don’t know, fs160 takes the 2mm Scale Association standards and adjusts them for 9mm gauge track at a scale of 1:160 (where 9mm is correct for standard gauge).  It is intended for European and American standard gauge prototypes but could just as easily be used for 3mm or 4mm scale narrow gauge modelling.

Further details and a full set of standards for standard and narrow gauge can be found at http://www.fs160.eu/

I recently built one of the ingenious turnout operating units developed as part of the Easitrac project. Whilst designed for use with Easitrac it will work equally well with turnouts constructed using other methods.

Although the design is relatively simple, the construction method is not immediately obvious and it took a few questions on the 2mm Virtual Area Group and a chat with one of the Easitrac consortium before I properly understood how it was supposed to go together.

I filmed the construction process and the video can be seen below (just press the play button).  Nigel Cliffe has also prepared a wonderful 3D drawing showing the assembly sequence which you can view here.

Some notes on the video:

1. The two bits of rod shown are replacements for those that came with the kit which were too large to fit the holes in the small discs.  Only one is in fact needed.  Mine are longer than the originals as I cut them down to size later (it makes for easier handling).

2. There are two actuating arms, one with one straight arm, the other with two arms at right angles. These are optional and you can choose whichever best suits your needs.

3. The top plate has a “T” slot in it and you need to place the spigot of the smaller threaded rod in the horizontal slot with the rod you soldered on previously in the vertical slot. This creates a cam that provides the horizontal movement (see photo below).

If you’ve seen the video you will have noticed that the top plate has a slight vertical wobble when moving horizontally.  I subsequently took the top plate apart and noticed that the discs are slightly dished.  It may be that flattening both would have been sufficient but I felt that things could be improved by having a larger lower disc which would restrict the top plate from moving vertically. I cut a piece of nickel silver strip the same size as the top plate, used one of the discs to drill holes at the correct distance, then cut and filed away the part that protruded to the rear of the top plate at each extreme to leave an almost triangular shape.  I soldered one of the flattened discs on top to retain it all and it now glides back and forth smoothly.

I hope the video makes the construction sequence reasonably clear.

I have recently built an all plastic Easitrac turnout and this unit has been earmarked to operate it.  I may detail the installation of the unit in another post if there is any interest.  I will show the modifications I made to the top plate in this video also.

For many of us it was our first visit and we were suitably awed at the quality of modelling.  I can’t believe there is many a modeller who could leave there without being inspired to push their modelling just a little further. We had planned to go on to the Didcot Railway centre but we spent so long at Pendon that we ran out of time.

The group watching the Vale scene.

If you haven’t been before now is a good time to go as they have a special exhibition devoted to Guy Williams. Check the website for opening times as they are not open all the time.

I thinned the brake rods down so that they cleared the wheels.  The following photograph shows a comparison between the thinned side (at the bottom) and the original plastic at the top.

Assembling the chassis revealed that the brake shoes were touching the wheels in a few places. I repositioned them by briefly applying the tip of a soldering iron to the base and bending the shoes slightly forward. (I was not paying close enough attention when doing one and managed to melt the plastic where the brake rods are attached – this I still have to rectify).

The wheels have a tendency to turn on the axles if you give them a slight twist.  Surprisingly, this seems not to be the problem it appears, probably because all the wheels are fully geared. However one wheel gripped even less and was found to turn while the chassis was running causing the wheels to lock up. I fixed this with some “engineering adhesive” (a loctite-type liquid I purchased from Eileen’s Emporium some years ago). This refused to bite at first but after a couple of days it had gripped the wheel sufficiently.

The chassis then ran (up against a stop block) for a couple of hours without problem. I may take it to the next Wealden group meeting to give it a chance to stretch its legs on Nigel’s portable test track.

I re-soldered the chip with shorter wires (including re-soldering one wire where it attaches to the chip to allow it to bend at right angles) and the chip is now less obtrusive in the cab – if you squint it could well be a fireman hunched over his shovel though this is not going to pass any close up photography tests!

The only matters left outstanding are the repainting of the wheel rims and the fact that the body is refusing to sit snugly against the chassis for some reason, but that is something for another time.

This has been a very quick and easy conversion,  thanks in part to the extensive help I received from fellow members of the Wealden Area Group.