Here are a few pictures taken at our recent meeting

Nigel turns wheels for a DMU whilst Gareth admires a new purchase from The Hobby Box.

Guy hard at work assembling DG couplings

Guy, Alan & David

David working on his layout in a a box file.

Dave's SR van, modified to reduce it to scale width

Dave's SR wagons. The three link couplings are functional.

I'm pleased with the static grass but I haven't quite got the join between it and the short grass correct. I'm hoping the post and wire fencing will help. I'm currently working on the buildings...

My scenic test track. Still have to add reeds along the banks of the sewer, plus bushes and trees etc.

Three members from the Wealden group, Nigel, David and Myself, spent last weekend at the Tolworth Showtrain exhibition operating Nigel's Llangerisech.

The layout performed well, and a good (if tiring) time was had by all.

After two days running blue diesels, Nigel finally cracked and ran his scratch built Jones Goods on a steam special, and I managed to grab a few snaps on my phone:

Here are a few photos of progress on Dave Barnett's scratch built chassis for the SECR H class. Dave had this running on the test track at the last meeting where it ran impressively smoothly.

More to come from Dave in due course.

The Easter weekend at last resulted in some progress on the track for the first board of my US fs160 layout. After a recent spate of projects that have not yet come to fruition for one reason or another, it was nice to get back to basics with copper-clad track and complete the trackwork over the weekend.

The first turnout under construction

This was helped by the fact that all this track is to be burried under a roadway meaning it could be done quickly with spare 2mm SA 9ft sleepers at generous intervals. The rail is Micro Engineering Code 40 rail for compatibility with the flexi track that will be used on board 2.

The nearly completed turnout - just the tie-bar to be added.

I also added the trackbed to the board but managed to resist the temptation to glue the track down - turnout actuating mechanisms and track feeds are to be decided upon first while I can still gain access to the underside of the track.

The trackwork laid loose on the track bed

But if you want to see some real fs160 modelling check out these sites:

http://www.fs160.eu/

http://stummiforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=50628

The February meeting saw us greeting Steven to the group and I don't think we deterred him too much! Nigel had the test track out with various items running round and being given the exercise they wouldn't get on the end to end layout.

Peter showed us the finished 4W coaches complete with lead seats and passengers. Dave had an in-build 0-4-4 chassis  for the SR H Class to show us and David had brought along some rolling stock to show Steven as their geographic and period interests have some common points.

I brought along some etches for a narrow gauge Manning Wardle running on 9.42mm track (2FS if not 2mm so just about on-topic.)  I suspect the rest of the group doubt my sanity not to mention my ability to build them - and they are probably right on both counts.

Nigel was doing some chassis weathering on some Farish wagons influenced by an article in the February Railway Modeller. Using acrylics and weathering powders allows the degree of weathering to be built up gradually and even reversed by washing if required. Once happy with the overall effect, matt varnish is applied to seal everything in.  In addition he found time to take the accompanying photographs .

Discussion centred around what the association and the group could offer to the newcomer along with the show and tell aspect that the meetings usually centre around.

Here are a couple of pictures of Nigel Ashton's Jones Goods.  This scratch built loco was the winner of the Chairman's Cup at the 2011 2mm Scale Association AGM.

The unpainted model

The finished locomotive on Nigel's "Llangerisech"

Here's a few photos from our November meeting. Thanks to Nigel for the pics.

Our November meeting saw three 2FS Terriers stretching their legs on Nigel's test track.

Peter's Terrier has a scratchbuilt chassis. The body was rebuilt after it was demolished by a sheet of plate glass!

The scratch built chassis uses Association wheels but retains the Dapol motor.

For our May meeting we hired the larger room at our meeting venue and several members took advantage of the extra space to bring along their layouts.

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.

Here's a picture of my first fs160 turnout

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.