Whats on your 2mm Work bench

[tapdieuk]

Jumping around a bit, I had been working on and off on a Barry slip. I thought it would be easier (relative) than a true slip.

I have struggle with the etched chairs at times, so it a real mix of bits of etch fret and etch chairs. But a wagon rolls through all routes. The tie bars being a temporary  soldered sleepers. 

I have yet to to sort out any wiring and isolating the frogs to run a loco though, but lots learnt on the track marking front. 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by tapdieuk
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[queensquare]

1 hour ago, tapdieuk said:

Jumping around a bit, I had been working on and off on a Barry slip. I thought it would be easier (relative) than a true slip.

I have struggle with the etched chairs at times, so it a real mix of bits of etch fret and etch chairs. But a wagon rolls through all routes. The tie bars being a temporary  soldered sleepers. 

I have yet to to sort out any wiring and isolating the frogs to run a loco though, but lots learnt on the track marking front. 

 

 

Great progress Will,

 

Jerry

[Richard Hall]

I have been plodding away at wagon building in between trying to get my Jinty to run properly:

 

 

The 16 tonners and the Hybar were built N gauge on 2mmSA chassis so they didn't need much fettling.   There are three SR vans, two with Monarch brake gear and one with conventional Morton.  The instructions for the Monarch gear were a bit vague and I couldn't find a clear photo until after I had built the first one wrong.  Only people obsessed with wagons will notice my mistake. For some reason the 2mmSA SR van body kit is listed as a twin pack but contains enough bits for three vans.

 

Two BR standard vans, one on 4 shoe brakes and the other is 8 shoe, very fiddly to put together but satisfying once it is done.  The slope sided MoS mineral is another Association kit and needed a fair amount of work as the supplied floor was much too narrow.

 

Finally the brake van, 2mmSA etched kit and possibly a bit too much for my soldering skills at present.  The duckets were especially awkward to solder up, and I broke off one set of brake shoes.  There is a weak spot where they are half-etched at a very narrow point: next time I build one of these I will reinforce the shoes from behind before fitting them. Hopefully it will look OK when painted, but it was a steep learning curve.  I might try the LNER "Toad E" van next and see if I can make a neater job of it.

 

About twenty wagons should be plenty for "Longwitton".  I still need cattle vans, Highfits, RCH 7-plank wagons and a couple more types of 12 ton van. The Rothbury branch didn't have any unusual freight flows requiring special wagons.

 

Richard

 

 

 

 

[richbrummitt]

10 hours ago, Richard Hall said:

For some reason the 2mmSA SR van body kit is listed as a twin pack but contains enough bits for three vans.

I believe it’s an N gauge society kit also sold by the 2mmSA. If that is the case the NGS describe it as a twin pack because when sold by them it contains only 2 chassis. The explanation given in the NGS literature ~20 years ago was that this kept the price down and that a third wagon could be produced with a separate purchase of an additional chassis. 

[John57sharp]

I too have a BR brake that proved to be beyond mu soldering skills @Richard Hall! I keep picking it up but I think it’s beyond redemption and will have to get another and start afresh, applying lessons learnt.

 

John

[Richard Hall]

58 minutes ago, John57sharp said:

I too have a BR brake that proved to be beyond mu soldering skills @Richard Hall! I keep picking it up but I think it’s beyond redemption and will have to get another and start afresh, applying lessons learnt.

 

John

It's a lovely kit but possibly pushing the limits of what you can do with etching.  I bottled out of fitting the tiny gussets along the top of the frames, replaced the fold-up etched concrete slabs with Plastikard, and I have no intention of trying to use the etched handrails.  Those duckets are just begging for someone to 3D print them in clear plastic. Mine will remain defiantly unglazed as I soldered the roof on before the need for glazing occurred to me.

 

As well as strengthening the brake gear I'd be inclined to fit small angle pieces along the bottom of the sides where they meet the floor: I tried fitting the supplied flat packing strips but locating them is tricky once the body sides are on, and I ended up with one side bowing in slightly.  I thought the roof would be a nightmare but it turned out one of the easier bits.

 

All good experience to prepare me for the next challenge: I need a Gresley non-corridor brake third and I've never built a coach before. Should be fun.

 

Richard

[Caley Jim]

Glazing the small windows in duckets is easiest done using materials like 'Glue-n-glaze' after painting. 

 

Jim 

[Yorkshire Square]

I've been working on a new Hull & Barnsley wagon, this time a three plank drop side open. The body including solebars and buffer beams (with very attractive flares to catch the dropped sides) was drawn and printed as a single unit. The chassis is a 1887 RCH with the brake lever rejigged to match the prototype. Axleboxes and springs are then added from my own prints and the buffers are standard Association turnings.

 

Having built one, I now have another eight to do before painting commences.

 

 

[tapdieuk]

The Barry slip works electrically! 

Apart from 2 shorts from the copper clad sleepers not being gaped fully. Lesson learnt check the sleepers before soldering rails. While the wagon rolled through ok, some adjustments were need to get the testing loco ( Terrier ) to run though. 

It needs a  better way of switching the frog polarity (interlocking both switches for movent with servos), but it's progress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up next is a interlaced turnout. The blades being thinner, much quicker with no chair plates to faff about with. 

It still needs the frog isolating. I have gone with soldered sleeper tie bar for now to testing, but time to look in to TOU!

 

The sleepers are stuck down with Pritstick I guess it just needs wetting for it to come off the board? 

 

Another small test/shunting layout feels likely with some of this track. Definitely based around a light railway with a mixture of track types and less than ideal sleepering. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by tapdieuk
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[2mmKiwi]

The Cordon has been through the paint shop and now reflects a lifetime on the rails. This one will live at the tail end of my up milk train - hence the lamp.

[tapdieuk]

After a sort out on the work bench tidying up offcuts of rail after the point work. I have had a bash at a 4 wheeled Midland Parcels Van, to this is from a set of  shot down etches. 

I had picked up the Association's W irons etch for 7mm wheels for another attempt at the LSWR horse box. These had been seen during the tidy. 

A quick build to get a feel and see if the W irons etch would work. 

All of it just lightly tacked to check all looked ok.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking ok for ride height. 

To be finished tomorrow.

 

Edited December 10, 2022 by tapdieuk

[Richard Hall]

A bit more work on the BR brake van. It has been hanging around for a while waiting for me to work up enough enthusiasm to do the handrails which I made from 0.3mm phosphor bronze wire (PB because I couldn't find the pack of nickel silver wire that I was going to use).  The first handrail took me four attempts to get the length right: after that things got easier.

 

The long handrail along each side baffled me for a while: in the end I drilled holes hard up against the vertical handrail at each end which held the horizontal handrail in place while I soldered it to the verticals.  Grey primer always flatters models: unlike others on here I'm not brave enough to show my efforts in raw metal, but even so there is still a fair bit to rectify before I splodge acrylic paint all over it with a tar brush. Worst bit is where the roof seems to have unsoldered itself along one edge: the duckets are a bit draughty as well.

 

 

At the moment my brake van has no brakes: the delicate half-etched shoes didn't survive the model being handled to fit the handrails, and I don't have an easy solution to hand.  I could point out that you can't really see the shoes from normal viewing distance due to the stepboards, but that isn't really in the spirit of finescale modelling so I suppose I'll have to cobble together something.  At least I have a brake van, and for now I only need one.  

 

Richard

 

 

[Matt.S.]

Not on my workbench, but on Duncan's!

The "even-further-down-under area group" has had it's first zoom meeting after an initial meeting at Railex in Wellington (NZ). 

 

Five members met to discuss interests and intentions. 

 

Don explained that he had joined to buy wheels and bits to enable finescale modelling of New Zealand Railways in 1:120. 

 

Malc ran us over his fs160 layout that has had some significant complex track laid but he is now at a stop as he works out how to finescale older German stock with the demise of the turning service. 

 

Duncan talked though his stock building and latest 45xx tank, his test plank layout has recently been in the magazine. 

 

Steve took us on a slide show around St Erth, real and model as he starts the yard board in ernest. 

 

I showed a few Harris wagons and my intent to start Liskeard. 

[tapdieuk]

I have been chipping away at the work bench. The output not as refind or as much as others, but a small pile has been worked on, an emphasis on finishing off projects not starting anything new. 

From the left, a pair of bolsters from shot down etches picked up at the Derby from the central shop. Not great, would have been easier to make the top from plastic card. Chassis cobbled up from assocation bits 

LNWR brake van, strapping finished and handrails

LNWR open 3D print design by Kevin on a Assocation 9'9" chassis 

2 1880s PO wagons 

2 Midland wagons 3 plank & 5 plank

Midland brake van getting couplings 

 

 

 

One of the more boring jobs is making up DG couplings.

I am working though a etch a time, even that's a bit of a chore

 

 

 

Also a Nigel Hunt chassis for the L&Y Tank the body from a Gem kit

 

 

 

A different way of putting the chassis spacers in for me. 

 

 

 

 

A bit more care needed, the rear one did not sit down quite right. But the chassis is square and isolated. 

 

 

 

Coupling rods were next. The half etchings got a bit mangled before soldering up. To ensure aliment, the rod centres were drilled in the soldering board. A pair of crank pins used to hold the etches together. The key was not to solder the crank pins in the rods! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[tapdieuk]

The L&Y tank on its wheels.

 

 

 

2 of the muffs were not as tight as I would have liked so a drop of thin loctite will be used to double secure the wheels 

With the rods on the chassis rolls ok no tight spots, but not quiet as free as it could be. 

Wheels without balance weights and the chassis blacken as per Tim's Raven Pacific. It's definitely a lot quicker than painting. 

 

 

 

[Richard Hall]

Nice busy workbench, I think your Gem tank engine is coming together rather better than mine.  I use drill bits to align rod etches: they are much harder to accidentally solder to the rods. 

 

Richard

[tapdieuk]

The L&Y tanks runs! With the body held inplace with bluetac it's been running in after some fettling.

I did make the motor mount removable, which was fortunate. The first run showed up a stiffness. This was traced to the worm being to tightly engage, it was a matter of unscrewing the mount inserting a shim from a bit of paper. 

The loco was happy running in on the roundy roundy. 

Finished the letter up of the LNWR open wagon and brake van, a a coat of varnish, both are still a bit shiny. 

A productive couple of days.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2022 by tapdieuk
Spelling and photo link

[MrSimon]

I’ve got the Ivatt tank chassis more or less running well - quartered and reasonably free running:

 

It runs better with weight added.  The Dapol body is very light so I will have to fill it with lead.

 

I’ve run out of things I can do to it while putting off building the rest of the valve gear, maybe I should set myself a deadline for getting that finished?

Can anyone recommend a rolling-road?

 

Many thanks

Simon

[65179]

15 minutes ago, MrSimon said:

 

 

I’ve run out of things I can do to it while putting off building the rest of the valve gear, maybe I should set myself a deadline for getting that finished?

 

No, I would caution against setting a deadline - especially if it's a short one. Any temptation to rush things is more likely to leave you needing to re-do things.  Nick's videos are very useful and neatly illustrate the sorts of things that should be checked and re-checked. Before adding assembled valve gear to your loco, be very sure that the crankpins that will take the return cranks are solidly fitted and that the wheels those crankpins are attached to aren't likely to slip in their muff. There's nothing more annoying than sitting back to watch your completed handiwork only to realise that one of the above has worked loose and everything needs disassembling. Guess how I know that!

 

Just choose times to do it when you are in the mood and make sure you've a set up with good light. Valve gear is 'just' a series of operations that you need to do carefully. As Nick's videos also illustrate it also helps to ensure that everything is firmly held in place. The more time you spend building valve gear, the bigger it feels. You get your eye in and it becomes less intimidating, like most other 2mm stuff.

 

Simon

[t-b-g]

Following my adventures with completing the part built Dean Goods for Yeovil Town and Inspired very much by some of the superb 2mm work illustrated on this thread and elsewhere, I have started another loco for the layout. Initially, I started a Worsley Works T9 but I kept finding more and more that wasn't quite right with it. Laurie has one already, which is complete and painted but doesn't run very well but it does contain some dodges (such as well undersized driving wheels) that I wasn't willing to copy.

 

So faced with the idea of scratchbuilding most, if not all, of the loco, the discussion with Laurie went along the lines of "If you are going to do a scratchbuild, do you fancy doing something other than a T9?".

 

So after a very brief bit of decision making, a Southern U Class was decided upon. So we went from an inside cylinder, round top firebox parallel boiler to outside cylinders and valve gear, taper boiler and Belpaire firebox. I must be very gullible. 

 

Here is the progress so far, with everything built from scratch other than the wheels, buffers, vacuum pipe casting and the axlebox castings.

 

The recent arrival of a metal cutting guillotine certainly sped up the metal cutting. I am half decent with a piercing saw but the speed and accuracy of the new tool allowed the basic body to be put together in about 4 or 5 hours. For me, that is very rapid indeed!

 

Just a few details like brakes, front handrails and fire iron brackets and the tender is done.

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2022 by t-b-g
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[Donw]

That is pretty nifty and looks very good what guillotine are you using?

 

Don

[t-b-g]

2 hours ago, Donw said:

That is pretty nifty and looks very good what guillotine are you using?

 

Don

 

Thanks. I have never actually scratchbuilt a tender before, in any scale, so it is a good learning experience for me.

 

The guillotine is not exactly one that you would call subtle. It is more industrial than hobby. I was offered it at a very good price a short while ago and expected it to be more use in 7mm modelling than 2mm or 4mm but the blade is very sharp and the previous owner rigged up a table with some guides to help set distances.

 

I was very pleasantly surprised to find that it will cut small bits of very thin metal accurately and with a very clean edge.

 

I attach a couple of photos. The handle is about 30ins. long.

 

 

[Donw]

Thanks Tony. I had a quick search and there are some similar on ebay about £78 to94. I had in mind something that would sit on the bench but maybe the big ones are what is needed.

 

Don

[t-b-g]

1 hour ago, Donw said:

Thanks Tony. I had a quick search and there are some similar on ebay about £78 to94. I had in mind something that would sit on the bench but maybe the big ones are what is needed.

 

Don

 

I was looking for a bench one too but I was offered this for the sum of £10, so being a bit tight, I thought it was worth a punt just to give it a try. I am glad I did.

 

I lift it up onto the bench when I am using it. If that handle ever fell, it would break something or chop a finger off, as it comes down to almost horizontal, so I may fit it with a safety loop or securing pin of some sort.

[nick_bastable]

Just to prove I still occasionally dabble

 

 

Wosley 2HAL  etch  running on a butchered Farish DEMU power block  test run prior to spraying on the area groups test track, still lots to do but its a start