Lacathedrale

My first finished wagons appear on Hound Tor: I do appreciate it's something of a sea of brown at the moment, and the weathering on the frames and track (sleeper grime) is quite similar to the bodyside colour - but I am really happy with how these look, all of that air underneath the body makes me happy

I'm not sure how a top link Co-Co diesel ended up at Hound Tor, but here we go. This is my first attempt at editing something rather than just putting the video straight online from my phone, so hopefully it was worth it. There were a number of issues to resolve, the major two were the repair of the actuating rod for Turnout #4 as noted above which went ahead without issue, and re-attaching a switchblade that had popped out during cleaning. I did spent a good amount of time trying to fettle the 37 but I think it may be a lost cause for reliable running - the middle axle of the bogie is fractionally pronounced and so causes a the bogie to rock front to back, typically with almost no pressure on the outermost wheels. Because of the raking that occurs, the front wheels are deflected easily and not guided by their flanges. It requires another DCC compatible 2FS loco before making further changes to the layout - but I may re-visit the switchblade clearances as this is typically where it's occuring. Best,

The 6-pin chip for my EE Type 3 arrived today and I was eager to get going - unfortunately the Zimo MX622N I ordered is not a good fit for the Farish loco - the decoder is quite loose and requires fixing with light pressure (i.e. with tape) in order to function. Luckily, the layout didn't spontaneously combust when a loco was placed, and I am very satisfied to see a loco running on the layout. That said, there are some definite teething problems to address. The actuation rod for the platform-side of the crossover has come loose and isn't moving the point Though I did smooth and buff the railhead it clearly does need a good clean. The 37 sounds like a bag of hammers falling down the stairs and it occasionally derailed going through some of the pointwork so needs the gears fettled and B2B validated. Update tomorrow, when the workshop has warmed up a little!

Hi all, After posting the above I braved my 2 degree shed again to test and I managed to resolve the issue -the connector on the Zimo is indeed too long and/or the Farish 37 socket is too short. If held positively in place (i.e. with Kapton tape) then the loco can be programmed and run. I found an N gauge loco (which obviously I can't run through my 2FS pointwork, but which is happy on plain track) and transferring the decoder directly did not work initially because it needed a good clean too, after which it also worked. I hope this helps anyone else with a similar issue with this combo of decoder and loco.

I've got a Farish 37 with a 6-pin socket - I removed the blanking plate and inserted a Zimo MX622N. I placed onto my main track with no programming. I could select loco address 3 and dial up the throttle. Very short rhythmic pulses of movement appear - a fraction of a second every few seconds. If I place it on the programming track, I can change the loco address (and repeat the previous exercise on the main). Loco runs fine on DC. Control station/throttle work fine with other DCC locos. Track is clean (and was cleaned) Wheels were grubby but were cleaned. The only thing that doesn't feel perfect is that the DCC chip fit is very loose - pins on the Zimo are about 1cm but the socket on the Farish PCB is only 3-4mm. This is my only 2mm DCC loco so this is actually the only loco I can test on this layout unfortunately I would really appreciate any thoughts you might have!

Hi NIck, I'm following your processes and patterns with a Jinty etch slowly but surely, and have a small question - you applied some thinned off-black to the chassis and wheels directly, where most advice I've seen is to use an etching primer/etc. when painting brass. I was wondering if you might be able to expand a bit on this? Many thanks, Hi Nigel, I hope this isn't too much of a digression, but of your kits available on the 2FS site for the larger locomotives, is there any gradient in accessibility/simplicity or order you would recommend for the Jubiliee/Scot/etc. ?

Probably a solid choice for a firebox/tapered boiler/smokebox/saddle assembly - I gather if the supporting structure (where there isn't a cutaway for a gearbox/motor) has that lattice support, then it could be filled with liquid gravity, right?

Is there a rule of thumb for 3D printing bodies, as it pertains to getting enough weight in a loco for it to have any meaningful haulage capacity? I would have thought a 3D printed tank loco on an etched chassis would be extremely light, for example.

Hi guys, do you think it might be useful for me to collate a list of tool recommendations that've been posted here and in this subforum somewhere? I'm after some decent quality mini drill bits after buying some chinese sets which have the same cutting power as a wedge of brie, and I'm sure that a discussion must exist somewhere in this thread.

Thanks Chris, that does clear it up - I do appreciate the instructions are meant to cover a lot of eventualities, this comes primarily from my inability to fill in the spaces with experience. I gather I would use simpson springs if I was intending to open out the bushes to 1.6 for a bit of sprung compensation, as opposed to an explicit requirement? I gather the next step is to establish that, and then clean up and fit the gears to the muffs either way. Is the assumption that I test fit the worm gear now, but then it gets removed and stays out of the picture until near the end of the process where I fit the motor?

Today I spent a good amount of time clearing out the workshop and rearranging things; it gave me the mental space to restart a Jinty chassis, this is how far I've gotten in an afternoon or so: Justin1985 suggested to me about this time last year that 2FS (and finescale in general) benefits spindly edwardian locomotives with lots of air around them - and after seeing this in the flesh I cannot but resoundly agree. I soldered in simpson springs as per Nick Mitchell's Jubilee build videos, but then I could not fit the blasted thing into the box jig provided on the etch. I'm sure I could have got away with using the screw-on chassis alignment jigs provided by the society but I decided to err on the side of caution and remove the springs and follow the instructions properly, On his example, this too was my first time using flux paste in anger and I liked it. I decided to sit the Jinty body onto the chassis just to see how it looked - and it's very much train shaped: The instructions are a bit nebulous on what to do next - they show examples with the 3" dummy axles threaded with all muffs and gears in place to test the gears, but the muffs are a super tight fit. Am I OK to do this? I don't want to end up with a muff captive inside the chassis that I can't get out without breaking something! EDIT: have a sneaking suspicion the body is on backwards in the previous photo

I'm sure these don't look all that different from the previous picture - but they've been decalled, varnished and oil washed. The technique is something new to me, but I'm very pleased with the results. After your stock has been painted and decalled to a 'factory fresh' look, you must cover it in gloss varnish. When the varnish has cured, you can apply a glaze of oil paint. t's important to decant the oil paint out onto some kitchen towel for the oil to be absorbed before adding it your palette - since we're using it as a wash the extreme working time that the oil carrier bestows is something of a detriment (unless you prefer waiting 3 weeks for your paint to harden). I cut the black oil with some titanium white and burnt umber to bring it to a dirty dark grey, and diluted to the consistency of a glaze - though it is named as a wash it is nothing like using inks and goes on fairly opaque. At this point everything looks ruined, but you can dry up the models very quickly with a hairdryer (it's enough that they are no longer 'wet') and then swipe away with cotton buds and tissue. If you need to get more back to the base colour you can add a little oil thinner to the bud, but be careful you don't flood the area because the paint is VERY soft. In this method, the wash should be fully hardened after a few days and can be varnished and further weathering applied.

Hi NIck, I did indeed find your video so all is well. Your link to the use of the lathe to turn the dome for that loco has made me realise there may be other playlists unlisted with your work. Watching you build the Jubilee has inspired me a great deal as I may have mentioned; so if you have other series I would be very eager to watch them. Can you share the link/s or are they in the vault, so to speak? Along those lines I had to sit on my hands quite solidly to avoid buying a lathe - I think that milestone comes AFTER I've built a few etched kits of my own. You spoke about your files catching, is that a function of having sharp files and a gentle touch? I did catch my breath a bit when you turned that first assembly over and the file caught the long arm to spin it around! I can understand getting rid of the cusp from a loco frame, but how did you manage with the various parts of the valve gear? They almost seem too small to hold in the vice - certainly not vertically! Lastly, would you go into a little detail on your soldering iron? I have a 'dumb' 20-ish watt one with a spade bit that's done me OK so far, but i feel like I may need to upgrade a bit when I get around to building delicate assemblies rather than laminating etched chassis. Lots of information out there, but it's mostly for larger scale modellers! If this is in the association magazine archive, I think I may just need to bite the bullet.

Something of a quantum leap from the previous post, ground contours have been added and a base colour laid down. I used polystyrene to get a rough shape, then cut it down by about a third to make sure I wasn't going crazy with gradients and slopes, and then slopped on a bunch of sculptamold. When that was cured, I painted it with artists Raw Umber paint - it's much too dark for normal use, but seals the white away for good. Ontop of that, I sprinkled coloured grout through a sieve (this is Mosaic light brown from Amazon - a few pounds for a 200g bag that's done about 15 square feet of layout) and finally misted with some water with a splash of isopropyl alcohol. When I removed the masking tape I'd used to protect the track, I realised I'd left huge margins either side, so touched that up with some raw umber and then threw caution to the wind and painted the rails and sleepers up with a dusting of sleeper grime. I've done colour studies of the area and the rails and sleepers really were this terracotta brown, though the running lines had dark staining and the goods yard lots of gravel dust - that'll come later. Bar a replacement wheelset, the wagon is a wholly unmolested Peco example - certainly not the epitome of detail. I managed to stand on one of my other peco wagons that got knocked of my desk, so I think it's high time I invest in some proper stock boxes, which are en route. You will notice another distinct lack of locomotive - this is because my only working 2FS loco (the 37 above) is not chipped, so a 6-pin Zimo is also en-route for that too. I have added LED lighting to the layout in the form of two self adhesive strips under the top and front valance. I am not sure how happy I am with them, because they cast a very direct light - I think the result is that it scales well, but adds too much contrast to the scene. What do you think?

The track has now been fully laid, here's a shot across the bow of the layout in suitably moody lighting: I wired up the droppers by drilling holes on the far side of the rail and threading through. Where I was joining to rails that were situated on PCB sleepers, I simply sweated the wires into the existing solder blob. In areas with plastic easitrac sleepers, I sliced one out and inserted the brass equivalent to provide a surface to connect to. At the very ends of the layout, I just soldered to the sides of the rail, since those areas will not be visible when operating. If I had more foresight, I would have tried to find a way to attach the wire to the bottom of the brass sleepers rather than the side/top, but I'm not that clever. You can see a scrap of turqoise paper I used to make sure the vees stayed electrically isolated while I was shoving the rail around. If you can believe it, no shorts and everything wired up correctly first time. There were four small rail panels of <10cm that needed to be attached towards the right end of the layout, so rather than drill new feeds for those, I used the association fishplates to bridge the gap and hold the rails in vertical alignment (I won't be using cork again!). I have more to apply in a cosmetic fashion, and I will definitely be using epoxy or araldite, it was a real chore to line them up, let alone solder them properly.

Oh that's excellent, thank you all - what's the diameter of the Seep pole? I think it makes sense to get at least one of those before I try to make my own. I've drilled 5mm shafts in preparation, so finger's crossed! Nigel, if I understand you correctly, using a pushbutton to make a circuit straight from a 15v/3A source to the electromagnet might burn their contacts, so it's better to use a MOSFET switch in the middle to handle that. I've seen one with four relays here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/ELEGOO-Channel-Optocoupler-Arduino-Raspberry/dp/B06XK6HCQC/ - so one channel per uncoupler where I connect the power input from a 15v / 3A DC, power output to the magnet, signal live/ground to my pushbutton and/or accessory decoder? I see VCC listed on the input side, is that something I need to be concerned with? Thanks again

Really? On one hand it was nice to have a subassembly to manipulate that had some rigidity - but made the switchblade chair pegs a very accuracy-dependent job. I may give it a shot and just see what happens, since I have experience one way now, and it makes sense to test the other. I got all the motors in today, and all but a foot of plain track laid too. Fitting the cobalts themselves was very simple and they immediately worked well on DCC - but the linkage was a real pain. Despite double-checking, one of the turnouts had drifted and I had to expand the clearance hole from underneath. There was nothing yet so toe-curling and nerve wracking than drilling millimeters from the underside of my crossover with a 10mm drillbit at the very last hurdle. The bottom looks nice, but yet to fit droppers so there's room for it to get messy still

The turnouts have to be shimmed onto card to bring them to the height of the easitrac - something I will be doing my utmost to avoid next time by using etched chairplates. The following picture just shows them placed in-situ, it shows the 'custom' part of the layout board - the extra skyboard used to divide the baseboards into scenic and non-scenic sections: Wiring under the board has started too: I can never seem to find the correct wire gauge on the internet - this stuff could power G scale I'm sure. Luckily I have a meter of thin red/green/black so I'll use those for droppers (green is for the frog).

I was thinking about servo actuation but figured that it was more important to pick my battles - possibly for the next layout? In the event, I measured the actuating rod by swiping it with a permanent marker, then inserting into place and scraping with a scalpel in situ so there was a clear delineation where there were no scrapes indicating the tie bar level. I cut with a dremel and seems to be working fine. I tested the cobalt in-situ by holding the trackwork with my fingers while actuating it and it locked nicely and positively. Overall after some rather stressful DCC teething problems yesterday, everything seems to be going well. I think I should have probably held off drilling for uncoupling magnet holes and tie bar slots until I was laying a given point though, because I've now got two holes for each half of my crossover and may end up with a third Is there a defacto standard uncoupling magnet used with DGs? I see that Seep/Gaugemaster do one, as do Peco. I'll be using it with DCC so there's the extra question of how to power it!

Thanks Crosland, I made that mistake on my first point but since then I've got space for 1.5 easitrac sprues on each point, so nice and easy to keep alignment. That has meant that one of my tracks will have a splice of about 2" between the throat and crossover all told (this is a micro-layout!) but still, it's working better. One thing I will definitely attempt is to use the plain chairplates from the association to raise my PCB pointwork to the height of the Easitrac flex so I don't have to use card shims underneath. Anyway I've finally cracked my DCC system and I now know I can control the Cobalts, so that's allowing me to proceed. My first throat cobalt is mounted and actuating rod centred on the unit and in the hole, with the point threaded onto it through the tiebar hole. Should I just glue the turnout down and then remove/trim the rods? Do I need to perform some other testing ahead of time? Apologies for the questions, but I'm getting quite nervous now the rubber is about to meet the road...

I enjoyed the black and white flashback - very 'Crimestoppers'. One thing that is really nice to see is you not always going for the Rolls Royce approach - cutting the cylinder end caps from rod by hand rather than on a lathe, for example. That said, I am starting to put together a little workshop, having just got myself a Proxxon mini pillar drill. I gather that kind of machining is not possible on it however. Would you recommend a lathe/milllilng machine for general work? It feels like it would be overkill for the average joe modeller but I am happy to be disabused of this notion! Eagerly awaiting the next episode on the linkage/etc. Best regards and a happy Christmas to you, PS. is there a reason this series is unlisted? It would be a huge boon to publicity for 2FS for it to be searchable, I would have thought...

So I have been testing with only one loco - it wasn't factory chipped and I wired in my own harness. I was getting annoyed because it would work fine on DC, but not on DCC. For DC, I created a blanking plate which jumpered the black-grey and red-orange terminals. I got my multimeter out and checked continuity - turns out I had swapped the black/grey wires when I put the harness together. 5 minutes with the soldering iron sorted that, and now I can read/write/drive via USB on either JMRI or the DR5000 program. I spent a little while going back and forth with wireless settings - and I've got it to 'latch' and both the Z21 app on my phone and the WLANmaus are working. I don't know what I did differently at all, which worries me a bit - but so far so good. The WLANmaus dropped the connection after I bounced the control station, but after it itself was rebooted - all is fine. Still can't get Dr. Command via that app to work at all but it's totally secondary to getting the Z21 configuration to work so I'm happy to leave it as-is for now. Thank you very much foor the help.

I won't be using the DR command in practice, that was just some testing, is there some other reason to try it? I can connect my PC with JMRI and manipulate track power via USB, but that's it . No appreciable difference when network is set to Dr.Command - no controls work. I did disconnect USB and can confirm that I can still read and set config via WLAN. I did check the port was 21105 for the protocol setting when I was trying that. I noticed the UI sometimes has a blank spot for protocol, and sometimes resets to xpressnet.

Hi guys, I've got a DR5000 and a WLANmaus throttle from Father Christmas and I'm almost at my wits end. Any help at all would be most appreciated! I have the Digikeijs DR5000 set to Bridge mode (i.e. standalone wifi). If I connect to the DR5000 wifi network with my PC I can view all the lovely settings on the app. Note, I have set the mode to 'Bridge' because I don't have wifi in my workshop where the layout is, and I have set the Protocol to Z21/WLANmaus: Also note, that the WLANmaus is connected to the network: Unfortunately, all is not well - though the WLANMaus can connect to the network fine, it flashes with the centre section, like so: As per page 64 I have updated Settings -> Wifi -> Z21 IP Address to 192.168.16.254 (as per the IP address information in the above screenshots) with no joy. I have updated the DR5000 to firmware 1.5.1, and I have updated the WLANmaus to firmware 1.07 and the radio module to 1.04. Unfortunately I'm fairly certain it's the DR5000. Over Network, when starting up 'unable to open connection with DR5000' cannot show serial number cannot control anything such as track power or test drives, but can see WLAN activity light flashing when I try to turn on/off track power LAN/WLAN settings, track diagnostics/etc. visible via DR5000 Configuration software Over USB can use some software like JMRI/Rocrail/etc. if I leverage LocoNet-over-USB to turn on and off track power any other commands are ignored, but can see USB activity light flashing Any help at all would be really appreciated - I feel like there's something I'm missing and I'm not sure what!! Many thanks!

Hello chaps, happy christmas to you all In a down moment between cooking and herding relatives I've been pondering my little cameo layout - and I'm about to take the plunge in setting track to boards. I've got a crossover and two points, each are glued to some card to bring the plain pcb-soldered track to the same height as the easitrac, but I'm a little unsure as to how to proceed. Turnout actuating holes have been drilled, as have those for uncouplers. Should I fix my first point in place and then work from that, or fix all my points in the locations they should be and join between them? My thought was to use an easitrac base to 'span' joints between two pieces of rail to ensure alignment, but is there a better way?