2mm Modbury

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Lovely lamps, I bet your use of other European languages improved as gravity took hold of the lamp! I suspect we all have been there. 8 - 10 lamps quite a work load.
As a thought would the have had a ladder bar at top of post for "Fred" to climb when lighting/ installing oil lamps.- I guess gas power away in the future for Modbury. Only say this as lamps at Minffordd on the FR have the bar- a bit bent with age. It might save a bit of work to have oil lamps fixed to the fence post uprights. The expected and supplied levels of lighting much lower then than now.
Robert

Thank you. From the photographic evidence that I have, the short 6'0" posts that I am modelling did not have a ladder bar. The taller 8'0" posts sometimes seemed to have them though. I assume that the lamp lighter could just about reach or have a short set of steps or something to allow easier access when lighting the lamp.

To be honest turning the lamp posts is relatively quick and I now have a little stash (although still need 2 more). The lamp support is also relatively quick to add to the tops of the posts. The real b**gers are the acrylic glasses, mainly because once they have been milled and polished (while still on the end of the bar), the fiddly bit is filing the pyramid roof on them simply because the only bit you can hold is the tapered part that is only 3mm long - I've made 4 more tonight and my forefinger/thumb of left hand is quite sore. I actually did a swap with the workshop monster too tonight - I lost one I was filing and while looking for it I found the completed one that I lost the other day :)

Ian
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Over the last couple of weeks, I've been adding the finishing touches to my Buffalo Saddle Tank. It's not quite there yet as I've still got to add the brakes and sand pipes to the chassis but superficially its all done.

A few shots of her posed on Modbury's embankment section :








The lining is Fox transfers except the rather poorer curved bits around the cab cut outs - they being hand painted with a fine brush because none of the curvy bits of transfer seemed to match the cut outs. On the model it doesn't look too bad but seeing it blown up on a computer screen some 3 times the size of the model, I'll let you decide how successful I've been!

The ejectors under the saddle just forward of the cab were soldered up from bits of brass wire and tube, and are a representation of the early type - they seemed to get ever more complex as time went on. The number plates are from my first attempt at drawing up artwork for etching, and were etched in 0.006" brass.

Looking at the last photo in particular, it looks like I need to loosen the bolt securing the safety valve cover and rotate it through 90 degrees.

Ian
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Modbury was at the Warley exhibition at the NEC last weekend. I didn't manage to take any photos whilst there except a couple of quite dark ones just after setting up on Friday afternoon which really aren't suitable for sharing. Therefore this afternoon I posed a few shots to capture the look of the layout in it's current state (i.e. the state it was in at the NEC).


"Buffalo" no. 1601 drawing a passenger train of 6 wheeled coaches and a low siphon slows to exchange tokens with the signalman at Modbury Signal Box.


"Buffalo" no. 1601 heads a down 6 wheeled coach passenger train (with low siphon) into the platform at Modbury.


As above looking back along the train.


A view across the platform ends to the Cattle Dock. One of the recently added platform oil lamps can be seen at the top of the ramp. One of my new 3 plank wagons can be seen on the mileage siding behind the dock. It also appears that one of the cattle has become loose and is playing silly devils in the wagon!


A general view of the Goods Shed (now complete with sliding doors) and Cattle Dock. The recently added platform oil lamps provide a little more interest to the sparse platforms I think.


"Buffalo" no. 1601 draws into the down platform, while Metro Tank no. 615 waits for the road to Newton Abbot with a train of 4 wheeled coaches.


A view across the station as the train of 6 wheeled coaches departs for Plymouth.

Thanks for looking.
Ian
 

D6356

Western Thunderer
Well it looks wonderful in the flesh, I had a few moments to pause while on stewards duties at the show and wish I could have stopped for much much longer - inspirational and a lovely running, thanks for coming to our little club show ! The pictures show what I could have seen if I had stopped longer and no crowd watching, thanks for these pics.
Robert
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Well it looks wonderful in the flesh, I had a few moments to pause while on stewards duties at the show and wish I could have stopped for much much longer - inspirational and a lovely running, thanks for coming to our little club show ! The pictures show what I could have seen if I had stopped longer and no crowd watching, thanks for these pics.
Robert
Robert, thank you for the very kind comments!
It was a splendid weekend, myself and fellow operators thoroughly enjoyed our time at the NEC. Modbury received a lot of positive comments, and a few people who know the area remarked how well I had captured the feel of South Devon, which was very gratifying for what is essentially a freelance model.

Ian
 

Chris Veitch

Western Thunderer
Robert, thank you for the very kind comments!
It was a splendid weekend, myself and fellow operators thoroughly enjoyed our time at the NEC. Modbury received a lot of positive comments, and a few people who know the area remarked how well I had captured the feel of South Devon, which was very gratifying for what is essentially a freelance model.

Ian
I never realised it wasn't a model of a specific prototype. I've followed it closely and it's a real inspiration in showing that pre-grouping modelling is practical in 2FS - I hope to get to see it in the flesh before long if it comes far enough Oop North. It's one of the things that keeps my own 2FS dabbling going in the hope that I'll get there one day!
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Over the last couple of weeks I've been constructing a GWR delivery dray. The dray itself is a P&D Marsh kit, purporting to be a GWR version (they also do another LMS version with a raised seat for the drayman). I assembled the kit with superglue, but replaced the horse with one from Langley Models and replaced the drayman with a seated Andrew Stadden one. The barrels are more P&D Marsh offerings and the crates are plasticard - a couple of laminations of 0.040" with some 0.010" strapping (sanded back a little). The reins are narrow strips of thin paper (from a post-it note) glued in place and painted the same colour as the moulded on harness. I'm afraid that I shied away from trying to replicate the "Great Western Railway" wording that should run along the side rail of the dray - I'm sure it will bug me though.

A couple of photos now of the finished model posed around Modbury :

On the flat area of the yard beyond the cattle dock



Climbing up the slope from the goods yard to the station forecourt



Finally, drawing into the station environs from what will one day be the A379


The final image shows one of the other things I've been doing recently - adding a few more trees. Most have been added to the wood at the Newton Abbot end of the layout, but I did make the one at the station entrance specifically to site in the hedgerow to overhang the road.

Thanks for looking,

Ian
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Over the last week or so, I've increased the population of Modbury by 2. For some time now I've had a couple of sets of Andrew Stadden's Edwardian Seated Passengers, and I decided that it was about time I did something with them.

Firstly, I made up a pair of Shire Scenes GWR Benches - the ones that I had drawn up artwork for and had etched (as a first attempt at something like that were actually too low when it came to putting a figure on them). The benches were assembled at the last Midland Area Group meeting with superglue, and a little cursing could be heard by fellow members as it transpired that the glue I was trying to use must be past its best as it refused to stick the metal parts together but was perfectly happy to make a bond between metal and end of forefinger! However, borrowing a drop or two fresher glue allowed the benches to be assembled that evening. One of the things I did do was to glue a 0.3mm mounting peg at the back of the middle "cast iron" bench support for location in a suitable hole in the platform surface. This peg was also useful in the painting stage as I could mount the benches in pin vices while the paint was applied.

When it came to locating the benches on the platform surface I found that the middle bench support (with the peg attached) must have been marginally lower than the outer supports as the latter hovered rather unconvincingly a fraction of a millimetre above the platform surface. To remedy this I cut a thin slivers of 0.005" plasticard and glued them to the feet of the outer bench supports and touched them up with my mix of GWR Dark Stone paint.

From the 20 Andrew Stadden individuals that I have, I chose a pair of ladies (each set comes with 5 male and 5 female passengers). Each had a small hole drilled in her bottom and a peg of 0.3mm brass wire glued in place so that I could hold them in pin vices for painting - under magnification I'm sure I could see their eyes watering! A weak wash of white enamel was applied as a primer and left to dry. It was then a simple matter of mixing up some suitable paint colours for their clothing. I tend to mix up two shades of the same colour one slightly darker than the other, the darker variant being applied to the folds of the clothing. For the skin colour, I use white with a very tiny amount of GWR Dark Stone mixed in.

Now for some photos of this recent addition :


An overall view with the two ladies in conversation while waiting for the next train towards Newton Abbot.



A closer view, illustrating how the bench sits on the platform surface rather than one or other end hovering unconvincingly.



Finally, a slightly elevated view showing their hats off to advantage. They're probably discussing what Mrs Lipscombe is wearing on the opposite platform! It looks like I need to touch up the brass mounting peg on the fence panel to their left too!!

Thanks for looking.

Ian
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Todays project was a Loading Gauge. The one I made for St Ruth is of a later design with a post from 2 lengths of bull head rail bolted (or rather soldered) together, but for Modbury's early period I felt that a timber post version would be much more appropriate. There is a photo of quite a nice one at Malmesbury in Stephen Williams' Great Western Branch Line Modelling (Part 2), and it was this that I based my model on. Having no actual drawing of a timber loading gauge, I used a drawing of a rail built example to get the basic measurements and scaled the Malmesbury photo on the known dimensions of 9'8" across the width of the gauge, and 13'6" from rail head to underside of the gauge.


A somewhat cruel close up of the finished loading gauge after painting - the whole thing is only 40mm tall!

My model started out as an aborted signal post (I'd milled the taper at too steep an angle). The taper of the post was corrected by careful filing, an oversized piece of 0.010" etch was soldered onto the top of the post then filed back until it was just proud of the post all the way round, and then the post cap was filed to have a slight taper from middle to edges. The cross bar would appear to be about 3'0" from the top of the post, so a length of 1mm square brass bar was prepared for the cross bar with a small piece of the same material soldered along the side at one end. This extra bit was attacked with needle files to produce the ornamental strengthening piece evident where the cross bar buts up to the main post, and once I was happy the cross bar and main post were soldered together 6mm down the post. The main post itself also has a carved wider section at the door of the post, so a bit of 0.028" nickel silver was sweated onto the side of the post an it too was attacked with needle files until I was happy with its shape and size.

A 0.3mm hole was drilled at a slight angle near the top of the post for the straining wire, and a pair of holes drilled in the cross bar for the same straining wire (the hole nearest the post being where the straining wire enters the cross bar and a hole a mm or two further out for the bit of the wire that appears on the far side of the cross bar with the nut on it. A length of wire was soldered in place to represent the straining wire then cut back to size. Further 0.3mm holes were drilled through the cross bar for the chains that the gauge was suspended from.

The actual gauge itself was carefully bent up from a length of 0.6mm wide nickel silver strip - on the last etch I had done I filled up an odd space in the artwork with a sub-etch of 0.5 and 0.6mm wide strips as I thought they might be useful one day! The chains were made in the same way that I make handrail knobs for my locomotives, a loop of thin wire (very thin in the case of these suspension chains) has the two tails trapped in a pin vice, the loop passed over a drill in another pin vice , and the pin vice with the loop in spun until a tight twist of wire is formed with an "eye" around the drill. The eye was slipped off the drill, and passed over the bent up gauge and another made - rather surprisingly I only needed to make the two as I didn't lose any! The suspension chains were tack soldered to the gauge and the ends of the chains threaded through their holes in the cross bar before being secured in place with another quick in and out with a soldering iron.

The various solder joints were carefully cleaned up (especially around the various bits of wire), and finally the securing metal strap added (from 0.005" plasticard) where the cross bar meets the main post. A coat of white primer, a touch of Precision Paints Dirty Black around the foot of the post and then various washes of much thinned Dirty Black completed the loading gauge.

Tomorrows task will be to site it on the layout, it is intended that the loading gauge will go on the goods loop, and be used as a marker for the uncoupling electro magnet.

Thanks for looking.
Ian
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
The Loading Gauge has now been installed on Modbury's Goods Loop (as a marker for the electro magnet that is immediately below the gauge) :





As I mentioned in a previous post, I have also been making a few more trees for the wood, although there are still a couple of gaps in the corner behind the trees on the edge of the wood which I would like to fill with more interior trees. Hopefully a photo of that end of the layout gives the impression of a wooded slope behind the field bordering the railway :



Thanks for looking.

Ian
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Over the last couple of days, I've made a start on the next loco for Modbury - a Deans Goods.

The tender chassis is made in the semi-traditional way using frames of 0.5mm phosphor bronze fretted and filed to size. Although I have used soldered PCB for the frame spacers rather than the truly traditional Tufnol blocks screwed to the frames. The wheels are some from the late '80's/ early '90's, having a cast centre and nickel silver tyres (these were originally bought when I was a member of the 2mm Association first time around and were actually purchased for a Dean Goods that I hoped to build at that time).

The loco chassis is made from what is now my usual milled chassis method (both my Metro Tank and Buffalo Saddle Tank have milled chassis). The chassis block being milled from pieces of 6mmx6mm bar and 1mmx6mm strip bolted together (with an insulating barrier between them). Currently, the pair are temporarily bolted together outside the finished chassis length.

The state of play at the moment is that all of the holes have been drilled, the spaces for the axle muffs and gears have been milled away and the axle holes have been fitted with phosphor bronze bushes. The next job is to araldite some plastic plugs in the holes in the main chassis block (the 6mm square bit) for the permanent chassis bolts. Once cured, the plugs will be drilled and tapped 12BA and the 1mm thick frame fixing holes countersunk for the permanent fixing bolts. Once the chassis is securely bolted together the task of milling/filing the chassis profile can begin.


The plan...



Where I'm at ... The coupling rod is temporary - I'll be making up and using my custom etched version fish-belly version for the same wheel spacing.

Thanks for looking.

Ian
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
A super bit of modelling. And an off-piste genre to boot.
Grahame,
Thank you. When I came back to railway modelling a few years ago I decided that I wanted to build an exhibit-able layout, and that I really wanted to do something a little different from the "normal" GWR 1930's branch line terminus that was prevalent in the 1980's/'90s that were so popular back then.

My interest has always been GWR or Midland and the pre-grouping era in my eyes was always a much prettier scene. Because of what I wanted to model, in the scale that I wanted to model it in, it was obvious that I would need to pretty well scratch build virtually everything (there's nothing N Gauge that is suitable for conversion) which again suits my ideology of trying to do everything to a consistent standard (probably not as high as some peoples, but achievable for me at least).

I'm grateful for the positive comments that I seem to get both online and at the exhibitions I've attended.

Ian
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
With both the RailEx and RailWells exhibitions being cancelled (Modbury should have been attending both events), I have spent a few hours today putting together a video of Modbury as it currently is.

The video was filmed on my DSLR camera (and I'm no film-maker) so the quality isn't great (there are bits that aren't in focus and depth of field is somewhat lacking), but hopefully some will find it entertaining :


While running trains for the video, I also took a few stills :

Metro Tank 615 shunting a pair of cattle wagons into the cattle dock siding


Buffalo Saddle Tank 1601 collecting cattle wagons to add to the head of an Up cattle train

Thank you for looking

Ian
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
A little more progress with the Dean Goods chassis :


The chassis block has been milled to shape, permanently bolted and glued together and the excess cut off each end. The wheels have been permanently glued in their muffs (having got them all quartered of course) and the crank pin washers soldered in place and the crank pins themselves ground back to the washers.


A holder for the worm (and small flywheel) has been milled up too. A pair of 14BA bolts secure the holder to the main chassis block (the excess hole drilled on the centre line at the tender end was for one of the securing bolts until I remembered that I wouldn't be able to get at the bolt because of the cardan shaft coupling! Hence the offset hole.


The pair united (albeit not bolted together). The lip at the front of the chassis will be trapped in a socket behind the buffer beam, the chassis-to-body securing bolt will screw into the cab floor through the large hole at the rear of the chassis - I still need to fit a plastic sleeve in this fixing hole so that the body can remain electrically neutral. And there is a large hole in this side of the chassis that originally would have taken another fixing bolt that I dispensed with (because the gearbox bolt passed straight through it!) I really need to plan ahead sometimes
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In the end I decided to model one of the later lots, which will have a wider footplate (7'8") and have fluted coupling rods. It will however have an S4 boiler (large dome on second ring) and a round-topped firebox.

Thanks for looking,

Ian
 
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