Railmatch 402 = Track colour

Mike asks: I was reading your blog item on the demise of Humbrol 170, where you mentioned a Precision alternative namely "underframe dirt". Do you have the appropriate Precision reference number for this colour?

I checked their site, but wasn't sure I'd found the correct item by description alone.

There is a good reason for that - I got it wrong. It's not a Precision paint you need but a Railmatch one. Specifically, Railmatch 402 "Frame Dirt". Sorry about that.

Mind you, it is marvellous stuff. I bet I go through 4 or 5 jars of it every year. In fact I went out and bought a fresh one only yesterday...

Stop Press: Humbrol are bringing back track colour ! Number 173 is back in the range this year !

Raise the exhibitors !

I mentioned on Monday that my assistant operator over the weekend was a shortarse vertically challenged. The layout backscene comes within an inch of his chin, making it slightly harder for him to operate than it is for those of us who grew up properly. We weren't the only people with this "issue" though, next door was a layout with a backscene even higher. I'd have struggled to see over it.

Needless to say, there was a solution. As part of the exhibition kit, the team brought along this piece of staging - looking awfully like three pallets nailed together. As well as raising them up a little, the carpet saves their delicate feet from a day spent on a hard, concrete, floor, keeping them warm and unworn in the process.

And for all those of you who are saying, "What a bunch of wimps", well you try and spend the day standing up on a hard floor. After a weekend, you certainly know about it. Exhibition hall floors seem harder than most, some engineering type can explain why although it's probably something to do with load bearing or having fat sales reps trudging around them a lot, unlike village halls which seem positively civilised. Carpet isn't good news either. I strip of it behind the layout is a good thing, I try to remember some, but under the baseboard legs ? No thanks. You have the layout wobbling around every time you shunt.

Chassis testing

I hate diesels. With a chuff-chuff, you get to build the chassis and then spend many hours tweaking the thing to make it work properly. Not with the Class 25. I plopped it on the track and it ran around the layout perfectly first time. Where is the fun in that ?

I'm joking of course. Before the Leamington show opened, I took the opportunity to stick the chassis on the track and give it a go. It really did run around perfectly. The only problems were when the wires caught on the tunnel mouth exiting the fiddle yard or around the water crane. Putting the body on brought these under control and sorted this out. Those wires are too long anyway but just twisted together for testing. I'll probably use a chocolate block connector on the finished model so the thing can be easily dismantled.

The BullAnt bogies worked a treat. Even my slightly rough and ready regauging was OK. They didn't rumble over the pointwork or get upset about the curves. Even with one wire disconnected and reducing the pickup numbers, we didn't see any stalling either.

All in all, a very pleasing moment. The hobby can be relaxing after all !

Class 25 Bogie sideframes

The most striking component of the Class 25 kit were the bogie sideframes. Not an easy part to build as I've found out in the past, I am perfectly happy to leave the job to someone else.

Before sticking the bits in place, I re-gauged the wheelsets from 12 to 14.2mm by carefully pulling them out with a gear extraction tool. A dot of superglue on the axles ends before starting this hopefully get s pulled into the axle/wheel join as I work saving me from the embarrassment of another one falling off in service.

A dry run showed that the whitemetal parts were quite wide. In fact if I'd stuck them on as supplied the loco would have been distinctly bulbous down below the body whereas the photos showed the bogies tucked nicely underneath. I massaged the metal with my fingers to squash the convext part in a bit. The wheelbase grew a tiny bit as a result but at least the middle bit got thinner. Then, by cutting the outer mounting point away, I was able to superglue them in place.

A little care was required as the parts seem deeper than expected and it's always a good idea to have nothing poking below the wheel tread. I suspect that the master might have been slightly over scale as everything else is right. At least the space under the model will be well filled.

Class 25 side skirts

Under the Class 25 body on the etch were some odd dangly bits. The general consensus was that these are supposed to represent those parts seen under the locomotive body. Or that the designer had a brainstorm and went a bit mad. Whatever, they aren't there in the real loco, so I cut them off and threw them in the bin.

The underbody bits on diesels are a bit of a nightmare and working out exactly what should be there isn't easy. The plans are confusing and the photos not much help as they show all the bits at once and I have to try and work out what they are and what order to make them. Eventually I think I worked out the basic skirts, or at least figured out enough to be able to cut something out from a sheet of very thin brass.

Cutting was entirely with the Olfa Plasticard cutter and a small disposable knife. No scissors or sawing this time as the job called for lots of straight lines and I'm rubbish at sawing these. You can cut brass with a knife, it just takes lots of gentle cuts. The stuff is thinner than paper and so if you push too hard it will distort.

Fitting to the chassis involved scribing some lines and using these as a guide. A hot iron, lots of flux and speed were also required as the metal is so thin, heat can distort it if you linger too long.

Finally, the buffer beams are whitemetal castings. I think the buffer shanks are a bit short so had to pack the beam forward with a strip of metal, but it looks the part and that's what matters. To me anyway.

Leamington & Warwick MRS Show 2012

Well, that's the local show over with for another year. It all seemed to go very well. There were a lot of people coming in the door. The layout ran passably well. Excellent breakfast batches were on sale for £3.50 from the restaurant. What more could anyone want ?

Behind Flockburgh, I had the able assistance of Chris Mead since my normal second operator was busy helping out with the club second hand stall. He normally runs his own OO layout, Overlord, and so it was his first go with the finescale 14.2 3mm scale. His layout doesn't have uncoupling magnets either.Finally, he's shorter than me which makes seeing over the backscene more challenging that it might otherwise be.

Anyway, there were lots of really good layouts to look at and plenty of places they could buy stuff from. The crowds were good, especially on Sunday. Maybe modellers have finally worked out that it's a lot easier to get around and see stuff on the second day. This rule applies to all shows by the way...

Both of us found the time passed really quickly. I'm not sure why, but it did - obviously we were enjoying ourselves. We certainly talked a lot, both about the main layout and the tiddly little ones on the table beside us and they certainly attracted a lot of interest. On Sunday, Chris added a new building he is working for his layout. This is a huge model of a bit of Portsmouth Dockyard. It was longer then the micro layouts !

Anyway, if you said hello, thanks for dropping by. If you visited and didn't then don't worry, I won't hold it against you, I just hope you enjoyed yourself.

See the pictures (most of which have model trains in) I took here.

Fastbuilding ?

I bought a kit recently which proclaimed that it could be built in less than 30 minutes. Apparently this is A Good Thing.

Surely not ?

After all, you buy a plastic kit with the aim of spending some pleasurable time putting the thing together. A significant chunk of the fun to be had is in the assembly. Take that away and you might as well sell the thing ready built.

Obviously this is partly driven by the idea that people have shorter attention spans than they used to have but I wonder if there is something else at work here. This symbol wasn't put on the box by a modeller, it arrived there thanks to the marketing department.

If I were cynical, which I'm not of course, I might suspect that a group of people sat around a table, none of whom were modellers or even interested in model making, and had to come up with an idea for selling the kit. "I know", said someone in a sharp suit, "tell them it won't take long."

And so an important point was comprehensively missed.