Scalefour Forum

I would be inclined to put compensation beams between the driven axles. You'll need a pair to clear the gearbox. Then put a central pivot for the trailing axle to rock on. Or you could do it the other way around, pivot the first axle and compensate the other two, but the geometry and construction wo...

Socially Distanced Challenge Entry No.2 - Wagons I am aware that there are full wagon underframe kits out there, but for this set of wagons, I decided to go back to basics with MJT rocking w-irons and Bill Bedford sprung w-irons. This is simply because I find them so easy - I can quickly get MJT w-...

Looks great! I keep forgetting just how great the Midland’s red livery looks. Very tempting.

Phew. I was worried I had them reversed or something. The cross shaft is cut as one of the final steps. I use a cutting disc to trim up all the long wire bits. If the cross shaft was to remain, then the brake gear on one side was backwards. It would have had the effect of applying the brakes on one...

Are you going to increase the height of the backscene to match?

Thanks for the responses guys - a few ideas to try out now. It's interesting that nearly everyone seems to fix the track first and ballast later. Ever since I made my own OO gauge track, I have laid track and ballasted in one operation, same as Norman Solomon, but we seem to be a dying breed in thi...

Good to see the building progressing, haven't made any new buildings for my new layout for some time, but this inspires me to have a go at the works building, not quite so characterful as yours, but quite a sizeable affair - there will not be any photographs for a while as I progress other aspects ...

The small door would have had a visible lock; even if there was nothing particularly valuable inside, theft and arson would be known risks which insurers would want addressed. The double doors can be assumed to be secured inside, the small door being the final exit door. Also, the small door would ...

The first warehouse is just about done. Need to finish the roof and a couple of details, that’s it. The windows were all 3D printed. https://i.imgur.com/F602AUY.jpg One of the challenging areas recently was curving the bricks into the doorway openings. I did this by creating a short bit of wall ente...

I haven't used these personally, but there seem to be lots of options: http://www.azatrax.com

Well, I hope he makes a go of it, but there won't be many on-line orders from me. I was about to purchase a couple of ground signals and an odd bit and bob earlier this week, until I discovered that the postage was going to be more than twice the value of the goods. It's a fixed sum, so OK if you'r...

I believe the sizes are from largest to smallest are: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 1/0, 2/0, 3/0, 4/0, 5/0, 6/0.

All the wiring is done, aside from the lighting. I had been waiting on the setts until I was sure the wiring didn't need any changes but I have now begun with this project. It's slow going and I'm not trying to rush, no point in needing to redo it. I've been spreading thin layers of Das clay. The la...

Well it’s been a while hasn’t it. Recently I've been working on a few more Edwardian wagons. I received a couple of decorated PO wagons from POWsides, they're both RCH 1907 designs, which are slightly too modern for my 1903 layout, but they'll be ok. The one I've built so far is lettered for F. Warr...

They're crowdfunding this on their own website rather than somewhere like Kickstarter? Hmm... Given how hard it seems to pay them that might not be the best idea. It seems like an invitation to confusion and unhappy customers. One of the major attractions of services such as Kickstarter is that they...

RJ Essery's Midland Wagons, Volume Two state that "final examples of Midland cattle wagons lasted until c.1950". There is one undated photograph of M6190 in BR livery.

You don’t need to lift the chairs. Just touch the edge with the solvent laden brush. It will flow under the chair just fine.

Since the mortar is only visible in the stock brick sections, I think it’s some sort of paint used in the red areas. If they were actual red brick I would expect to see grey mortar lines there as well, but they’re red. I wonder when and why it was painted.

As so often happens with my modelling, I was going along on a project and suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to do something different. I realised that Queensbridge was never going to be finished if I didn't actually work on it. So I went and had a look to see if I could find a suitable project. I ...

Horsetan wrote:

jim s-w wrote:... can the inside motion be made to work?

You'd get some more useful bits for this purpose in the RT Models chassis, but that means having to buy the entire chassis kit.

The RT motion doesn’t work, it’s just cosmetic. It looks like the Brassmasters etch is actually better for the purpose.

Would someone be able scan the article(s)? It sounds interesting but I don’t think I’d have much luck tracking down a 45 year old magazine from the other side of the Atlantic...

Dimension everything in mm. Go to a site like mfg.com and get a Chinese company to make you 1000 for practically nothing. It’s a super simple part and the tolerances don’t need to be very tight. The setup cost of the CNC lathe will probably be more than the manufacturing cost, but it hopefully won’t...

It’s not as precise, but I’ve successfully used a pair of pliers to press rivets into sleepers. It’s very straight forward on plain sleepers, turnout sleepers need to be drilled first. If you can’t find a press this may work as an alternative.

AJs and screwlinks? They don’t interfere with each other?

“Thoughts on Better Running” Parts 1 & 2 by Julian Roberts, Scalefour News 199 and 200.