Scalefour Forum

Dave and Flymo’s thoughts about timber ring true for me too. I bought some very long lengths of 2x1 many years ago and left it on the stairs leading up to the (then) workshop. It didn’t get used for the layout in its new location, but when we used it for supports and suchlike it was still dead strai...

Will, sorry for any confusion. I sympathise with jet lag but we solved that on our most recent trip to the US by going by sea! I have used floating track before but only on a little branch line, and the underlay did easily dent although it maintained its level. I do now think that with our small sec...

Perhaps I should clarify my ‘pinning’ of track a little. I intend to locate the track laterally with a pin into the base through a clearance hole, but not held down rigidly as you normally expect with pinning. Track is either FastTrack or PCB based, both of which are sufficiently robust for the slee...

Some years ago I had a customer who built a lovely layout in EM, with PCB based pointwork and SMP plain track. The track was lightly pinned to a cork underlay, but mostly the track was held in place with dilute PVA painted over the sleepers, which seeped under the sleepers. Pointwork was pinned as f...

Tim, I think Gordon Gravett has done something similar on Arun Quay. Although that’s O gauge of course. I suspect you will be OK so long as it’s absolutely flat. A thicker underlay had crossed my mind, but the cost of thicker cork put me off a bit. But it is a lot more stable than foam. I’m putting ...

Tim, that's an interesting idea, so long as the stuff is completely rigid and will not compress or dent. If it were to be as solid as timber then perhaps it would be OK. But for underlay, perhaps, I'm not so sure. I had originally thought that foam underlay was a good idea, but am now pretty convinc...

I have a favourite (but not probably very PC) solution to this one. I substitute a brass 14BA screw for the steel middle crankpin, and tap the return crank 14BA. Once the correct angle is set, I solder the crank to the crankpin, with a hot iron and 188 degree or electrical solder. The brass crankpin...

I have almost standardised on the Brassmasters Cleminson underframe for 6 wheelers, and it works. OK there are a few intricate bits and pieces, fitting the the odd cylinders and brake gubbins around the moving bits, but generally the vehicle just rolls around steadily. One wheelset has to be truly c...

I use 247, Fox Transfers and Modelmaster. All are very good but like any etched plates are a trifle on the thin side. I sometimes glue on a shim or styrene backing plate to bulk cab side plates up a bit.

I think CGW retired a while back.

Philip

Taking the tyres off a Hornby engine, for example, is difficult without a lathe because they are moulded in an incredibly tough kind of plastic which has, in the past, given me problems even with a piecing saw blade. They look to be moulded into the tyres, because the tyres have little spikes inside...

Iain’s comments are exactly the way I feel we should approach things. One of the reasons I set much store by the late Walter Ward-Platt’s article, reprinted a little while ago in Scalefour News. Testing extensively and settling on a way of doing things that feels right in an engineering way (even th...

If you want a set for a 44xx in a Mitchell kit, you will need 1/8” axles. They are turned down at the end but this is a standard part of the product. Ultrascale will confirm when ordering. All suspension components in the kit are designed around 1/8”.

Philip

The tyres are usually quite a tight fit on the centres, so just a little skimming will produce a sliding fit rather than a very stiff one. The tyre is then held with epoxy. The definitive article about this has already been written by Chris Pendlenton in MRJ 219 and 221, I just used some of his idea...

I was talking to David Rogers the other day and he mentioned that Ultrascale are now offering bespoke wheel tyres (for a very reasonable price). There is a range of options with dimensions; you just specify what you want and he will turn them up for you. Particularly interesting is that the width of...

Tim, essentially it involves using a lathe to (where necessary) skim the wheel centres and gluing the tyre back on with epoxy.

Philip

I had a little experience of this last weekend, running my converted Bachmann Dukedog pulling a very heavy (860g) four and a half car rake around the Epsom Club’s ‘Wadhurst’. All vehicles - four Hornby, one Bachmann PMV) were marshalled (sprung) buffer to buffer including the engine tender. The whol...

Graham, I have sent an email to you regarding a kit.

Philip

Guy Williams considered that the kit could be regarded as a beginners kit (MRJ 32). I have two here, one not yet started, and another part built (not by me) and the part built one seems to have gone together very well. I have, however, put together some Mitchell crossheads many years ago, and found ...

Although similar in many respects, there are dimensional differences, not just with the wheel diameter (the exact wheel is still available from Ultrascale) but with the footplate, buffer beams and some other places. There was an article a long time ago by the late John Harrison on building a 44xx in...

Allan, thank you for the complimentary prediction of how good the pictures might be. No pressure there then. They will be a while yet, as work gets in the way, and there are several hundred to work my way through. Then they will go off to webmasterJohn for him to form into the Retrospective. So hold...

Thanks Dave, useful to know when something tight next comes along (like a King Arthur or S15).

Philip

I wouldn’t thump too hard or you might split the sleeper. A punch tool is more measured, but a gentle tap with a flat faced hammer on a steel block should do just as well.

Philip

Julian, The Ultrascale wheel for the T9 is a true representation, and the boss on that engine is very pronounced indeed. The combination of a true scale wheel centre and a plastic moulding for the footplate produced the clearance issue, hence my reducing the boss. The LMS compound may not have this ...

One of the problems with outside cylinder engines in P4 is there really isn’t much clearance at the front end. Even if the prototype had a pronounced boss, I would not be averse to filing it flush with the tyre face to gain a few thou extra. It doesn’t help that driving wheels are commonly 2mm wide,...

As Gordon says, sometimes AG axles are a little short, depending upon prototype. In those cases, I cut new ones from 1/8" or 3mm stock I keep handy. I prefer to have the axle flush with the boss (unless it's one of those engines where the axle actually protrudes slightly). I think this gives a ...