Scalefour Forum

Well to be picky, spings are not enough. You need springing dampers, and radial steering as well.

The GWR link given above shows the brown line being 1/8" wide, and separated from the black panel moulding by 1/8". I can't see that being visible at normal viewing conditions in anything smaller than the engineering scales. If there was a bigger cream gap then you might have to start thin...

Thanks, useful info.

I'm looking at a photo of a surplus tender in use as a "water tender" by the WD. I know railway companies often used superannuated tenders as various kinds of liquid store. The question I have concerns the coal bit. Obviously the water tank can be used to contain water, but leaving the coa...

Yes. I have one of the one piece prints D46 prints from some time back. I'm very unhappy with it, as to clean up the rough surface I would lose all the detail, so basically would just have a plain box. Maybe better in the superfine stuff but just shy of £50 for a wagon body and still needing wheels,...

As you probably are aware "really definitely need" is a railway modelling term for "would quite like", but having said that the D87 express 10ton van, and the D46 refrigerator 6ton van are the ones I have my eye on. They fill the gap between the early 15'6" outside framed va...

This kit component design looks really good. I would need more info on banana traffic to justify some of these, but I can probably make up an argument for why I need one in 1906. And of course once you have done this it will be only a small step design-wise to the 16ft 6ton vans which I really defin...

An interesting project Jon. What was the source of the machine tool models please? [Terry Bendall The starting point for the machine tools was the Faller set, (Machine Shiop Interior Equipment 272-180604) which although 1/87 has useful bits. The lathe for instance is pretty well the right size, as ...

The line of supply for the BEF in 1939/40 was via ports westwards from Fecamp, including Le Havre, Caen, Cherbourg,St.Maslo, Brest and St Nazaire, so rail transport was required for all troop movement (initially including going off and on leave) and supply. The rationale was that the closer channel ...

Started before lockdown so not eligible for the challenge. Vans of one of the two Moble Railway Workshops run by 155 Railway Workshop Coy RE in the Rennes and St Nazaire in 1940. No1 Workshop was under the command of 2Lieut William Stanier (son of the LMS CME) at St Nazaire; No2 Workshop, under the ...

Very neat hut construction. I'm also using York tile strips. Are you painting/colouring/weathering them? If so how?

I agree with Mr.Rixon. These photographs are taken from close up. We rarely (if ever) view our rolling stock from this close on a regular basis. We have to accept that as a result our rolling stock is an artistic impression designed to have an impact at a distane, not a detailed replica of a close u...

Hi Richard The cork/rubber composition is from Javis. The strip I used has square edges but a bevel split in the middle (just visible in the photo). If it is pulled apart and the square edges placed together it can be laid as a trackbed with a slope each side, or left as it is it can be assembled in...

I think horses (or sleeping cats) are the most likely to stand still for scanning. The ones outside horseguards, and police horses seem to do it pretty well.

Thanks for all the input, and in other circumstances I might follow the advice BUT there is so little left at Connah's Quay (One building you can look at, one I didn't risk asking for access to, an embankment wall, a stretch of wall deliniating one side of the railway for ashort distance, and the wa...

To Flymo: wonderfully faithful, for a given definition of faithful To Richard: the layout is currently up a ladder, through a narrow hatch with low roof clearance, and in the attic. I fear many CRAGGIES would find it a hard visit. The good news is that I am attempting to make it as transportable as ...

Re: building off the templates. The printed one are from the Exactoscale kits, so fairly straightforward. The general lie of the land sidings can be done by eye (this is the Buckley Railway we are building, not the Premier Line) For the curving line out from the bridge I'm intending to make a cardbo...

Aah! A trackplan! The track started off as a plan prepared by the GCR prior to takeover. In practice the layout is (as usual) a slightly modified version of reality and the original trackplan was prepared using the TRAX software in a book about making track. Unfortunately I had to upgrade my compute...

As a result of Lockdown (but not suitable for the challenge as I started these when we started our own lockdown in advance of the official one) The buildings on Dock Road are progressing rapidly. Here we have No.28 (occupied on the 1907 census, but I mislaid my notes), The Pilots Office, and Coppack...

So clearly mass hysteria is occurring. We are now onto rigid chassis with marginal sloptype springing to increase electrical conductivity, and Markits EM wheels with spacing washers on Romford axles.

So converting RTR seems OK, probably because the small amnount of slop mimics compensation. However I am building my own chassis, so how about building in the same limited amount of (vertical I assume) slop?

i realise this may lead to me being marched out at the next ScaleFour exhibition, my card torn in two and a length of ready made track broken across the knee of the Chairman in front of me, but are there any members prepared to admity to simply running rigid chassis locos with success? (I'm thinking...

not too much work to cut brass strip?

without knowing anything about anything I would put the signal box opposite the end of the loop by the platform on the other side of the main line. This would (appear to) give line of sight down the mineral line cutting, as well as all the pointwork, and a single run of point rodding along the main ...

Thanks for this input. It was a bit of a diversion and I think I will leave it well alone. On the other hand I might be interested in finding out about Bulleid wheels or overlays for the Q1 class