Scalefour Forum

I've read of sprags being nailed to the wagon floor to secure loads. Would this work for the containers?

Just had email from Mr. Stadden saying that his first figure-sets are available to buy. See http://www.acstadden.co.uk/Pages/oogaugefigures.aspx.

I am planning a build of a LNWR 2-4-2T "Mansion House" tank, for which I have an old kit (not the current LRM one). Since this would be the first P4 locomotive I complete, I'm after some advice on the chassis design. I want to spring all the axles for best ride and to pick up from the radi...

I have seen lots of interesting stuff on the 3d printing sites but it is mainly 2mm scale or smaller and very little for the 4mm modeller. If the original draughtsman will let you have the files from which the 2mm models are printed, then it should be easy to rescale them. However, you may might fi...

jjnewitt wrote:SDoes anyone know a good source of nice thin wire to wrap around a length of brass rod?

"Beading wire", available from some craft shops might work. It is brass, very flexible (annealed?) and comes on a reel like cotton. But possibly too thin for this job.

Then can someone please tell me why if the RCH allowed a tolerance of 3" (that's 1mm in 4mm scale), people here think that the tolerance in 4mm scale should be a whole order of magnitude tighter, i.e. to the nearest 0.1mm? Even the putative quoted standard height of 13.8mm is spurious, since t...

…If 4mm/ft leaf springs behaved as predictably as 12”/ft ones, we could all fit our ‘W’ irons in the way the original wagon makers would recognise… I don't see why a single leaf made from a metal of known properties would be any less predictable a spring than a length of guitar string. If one could...

[ However, in connection with something that I'm designing for 5522, I've been poring over a number of detailed LNWR wagon diagrams. These seem to be consistent in showing: Buffer height 3' 5 1/2" or 13.83 mm in 4mm scale Underneath of wagon/van floor 3' 10 1/2" or or 15.50 mm in 4mm scal...

Where you have one fixed axle, then you have to be able to get this square to the chassis in two planes and get the ride height correct. In my experience, Slaters kits are not your friend here: the bearing holes in the mouldings I've seen recently are all over the place. This was for PO-wagon parts;...

In the etches I've used (used up three so far) I've always had to bend both inner and outer tabs slightly to get the wire in. I haven't broken a tab yet, but the ones I was doing last night seemed weaker than usual. It is possible to solder the wire in, but doing so will stiffen it. In particular, i...

I have diluted some old solder-paint (Eileen's product) with plain tap-water, on the assumption that the active part of the flux is not lost by evaporation but concentrates as the paste dries. It works as well now as it ever did.

iak wrote:I tend, by the way, to save/export files in AI and EPS. We make sure all of the font sets are on the PC running the ALPS as well.

Thanks. So the EPS file is the one that goes to the printer?

John, thanks for the information; and I'm glad that it's printing properly on your printer. I was aware of the background of SVG - I've written software to generate SVG in the past - and I have to say that the promised interoperability never quite showed up. Viewers wouldn't read all valid SVG (that...

I am trailing a piece of open source software called Inkscape. It may be a viable alternative, costs naer a thing and does not need a Ferrari standard PC to run it - stay tuned.... What output format do you use to get the graphics into the printer? Is it produced directly by Inkscape or do you outp...

I use an piece of ceramic wall-tile which is flat, rigid and totally heat-proof. It also acts as a heat sink, which can be useful with small assemblies and a problem for larger ones needing lots of heat.

Thanks for all the useful answers! I agree there must have been a metal plate to sandwich the beams on to and these are already soldered in position. I had a browse on-line for wood and found Amazon supply 100 unused lolly sticks for £1.20! These have arrived and with some careful shaping and sandi...

Does anybody know if the text of the RCH operating agreements can be got on-line? I'm thinking of things like, but not limited to, the common-user arrangements for wagons, and the rules for returning empty wagons before common-users rules applied. All I've read of these arrangements is third-hand ac...

If the mill is sending timber to a station on another railway, then the wagons of that railway could be back-loaded with the timber, but only if they happened to arrive on site loaded; I think it would go against the RCH agreements to send the other company's wagons empty to the mill from another st...

I've been thinking of using brass brake gear instead of the plastic supplied in most kits. Definitely worth the extra work, IMHO; most satisfying. If you don't want to go to etched hangers and push rods, you can get a nice boost in appearance just by fitting an etched V-hanger, lever and brake-leve...

Thanks Noel. I guess that most of the class-B tank wagons had bottom-discharge gear which got in the way of the cross-shaft and the class-A tanks used the same brake-gear as class B for consistency. I've seen a reference to Morton's clutch coming into use in the 1880s, so I assume that any patent wo...

I have fitted a cross shaft thing as I thought all wagons had them? I admit my knowledge here is lacking. By no means all wagons had cross-shafts in the brake gear. Early wagons generally had brakes on one side only, even if both wheels on that side were braked. Later, when the RCH insisted on brak...

The later GWR designed a short-wheelbase PT for dock work, with outside cylinders: 1500 class, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_1500_Class. BR built them in 1949. I don't know if kits or conversions for these are available. Not something I'd choose as a first loco to build in P4!

One other thing, while I think of it: it would be very unlikely that the mill wheel would run directly in the main stream of a river. In almost all mills since the end of the middle ages, there would be a leat taking water off the river, or more often from a storage pond, down to the wheel-pit and a...

Speaking as a non-expert... In all the water mills I've seen (and I've visited a few preserved ones), the wheel runs in one direction only. Some of the internal machinery, like the powered sack-hoists, depends on this. In a tide mill, AFAIK, the operation is to trap the water on the flood tide and t...

Eileen's sell M1.6 cheesehead screws that might be modified to make grub screws. However, they only sell brass ones, not steel.