2mm Matt's 2mm tribulations.

[Matt.S.]

Just to prove things don't always go to plan, today I made a start on a Harris Grampus. five pieces later, each end fell from the etched carrier along with a set of axleboxes (5 laminations here). The body laminations sweated perfectly first time, then I promptly warped the whole affair putting the floor in - back to square one!


At this point I called it a day and dug in the box for a quick win - 2-511, an LMS van part built by someone else and fitted 8 shoe chassis.

Which starts like this, Bartlett albums reviewed, bearing holes reamed, brake gear pricked through, bearings and vac cylinder fished out ready for a round of tinning.


Journals sharpied - (a trick stolen from Stephen Harris' instructions to stop solder escaping) and sides removed form the etch, ready for a quick RSU zap to tack then sweat them in place with particular care to the axlebox/springs.

A careful bend later sees a chassis appear - depending how brave you are it's test time. I usually check they run straight on a piece of glass. Brake gear folded and cusp scraped from inside the shoes we are ready to zap once more.

At this point bufferbeams can be sweated on, vac cylinder tacked on. I usually plonk the body on, procrastinate and make a brew.

Feeling suitably guilty as I wonder if any might have had the rest of the brake gear left off as a cost saving exercise it's time to fold up levers and guides, solder in a cross bar and cuss. Finally 3d printed buffers fit with a dab of black superglue and you're done(ish). The roof will be popped on once I have enough of an order for Shop 3.

DGs to follow after paint and I'll need to work out how much a high vac pipe will stop the loop rising before painting...

 

[Matt.S.]

Heather's timely nudge has brought me back to a work bench. It's fair to say Adam has been a bit of an inspiration with his dip fed freight over the last couple of years so...

After a resolving the 08 chassis I picked some bogies to build for a slow burn E147 project, except I had one set of passenger bogies, one set of freight.

To head a sulk off at the pass I picked a Chivers tube out of the stock and promised myself an easy, quick build.

First signs were promising - assoc conversion irons soldered up, floor filed flat, solebars thinned...
...which rapidly went wrong when I realised the Chivers clasp brakes wouldnt line up with anything, with or without the association conversion etches. Luckily some spares from the epic Harris mineral saved the day - the wheel carriers were soldered up on the bench before being dropped in place.

 

[Matt.S.]

This weekend I have mostly been rewiring a station - my day job is working out how to swith from a 1937 westinghouse L power frame to a modern Siemens system (photo on a block of line, with PPE and competent to be trackside).

Luckily prior to the block we had a warm dry day, so I could break out the rattle cans.

Post block I had a day-after-nights to kill and started two Harris Mermaids.

Which turned out pretty OK. Defintiely could have been neater on some ribs, but they are around 22mm long.

...there's 4 more, I'll write a better entry for those...

 

[Matt.S.]

Three sequential weekends playing big trains hasn't helped me find the modelling room lately.

With Railex on the horizon I elected to wrap up the trial mermaid builds. I'll superglue on the axleboxes after a scrub using a black "strong" CA.

These two looked a little lonely so I started bothering the next four.

As before, all wire holes pricked through, bearing holes opened with a broach and inner/outer chassis cut out. The inside of each fold scored to help keep them sharp.

Then the fun begins - the instructions don't quite cover the finger gymnastics required to fold the sole bar channel whilst not mangling the buffer beam step/fold guide and rail clamp.

First the bufferbeam...

Then the lip

Followed by a gentle coaxing over a steel block to give us:

 

[Matt.S.]

After a particularly uninspiring visit to Railex, catching a heritage DA loco roaring north on my run put me in the mood to build.

A zoom call home saw four etches turned into fettled parts

I had good intentions of writing this up for the magazine, however a few zaps and coffees later I'd missed the boat.

The brake ratchets are now fitted, with levers and buffer backing plates left - hopefully the 2mm Shop will be popping some buffers in the post shortly...

Fingers crossed for sunny priming weather soon.

 

[Matt.S.]

Couple of distractions recently including some great canoeing...

Finally however, these four are wrapped up - excluding buffers which are on order prior to paint.

Which gives me a nice rake of ex GW mermaids (I'll be doing some clasp brake BR ones in time...)

For my next trick I've elected to start a BR and LMS pair of D2026 CCTs.

 

[Matt.S.]

The Harris kits often require good attention to the basics and a methodical approach, unlike many of the assoc kits where one may be a little more creative.

The CCT is no exception. Prior to folding, all folds are scored to assist with a sharp edge. The body is then folded up with care to ensure the bottom and sides are truly square around the windows in the floor. The partition fitted, then partition and ends soldered.

At this point the body top must sit on the partition, flush with the sides and inside the ends which requires the ends to be soldered perfectly flush and the tiniest etch cusp scraped back.

These two are pending fettling - I was a touch distracted by the IMechE president discussing HSTs on Zoom.

 

[Matt.S.]

Well, it's been a while... finally scraped up enough mojo to get out to the shed after a solid two months of real trains.

Cautious that I didn't want to mess up the cct framing I fabricated two missing ribs for the plate started last year and hit it with a quick primer coat.


Mojo rising I decoded it was time to face a Harris mineral... as a minfit! Photos scrutinised, two hours later we have most of the fiddly bits ready to drop in place next session...

 

[Matt.S.]

Like many others here, motor has had a slump lately. The perpetual rounds of restructure and redundancy in the real railway haven't helped.

Chancing upon a cheap Dapol CCT on the lesser known auction site in NZ, I dug out a replacement chassis kit and set to. For anyone following in my footsteps - open out the clasp gear holes and score the lower footstep fold...

Before/after - this is why we persevere!

Goodness knows what Dapol were thinking with the lower door steps - shouldn't take too long.



Fingers crossed it'll leave the workshop in grotty carmine to join my ragtag parcels fleet.