David Holman

With Swillybegs rehearsals proceeding a pace, thought it time to review the stock and trains that make up the 'new' layout. Fintonagh's last show was over three years ago, so perhaps not surprising that some of the locos needed a bit of attention. Railcar 10 - seemed decidedly sticky and had needed a new [High Level] motor gearbox after its Mashima failed. However, a general clean up and adjustment of pick ups soon had it running smoothly again and it copes well with its new trailer. The Unit - leads the goods train. One wagon shorter than Fintonagh as the new Donegal wagons are longer and bigger that the Clogher ones. Phoenix - has two shunting jobs, the first sorting out the goods, while the Unit rests on the turntable. Phoenix arrives with a single wagon from the front siding, pushes this up to the brake van of the goods and then moves both of them to the train shed. It then runs round and collects a wagon from the front of the out going train, before retiring off scene. In this way Donegal wagons are rotated on successive moves. After turning, the Unit returns to its train, ready for departure. West Donegal Tram - my repurposing of the Clogher Valley 0-4-2Ts. One works the tram, while the other acts as a spare loco, though both are decent runners. The tram comprises three 4 wheel coaches based on Schull & Skibbereen ones. It runs into the front tram platform. After the loco runs round and is turned, it returns whence it came. The Swilly trains The two new locos have caused me a fair amount of grief, but at long last I think I might be getting there. Both have what appeared to be free running chassis, but both stubbornly refused to run well on the track. Thought I'd solved the Barclay 4-6-0Ts problems when I found that two of the outside cranks had worked loose, destroying the quartering in the process. So, the motion was once again dismantled and Loctite 635 used to [hopefully] secure everything. Again. However, running was still erratic and likewise the Kerr Stuart 4-6-2T. The latter is currently running as a 4-6-0T after I removed the rear pony because it kept derailing. This improved things, but still not enough. Salvation came when I realised that both locos were actually not balanced and had too much weight at the cab end, despite both having their tanks packed with lead. Removing the bodies [yet again] and putting heavy brass weights on each end of the chassis suddenly made running much smoother. So, adding a fair bit of weight inside both boilers has made for well balanced locos which now run well. Sigh... Swilly Fish - the 4-6-2T heads this. Just a bogie brake third and a bogie fish van. A simple move: train arrives, loco runs round, turns on the 'table and departs. Swilly Mixed - this move is more involved and suggests that, with their Joint line to Swillybegs, the Donegal and Lough Swilly are co-operating a bit more. The Barclay 4-6-0T arrives with its brake third and two vans, then retires to the turntable. Phoenix now does the shunting, bringing in a new van and removing one from the incoming train. These vans are a mixture of Swilly and Donegal, with the shunting moves similar to the ones on the goods. So, there we are & hopefully ready for Tolworth next weekend. Wish me luck!

Tolworth next weekend, so essential I made up new stock boxes for all my Swillybegs stuff. Already had one of these [below], from Hobbycraft, so bought another. The new DG couplings require protection during transport, while both boxes have been given an inner extra layer. You should be able to see the strips of card that have been hot glued inside the boxes and top trays to both separate the stock and [hopefully], keep the couplings safe. just two boxes for all the stock, which will go in just a single large carrier bag - a big saving in terms of space compared to Northport Quay, where four bags are needed.

The scratch builders amongst us must hope that Societies and/or individuals can take on what Allen has created. Worsley is a vast portfolio of drawings for etching and it would be sad to lose it. I would think that some sort of archive, to preserve the drawings, is the minimum. The 3D print community seems to be building up a range of files that anyone, either for a fee, or even free, can download and then either print themselves, or send to one of the commercial printers to have done for them. So it could be with Worsley files, because there are firms who will do one off etches if you provide the artwork. The plethora of high quality, ready to run models, is one thing (albeit it at significant cost), but it worries me that the hobby is in danger of becoming de-skilled if we continue to lose providers of detail parts, kits and so on. 3D prints should be seen as just another tool, to expand our creativity, likewise the computer keyboard/mouse. It would be sad to see the use of physical modelling skills like marking, cutting, turning, etc decline in the face of ever more tech - however welcome the latter may seem.

I've had one Mashima go in 20+ years. Now use High Level and because I use a feedback controller, keep to their open frame motors, which seem perfectly happy with the controller

Splendid research!

There is a 1:400 model railway in the latest MRJ.

Given the time of year, reminds me that, likewise back in the day, lighting a banger and putting it in a glass bottle was quite dangerous too. Bangers, for our younger brethren were simple fireworks that did what it said on the packet. Small ones were an old penny, larger (louder) ones tuppence. The real nut jobs were jumping jacks, essentially a firework of multiple bangers that would explode and jump around in a highly random and dangerous fashion. For many reasons, don't think you can get them now!

Quite a variety! Not sure, but is the box like thing by the balcony steps an acetylene generator? They were an alternative lighting. Some sort of chemical reaction to produce the gas & you can see a pipe going up to the roof, next to the handrail.

Simple, well fairly, but very effective!

Have seen two Lartigue layouts. One was a simple oval at, I think, the Uckfield show. Amazing to see a loco and train wobble its way by. The other was an embryonic layout at the St Albans show, where the owner was demonstrating fabulous etched trackwork. Don't know what became of this, but it certainly looked promising.

Just when you think you've seen all of Andy's layouts... Great way to display all his wonderful Donegal stock.

Ok, not exactly Irish, but Blakey Rigg, the S Gauge NER layout by Paul Greene of this parish features in the latest Model Railway Journal. Indeed, it is a remarkable issue featuring a working 1:400 scale (yes, really) working model railway. Add in articles on DG couplings, realistic moving road vehicles in smaller scales and preview pictures of Gordon Gravett's new French layout and it adds up to being well worth a look.

Much time has been spent this week fine tuning the cassettes and fiddle yard table. Above you can see the five trains, spare engine, plus Phoenix and its wagon cassette. I was expecting a bit of work because experience with Fintonagh taught me that if the back to backs are more than 0.2mm out, then derailments are possible on the points and so it proved. Horizontal alignment is achieved by glueing plasticard strip to the vertical wall of each cassette. Mostly this has been 40 thou/one millimetre thickness, but occasionally, only 20 thou has been needed and in one case 60 thou [20+40]. Vertical alignment is really just careful filing of the fixing screws. Occasionally, I found I'd taken too much off and a fresh screw was needed. Also managed to fix one or two screws too far inboard, meaning bogies, axle boxes etc could clout them. Needless to say, this brought out more than a bit of creative bad language, but only myself to blame. Quickly realised that a different cassette was going to be needed - one without any sides to make railing stock easier. Narrow gauge vehicles are hard enough at the best of times, with their wide overhangs, but the cassette sides make putting on anything other than a four wheel vehicle pretty much impossible. My simple solution was to stick 60 x 100 plastic strip to a piece of plywood that has flat aluminium strip glued underneath. White plastic works well with dark wheels too. Though there is plenty of room on the cassette table, have found a piece of plywood pushed under the outer end of the table gives space to put a loco cassette while it is being turned. Doubles up as space for a coffee mug and nicely levels the cassette table too. An important safety item is this small block of wood, just beyond the end of where the main cassette goes - just in case a train should over run. The height is just right for the DG couplings to clear it. A couple of other pictures show how the train cassettes might be shuffled around. Otherwise, so far so good. Now need to work on rehearsing operation on the layout itself, while all the new couplings need to be checked and then chemically blackened.

Always interesting to see what you are working on Eoin. With an Athearn chassis, performance should be exponentially better than the prototype!

Yep, be VERY proud!

Looking great. Am sure you'll find the switch rails easy enough once you made the first one.

See that Tara Junction has just clocked up a million views!

Thanks Eoin and an interesting thought. I've kept all previous magazines that I've had articles in and it is nice to look back at them occasionally. Maybe I'll scan and reduce that cover, so it could go in a smaller frame.

Definitely coming to life and it is those fine details which help.

The trick is in the fine tuning, Mick. The plasticard strip on the aluminium angle vertical is just pushed against that strip of wood. If the cassette doesn't line up exactly and anything derails going to/from the layout, I add a bit more plasticard. Ten thou is just 0.25mm, so a bit of trial and error soon gets it sorted.

Was at the Uckfield Show this morning and delighted to find, amongst the usual range of superb layouts, a small portion of East Lynn. Trevor is sadly no longer with us, but it was lovely to see even this small section. S Gauge [1:64] and pretty much completely scratch built, East Lynn was a stunning portrayal of the Great Eastern & Midland Great Northern in pre-grouping days. The small quayside section was particularly special for me, because I had the privilege of operating it, twice, around 20 years ago. It features chain shunting, where you need to use suitably sited capstans to enable the loco to position wagons in all sorts of strange corners as seen below. The wagon turntable works too, while some of the stock here is now 50+ years old. The loco [out of shot], is pulling the wagon on to the turntable, with the chain, which goes on the coupling hooks. Feel free to add your your own memories of Ken's work.

Cassettes I'd long had a feeling that my sliding/turntable fiddle yard for Northport Quay might not be completely compatible with Swillybegs and so it has proved. A slight discrepancy of height on the interface causes stock to uncouple - not good. Also, the short interface section between the train table and the layout means two joints in the space of 10cm AND on a gradient. So, what to do? After much thought, decided the best option was to remove the train table and fit a new top that could take cassettes instead. Cassettes are not a new idea, but my take on simple alignment and power may be of interest. The cassette table itself is just a piece of 6mm MDF, strengthened with a piece of softwood along each edge. Each cassette is a piece of 5.5mm plywood, with two 20mm L section aluminium angle pieces that act as the track. The angle is screwed to the plywood, though I also use double sided tape to position it initially. The clever [?] bit is that the screws project through the plywood, sticking out about 1.5mm the other side. Why? Because these screws carry the electric power, which comes via brass strip fitted at strategic points to the cassette table. Another piece of softwood is screwed to the cassette table and is used to align the cassette, as shown below. While two long pieces of brass strip could be used to span the full length of the cassette table, for economy, I use several smaller pieces, spaced to match the separate loco and train cassettes. This requires a bit of extra wiring, of course, but have found it works well in practice on a previous 0 gauge layout. Some cassettes [eg a railcar, or a short freight] are not difficult to pick up and turn round when the trains come back to the fiddle yard, so they are ready to be sent out again. Longer trains are better having separate loco and train cassettes, so just the loco has to be picked up, turned and moved to the other end. So, loco cassettes are 9" long, train cassettes are 24" and railcar [+ trailer] 18", equating to how the brass strips are spaced out. Vertical and horizontal alignment is fine tuned with pieces of plasticard. The brass strips sit on 20thou [0.5mm] plastic sheet, which ensures the aluminium angle matches the rail height on the layout. Horizontal alignment uses micro strip of various sections to ensure the cassettes line up with the rails. While am sure some of you out there would make a jig to ensure this, on the cassettes illustrated, all I've used are pieces of 2.5mm square plastic strip. There is no physical connection between a loco and train cassette - simply pushing them together and against the central strip of wood is all that is needed. Below is a sequence of photos that hopefully show how this happens. Youshould also be able to pick out the plastic strip used for fine tuning horizontal alignment, which may thicker or thinner on other cassettes, so they will need to be clearly labelled so the work properly as pairs. A bit of wiring is shown below. Notice too how the cassette table is wider than the layout. This is deliberate, so there is enough room on the table to move the trains around. Having seen a variety of complex ways for aligning and powering cassettes over the years, I wrote my version up and entered it in a competition for original ideas in Model Railway Journal and was pleasantly surprised to be awarded second prize and a Wild Swan Books voucher. This was at least ten years ago, so if anyone thinks they thought of the same thing before me, sorry, but the voucher has long since been spent!

I think Roy Link used to produce etched track fittings for temporary railways like this, but it may have been 7mm scale.

If you type in Northport Quay on YouTube, there are a couple of nice videos now. One is from Tolworth, the other, longer one from Aylesbury. The footage from last weekend is by Deltic Film, not Celtic by the way - though for once the spellchecker can be forgiven! Not yet available though.

Just goes to show that the further you look, the more you see! Just as interesting, is the amount of texture on that first photo - chunks missing from the timber, varying gaps between the planks. Would be fabulous in colour... With interest in cameo layouts, there is every reason to replicate this, especially in 7mm scale. Not sure I'd want to try in anything smaller, or indeed on a 20 wagon train.