DEAG Meeting June 2010

Rather belatedly is this short post on the June DEAG meeting, especially
as the July meeting is only six days away!

Nigel and David (E) spent the evening discussing and playing with DCC
chips, reprogramming one of David's locos to improve the running for
Expo 2mm. The photo shows Nigel contemplating the meaning of life!

The following photograph is of David Short's J72 which was running at
Expo 2mm on his embryo layout, Aidensfield.

Tony was working on a GER coach kit, from David's (E) range of etches.
He is shown using a simple right angle jig to hold one coach side and end
together whilst the second photograph shows them being soldered.

The final photograph shows my slow progress with the GWR shunters wagon.

Expo 2mm is now history and what a wonderful two days of 2mm scale
models it was. I did not take any photographs but if you click on the
Golden Jubilee logo you will be taken to some that Mark Fielder has posted.

DEAG May meeting

Unlike in April, the latest meeting was full house, no elbow room with the table groaning under the weight of 2mm models and tools.

The following photographs show some items that David E is currently working on, buffer stops for the Mid Suffolk Light Railway and a Smythe seed drill from Peasenhall in Suffolk. The boiler is for a J15 and is shown with various chimneys for Great Eastern locomotives. The chimneys are turned in two parts and for more information on how this was done see page 9 of the February 2003 2mm Scale Association Magazine. The final photograph shows a part turned boiler.

Next David S spent the evening carefully filing a taper on one end of some Association rail to make the switch blades for his layout, Aidensfield. The rail is taped to a piece of laminate flooring which is hard and ideal for this sort of work. The embryo layout will be at the Golden Jubilee Expo in July.

Bill was adapting an N Gauge Society LNER Gresely full brake coach to run on 2mm fine scale track. He had carefully cut the chassis down the centre and narrowed it to achieve a better fit under the coach body.

The next photograph shows Tony's 6 plank wagon constructed using an Association body kit on an etched chassis.

This photograph shows Phil making track using an Association jig held in a vice which makes it easier to get the soldering iron into the joint between the sleeper and the rail.

My own efforts are shown in the next photograph, a GWR shunter's truck. I was undertaking the fiddly task of soldering on the stanchions for the hand rails which are 38 swg hard brass wire. Due to the smallness of the etched parts it is not possible to open up the holes to accept bigger wire. The wire is temporarily in place at the moment.

The final photograph shows David E's work board and the various wagons he is currently constructing for his layouts.


Thats all for now!

Peter Whitehead

DEAG April meeting

A quiet evening in darkest Essex last Thursday, only six in attendance including our host. Davis S was carrying out some repairs to his Assoc. 08 kit, soldered joints not hot enough perhaps, but it is a fiddly job. Hopefully more on that in due course David?

Nigel was also working on a loco, fettling a class 25 which ran much better later in the evening. Phil spent the evening track making, soldered, not this Easitrac stuff!

David E was batch wagon building for his layouts.

Talking of Marks Quay, as mentioned in my previous post, I had lost power to part of the dual gauge track at the front of the layout. Rather than dig a hole in the quay I have added a feed to the end of the dead rail, and taken the narrow gauge out of commission for now. At least trains can run on all the standard gauge track! Running the loco during the evening ended with a strange noise and no movement. On dismantling the loco I discovered grit in the gear teeth, which had been picked up from the quay surface between the tracks. I have used a concrete paint which contains texture (grit) for the quay surface but due to the lack of clearance under the loco it is causing problems. I'll think about this and post again soon.

Don't forget that if you live in Essex or Suffolk do consider coming to the group, our next meeting date is shown in the panel to the right.

Peter Whitehead

Dead Track

I have been investigating a dead section of track on the front of Marks Quay, the dual gauge section, and it seems that although the crossing vee on the narrow gauge point is switching polarity OK the adjacent wing rail is dead. This seems bizarre to me as they are very close together and both soldered to the same three sleepers yet they seem to be electrically isolated from one another.

As the track work is buried it is not easy to find out why unless I dig up a bit of the infill. To be honest it might be easier to ignore the narrow gauge track and leave it dead, so long as the the standard gauge works OK.

Wiring is an area I find difficult even with only two wires, the whole layout live, and only one loco on the layout at a time. So the layout is is in pieces again and I don't feel like trying to sort it out right now! I think the next layout will be just one straight piece of track, shouldn't be any problems then!

I think I'll get back to some video editing at least that seems to be successful.


Peter Whitehead