Youth Training Scheme

It's just a picture of some wires being soldered onto circuit boards, nothing significant going on here you might assume.

For me, at least, there is some significant, because these solder joints were done by my 13-year-old son - under the supervision of Himself - and a very neat job he's made of it, too don't you think?

You don't have to read many discussion forums or comments on social media posts before you come across someone opining that the model railway hobby is 'dying' or is going to.

And it's fair to say that if you glance around at the average exhibition you won't fail to notice there is a clear demographic.

I'm not sure the hobby is as doomed as some people would have you believe.

I doubt it will be as widespread and mainstream activity for young people as it was perhaps was for a couple of decades, but very few things are these days because there are so many leisure activities available.

At our annual club show which is a relatively small event in a large town, the vast majority of the people who come along are families with children.

They still like 'toy trains'. (I use the word intentionally)

What is important, I believe, is that model railway clubs make an effort to 'reach out' - to use a current buzz phrase - to be 'inclusive' (buzz, again) , and to actively encourage teenage modellers to experiment,  to learn, and yes, to make mistake and errors too.

At our club by son and his friend are building a 00 terminus layout, with help from the dads (and granddad).  

They came up with the concept, presented it to the committee as a project, and the club is funding it.

And that's how it should be.

Oh, and back to the picture.  I should have explained.

They're more frog juicers for the standard gauge fiddle yard on Minffordd.

Over the course of the show in Glasgow we discovered a lot of the point motors are not 100% reliable in always closing the point blades to switch the current, so we adding these onto every turnout in the hope that will solve the problem.

Brass Master

I've been getting a masterclass in soldering carriage bodies together from Himself - it was long overdue.

I've obtained a selection of 'scratch aid' kits from Worsley Works for vehicles which we need to add to our stock, or update other models, and I thought the easiest one to start with might be the NWNGR 'Glasdstone Car'.

Well, the body might be rather simple, with no droplights or ventilator hoods to solder on, nor tricky tumblehomes to bend, but easy? Not really.

One of the issues, as I discovered, is that the etches are something like the 3D puzzles you got on the Krypton Factor (kids, ask your parents) on account of the fact they come with no instructions.

So it took a while to work out how it was intended to go together, in particular with the blocks which hold a nut to secure the floor to the body - we eventually realised they were supposed to go within the central glazed compartment.

I learned a number of useful wrinkles during the afternoon, like employing a good old bulldog clip to hold one piece down on the edge of a thick sheet of glass, which also makes an excellent surface for helping to ensure your body remains square and sits flat.

Another tip was to have a small piece of thin cardboard you can place between the model and your finger tips which acts as an excellent insulator when the brass heats up.

One of the most awkward aspects of these kits, especially this one with its exceptionally flimsy window pillars, is the need to butt join at the corners.

The idea was that I was supposed to do most of the soldering but, inevitably, it ended up with Himself taking over for jobs like these.

Still, we had a basic body shell at the end of the session.

Now it's up to me to do something about making up the interior.

Oh, and don't mention the bogies, especially to Himself. It's a bit of a sore point.

(But let the record show I was right!)

B Is For Brave

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am not a great enthusiast for soldering.

This is not because I am in any doubt about its benefits as a method of construction, but more that I have never done much of it and when confronted by a situation where it might be an option I am likely to either pass it over to Himself to do, or find a way of gluing the parts together.

It's what I've always done with the brass parts on my resin wagons and what I advise in the kit instructions to keep construction straightforward.

On the latest build of some B Wagons for a customer I decided the time had come to be brave and try and solder the parts together as much as possible.

I'm rather pleased with the results, I must say.

It was less fiddly than I expected.

Soldering is very different to gluing pieces together.  Not only do you get an instant, and solid, joint but also because you can't hold it in place as well because:

a) you have to hold the soldering iron in one hand, and it's a bit more awkward than a tube of glue

and

b) the bits get bloody hot!

This, of course, was my major concern when soldering parts which were attached to, and in close proximity to, a resin body. One false move and the whole model is ruined.

Fortunately by using relatively low melt solder and some good flux I only had to apply the iron for a second or so for the joints to be made, and I can't help noticing they feel much more solid than ones I have glued previously.

Why did it take me so long to start doing it this way?

The Bridge At The Back

Every so often Himself sends me some snaps of his latest work which takes my breath away.

It happened again this week with his fabrication of the walkway and handrails on the final bridge over the Afon Cwm Cloch which sits right at the back of the layout.

He has been soldering this up out of brass section and wire, and at considerable cost to his fingertips so I understand.

As you can see they are very big and complex structures.

I'm full of admiration for how he managed to solder all those bits together without other bits falling apart as he soldered each joint in turn.

So here are a couple of shots of the complete assemblies primed and fixed in position on the bridge.

I think you'll agree it looks very impressive.

We're really looking forward to showing it off again in Hull next weekend - details on the Exhibition Diary page.

Uses For A Coffee Stirrer #197

It's strange how sometimes the most mundane objects can become indispensable modelling tools.

Take, for example, the humble wooden coffee stirrer.

I have a stash of these (liberated from my work canteen when it was closing) which I find handy for mixing the two part resin for casting kit parts

The stuff sticks like sugar to a blanket (or a similar phrase) and so it's best to have something disposable to use because you only get a handful of mixes out of each stick before the tip becomes entombed in a blob of hard resin.

I found another use for one of them the other day when I began the fiddly task of soldering up a batch of handrails for the first of my trio of Super Barns.

These handrails are a bit of a pain in the posterior to model because they have a T joint at each end where they fix onto the carriage body rather than a simple 90 degree bend like any sensible designer would have used, which would be nice and easy to model.

In order to keep burnt finger tips to a minimum, and to ensure they're all produced to the same dimensions, it makes sense to have a jig which does two jobs at the same time.

This is where the coffee stirrer comes in....

By carefully drilling two holes in the side of the stick - there's just a enough meat on them to put a 0.5mm hole in there - I can insert two small lengths of wire which will be held firmly in place while I offer up a longer length of wire and make two quick solder joints.

And voila! A handrail.

Here's how they look in place on the carriage.

So, that's one down - only another 23 to go...