Jobs you'd rather avoid

[Keith S]

Ah, if only Canadian Tire would stock the things they say they stocked. *sigh*... It's entirely likely they have a full shelf of the stuff now that I'm not looking for it anymore.

Believe me, it's the first place I checked. I came close when I went to the local industrial metal supply shop: they had just thrown away a few cans that were years old and didn't sell.

I filled a bucket with carefully diluted muriatic acid (available for adjusting the PH in swimming pools) and left the body parts in that for a few hours. Didn't seem to do much other than make them look very clean. Then I neutralized the acid with baking soda (carefully) and rinsed the parts with clean water.

Then I used auto enamel (from Canadian Tire!) primer and paint. I found the "wild raspberry) colour by Tremclad (similar to Halfords I suspect) was the closest I could find to "Victorian Maroon".

Then I went to a mate's house whose wife was away and baked the painted bits, quite a while after the paint was dry, in fact after I had already run the engine. I noticed the paint on the cab and tender had a more soft "rubbery" look to it than the boiler jacket. I suspected this was because the loco had "baked" its paint there so I stuck it in the oven to even it out. It worked. I had to make all this stuff up on my own: the internet has very little useful information on the subject.

Then about a week after it was all finished, Chris Bird wrote a really good article on his website about how he does it, minus the muriatic acid trick, of course.

Oh well. By the way, thanks for the video, Graeme.

[GTB]

Ah, if only Canadian Tire would stock the things they say they stocked. *sigh*...

We have much the same problem here with these chains of stores with their centralised systems and warehouses....

Which brings me to what I'd prefer to avoid, which is the effort now involved in rounding up all the bits needed for a project.

I grew up in a small town on the Central Victorian goldfields and back then the local shops were family run. They didn't stock everything, but could, and would, happily order it in for you from a distributor in Melbourne. The bigger distributors had travelling salesmen that would pass through on a regular timetable and it rarely took more than a fortnight for the item to turn up.

Today, I live near a large city and I either have to drive all over the place for hours, or wait for snail mail to deliver it from interstate and/or overseas. Hardware stores are now part of chains and can't be bothered with special orders.

......and that's just tools.

Material supply is even worse, especially metals, with the rundown of Aust. industry. A lot of sizes aren't stocked anymore and there are now very few places that will cut and sell short lengths. Scrapyards were once a happy hunting ground, but the good local one has closed and others now won't let you fossick around, due to safety regs and ambulance chasing lawyers. Same with small engineering shops. A few small family run scrap dealers in Melbourne and Sydney have woken up to Ebay recently, but postal charges are high for the larger cross sections.

I think it's taken me a couple of months to get together everything I needed for the next loco. project.

Graeme

[IrishPeter]

The US is not a lot different from Canada or Australia in that respect.  The fun part for me is that I am 100 miles away from anyone who even sells track, and they are heavily into LGB, which is not my preferred supplier, as their switch geometry and my preference for headstock mounted chopper couplers do not seem to mix.  

As a result, I have got used to the internet and waiting for the UPS man.  Most suppliers are pretty good, but with one or two of them it is worth giving them a call after a week or so to see if they have shipped the order, just in case 'the representative employment hire' is the one who does their internet orders, as well as sweeps the floors, empties the bins, and brews the tea.

Peter in AZ

[Keith S]

I've noticed the same thing. I decided a while ago that I would like to build a balsa-wood-and-tissue-paper model aeroplane like I did as a boy. It took me several hours of driving around just to find a suitable board to build it on, some pins, glue, and sharp knives. By the time I found it all, the desire to build an aeroplane had quite evaporated.

Yes I believe shopping for supplies is actually the thing I hate the most, too.

[MDLR]

I can understand people in far-flung places (or the left-hand side of The Pond) having difficulty getting supplies - but in the UK these days you will be lucky to have a decent model shop in easy reach, though I do have - Gee Dee in Nottingham who also do model boats and aircraft, so materials are no problem. Otherwise, it's order online or wait for the next exhibition!

[IrishPeter]

We used to have a half-decent model shop on the Res., but the tribe raised the rent in the strip mall they were in, and as the guy who owned it was in his mid-60s - thus old enough to retire, that was that.  We do have Hobby Lobby and Michael's, but they are both general craft shops, rather than model shops.  In their favour I can get plywood, basswood, balsa, glue, foam core board,  even at times door knobs and things other useful odds and ends.  However, they don't usually even sell train sets, never mind anything for those of us for whom 'going out in the garden' is a synonym for 'playing trains.'  

Living where I do, any specifically railway equipment has to be (e-)mail ordered, and hope that the usual confusion that reigns over Gummi scale in the USA does not strike.  I need to establish that what we are talking about is for 1:22.5 scale, not 1:29.  It can be pretty frustrating dealing with the usual US thing of everything that runs on 45mm gauge being "G scale."  (With the exception of Ga. 1 fine scale 1:32 which is Ga. 1 hereabouts.) OTOH if I end up with Fn3 (1:20.3) stuff that is usually fine.  The more helpful places do usually discriminate between Fn3 (15 mil scale), G-22 (LGB) and G-29, but in the South-western USA the retail outlets do not.  Even if you phone up and get a live human the chances are you are going to get the model aircraft guy, or the model car guy, or someone who is into Z scale!  However, these little battles can sometimes contribute to the feeling of achievement when the project is finally finished as well as being damn exasperating at the time.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

[MDLR]

I need to establish that what we are talking about is for 1:22.5 scale, not 1:29.  It can be pretty frustrating dealing with the usual US thing of everything that runs on 45mm gauge being "G scale."  

One of my corespondents refers to "G Scale" with the addition of (WETI) for What Ever That Is) because it appears on this side of the pond to be somewhat "elastic"/

[IrishPeter]

WETI just about covers it over here. G covers some 1:20.3 models; nearly all 1:22.5, 1:24, and 1:29 scale equipment. If they must use G, then I wish they would also give me clue on scale, say G-22, etc..  I am generally happiest when I run into manufacturers who list both gauge and scale - 45mm/1:22.5 plus a decent photo tells me everything I need to know.  I have noticed that some Germans refer to that combination as IIm - from the fact that it is metre gauge prototype, but the same scale as their Spur II (UK Gauge 3) standard gauge prototypes.  From my point of view it is handy to remember that the older 'Big Hauler' Bachmann stuff is 1:22.5, which fits in with the general 'metre/Cape gauge'  vibe around here, but their new stuff is 1:20.3 which can look a bit big on my line.        

Peter in AZ

[Keith S]

That sounds very confusing, Peter. I have enough difficulty explaining to my Dad (who builds scale models) that "my 45mm track represents 2'9" and 11/16ths gauge, which never existed in real life, but neither did any of my freelance models so it doesn't matter really so they are 16mm scale, even though they aren't really a model of anything in the first place, although they are meant to resemble UK 2' gauge trains, sort of".

He isn't interested enough to stick around for the entirety of that explanation. I'm glad there are enough 16mm suppliers I can order from in the UK that I don't have to try and explain it to any hobby-shop people in Canada or the U.S.A.

I wish I could go to an exhibition in England and just "buy stuff".

[IrishPeter]

The SM45 combination works out closest to Swedish three foot gauge - believe it or not. The Swedish foot is 297mm, so their three foot gauge is 891mm not 914mm - and there was a hell of a lot of it at one time - somewhere over a thousand miles. I keep an eye on a project on Gotland which is restoring a short length (4 miles) of the former Trefoten system there - http://www.gotlandstaget.se - as the Gotland-Hesselby Jarnvag. The trouble with Swedish narrow gauge is that their equipment can be a little on the large side.

My own interest is more along the lines of 3' and 3'6" gauge stuff so 1:22.5 on 45mm - roughly metre gauge - which is a good compromise for me. The only downer is that it makes British style slam door stock a little bit of a fiddle to make when compared to 16mm. The nice thing is that I can tap into LGB, UK Gauge 3, and the 1:20.3 for suitable items. I can also find the odd suitable item from the 1:24 car guys - such as the manager's Volvo!

Peter in AZ

[MDLR]

I wish I could go to an exhibition in England and just "buy stuff".

Come to Peterborough on Saturday 11th April next year and you'll be able to!

[Keith S]

I'll just pop over then.