Fun in 5.5mm scale

[DLT]

plastic is ok as long as it is stored properly. If in sunlight a lot the UV will have an effect. Also possibly depends on glues and paint used. I have found that sometimes too much glue(liquid) ill continue to react with plastic so can do damage, but usually noticed very quickly, so anything that has survived 30-40 years will probably last a lot longer.

Card, yet, and I find it even better now with cheap superglue, as it sticks to 3D printed WSF plastic very well. Will have to wait a few years to see long term effects though.

 

When using liquid glue/solvent with plasticard, you need to make sure there are no sealed cavities where the solvent can collect.  Normally it evaporates very quickly (as anyone who has left the lid off the jar knows only too well!) so if you have any enclosed spaces or box sections on a model its vital to make sure there is a hole or two for ventilation.

 

I do find that the plasticard loses its softness and becomes brittle over a long time.  I have plasticard models that are thirty years old and some have needed rescuing, but most are still going strong.

 

Cheers, Dave.

[Jeff Smith]

I have found that impact adhesive (Evostick etc), whilst being very useful for metal to plasticard joints, contains solvents that can have a long term effect on styrene - I use it very sparingly!

[detheridge]

Many thanks to Bob Grimshaw for updating the galleries on the 5.5mm Association website:

http://www.5andahalf.info/gallery.php

All the info, links and more are here: http://www.5andahalf.info/index.php

 

Dave.

[rue_d_etropal]

I think I will have to start building something, even if it is small, maybe a boxfile, just to have something.

[mike morley]

Congratulations to Bob Grimshaw.  The work he has done on the gallery has made it excellent!

 

Any idea what the origins of the boat are on Tom Snook's layout?

[detheridge]

Hi folks,
here's another source of models for 5.5mm scale. 3D printing obviously works for us!

Have a look here: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/tebee
Tom Bell (for it is he) produces an extraordinary range of models in various scales. Obviously the beauty of 3D printing is that models created for one scale can be scaled up or down to any other scale, and so it has proven in 1/55.
Have a look at the range: heady stuff for any modeller.
There’s 5.5mm scale on 9mm gauge (15-18”): http://www.shapeways...9mm gauge &s=0; 55/1 in meter gauge: http://www.shapeways...eter gauge &s=0 ; lots of stuff in ‘55n2’ (that’s 12mm gauge to you and me): http://www.shapeways...ection=55n2&s=0 (and he even does 12mm gauge wheels! ); 55n3 (which looks to me like a scale up of his range of 00n3 models) offering both Irish prototypes and freelance stuff: http://www.shapeways...ection=55n3&s=0 ; and even a dedicated freelance section under the Aire Valley Railway label: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/avr
Here’s something people have been asking for for a very long time: http://www.shapeways...let-quarry-tank
or this one, which is definitely on my wants list: http://www.shapeways...er-quot-body-ki

Lots to get your teeth into!

Best wishes,

Dave.

[Moxy]

Hi folks,

here's another source of models for 5.5mm scale. 3D printing obviously works for us!

 

Have a look here: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/tebee

Tom Bell (for it is he) produces an extraordinary range of models in various scales. Obviously the beauty of 3D printing is that models created for one scale can be scaled up or down to any other scale, and so it has proven in 1/55.

Have a look at the range: heady stuff for any modeller.

There’s 5.5mm scale on 9mm gauge (15-18”): http://www.shapeways...9mm gauge &s=0; 55/1 in meter gauge: http://www.shapeways...eter gauge &s=0 ; lots of stuff in ‘55n2’ (that’s 12mm gauge to you and me): http://www.shapeways...ection=55n2&s=0 (and he even does 12mm gauge wheels! ); 55n3 (which looks to me like a scale up of his range of 00n3 models) offering both Irish prototypes and freelance stuff: http://www.shapeways...ection=55n3&s=0 ; and even a dedicated freelance section under the Aire Valley Railway label: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/avr

Here’s something people have been asking for for a very long time: http://www.shapeways...let-quarry-tank

or this one, which is definitely on my wants list: http://www.shapeways...er-quot-body-ki

 

Lots to get your teeth into!

 

Best wishes,

 

Dave.

 

Hi Dave,

 

Not sure what's happened, but most of the links in your last post point straight back to this page on RMWeb, not to the Shapeways pages.  Can you give us the links again please?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Moxy

[detheridge]

Hi Moxy,

 

sorry about that - I didn't check!

Here are the links again:

9mm gauge: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/tebee?section=5.5+mm+scale+9mm+gauge&s=0

Metre gauge: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/tebee?section=55%3A1+meter+gauge&s=0

55n2: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/tebee?section=55n2&s=0

55n3: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/tebee?section=55n3&s=0

Aire Valley stuff: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/avr

 

The other two links should take you here: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/2a-rail?s=48

and the quarry tank is here: http://www.shapeways.com/product/GJXWYK36Q/5-5mm-scale-hunslet-quarry-tank

 

I think that's the lot - at least for the time being!

 

Best wishes,

 

Dave.

[rue_d_etropal]

It is simpler just to go to the shop page, you can then see just many designs Tom has done

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/tebee

 

I have also modified  most of my own designs into 5.5mm/ft and started out as just a way to produce a WW1 themed layout in 1/35th scale. I started resizing the models when people started asking, as they always will.

I am only really interested in designing locos and wagons that interest me, but I may design something freelance one day.  I have some of Tom's stuff, some in 5.5 intended for a 9mm gauge layout, when I get round to it.

[Hiesler]

I have made some Festiniog Railway wagons using 3D printing and have offered them for sale if anyone else wants them.

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/mountaineermodels?section=5.5mm+Scale+Models
 

 

 

I also offer some parts to make the iconic FR disc signal.

[detheridge]

Here's another blast from the past. In 1963 RM featured George Hanan's Donegal layout in 5/5.5mm scale, running on Triang track (16/5mm). These pics were taken in 2009 at the Donegal museum by Mick Thornton - for which, many thanks as ever. These show both the work of George Hanan, and also Neil Tee, who took his inspiration from George's layout.

[detheridge]

... And here's the original article from RM in 1963.

If memory serves, there was an even earlier article some time in 1959!

[sir douglas]

shame about the OO couplings on such a wonderful layout, but it does look like half of the stock was converted to choppers

[DLT]

... And here's the original article from RM in 1963.

If memory serves, there was an even earlier article some time in 1959!

 

I think I've got that edition somewhere,

Dave.

[detheridge]

Coming right up to date, here are some pics of Pen-Y-Graig, exhibited this very weekend at Bala.

Many thanks to the redoubtable George Williamson for the pics.

This layout features working slate inclines, moving quarrymen and much more!

 

More info as and when I get it... :-)

Edited May 28, 2016 by detheridge

[detheridge]

And here are some more pics from today -with thanks to George Williamson once again:

 

[rue_d_etropal]

I really must get started with my metre gauge project, but so many different projects planned. One thing about this scale is the way modellers have to look around for what can be adapted. This results in more individuality, although still too much Welsh influence. Surprised there have not been more Irish layouts in the scale, given its ease to use 16.5mm gauge. If I was not more interested in French metre gauge I might be tempted.

When I started out designing a few models for 3D printing, it was described as an aid to scratch-building by someone I know. I dismissed the comment, but as I progress with my designs, I am finding I am thinking 3D print first, instead of either scratch-building or even building a kit. All the wonderful r2R OO models have slightly spoilt it for me. I need a bit more of a challenge, although anything I have to paint will be in rough condition, which for me matches a well worked proper railway, rather than a preserved one running museum condition stock. For me, if you can read the loco number, it is probably too clean. Well that is my excuse, but I would rather do what I can do ell, rather than attempt to do something and end up with something not right(looks wise).

I suspect that any layout I do build will have a lot of 3D printed components, and that is not just on the tracks. I have acquired quite a bit it suitable diecast vehicles, and some laser cut kits, but I will use 3D printing for other items including buildings.

 

 

To be a bit controversial, I prefer couplings that work easily on a working model, and ill probably use standard continental couplings. One well know modeller happened to mention to me that even though he did use other better looking ones, he found the continental types more reliable.The old metal Triang ones also had a big advantage as they could easily be bent to get height right. Again operating is more important than pure looks. At least the Triang TT one was smaller.

Edited June 1, 2016 by rue_d_etropal

[mike morley]

My first foray into the world of 5.5 was with the Manx Electric.

 

The Winter Saloons are surprisingly simple to build - they are basically oblong boxes with diagonally opposite corners cut off and Tenshodo spuds are available in the right wheelbases - and the Tunnel Cars are only slightly more difficult.  The toastracks, both powered and trailing, are a bigger challenge and, indirectly, it was them that brought the proposal to a halt.  I had intended a layout based on the extremely modellable terminus at Ramsey but I realised the open nature of the toastracks meant I couldn't avoid flipping over all the seat backs, which would make turning a train around an extremely tedious undertaking.  Add to that the need to reverse the trolley poles and the problems of gravity shunting the trailers and I decided it wasn't practical.

Instead I considered one of the intermediate stations but I decided that would need far, far more stock than would be practical when it would all need scratchbuilding.

 

A better Manx option might be the Manx Northern Railway.  After all, it only ever had four locos and two of them still exist!  It also had more variety in its loco stud than the Isle of Man Railway's non-stop procession of Beyer-Peacock 2-4-0T's.  The MNR also had a very distinctive style of station building that is very easy on the eye and had enough variations on the basic theme to satisfy all needs if creating a fictitious station.

[detheridge]

I really must get started with my metre gauge project, but so many different projects planned. One thing about this scale is the way modellers have to look around for what can be adapted. This results in more individuality, although still too much Welsh influence. Surprised there have not been more Irish layouts in the scale, given its ease to use 16.5mm gauge. If I was not more interested in French metre gauge I might be tempted.

 

To be a bit controversial, I prefer couplings that work easily on a working model, and ill probably use standard continental couplings. One well know modeller happened to mention to me that even though he did use other better looking ones, he found the continental types more reliable.The old metal Triang ones also had a big advantage as they could easily be bent to get height right. Again operating is more important than pure looks. At least the Triang TT one was smaller.

 

 

Well, 5.5mm scale had to start somewhere, and I would speculate that George Mellor (Gem) wanted to a) provide a range of narrow gauge kits for anyone who couldn't scratchbuild, b) use reliable RTR technology, and c) appeal to the expanding n.g. preservation movement -and that would mean Wales.

As an aside, John Ahern's Madder Valley locos included a couple of locos built to 5.5mm scale, but running on 16.5. They included Welsh Pony, L&B Exe, and (I think) the Darjeeling tank. Again I would guess that he scaled up the drawings to make use of existing chassis technology in the 1940s onwards.

taking point b) above, TT in 1963 was the smallest reliable RTR range in the U.K. Even though Lone Star Treblo existed, it's rubber band technology wasn't reliable enough for heavy duty use, as the first version of the Fairlie proved. The change to K's mk2 motors and TT motor bogies provided a power plant that could pull a house, and most of my locos still use them and run with aplomb even after many years.

Gem quickly went on to their range of IOM kits in 00n3, and there has been a rumour that there were tentative plans to look at IOM models in 5.5mm and 16.5 gauge, although others dispute the claim - we'll never know!

Obviously the advent of N gauge mechs and 009 killed off 5.5mm scale by the early 70s. The RM Book of Narrow Gauge (1985) called it a 'home made' scale!

Now things are very different - there's a raft of Irish stuff in 5.5mm by TeeBee models -all 3D printed, and for those who ask, I believe Worsley works will do their etched brass coaches in 5.5mm scale, so there's lots of scope. Curiously enough, a survey amongst 5.5mm Association membership some years ago revealed a healthy proportion of 3' gauge aficionados compared to the 2' fans. Why we haven't heard more from them so far remains to be seen....

 

I take your point about couplings. Mind you, Frank Dyer (of Borchester fame) was a great proponent of Triang based couplings (his were a solid bar across the buffers on locos) which might have shocked purists, but worked with 100% reliability. I love chopper couplings, by my experiences in 009 many years ago had me gnashing my teeth at exhibitions at their intractability. Standard 009 couplings (Bemo/Peco) do look vaguely like the real thing and work well, while quite a few 009 folks are happy with the N gauge variety.

In 5.5mm, I've found that Bemos work nicely, and can be reliable, but also have a soft spot for Tiaing TT couplings. As long as they work, I can suspend my disbelief enough not to worry about it.

If you look at the coach couplings on the real thing - TR and W&L for example, there's a lot more going on that the choppers used on say, the FR.

Obviously these are just my own observations and others will disagree. :-)

 

David.

[mike morley]

 I believe Worsley works will do their etched brass coaches in 5.5mm scale

 

But don't hold your breath.

 

Getting on for two years ago I enquired about a set of NWNG 4-wheelers, already listed as available in 5.5, and was told the artwork was hand-drawn so would need transferring to CAD.  I gave the go-ahead straight away, but I'm still waiting . . .

[DLT]

 

A better Manx option might be the Manx Northern Railway.  After all, it only ever had four locos and two of them still exist!  It also had more variety in its loco stud than the Isle of Man Railway's non-stop procession of Beyer-Peacock 2-4-0T's.  The MNR also had a very distinctive style of station building that is very easy on the eye and had enough variations on the basic theme to satisfy all needs if creating a fictitious station.

 

I quite agree, the Manx Northern is somewhat neglected and overshadowed, but was a fascinating and modellable (is that a proper word?) railway.  

 

Kits for the three types of 6-wheeled coaches are available from Roxey Mouldings in 4 & 7mm scale. They are though quite a straightforward scratchbuild having flat vertical sides, and square-cornered panelling that can be built up with styrene strip.  There are a number of 4mm scale standard-gauge 6-wheel chassis kits around that could probably be adapted for 5.5mm narrow gauge.

 

Cheers, Dave.

[mike morley]

I have to admit that I had always assumed the Roxey/Manx carriage kits were whitemetal, so unsuitable for re-scaling.  DLT's posting has prompted a quick revisit to Roxey's website, from which I learn that they are actually etched kits.

Now how much twisting would Mr Hammersley's arm need to persuade him to rescale some of his etches, I wonder?

[Hiesler]

But don't hold your breath.

 

Getting on for two years ago I enquired about a set of NWNG 4-wheelers, already listed as available in 5.5, and was told the artwork was hand-drawn so would need transferring to CAD.  I gave the go-ahead straight away, but I'm still waiting . . .

It might be worth sending him an email. I have bought many 5.5mm scale 'scratch aids' in the relatively short time I have been modelling in this scale.

I have spoken to Allen on a couple of occasions and he seems to be happy to make brass sheets (normally of several scratch aids) in this scale as long as people commit to an order.

I can understand this because if he made a brass sheet and the order was cancelled it would be harder to sell it to someone else than a sheet of items in 4mm or 7mm scale.

Edited June 3, 2016 by Hiesler

[rue_d_etropal]

detheridge said

 

Gem quickly went on to their range of IOM kits in 00n3, and there has been a rumour that there were tentative plans to look at IOM models in 5.5mm and 16.5 gauge, although others dispute the claim - we'll never know!

 

 

I can confirm, although I have no independent proof, that GEM were considering something for 16.5mm gauge as I was told this by the person on the GEM stand at Manchester exhibition back in the 90s. They were selling off lots of unused Triang TT bits, some in boxes, and I presume they were left over stock for kits to use. Not sure why they would have had the Triang tenders boxed, but I think I bought a GWR castle tender and the French loco tender, both boxed, including the cardboard O ring to keep them in place in the box. Sold them off a few years ago, I think I could have used the French tender, but then that would be yet another project!

Edited June 4, 2016 by rue_d_etropal

[cp409067]

Do I recall that G.R.Hannan's County Donegal layout in the late '50s/early '60s was 5.5 mm scale? 

 

*

 

May I respectfully point out that this layout was 5mm not 5.5mm scale? This is clearly stated in the RM article as can be seen in posting No 62 above.

 

Reading of the work of  G.R.Hannan at the time (fifty odd years ago) I was puzzled why he did not use 5.5mm scale. Could the explanation have been the availability or adaptability of other items such as figures and road vehicles?

 

 

CP

Edited June 13, 2016 by cp409067