At the end of the last blog I said I was going to try and 3D print a lever frame. I knew that this was probably going to be at the extreme end of what the printer could handle. The results were promising with a few issues.
There seem to be a couple of issue, firstly the levers appear to have been attracted to each other by the surface tension of the resin. In most cases the bulk of the lever was actually printed correctly but as they came out of the printer the levers we
I've made some more progress on converting the Wills signalbox to match the one at Clare. This little section of a photograph of the box shows the rather nice cast iron brackets which supported the gangway. I didn't think the flat piece of plastic supplied in kit quite cut it so had a go at drawing up a model and 3D printing it. I also made up some nameboards to be attached after the box is painted.
I made a couple extra just in case some didn't come out or broken as I t
A major milestone has been the starting of buildings for my layout. The first major structure is obviously the platform which has the station building and the signalbox sitting on (or more accurately in) it.
The prototype platform has had a lot of work on it since closure and there is quite a lot of subsidence along the length now. Over the length of the platform the brickwork is no longer consistent in terms of the construction, I'm working on what I think is a logical design - hop
I followed up making the first side for my reversed Wills kit signalbox by drawing up and printing the opposite end. I printed this at a different orientation to the first side which meant I was able to clean off the uncured resin from both sides of the part much more easily.
I took this picture of the part just after the printer had finished the job, you can see the orientation and the support structure.
The part was removed from the build platform and wash
As the next baseboard to work on contains the station platforms I started studying photographs and plans to work out the exact size the buildings on the platforms. This includes the main station building and also the timber build signalbox.
I'd already bought a Wills kit because it matches, or so I thought....
It turns out that the kit is for a building of the opposite hand to that on the platform at Clare and is not manufactured in a manner which allows you
I wanted to make a 5-bar gate to go at the top of the track down to the disused loading dock. I drew up a 2D cutting plan and wondered about cutting it from .8mm ply and laminating multiple pieces together but in the end I thought I'd have a go at a 3D model and print on my Anycubic Photon. This was my first print using Anycubic's grey resin (the printer came with a translucent green).
Printed at .05mm layer height I printed four on the build plate at a time and the job took about 1
I wanted to make some fencing to start defining the field boundaries. The fencing I choose was concrete posts and wire. I felt the route of the fence should include the side of the old track down to the now disused loading dock, there will be a gate at the top of the track where it meets the minor road.
I chose to make the posts on the laser cutter out of 1.5mm MDF.
These were painted with humbrol enamel Matt 121 to give a suitable concrete colour. I found I had to
I finally plucked up courage to get out the static grass machine out and try it. I've not used one of these before and was a bit worried how it would go. I wasn't particularly impressed with the build of the Peco PSG-2, the handle feels a bit loose in the 'business end' and the connecting part is just a 3D printed part. They didn't even include battery which seems penny-pinching to me.
I tried some Peco spring grass and some Heki summer grass. I used a mix of 2mm and 4mm lengths.
Progress has been made on various projects I thought I'd share.
First up, on the small river bridge, I re-drew the 3d model for the girders and added the walk-way and handrail supports. These were threaded with brass wire and bent to shape. The result makes for a fairly unique bridge, certainly one in the 'you couldn't make this up' category.
While I've been waiting for paint to dry I decided to start preparing some trees. I'd bought some tree armatures sold
I've been making slow progress on the scenics over the last couple of weeks. I've covered all the polystyrene with a layer of Sculptamold and got what I hope will be a suitable base for static grassing in a future.
I'd not used this stuff until I was recommended it by one of my friends, having always used modrock or other plaster bandage type things in the past. I've been very impressed as it dries quickly, forms a strong layer even when applied quite thinly and is very
I've made a start on the girders of the river over-bridge at the Cavendish end of the station. This bridge is still there but one of the girders has been removed. There are two distinct bridges, one with very conventional plate girders which supports the running lines and another bridge with really odd cast girders which supported the original coal siding, removed by the time I'm modelling.
One of the difficulties that I'm facing is that, as is inevitable, I
A fine day out yesterday at the March MRC show. Thanks to the organizers for their efforts, good lunch and excellent provision of tea. There were a good number of people through the door and we had an appreciative crowd.
Getting the layout up and running gave the opportunity for a few pictures so I hope you'll forgive the indulgence of posting them here.
The Simplex 40s sat by the small loco shed, I need to look at the power collection as it wasn't picking up
Just a quick plug for the March and District show on Saturday. Fen End Pit will be making an exhibition of itself and it would be good to see some RMWebbers there. Please come along and say hi. For details see their website
David
My son bought me a little present for my birthday, a tiny video camera. It fits nicely on a flat wagon and conforms to British loading gauge in 4mm scale. The inevitable result has been a Youtube video showing a run through the station.
It shows up my dodgy track building rather well and I need to get better with the video editing software to fix the colour balance a bit better. I did try the 'black and white old film' effect which is really rather fun but I thought I'
After an enjoyable trip to the Biggleswade show on Saturday I spent yesterday making a start on the basic land forms for my model of Clare station. I had saved a load of 1/2 inch polystyrene which had been used a packing material for some 'up-market' glass white boards we had taken delivery of at work. I hadn't thought the landscape around Clare was particularly hilly but was still surprised by how much polystyrene was required. Sometime ago I purchased a hot wire cutter and this was my first ch
I wanted be able to put a mitre on small pieces of MDF which are used to make walls. I've decided that mitred corners look nicer than trying to interlace or butt joint but sanding the mitre is a pain. I looked at bench sanders as a way to do this but the commercially available tools are quite expensive (around the £80 mark) and mostly very large (sanding disks around 8 inches). So I thought I'd have a go at making one myself.
I laser cut the bulk of the components in 6mm ply and 3D
I was really not looking forward to building the double slip. Two crossing Vs, eight switch blades and the horrible obtuse crossings. Building this lot off the baseboard is the best idea and I tend to build the crossings and solder them up individually on nickel-silver scrap etch. These sub-assemblies then get stuck to the sleepers with epoxy carefully jigging them to gauge.
The obtuse crossings are the hardest to make and get aligned but they are the most critical bit. I'm prepared to
I've been doing a lot of test running over the last few days, running trains around at ludicrous speeds and watching what falls off where then trying to fix it. I've also had various older bits of stock out and been working over issues on them.
So out of the draw came the old faithfully Gibson J15, powered by a small portescap with an extra idler gear. I tried shunting wagons in and out of the coal siding and it kept stalling so it was out with the cotton buds and lighter fuel. Just
Over the past couple of weeks I had some fairly major works trying to do a 'proper job' of the wiring which I had previously just jury-rigged to allow me to run the first trains around and around. This work included getting the second road of the fiddle-yard working and wiring up the turnouts at either end of the loop. The sharp eyed among you will also notice that I'd made some of the cassette handles too low for a Great Eastern chimney - doh!
The turnouts are op
I finally managed to build the last sections of baseboard for my layout, these two sections were both odd shapes and needed to be drawn based on the reality of what I'd already built and not just from the overall master drawing. I've already discovered that 'square' means a different thing to builders and walls aren't always at 90 degrees to each other!
The short section over the right hand side of my desk carries a 3'6" radius curve which is does most of the turn back to get along the wall
The corner of the room has two baseboards, one which will feature a scenic area with the mill and the other, much narrower board, for the fiddle-yard. These two boards don't have the space for the curve which leads into the fiddle-yard because this needs to be removable so that the 'crew lounge' can be used as a bed when we have guests.
The resulting extra board is a bit of an odd shape caused by a desire for the rails to cross at right-angles to the the baseboard edge and for the perma
As a break from plywood engineering (and a cold garage) I decided to do a bit of work on my 'Friday evening project', my 4mm Crownline etched kit for a J20. The engine itself is coming along nicely and is waiting for its day in the wheel shops soon. So I thought it would be a good time to work on the tender. Crownline kits are 'a bit old school' so the chassis makes no allowances for springing/compensation. I cut out the chassis etch to fit High Level 2mm bearings and these are sprung using wir
Over the last couple of weeks I've managed to get the final scenic baseboard constructed. This board will house the completely fictitious sidings to a mill. I've already got most of the mill buildings which are based on Ebridge mill in Norfolk. The board is a slightly odd shape to incorporate a removable section which will lead the track round to the fiddle-yard. This is made removable so that the bed which sits in the railway room can still be used when needed as a bed!
At the other e
An excellent day out was enjoyed by the crew at Steam in Beds in the village of Eaton Bray near Leighton Buzzard yesterday. I suggested adding an incorporating 'Diesel's near Dunstable' tag line should have been added to the exhibition flier! The chancel arch of the parish church was once again filled by Fen End Pit, the layout performed well with very few problems that couldn't be solved quickly.
The new M1/A5 link road made for an easy journey and the provision of bacon butt
So the fifth baseboard got drawn, cut and constructed, together with the cork for the track bed. Then I got as far as sticking down the sleepers and laying 3 feet of track before the temptation to 'play trains' took over. As I now have a little bit of track at either end of the loop I can now pass trains. I got a variety of stock out of the cupboard to make sure it would run.
A Cravens DMU (Bachmann) arrives from Cambridge passing the goods yard, the reason for a Class 31 and 4 Mk1s in the l
