martin_wynne

hi keith, the colour doesn't much matter, but for the timbering bricks you do need the toughened PLA-PLUS filament: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FQ75QG2 what john didn't mention is that in cura you need to create a custom printer and download the curaprofile settings file which i posted. you might need to download a full version of cura rather than the cut-down bundled version supplied with printers. john did it live on a zoom meeting a couple of days ago. it's all in the zoom recordings online on templot club. i don't think you will get such good results using a standard profile supplied with a printer. john, i posted an updated profile reduced from 190 to 180degs. did you try it? works fine here, i'm interested to know your results. martin.

hi keith john is using the bricks profile for timbering, as intended. however the dimensions are optimised for 4mm/ft and i think we could have a separate profile for 7mm/ft which would print faster. this whole thing is still right at the beginning, it's about 2 years since i last did any 7mm stuff myself. martin.

the jigs last well. they just need a bit more TLC than metal jigs, see: https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?threads/using-the-templot-rail-filing-jigs.728/ martin.

@hayfield hi john they are available now: see: https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?threads/using-the-templot-rail-filing-jigs.728/ martin.

Hi John, Whoah! You have made a mistake! You have sliced a timbering base with the profile settings intended for filing jigs. It will print much faster than the first A switch part, and the quality will be very poor. Change to the bricks profile and slice again. So much to think about! martin.

@polybear hi brian, the default thickness in 4mm/ft scale is 3.2mm (1/8"). you can set whatever you want, but if less than 3mm the loose jaws option doesn't work, and the plugs will not clip into place. the suggested bottom ballast layer is crumbled/broken cork (pet shops - reptile bedding). with a thin top layer of crushed walnut shell ballast. you can set whatever you want -- this applies to everything in plug track. just like the rest of templot, it is a workshop tool for folks who know what they want. martin.

which explains why the rail in templot plug track is all vertical and we are not touching canted rail with a bargepole, ever. if you want canted rail (no-one can see the difference) plug track is not for you. on the prototype all check rails are vertical, and from 1970 to 2000 all pointwork renewals were vertical. martin.

hi. the prototype switch opening is 4.1/4" = 1.42mm for P4 for EM and 00-SF the recommended opening is 1.75mm which can be set using a 20p coin as a spacer. for standard 00 the recommended opening is 2.0 mm. martin.

thanks for all the comments on plug track. apologies for my one-finger lower case typing. i have severely injured my left arm and it's the best i can do at present. why rectangular plugs? the default recommended option at least for 4mm and above is that you DON'T slide the chairs on the rail. the chairs are fitted in the timbers FIRST, which means the rail isn't there to align them. the rail is then dropped onto them, and the loose jaw part is inserted to clip the rail into place. round plugs would not be large enough to contain the deep slots needed for the loose jaw pins. the chairs clip into the timbers with a click, and this is much easier to design with rectangular plugs. no glue is needed. plug track is just one man's idea. a lot of folks seem to like it. but now that 3d printing of track is taking off i'm sure others will be coming up with different ideas. there is a lot more information about plug track on the templot club forum. martin.

Thanks John. Here is James's video: Martin.

Hi John, "A" switches have a sharper 1:24 deflection angle, which makes them unsuitable for running lines. An A-6 is far more prototypical than a B-6, but is found only in yards and sidings. A B-6 is rare on the prototype, but is a good modeller's compromise. It's the shortest turnout which can be used in running lines and look the part, and the gentler 1:32 "B" deflection means a B-6 turnout can be curved within reason if necessary. An A-6 turnout can't be curved much, if at all, except in the contraflexure direction. If you wanted to make the shortest practical curved crossover in running lines for example, it would have a B-6 turnout on the outside, and an A-6 turnout on the inside. I think Wayne has made the right decision for 00/EM, given that if you want a short turnout he already does an A-5. A B-6 will be more useful as an in-between size from the B-7. No doubt the Scalefour Society have chosen A-6 because they don't yet have an A-5 in P4, and might have chosen either of them. cheers, Martin.

Are we even sure it will be a railway? It would make a fine dedicated fast trolleybus way, with hybrid battery buses diverting off to serve local towns. No need then to go anywhere near Euston. Instead of taking the through traffic off WCML, why not take the local traffic off instead? It's already been announced that some of the mythical "saved" money will be spent on buses. Martin.

That's making more work for the moderators than if you were left free to correct it yourself. I've been running a web forum for over 20 years and I have never locked anything yet. Very occasionally remove or edit stuff. Martin.

How does locking it in place prevent that? Unwanted content should be removed, not locked in place. There is no reason why Warners should have any material hosted on their servers which they don't want there. Just delete it. Locking a topic prevents those who have contributed to it from updating or amending it with new or corrected information. The internet is awash with utter rubbish and if you own an internet server it's important to make some effort to prevent Google indexing the rubbish for 100 years. Martin.

If it was thought young folk would affect the result, there would be sensible choices. They have all grown up with brains undamaged by tetraethyl lead. They are not as daft as they sometimes look. Martin.

The most important station they need to get to is the polling station. If a few more young people did that, and governments knew it, we wouldn't be in the present mess. Martin.

Save your friend. Fly a drone with a red flag.

No-one is under the slightest obligation to read it.

Final RAIB report published today: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/report-122023-collision-between-passenger-trains-at-salisbury-tunnel-junction It seems RAIB can do all that careful investigation work, but not notice a typo in the name of their PDF file! Yet again I can't post this in the original topic because it is locked (sigh). That makes 3 topics now on the same subject. Martin.

RAIB report published today: https://www.gov.uk/raib-reports/report-11-slash-2023-two-trains-in-the-same-signal-section-at-south-wingfield Martin.

Remember all those branch lines built for double-track, but only ever laid single-track? ... ... Martin.

If it's only OOC to Birmingham does it need to be double track? If it's fast enough to get from one end to the other a single track shuttle service might do. That would leave the other side of HS2 free for trolleybuses. Remember them? All-electric vehicles long before it was trendy. You could have a whole fleet of them, diverting off HS2 to serve local places along the route without needing to build stations or interrupt the Birmingham trains. With the addition of a battery, there would be no need to string up wires in local places, they could run into existing bus stations and connect with existing local bus services. Which would remove a lot of the local traffic from the WCML, leaving paths free for trains to Manchester and the Frozen North on the original tracks. Martin.