Quarryscapes

Yes, actual Stainless Steel, in powder form sintered together roughly with a laser and then injected with molten bronze to actually keep it together. It's a very strange material to work with, requires solid carbide tools. The slidebars ended up being trued with a grinding disc rather than the planned milling cutter simply to avoid the flutes catching on the edges of the slidebars and deflecting rather than cutting. The Brass items are lost wax cast the traditional way, but from 3D printed investments rather than hand carved or moulded ones.

Piston Rod No.1 has been united with a crosshead. It's formed of 1/16" silver steel with the end turned down to be a push fit in the crosshead and is secured with bearing retainer. The hole in the gland was drilled 1/16" which theoretically should have been a nice loose fit but no, I seem to have found undersized drill bits and its actually taken a lot of polishing to get the rod to slide through, and will no doubt take some more once there's a crosshead hanging off it, despite doing all I can to keep it concentric (It's sat in the lathe whilst the retainer cures!)

Sounds interesting, do you have a link to the thread? I have a soft spot for the BCR

Over a year since anything was last done to Gelli, it's criminal I know...however progress has been made. This week I have had some free time, so out came the lathe and the machining of the crossheads and slidebars is now in progress. I still need to order the replacement valve gear mind, and some 1.5mm silver steel for the piston rods.

Latest on the workbench ... an inside bearing wooden Slate Wagon. Printed by Hexa Cubed and currently awaiting axleboxes and couplings.

I don't suppose you have the dimensions do you, I've been asked to do a printed wall which is has these as quoins. Would make life a lot easier if I knew the dimensions! (I only have photos of the wall to go on!)

These look good indeed, I'll have to get round to reintroducing the wagon bits into the Shapeways shop.

The most recent 2 Ton Wagon has acquired an identity.

Any kind soul out there willing to part with a copy, or even a loan of one?

A few more shots of the completed 2 ton wagon now the axleboxes have been pinned in place and the whole thing weathered: The Wooden wagon has had it's printed axleboxes too, though they are not attached yet. Next up the 2nd test print for the Oakley Gunpowder van. It looks good though I have had to make a few tweaks in a few areas just to make it spot on. It's not a cheap model, but it will have working brakes and doors. I intend to wood line the inside too. Several developments have been made over the past couple of weeks in between other projects. Axleboxes have now received extra detail to better represent the real thing: Several new prototypes are being worked on - Iron Bolster wagon, LNWR Coal Wagon, Maenofferen Tank Wagon and the latest - a variation of the 2 ton Slate wagon but representing a later condition with the central spine replaced with old double headed rail and new couplings to match.

I'm intrigued by these... they are essentially Short Slab wagons without bearers and the bolster from a Wooden bolster wagon sat pretty much straight on the floor...however how is the underframe arranged around the pivot pin? In normal practice there is a central spine from coupling to coupling, but how is that dealt with when there's a pivot in the way, does anybody know?

Another 2 Ton Slate Wagon on the workbench, this one had the couplings printed in one piece with the body. I've also made another Slab Wagon, a Short one this time which will be the guinea pig for the pinless axleboxes

Yes everything is designed in Fusion. The Bronze is on the whole fantastic, but expensive. Now I've built a few wagons I'm looking at doing away with pinning the axleboxes and relying on push fit/glueing them instead now that it has become clear that decent tolerances can be achieved and actually they are not likely to just drop out! Laser cutting for a the wooden slate wagon has been tried by One12 models. It doesn't work, ply looks like ply and it's only available in the wrong sizes. It's also a complete faff to put together. I would receommend however that it is not printed in a Shapeways material, Once I've had chance to try it myself through i.Materialise, I will be making it available in their standard resin which will be much more suitable. It's actually very easy to wood grain plastic models, as the Slab wagon shows (I used a fine tooth razor saw dragged along the surfaces, the end grain is designed in)...

I am getting ready to print a fresh batch of transfers! There has been quite some interest in the new Lilleshall Co range, which has been produced as the result of a commission. In order that you are not disappointed, if you are thinking of buying I would be grateful if you could let me know how many of which transfers you are intending to purchase. I have attached the new transfers catalogue pages. Each transfer sheet is laid out to letter a single wagon (kits and RTR, as noted in the list), and in most cases there is a double set of numerals 0-9 included to cater for fleet numbering. I am looking to price each sheet at £3.85.

Ordered the Gunpowder van, and mistakenly set the orientation as I though the test piece had been set... terrible finish! I'm now in the process of scraping it all smooth and reinstating the lopped off rivets. Oh well. I also had to do some surgery to the bronze couplings, which had come out solid because of a support that hadn't been removed, you should be able to make it out in the pics below.