Tim2014

Not quite the weekend, but still well timed by my laggardly standards 😀 The pivot works well, I don't think the pics need much explanation - they are quick 3D printed versions of what is in CAD. The white square bit isn't designed very well (from a 3D printing perspective) but sits on the assembled bits, and in CAD, it the bit that pokes up between the tracks, but final design will need more thought. The race came from an RC helicopter. So the test comes from balancing my Scot Stanier tender on it, minus chassis. A little bit of faffing to stop it falling off and voila, the concept passes my 'hot air test'. The friction will only go up from here, but at least at this point, it's negligible and it's moved from software to hardware. I'm really building a chassis now - four wheels on 4 axles running on a single circular rail.

Great pics! Thank you. I must drop the ends of my handrails and I will work on those rail stop (thingies, there must be a correct term!). My son is 3D printing a first pathway wheel and a table top block so I'll post up some 'real world' stuff over the weekend hopefully.

I hadn't seen that photo, it's great and confirms what I had thought, the handrail support brackets are different on the real thing to the drawings. Great, I can fix that. Thanks, much appreciated.

Thanks so much for alerting others and posting those, yes I had seen your thread Iain as it features prominently when googling steam and Camden :) It really confirmed Camden was the setting to model and pointed me to the Steam Illustrated article too. It's a real shame we have lost so many pics from the site so I really appreciate you taking those photos - and I think you're being a little modest - that's definitely a C&S 70ft table! It looks great! Building in CAD is easy, things can float in mid air and don't need to support loads! See how I go when I move into the world of hardware... My sporadic research has shown that Perth (Scotland!) looks to have had the same style of turntable, and I was able to understand pushbar mechanicals from seeing a couple of other photos...so I think I'll get there from a design perspective now. It's really just the vacuum platform and apparatus left to do. Though I'm not convinced about the handrail support girders on mine. They are as per the drawings, but the diagonal angle looks off compared to the photos I've got. And then there is the electricals to think about. I'm torn between a stepper motor or powering via a wheel driven from under the vac platform as per the original. And perhaps alignment via a threaded rod into the off road holes mirroring prototype again. I fly RC planes and the gubbins from an RC retract has all the electrical and mechanicals I'd need for the alignment and locking. Then either hall or magnets to get to within two mm of the road and have the locking pin take over. But I'd better finish this stage before moving onto the next one! Talking of which - I see you are tackling the crossings. That was perhaps an extreme way to introduce myself to Templot! Amazing program, I did at one point get the diamonds about right, but then broke them trying to sort out a point they lead to. I really have no idea what I'm doing with the program yet I only started meddling over Christmas when I realised I couldn't do the crossings in Peco track! I will watch you and learn :) Cheers, Tim 😃

Short version: If you have intimate knowledge of Camden turntable, or know where good pics might be found and you are happy to share, please read on... I'm hoping the wonderful hive mind can help me out here... One happy day I'll finish my Royal Scot and need somewhere to show it off. Of course I'll need a layout too, but they take a really long time, so I thought a simple turntable in a yard would be good. Patricroft looked like a good candidate, but then I discovered Camden - the ultimate location for a not-huge 7mm layout featuring lots of main line Stanier locomotives. So I'm set on modelling the North end of Camden - probably from the Pembroke Castle down to a bit of the shed. That'll keep me busy for a while, especially as I'll need to build the crossovers, but I'm starting with the table. I obtained digital copies of the Cowans Sheldon & Co. drawings from the very helpful archivists at the Carlisle Archive center and started work in Fusion360. (I love thinking about the fact that I'm tracing some unknown draughtsman's work almost 100 years later on the other side of the world!). I was delighted with my 3D printed working center bearing and started to work on the geometry of the pathway and well. It became clear early on that the real thing differs from the drawings sometimes, and now I've realised that there were a few changes from when it was installed in the 1930s to when I want to model it around 1960 (not that surprising). So I'm after good reference pictures between 1958 and 62, to help clarify that: The handrail stanchions at the vacuum end were replaced by sections of rail (or similar) for a beefier outlook on life. Anything that shows how the deck area around the running on points was supported (ringed in red on the pic). I cannot see from the engineering drawings how it was held up. It almost looks like it rested on the top of the bearing blocks for the pathway wheels, but they are drawn quite clearly on one sheet and the shape of them doesn't really look they were load bearing (I've not done a great job of capturing them btw). There is a good pic of 6202 on the table that tantalisingly hints at the structure, but I can't make it out. Railscene No1 is what I'm aiming to capture, but just doesn't quite have the photo resolution I need, I'm just hoping someone may know where there are some high resolution shots from that vantage point. Pics from the yard seem rare, no doubt because it must have been a pretty hectic and therefore dangerous place to be. I do have a digital copy of LMS Steam at Euston & Camden and British Railways Illustrated's feature on Camden which has a great shot of City of Hereford, but anything else would be much appreciated!

Those are brilliant Ian. Thank you. I reckon I'll be able to knock up a passable scale representation of a coaling tower now from shadow length and the footprint coupled with actual photos.

That's good to know, but I'm in Australia, so something that is already digitised is very handy :)

That's a fantastic resource! And it shows it is the remains of a turntable well in the Bedford photos of 50's, much closer to the shed and coaling area. But it had been moved by the 30s at least. The actual location is shown in the OS1:500 map layer which is so detailed it has each rail shown! Thanks so much.

This may have been covered before, but I thought I'd let everyone know about a great web based resource I found: https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/map?country=global&view=map#0,262466.52493474324,609599.6708161779 Loads of photos from the 1930s and onwards, often focussing on industrial land. I had a lot of success figuring out the Patricroft track layout, and then Bedford. The idea was to link back old photo views to existing geography on google earth to get the full size dimensions. Then knowing track widths and spacing, it should be a relatively simple task to sketch out the track plans in CAD software. I was going great guns with Patricroft (needing a full 24m to get in the junction area in 7mm, which was never going to happen, but the turntable and coaling stage was a much more practical 1 x 3m layout). I think. My CAD software crashed and I lost the lot! I haven't quite plucked up the courage to go back and redo it and switched to looking at Bedford which my Dad has some 50s photos of, and I have memories of from when I was a kid in the 70s. It was surprisingly easy to figure out where everything went, and now I can place individual photos of locos into pretty exact spots. See this for example: https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW037465 It's pretty easy to recreate these angles in Google Earth, you can then do a birds eye view and take the dimensions. If you do find a line or yard of interest to you, I recommend creating an account, it allows access to remarkably high res photos. You can pretty much read 'LMS' on the trucks in the image link I posted above when you do that - the little extract I've attached hopefully shows the difference in detail level - I was completely blown away, never having seen such detailed aerial photos of locos from the 30s. I need 11m to get the Bedford turntable, coaling stage and shed in, so I may yet go back to Patricroft, or see whether I can do some subtle shortening. Have fun!

It's not looking good so far! But am in new house and at least thinking about building and painting. Glad this thread is still here, even if some pics appear to be missing.

2019 'last year of the build!' Oh well. Life is what happens when you are making other plans...! Have a great Christmas and New Year - and let's hope 2022 sees this build FINISHED!!!!!

Thank you Richard, I had forgotten you'd posted those helpful and descriptive views! I think my only remaining query is whether/when they blanked off the large pipe from the front of the loco to the exhaust injector (the grease separator?). I've seen a couple of photos of my loco and it looks like it's a flat plate on the forward face. But the blank only appears late on when I suspect the loco had been withdrawn. I don't actually have a pic from the exact time I'm modelling: pre AWS and post deflector hand rails, but there is a pic post my modelling date (with AWS) and it shows that large pipe, so I hope its safe to assume it would be on my loco in 1959. it's certainly there in pre AWS shots. Post AWS with pipe: And with blanking plate, but out of service by now I think: Have you finished yours off now?

Finally, after lots of bending, annealing and rebending, then some filing and soldering to make the footplate fittings, I have something that will work. Still need a little tweaking, but I can fit them after the boiler is fitted and the bolts through the footplate hold them up against the boiler top feed pipe casting (there is a hole with around 2mm inside the boiler). So I don't need to cut the copper behind the nameplates after all.

I've struck a snag! A long time ago when I made the top-feed pipes, I knew it would be fiddly to hook them up. By using steel nuts and bolts for the footplate attachment points I've made things harder, as I found they had rusted together, probably because I didn't adequately clean ALL the flux off them. Even with penetrant, the rust was stronger than the solder to the above footplate fitting. But that aside, I didn't consider the nameplate in the reassembly sequence. To add to the problem, I have confirmed the diameter of copper wire I used is almost HALF what it should be to be scale. I thought they looked a bit weedy and now I know how far off they are, I will have to redo them, hopefully without denting the copper this time. A larger diameter will make fitting the painted, lined sections together for final assembly even harder. So now I'm thinking I may do the sensible thing and do them in two sections, with a gap just in front of the boiler band. I could then solder both ends, one to the boiler and one to the footplate. That will also allow me to more closely match the profile of the whitemetal boiler fairings) which in photos are almost exactly the same size as the bare pipe. I am very pleased with how the nameplates look (great job Severn Mill) and the injector assembly will not need a nut underneath, it will just rest on the top of a pipe leading down to the 'whatever it is - please help! - on the back of footplate steps. I'm close to needing to figure out the spaghetti down there.

I have done a lot of work on little details. Cut off and replaced the cylinder drain pipes with tubing, added some covers that are part of the valve gear assembly, a couple of oil boxes and other bits and bobs I'm sure I've forgotten. I'm not entirely sure which style of flange was fitted to this loco. The kit supplies one with a very prominent central rivet, and one with no central detail at all. From what I could see, there is a flush bushing so I decided to drill a hole and fit one from a short stub of tube and rod. It took two passes with the soldering iron and a bit of filing, but I think it looks OK. The green glittery nail polish threadlocker I may keep in situ... The front of the loco is now finished barring some short bits of wire to simulate hinges, although I didn't quite get the steam lance thing centered on it's backplate so may try moving it - but hopefully it looks about right in terms of dimensions? Still some cleaning and filing to do of course. I think I'm doing the nameplates next and need to figure out a neat way of bolting the injector to the footplate as I want it removable so I can attach it after painting and lining. There's wheel balance weights, I probably should actually solder up the front bogie and finish the valve gear and there's the whistle and cab sight deflectors and cab doors. The prominent top flange on the top feed is bugging me too. Then there's the ejector pipework, but I think that's it. And with warm, dry, still air over here, we're getting into a good time to start painting, so it may never sit as a complete, working naked model...