Jump to content
 

Harlequin

RMweb Gold
  • Posts

    5,483
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About Harlequin

Profile Information

  • Location
     West Devon
  • Interests
    Professional programmer; amateur designer, gardener, self-builder, railway modeller.

Recent Profile Visitors

17,180 profile views

Harlequin's Achievements

14.6k

Reputation

  1. @Peak Adapting a real world plan isn't simply a matter of looking at a map and scaling down what you see. It's a complex recipe of measurements, compromises, trade-offs and sheer practicality. If you're careful you can compress track plans (shorten the lengths of parts selectively) and still keep the essential feel of a place. The same is true of simplifying a station plan. Leaving things out helps with compression because turnouts are removed and what's left can be pushed together but when doing that you have to be really careful not to affect the basic operation of the station. Station plans can be curved or even partially hidden to fit them into a room. Finally, ask yourself whether you can really afford the time, commitment and money to complete a large complex station.
  2. All "Lake" colours are difficult for modellers because they were somewhat translucent and so the final appearance depended on whatever colour was painted underneath. To reproduce them accurately you need to know the whole painting scheme, most notably what the undercoat colour was, then how many coats of Lake were used and how many coats of varnish. (The railway companies liked Lake colours because they had depth - they looked "fancy".) RTR manufacturers hopefully do their research and pick a composite colour that they think is the best match but there are a lot of variables involved...
  3. You seem to be missing an important distinction. No one is saying that current Lais decoders are pirated. Early versions were allegedly pirated but the current ones are not. Either the design has been revised sufficiently or an agreement was reached. The qualification "allegedly" has strong circumstantial evidence, which many of us choose to take at face value. Indeed, there are people reading this thread who saw the 2015 TCS statement. Many people who accept the commonly understood version of events choose not to do business with Lais as a matter of principle. You owe it to readers of your "DCC on a shoestring" proclamation to inform them that the Lais decoders have a controversial history, whether you believe that history or not, because that controversy is undeniable.
  4. I was not keen to remove and replace the body too many times (!) but as far as I can judge, the body makes very little difference to the sound whether an enclosure is used or not. I think that's because it's such a big volume with relatively flimsy sides (from an audio perspective). I'll send you the STL if that's any use, or I can print one and send it.
  5. Here's a video comparing the sounds with and without the speaker enclosure. I'm not making any great claims about this - you can hear a difference but it's not earth-shattering. Sound haters don't need to comment, thanks. I know the sound is a bit weedy.
  6. The Hornby version has a slightly dodgy firebox but, yes, it's a pretty good loco even allowing for the age of the tooling. I might still get a Dapol version but I'll wait to see what they're like this time before committing.
  7. For all the flaws of the Hornby 28xx, it does at least have the black parts painted black and a firebox top that doesn't make it look like a hunchback...
  8. Hmmm, I love the old twenty-eights but I'm about to cancel my pre-order for a Dapol 28xx because I have no faith that they will get them right! Too many mistakes on recent items.
  9. Readers of this thread might have missed this important update about bolections on the Twin Cities livery versions:
  10. Hi "Olive" 😄, From your description it sounds like a very usable building. If you can insulate the cavity (take advice on whether that might cause damp problems) then you wouldn't need to insulate the walls internally. That would give you more room and make it easier to fix the layout to the walls. The garage door would need something semi-permanent built inside the opening to seal it up from drafts and insulate that end of the space. The roof structure needs to be insulated and the internal surface sealed to the internal wall leaf to stop drafts from blowing under the eaves and into the space. BUT make sure that the roof timbers themselves are still ventilated and can "breath". Again take advice. A simple wood frame in-filled with insulation boards and covered in OSB on the floor will make that a bit warmer to stand on. It doesn't matter if the floor's not level because you will level the baseboards independently. When creating the floor frame you might want to allow for baseboard legs to extend right down to the concrete for good solid support.
  11. It's less than 24 hours since you posted photos, way too soon to give up! Give it time and try to contact a local club, as advised.
  12. It's true. You can modify them if you want the "Rolls-Royce version" that addresses some potential problems but it's not compulsory and out of the box they will work fine 99.9% of the time.
  13. Underframe details are often visible when vehicles are running on embankments and the viewpoint is slightly below. Seeing the correct gubbins in silhouette makes the view more realistic.
  14. Sorry I used the wrong term. I meant passive radiator.
×
×
  • Create New...