ikcdab

One of my current jobs on the West Somerset Railway is to write a short souvenir guide celebrating our 150th anniversary. In doing so, it has occured to me to wonder how lines were laid out before modern surveying techniques were established. For example, in the early 1830s when Brunel stood somewhere on the outskirts of London contemplating which route to Bristol, how did he know which way to set off? Maps were then fairly spartan then and didnt show any contours, just form lines. He might set off in one direction then find himself at the foot of steep hills or with unacceptable gradients - so have to turn around and try another route. When he laid out the WSR he mostly followed small streams which i guess he knew where they ran, but even then he managed to find the lowest crossing point between the Quantocks and the Brendons. I just don't know how they got that "helicopter" view you need in order to make sure you have the best and most efficinet route between two towns. Any insights on how our victorian forefathers determined the route of railways?

There is no single resource for that. You have to dig around and see whats available. To be honest, for a modenr station, the easiest thing is to go there ane measure it up. You can alslo generally estimate dimensions good enough for our purposes from photographs. you can get a reasonable idea of the overall footprint by measuring on google earth. Bearing in mind how recent Newton station is, I would start by looking at the local authority planning permission website and see if plans were submitted for that (do railways need to get planning permission for station rebuilds?) or try and track down to contractor or designer?

looks perfect! thanks. now to find more details about it. Ian

The three big ones seem to be: Fox transfers Railtec Cambridge custom transfers. they all have large ranges - happy browsing!

stl files are scaleless and easily resized from oo to ho. I usually do this in the slicing software. scale factor will be 114%

yes of course, but i don't know how to do it. I guess you could use a reed switch or infra red sensor of some sort fairly easily. However, even on my fairly lengthy continuous run, the gates would be constantly on the move. What is more important to me is a section that is dead when the gates are across the line such that the trains stop and don't crash into them. I have the facility to do this, I just havent implemented it yet.

I don't know this model at all, but you should be able to determine where the problem lies. If the motor turns but the wheels do not, then there are only three options: 1. the worm is loose on the motor shaft. so you would see a static worm when the motor is turning. I think this is the least likely, but the easiest to fix. Loctite would fix it. 2. the worm is not meshing with the axle gear - you would see the worm turning, but not the axle gear. this happens is the motor mount has come loose or is broken. If you push down on the motor then the worm would engage. Or the teeth on the axle gear may have stripped. 3. the axle gear is loose on ther axle - you would see the gear turning but not the wheel. have a look and see which it is.

here is a better diagram that I have just found.....

Hi Tim, does the attached photo help. My gates are also the MSE whitemetal ones and I also attached brass rod to the gate and through a tube in the baseboard. Though i think my brass rod was probably 1mm or 1.5mm. I then made the brass fittings seen in the pic. I epoxied a piece of brass tube into the recess in the top of the servo horn. The rod from the gate simply slides into that brass tube. The collar at the top is there so that i could drill and tap for a grub screw to hold the gate rod. It needed a bit of space to accommodate the fitting, hence i made the servo mounts which you can see. Here is a better pic and below is a diagram. Hope that helps. I'm not sure where you are, but if you're passing through Taunton, pop in and have a look. Ian

I did think the same as you, that scratchbuilding was beyond me. I tried some scalescenes kits and then it was a natural step to create my own "kits" using scalescenes materials. The freedom it gives you to design exactly what you want is immeasurable. Try it and see how it goes.

This is how I did it. Just four servos connected directly though the baseboard to the gates. You don't need cranks. All connected to a merg servo4 board. Programmed to give me bounce too. If you would like some of the servo mounts, I am happy to send you some foc. Ian

What type of switch do you use? This maybe grannies and eggs, but this setup only requires momentary input. Once the point has thrown, the current needs to be switched off. Constant current will cook the motor.

If you have a multimeter then you can test the continuity through the solenoids. You should get the same result through each one. You don't say what your initial wiring error was, but these things are fairly robust and unless you applied a sustained high voltage, you are unlikely to have damaged it. The other option is to swap in a spare motor and see if that works.

As was the case on the Minehead branch. When Whittaker automatic token changing was installed, the distants became worked. A cleared distant then not meant a clear line through the loop, but also that the automatic token changing was in use so speeds of up to 40mph were allowed.

Ive never had much success 3d printing fine things such as hand rails. they need to be added from wire! I will add holes for them as per the prototype pics

thanks for the photos. I have amended my 3d drawing - see below. Of anyone wants any of these 3d printed, just let me know. Ian

Looks good. How did you do the foliage?

If you put the transfers directly onto the factory finish, then that should be smooth enough to stick. The issue comes with putting them on hand applied matt paint which can be rough. But it also depends on how you wetted them, too much water and the glue washes away. Anyway, you will probably know by now if the transfers are going to peel off. Then as to sealing. I guess the answer is to try something and try and match the finish of the loco. If it's a satin finish, then try satin varnish. I generally find that the factory finish is too shiny and I need to use Matt varnish over the whole loco anyway. Especially if you have applied any kind of weathering. However, if you do need to spray the whole loco, then yes, mask off glazing. Little bits of post-it note work quite well, or just hold a bit of paper a small distance away as you spray, you don't want a hard line, so a bit of feathering is good. And as to which sprays to use. Definitely go for a modelling spray. Normal household or hobby sprays chuck out far too much varnish and give you too thick a coat. Modelling sprays (army painter is one) tend to be finer. Hope that helps.

If you want truly reliable running, then don't rely on rail joiners for continuity. I guess it's more difficult with setrack, but having a feed for each piece of track is the way to go.

I've just run out of my WWS layering spray. And it's £12 to £14 for a replacement. Lots of talk on here about using hairspray instead. So whats the best hairspray to look for? I guess "extra hold" sounds good, but a lot of these boast " no stickiness" which seems the opposite of what we need. I'm tempted to go into B&M and just buy the cheapest, which I guess will be sticky.... Any suggestions?

The cdu delivers a one-off jolt to throw the solenoid then cuts out. Whereas a relay requires a constant voltage to keep it latched. So I'm not sure the two are compatible. If they are, then you need to measure the cdu output with a multimeter and make sure that is within the parameters of the relay.

i am now using Win11 for the first time on a new HP laptop. Generally very impressed, BUT the dialogue text in some soiftware is really small. Here is an example from Templot against Rmweb. The dialogue box is almost too small to read. It isn't all programs, Word and excel etc are fione, but Coreldraw has the issue. It isnt changing the text size as most of the text is OK, it jsut seems to be in some dialogue boxes. I have screen resolution set to the recomended 3000 x 2000. Any ideas?

Also I am a massive of fusion360. Its strightforward to use and hugely flexible. As for videos, Sams Trains has done quite a lot on rolling stock and locomotive production with 3d resin printing.

Hi there, i think that if you have read the thread then yopu probably know all there is to know. I also have some pictures that were kindly supplied by someone local. If you want access to these, please contact me by pm and i can let you see them.

i wondered if the tool shed was the same physical size and layout as the lamp hut. I have produced several of these on the 3d printer. It would seem logical for Exmouth to use the same design for both...???