Les Green

FDM. Needs a bit of fettling to get crisper detail. Total print time about 200 hours! The outer layers are printed very slowly to preserve the detail of the stonework. Les

The 3D printed model of the Station Masters House for Beattock.

The Station Masters house for Beattock station. Modeled in 3D and almost ready for 3D printing.

The tale of the three Coronations. I thought I may as well take a photo of the three completed locos prior to fitting the DCC components and painting. The next time they are all built up will be when they are fully painted. More photos of the construction will follow when individual locos are being worked on.

The tale of three Coronations continues with the completion of body number three. Next is to dismantle them all and clean them up and install all the DCC components.

Found them on the top of the boiler behind the chimney. They are engraved on the boiler casting. I will leave them off as the thickness will be overscale and ruin the streamlined effect. Though you may be right about an overlay on the return crank and I will check the fit on the crank pin next time I work on them. Surprising there are no such etches in the non streamlined kits.

Just had a look at that. I am doing 6240 which would have the vent. I have already put the front steps on and the works plates!

The tale of three coronations continues. The third of my three Coronations is a streamlined version. I need a bit of help here. The model is a Model Loco kit and the etches contain two small rings with four bolt heads etched on. The kit I am building has no instructions and I have no idea what these bits are or where they go. The full etch is for the streamlined version so I assume they will go somewhere. Anyone got any ideas, preferably with a photo? Also the picture of a streamliner shows a small vent. This is not part of the kit and I have a feeling an etch is available. Again anyone any ideas? The model is 00 scale EM gauge.

Body number two more or less complete now. The third one could be a bit more of a challenge!

The tale of three Coronations continued. One body more or less complete, two more to go!

Are you using a single sugar cube or multiple cubes? We know the sound is coming from the tender rather than the loco but it is not obvious when viewing the train or layout as a whole. The larger speaker in the tender gives a better quality of sound. I did think of putting a single cube in the loco as an extra speaker but that means eight cables between loco and tender.

Now public rather than private.

A short video of the very first test run of one of the three Coronations. Not all that smooth yet and I am not happy about the valve rod lifting a bit. Better running was achieved a few days later and will be even better when it is oiled after painting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHrYtt70e-c

We had Lancaster before in wartime black. I always fancied doing a lined version. City of Coventry was the last in red livery . That is layout license for us!

We had them in stock from way back!

The final update was to be a movie of the loco running on the test rollers. But is a 20Mb file and is over the limit for RmWeb and I have no way of reducing the file (Steve?). All three locos ran as good as can be expected at this stage. Since the roller test I have run them on the layout to assess the sound system. The speaker in the loco is probably the better location, but from a distance it doesn't make a lot of difference. The larger speaker in the tender produces a better sound quality in that the lower frequencies are better. At least with three pacifics the sound will be slightly different with the two speaker types. For the record we are using Zimo decoders. The tender speaker is a chunky boom box from Youchoos, and the smaller speaker is a double sugar cube, again from Youchoos. Next is the loco body building.

Now i have three completed chassis all ready for a test run.

So far I have fitted the DCC components in the tender. The thinking then was, as there is plenty of room in a streamlined body, the components would fit in the loco. At least then we can assess which location is best and is the bigger speaker in the tender better sound quality than the smaller one in the loco.

The two chassis now becomes three chassis! I have always wanted to make a streamlined Coronation so now is the ideal time to build one. Ok the finished model is a year or two outside our layouts time line, but, hey, I am doing it!

Now on to the chassis. The brake unit is a separate unit that is insulated from the loco wheels and body. This reduces the risk of shorts if the wheels touch the brakes for any reason.

Here we go with two DJH tender models. The red bit inside the tender is a 3D printed cassette that will house the decoder, the speaker, and a large stay alive capacitor. These were completed in February this year.

We originally had three Stanier Pacifics on the layout, all of which were amongst the stolen items. It is my intention to replace them with some kit built ones.

Another loco up and running on the layout. The black 5 was donated to us soon after the robbery. It is a DJH kit built model built to EM gauge. I modified the tender to house the DCC decoder, chip, and speakers. Wheels were upgraded to the latest Romford spec. Painted and lined by myself and weathered by Rob of the Lime Street team.

Two Comet chassis for a pair of Coronation engines to replace the ones that were stolen. 6234 Duchess of Abercorn and 6247 City of Liverpool. Two