Castle Aching

[Edwardian]

Just now, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Yep, price algorithm has certainly had a fit. I think that may even be illegal in the USA if they don’t state the reason for the price increase. I would suggest contacting them, although that may be a long and arduous battle.  

 

I decided to fit new axle boxes to a print I had, instead of ordering a pair of underframes with right pattern.  It worked.

 

$69.39, or £49.00, is a frankly stupid price for a pair of wagon underframes. I don't know why Shapeways is still in business; it charges a small fortune for prints markedly inferior to the results people get on domestic desk-top printers these days. 

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, Northroader said:

Pity, I was saving up for the 7mm version.

I have had items from this supplier, and at my request they were supplied in a higher resolution (smaller nozzle size) and although it cost more, the results were perfectly fine.

Their EU operation is in the Netherlands, though, so you will now get hit for VAT as a consequence of Brexit.

[Edwardian]

15 minutes ago, Regularity said:

I have had items from this supplier, and at my request they were supplied in a higher resolution (smaller nozzle size) and although it cost more, the results were perfectly fine.

Their EU operation is in the Netherlands, though, so you will now get hit for VAT as a consequence of Brexit.

 

I have heard that the supploer will print on request to a higher resolution. Given the eye watering (IMHO) prices and relative lack of value (IMHO) of the bog-standard prints, I can only imagine the hideous cost of a Shapeways-printed rake of coaches printed to the same standard that people like Tom, Linny and Knuckles get on humble desk-top printers. 

 

Not for me.

[Regularity]

I think Shapeways might be consciously be driving themselves out of the "hobbyist" market. It's not the printing itself which is a problem, but the amount of manual intervention, such as for reviewing the design and getting it off the plate and into the packaging.

 

Knuckles stuff is superb, but he doesn't have to pay anyone else for their time, and I suspect that's part of the problem for Shapeways - they do seem to have become more and more expensive.

[Edwardian]

18 minutes ago, Regularity said:

I think Shapeways might be consciously be driving themselves out of the "hobbyist" market. It's not the printing itself which is a problem, but the amount of manual intervention, such as for reviewing the design and getting it off the plate and into the packaging.

 

Knuckles stuff is superb, but he doesn't have to pay anyone else for their time, and I suspect that's part of the problem for Shapeways - they do seem to have become more and more expensive.

 

I'm sure you're right.  It's the resultant poverty of the consumer offering that matters to me, not so much the reasons for it. If Shapeways could decisively out-match the quality of home-printing, there might be some point to using them or paying the high prices.  I had a lovely brass dome made by them, but much of the output is expensive cack. 

 

 

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

I decided to fit new axle boxes to a print I had, instead of ordering a pair of underframes with right pattern.  It worked.

 

$69.39, or £49.00, is a frankly stupid price for a pair of wagon underframes. I don't know why Shapeways is still in business; it charges a small fortune for prints markedly inferior to the results people get on domestic desk-top printers these days. 

Phew, seriously mate I'd be looking at buying a resin printer - straight off the bat the first UK site I see  has a Mars Pro for 280 pounds, or just under 6 wagon underframes but they are always having sales.  The bigger formfactor ones like the Elegoo Saturn or the Anycubic one are  bit more but you can print  that coach off in one go.

 

The detail they can achieve is staggering and magical  technology means that I can spend a few minutes in a spooky graveyard with a camera..

 

 

run the pics through a free software package

 

 

and print it off with detail identical to the original without involving a single traditional ("analogue"?)  modelling tool

 

 

 

 

[nick_bastable]

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

I'm sure you're right.  It's the resultant poverty of the consumer offering that matters to me, not so much the reasons for it. If Shapeways could decisively out-match the quality of home-printing, there might be some point to using them or paying the high prices.  I had a lovely brass dome made by them, but much of the output is expensive cack. 

 

 

Just wish the designers would offer the stl (at a suitable cost ) for non commercial home use 

 

Nick B

[Florence Locomotive Works]

5 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

I decided to fit new axle boxes to a print I had, instead of ordering a pair of underframes with right pattern.  It worked.

 

$69.39, or £49.00, is a frankly stupid price for a pair of wagon underframes. I don't know why Shapeways is still in business; it charges a small fortune for prints markedly inferior to the results people get on domestic desk-top printers these days. 

What material are you ordering it in?

 

I ordered a body and chassis kit for a GWR broad gauge Pyracmon class goods engine, and it was excellent in FUD (frosted ultra detail). 
 

A few years ago I ordered a model of a Corliss stationary steam engine in WSF (white strong and flexible), which had no problems and looked fine from a distance at least.

[Edwardian]

I'm sure I'm going to regret this, especially as I've been shamelessly barding Stephen over the small locomotive policy of a certain line (but, honestly, I cannot possible admit how much I really like and admire the Midland, or I'd never hear the end of it), but the time has come to mention the Midland's 31' 6-wheel clerestory guards vans to diagram 530.

 

Image from the Slater's website

 

Now, Lacey & Dow tell me that they were originally introduced as part of three sets built in 1897 for Bradford-Bristol services, though they opine that the sets were likely superseded by gangwayed sets in 1905-6.

 

What interests me is their further comment that "The guard's vans were the prototypes of a numerous class which eventually numbered 301 vehicles"

 

My assumption, therefore, was that quite a few diagram 530s would have been knocked out by 1905 and that their use would be fairly widespread.

 

Of course, we all know how dangerous assumptions can be .....  

 

Well, as to the first part of that, Appendix 43* is my friend, showing rather a lot built up to 1902.

 

As to where they might have travelled, I assume that must remain an assumption. My money is on one forming part of the Birchoverham portion of 'the Leicester' in due course.

 

The easy way out, in terms of detail is, I suppose, to model one of the 1901-1902 Lot with the small duckets.  My understanding is that those originally built with large duckets would have had them removed long before 1905 and that subsequent Lots would have been built without duckets. What I'm not clear on is whether vans would have been retro-fitted with the small duckets, and, if so, when? 

 

 

*They never do anything by halves, Midland enthusiasts, have you noticed?

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by Edwardian
spelling!

[Compound2632]

11 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

The easy way out, in terms of detail is, I suppose, to model one of the 1901-1902 Lot with the small duckets.  My understanding is that those originally built with large duckets would have had them removed long before 1905 and that subsequent Lots would have been built without duckets. What I'm not clear on is whether vans would have been retro-fitted with the small duckets, and, if so, when? 

 

The original large lookouts were removed pretty quickly - all gone by early 1900. Further construction was sans lookouts. (The version of Drawing 1128 on the Midland Railway Study Centre website tells the story - also showing the reduction in height of the clerestory from the earliest batches.) The small lookouts introduced in 1902 were fitted to all clerestory brake vehicles equally quickly, going by the photographic evidence. I think it would be very surprising to see one without lookouts by 1905, so you're OK there. 

 

20 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

*They never do anything by halves, Midland enthusiasts, have you noticed?

 

No. Two of everything, please!

[Edwardian]

Many thanks, Stephen.

 

Now I can safely admit to having recently bought the Slater's kit!

 

Phew.

 

I just thought to myself that 'two Ratio Clayton bogies and a 6-wheel van makes a nice portion to run off onto the WNR'

[Edwardian]

Meanwhile, yesterday a parcel arrived at the Castle Aching Parish Hall (not that it has one), and, this morning, I have been at sufficient leisure to inspect the contents.

 

These are wagons from the talented Mr Turbosnail and will sit in the stash until it is time to turn to All Things Good and South Eastern.

 

 

My immediate focus will return to the GER wagons, now the dogs are walked, the lawns are mowed and after I've cleaned the house! 

[Edwardian]

Last weekend I re-visited the Mountsorrel quarry site, which, alone of the local railway attractions, was not only open, but free from the sorts of restrictions that prevent some of the more pleasurable aspects of a visit. While I feel I should support preserved lines in times of trouble, a truncated trip on the Great Central, missing Loughborough with no alighting the train en route just misses out the best bits of a visit for me, furthermore, pre-booking a particular train is fraught with the possibility of mishap when wrangling slow moving Aged Ps.  Besides, at Mountsorrel I hoped to glimpse a certain wee lassie! 

 

Unfortunately, the little Barclay was poking out of the shed and I could not get near enough for a good look at her.

 

 

Then, just as we were about to leave, they brought her out into the sun, to tinker with her. She was not out for long, but long enough!

 

 

I'd have taken her home with me if I could. She's gorgeous. 

[Hroth]

What a pretty little loco!

 

The only thing that I remember about Mountsorrel is that it was there that the bolts fell out of the sterntube outer bearing and the River Soar was gushing in...  We had to moor up, push corks into the holes and keep an anchor watch until the morning when we could locate some replacement bolts, secure the bearing and proceed!

 

[Edwardian]

27 minutes ago, Hroth said:

What a pretty little loco!

 

The only thing that I remember about Mountsorrel is that it was there that the bolts fell out of the sterntube outer bearing and the River Soar was gushing in...  We had to moor up, push corks into the holes and keep an anchor watch until the morning when we could locate some replacement bolts, secure the bearing and proceed!

 

 

Hopefully you also remember this bridge, as it crosses the Soar Navigation, built to take the quarry line to the Midland mainline at Barrow upon Soar.

 

[Compound2632]

5 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Hopefully you also remember this bridge, as it crosses the Soar Navigation, built to take the quarry line to the Midland mainline at Barrow upon Soar.

 

It's not what the phrase "quarry railway" conjures, is it?

[simonmcp]

7 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Meanwhile, yesterday a parcel arrived at the Castle Aching Parish Hall (not that it has one), and, this morning, I have been at sufficient leisure to inspect the contents.

 

These are wagons from the talented Mr Turbosnail and will sit in the stash until it is time to turn to All Things Good and South Eastern.

 

 

My immediate focus will return to the GER wagons, now the dogs are walked, the lawns are mowed and after I've cleaned the house! 

I would cut off the supports sooner rather than later as I believe the resin gets progressively more brittle with age.

[Edwardian]

Just now, Compound2632 said:

 

It's not what the phrase "quarry railway" conjures, is it?

 

No, indeed, and it is very much grander than anything else on the system, with which, IIRC, you're fairly familiar.

 

 

[Compound2632]

Indeed. Recommend reading is I.P. Peaty, Mountsorrel and its associated quarry railways (Irwell Press, 2012), which includes a very interesting photo of some Midland wagons.

[Edwardian]

22 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Indeed. Recommend reading is I.P. Peaty, Mountsorrel and its associated quarry railways (Irwell Press, 2012), which includes a very interesting photo of some Midland wagons.

 

Yes, remember purchasing that when it came out, and am surprised at the thought that was as long ago as 2012.  I had evidently begun loitering with intent to start modelling.

 

Of course, despite 2 visits to Mountsorrel (August 2020 and just now), I failed to pull it from the book shelf, looking sadly creased (a rather flopping and not robust cover) and, for some reason, mildewed!

 

Time for a re-read, though I have rather a back-log at present.

 

It struck me as the perfect industrial system to model, with charismatic little Victorian 4-wheelers, that magnificant bridge, and links to both the Midland mainline and the GC London extension in a part of the country where these two lines were probably closest. It is also, of course, very much my native heath. 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2021 by Edwardian

[Annie]

46 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Hopefully you also remember this bridge, as it crosses the Soar Navigation, built to take the quarry line to the Midland mainline at Barrow upon Soar.

 

Gosh, that's the sort of bridge you take your children to see so that they can tell their grandchildren that once upon a time they saw the avatar of all bridges.

[Edwardian]

It comes back to me now. 2012-2013 was a year of planning. I remember now because in my copy of Peaty I found map photocopies relating to a projected seaplane base Air Ministry railway, which I did plan (a cross between Calshot and Mount Batten).  The Mountsorrel quarry was considered too big a scheme. I then turned to the Isle of Eldernell scheme, and planned that in some detail. Did nothing, of course, and eventually made a model of some Norfolk cottage backs and, well....

[Hroth]

58 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Hopefully you also remember this bridge, as it crosses the Soar Navigation, built to take the quarry line to the Midland mainline at Barrow upon Soar.

 

 

An amazing bridge.  I don't recall it at all!!!

 

[Edwardian]

1 minute ago, Hroth said:

 

An amazing bridge.  I don't recall it at all!!!

 

 

I'll put that down to you being too busy sinking.

[Hroth]

4 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

I'll put that down to you being too busy sinking.

 

It was a journey littered with odd incidents; after travelling through Leicester onto the GU(Leicester Section) and down Foxton locks, we ran over something in the canal which bent the rudder up. Luckily it didn't interfere too much with steering so we were able to continue.  When we went into dry dock for repainting the next year, we were able to cut the rudder post off and replace it.