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Great Southern Railway (Fictitious) - Signalling the changes...


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Thank you for the praise! If you'd like, I'd be happy to laser-cut a set of sides for you and post them over if you'd like? The joy of laser-cut card is it's cheap and cheerful, but you can detail it up as much as you like. The sides and ends are made from two layers of laminated 1mm card to give the outside framing, and the roof was good old-fashioned cornflake-packet card.

That brake van of yours looks rather nice too - the shorter length gives more of an impression of the time period than the one I've built. I'll have to consider shortening the next design.

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Thank you for the praise! If you'd like, I'd be happy to laser-cut a set of sides for you and post them over if you'd like? The joy of laser-cut card is it's cheap and cheerful, but you can detail it up as much as you like. The sides and ends are made from two layers of laminated 1mm card to give the outside framing, and the roof was good old-fashioned cornflake-packet card.

 

That brake van of yours looks rather nice too - the shorter length gives more of an impression of the time period than the one I've built. I'll have to consider shortening the next design.

 

Bless you for that!  I shall send you a PM.

 

I think I could have done better if I had taken more care, but I was "designing" it as I stuck it together!  I do like the short look - just hack off one verandah - and I thought that a big sheeted projection would further disguise its origins.

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Cardboard I like!

 

The condensed milk van (I reckon the artist shortened a GWR siphon) is brilliant, as indeed are the others.

 

Cardboard is old-fashioned enough for my layout, so I’d be interested to hear what kit you used to cut the parts. It’s many years since I made cardboard wagons, and no way can hand-cutting achieve that precision, well, not my handwork anyway.

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The laser cutter used was the one at the Edinburgh Hacklab where I'm a member. The details can be found on the Edinburgh Hacklab wiki here if you're interested: Edinburgh Hacklab Wiki: Laser Cutter. I've been experimenting with using the laser cutter with much thinner card to produce beading and panelling on coach models - when I get home from the model club tonight I'll try to remember to dig out my most recent test cut of a body for a North British Railway 6-wheel third (for use as a grounded coach bothy on the club's latest layout). It can certainly do some impressively accurate cutting!

I've heard interesting things about the Silhouette Cutter, although I don't have access to one of these - apparently it can be set up to cut out pre-printed parts pretty accurately to give a pre-cut and pre-printed kit, if you design it. Now *that*'s impressive, and would make producing my panelled coaches much quicker. Even better, run a gold pen around the exposed white edges where you cut the panelling out for instant gold lining-out of the panelling! I can feel my wallet whimpering at the thought...

And now it's definitely going to be known as the Condensed Milk Van!

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The laser cutter used was the one at the Edinburgh Hacklab where I'm a member. The details can be found on the Edinburgh Hacklab wiki here if you're interested: Edinburgh Hacklab Wiki: Laser Cutter. I've been experimenting with using the laser cutter with much thinner card to produce beading and panelling on coach models - when I get home from the model club tonight I'll try to remember to dig out my most recent test cut of a body for a North British Railway 6-wheel third (for use as a grounded coach bothy on the club's latest layout). It can certainly do some impressively accurate cutting!

 

I've heard interesting things about the Silhouette Cutter, although I don't have access to one of these - apparently it can be set up to cut out pre-printed parts pretty accurately to give a pre-cut and pre-printed kit, if you design it. Now *that*'s impressive, and would make producing my panelled coaches much quicker. Even better, run a gold pen around the exposed white edges where you cut the panelling out for instant gold lining-out of the panelling! I can feel my wallet whimpering at the thought...

 

And now it's definitely going to be known as the Condensed Milk Van!

 

It struck me that cutting GWR beading from black plastic card - and then painting the edging, might not be a bad idea.

 

I am impressed, and rather amazed that your cardboard does not simply burst into flames!

 

But, then again, I don't know much about lasers ... 

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Sadly, plasticard won't cut on a laser cutter - it melts rather than burning away, and releases all sorts of noxious fumes! There do exist sheet plastics that will laser-cut, however, although I've only ever seen these in white. Nothing stopping you spraying the beading black before laminating the layers, though... I'll also need to have a look through the CAD/3D Printing forum section to figure out where to get Rowmark (the laser cuttable "not-quite-plasticard") in the UK.

It all depends on the type of card - the brown stuff used to stiffen envelopes cuts well enough, but corrugated cardboard does risk catching fire. There's a CO2 fire extinguisher in the laser cutter room, and the rule is that the laser cutter may not be left unattended while cutting. Occasionally small flashes of flame can be seen, but they usually burn themselves out almost instantaneously. The extinguisher is there for a reason...

Edited by Skinnylinny
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Sadly, plasticard won't cut on a laser cutter - it melts rather than burning away, and releases all sorts of noxious fumes! There do exist sheet plastics that will laser-cut, however, although I've only ever seen these in white. Nothing stopping you spraying the beading black before laminating the layers, though... I'll also need to have a look through the CAD/3D Printing forum section to figure out where to get Rowmark (the laser cuttable "not-quite-plasticard") in the UK.

 

Sorry, my mistake - the reference to plastic card was intended to relate to the Silhouette cutter, which I believe is very good for this sort of thing, if you have one and can master the software (which I can't seem to). 

 

I had assumed laser for wood and card only, so I am interested in your mention of Rowmark, which I had not heard of.

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Another "foreign" wagon nearly completed - this Highland Railway D4 van from a resin kit from the Highland Railway Society just needs couplings and lettering, although I'm struggling to find details of the lettering. From what I can gather these vans did not carry "HR" lettering in their pre-1896 livery, leaving them very bland looking, with not even a running number on the body, this being on a plate on the solebar. I may need to write what it is on the underside so I can remember!

 

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Another thought, while thinking about a working timetable: Does anyone happen to have any access to representative timetables of the era? I have no idea what expected journey times from Guildford, Woking and Ascot into London would have been for passenger services at this date. Even a vague idea would be helpful, as I imagine steam-hauled services would be unlikely to match the rapid acceleration and top speeds reached with today's modern EMUs. 

I'm also wondering what sort of times milk services etc would have run? Would they be attached to the first passenger service of the day heading in the right direction? Should I be looking at cylindrical or conical churns between 1900-1910?

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Another thought, while thinking about a working timetable: Does anyone happen to have any access to representative timetables of the era? I have no idea what expected journey times from Guildford, Woking and Ascot into London would have been for passenger services at this date. Even a vague idea would be helpful, as I imagine steam-hauled services would be unlikely to match the rapid acceleration and top speeds reached with today's modern EMUs. 

 

I'm also wondering what sort of times milk services etc would have run? Would they be attached to the first passenger service of the day heading in the right direction? Should I be looking at cylindrical or conical churns between 1900-1910?

 

Conical.  I have a couple of TTs.  I'll have a look over the weekend if no one has the answer more readily at hand.

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Thank you - my main concern would be trying to figure out a morning and an evening peak service for the LSWR from Linton into London (via Bagshot and Ascot) and an LB&SCR service to Guildford (I suspect Horsham for commuters would be unlikely from this far afield!).

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Linton could have an extension to the LBSCR Horsham - Guildford services at peak times, indeed I have proposed for myself to do a layout set in that part of Surrey, allowing me to get away with a mixture of different companies' traffic.

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Another "foreign" wagon nearly completed - this Highland Railway D4 van from a resin kit from the Highland Railway Society just needs couplings and lettering, although I'm struggling to find details of the lettering. From what I can gather these vans did not carry "HR" lettering in their pre-1896 livery, leaving them very bland looking, with not even a running number on the body, this being on a plate on the solebar. I may need to write what it is on the underside so I can remember!

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My primer looks just the job in this shot.

 

Gary

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Sounds like a great concept

I would think the GSR would be easier to model if it had opened nearer 1895 than 1880.    There would have been lots of original 1880s stock around in 1905 and little of it is available RTR.  By 1895 there were a lot of small locos which had been were struggling with heavier loads and were being replaced with larger types, notably Adams Radials and Terriers were sold off by LSWR and LBSCR in this period and Beattie well tanks and other Beattie era locos were being scrapped which might well have appealed to a new company. At the same time there was a lot of pressure on UK loco manufacturers which might well have led to sourcing Electroten like locos from the continent.   The London trains would surely have warranted a 4-4-0 if only for prestige, but small 4-4-0s are thin on the ground, maybe a Caley single could be kitbashed into a 4-4-0?

The LBSC and SECR might have operated local passenger services to keep route knowledge, maybe reciprocal as per the GWR and Southern between Exeter and Plymouth.   By 1905 overhead electricification might have been well advanced which would be interesting with overhead wires and LBSC liveries, I am seeing Triang Steeple Cab electrics and carved up Clestories!

As to locos always pictured running chimney first, have you ever wondered where C Reginald Dalby turned Thomas?

C Reginald Dalby always showed Thomas's face for much the same reason paparazzi usually photograph royalties faces and not the back of their heads. Thomas needed a driver as he couldn't see where he was going when travelling bunker first, otherwise he would only have needed a fireman

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Yes, and in the way that Edwardian has made clear that theWNR isn’t a LR, I’m assuming, subject to confirmation of denial, that the GSR is a ‘full’ railway.

 

Building a full railway as late as 1895, except for special cases (Tubes, cut offs, GCR extension) was jolly rare, so I’m actually in favour of either the earlier date, or an electrified LR, but it isn’t my railway!

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I'm certainly not opposed to kit-building for earlier rolling stock. I've had decent results laser-cutting coach parts from card already. See this 4mm-scale NBR 6-wheel coach body side. Three layers of card (recessed panelling, main body side, raised beading on the bottom half, just loosely stacked for this picture:

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Once complete, it looks something like this:

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Hopefully I'll be able to get similar effects from plastic, if I can get the right stuff. I'm back at the Hacklab this evening to try out some 10 thou plastic sheeting. Hopefully with that it should be possible to get some decent beading for coaches, and it'll be less delicate than card (before all being glued together)! I'll also see about cutting out a milk van kit for Edwardian.

The GSR is decidedly not a light railway - I'm envisioning a decent high-speed run towards London. I was definitely thinking of a 4-4-0 loco, and London-bound services would certainly be a good reason for its existence. I like the idea of bashing a Caley single about - I have a GBL one sitting about doing nothing but looking pretty at the moment. It would certainly be a high-stepping 4-4-0 if I decided to keep the wheel sizes. If not, there's not much bottom-half of the boiler, so it'd need some fairly major surgery to the boiler to become a more natural-looking 4-4-0. I'll have to have a ponder.

 

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Results of one evening's experimentation: Javis Plastic Card does laser cut, but poorly - it melts and deforms as it cuts. I've asked in the appropriate section of the forum to see if anyone has more experience cutting plastic.

 

Meanwhile, if anyone else wants one of these laser cut milk van body kits, let me know. :)

 

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Can you pop it up to 7/4 scale?

 

Seriously, if you can, and it fits an old Hornby 0 chassis, you have a market.

 

Better still, if you can stretch it back towards a real siphon, and make it fit a BL long WB chassis, I’ll take two.

 

Milk trains are a big thing in retro-0.

Edited by Nearholmer
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Can you pop it up to 7/4 scale?

 

Seriously, if you can, and it fits an old Hornby 0 chassis, you have a market.

 

Better still, if you can stretch it back towards a real siphon, and make it fit a BL long WB chassis, I’ll take two.

 

Milk trains are a big thing in retro-0.

If someone could send me a photo or two of the chassis, and some dimensions, I'd be happy to play around with the CAD and see what I can do! Main dimensions I'd need would be width and length of the chassis (the bodyshell in 00 was designed to just rest on top of the bufferbeams of the Dapol chassis) and the desired height. (top of bufferbeam to top of roof). I suspect that simply stretching it 7/4 in all dimensions wouldn't quite work, but simple, even stretching of any shape is easy enough in the software I use.

 

My main concern with trying to make a GWR siphon (other than the fact the panelling proportions are probably way out!) is that currently the roof profile is a simple arc roof. I could probably tweak it to the three-arc roof of the GWR, but that's harder to form the roof out of card for. Let me know your thoughts, please? 

Edited by Skinnylinny
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Linny

 

A quick google suggests that the first ‘siphons’ were small ones, very like yours, with plain arc roofs. Photo of a finescale model, poached from a website, below. But what we really need here is a GWR expert with a library.

 

The old Hornby chassis are 123mm x 57mm, but it strikes me that a far better chassis, to the same dimensions, is made by Derek Strickland, a gentleman who specialises in small-batch production of coarse-scale wagons and parts. http://www.progress-products.co.uk/current/Contact_us/contact_us.html

 

I an seriously imagine a collaboration between Derek and yourself to get a batch these out to the coarse world. He has ollaborated with others to use bodies made by them previously.

 

Incidentally, in the 1930s, Hornby made this van in printed tin. It was not one of their best and only diehard Hornby collectors seem to like it.

 

Kevin

 

PS: if you want this diversion out of your thread, we can continue by PM or use my thread.

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Linny

 

what we really need here is a GWR expert with a library.

 

 

 

 

But instead, you've got me!!!!

 

I do have the necessary books and drawings, however, so if Linny fancies making a pukka GW version (probably ran to Linton because the South Western probably 'forgot' to return it to the GW (they did that a lot with siphons, apparently).

 

Must dash - but I'll post something useful when I have a mo!

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