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

[Skinnylinny]

This particular rake wasn't close-coupled, just a fixed combination of carriages that operated together. Perhaps a better phrase would be "set train"? Weddell refers to it as a block train though...

[Regularity]

One other question, but if you put the light switch under the floor of the full rake, won’t you need to invert the full brake to switch it on and off? Given the electrical couplings running the length of the train, could the whole rake fall over?

Wondered if you might use a magnetic/capacitive touch switch in the ceiling, and wave a magnet over it or touch it with your finger?

[Skinnylinny]

Hmmmm, a latching reed switch under the roof... now there's a thought! I'd probably still keep the toggle switch under the floor as a fail-safe off-switch, but a magnet over the down line to turn the lights on as the train enters the layout, and another over the up line to turn them off as it departs... tempting!

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, Skinnylinny said:

but a magnet over the down line to turn the lights on as the train enters the layout, and another over the up line to turn them off as it departs... tempting!

That’s a good idea - also works on single track Branchlines, with a single magnet.

Just so long as the lights are off when in the fiddle yard!

[Skinnylinny]

Not so - the orientation of the magnet matters! One pole of a magnet waved at the reed switch will "set" it to closed, the other pole will "reset" it to open. 

Edited October 19, 2020 by Skinnylinny

[Corbs]

Would you be able to use 2 magnets at the entrance to the fiddle yard? (if on a single track layout)

 

One 'lights off', one 'lights on', with 'lights on' being closest to the station and 'lights off' being closest to the fiddle yard?

 

As the same magnet won't affect a train that's already been switched.

Edited October 19, 2020 by Corbs

[Skinnylinny]

That ought to do it!

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, Skinnylinny said:

Not so - the orientation of the magnet matters! One pole of a magnet waved at the reed switch will "set" it to closed, the other pole will "reset" it to open. 

 

2 hours ago, Corbs said:

Would you be able to use 2 magnets at the entrance to the fiddle yard? (if on a single track layout)

 

One 'lights off', one 'lights on', with 'lights on' being closest to the station and 'lights off' being closest to the fiddle yard?

 

As the same magnet won't affect a train that's already been switched.

Every day’s a school day!

[Edwardian]

7 hours ago, Skinnylinny said:

Well, I have lighting now, in the form of a single 120W equivalent LED bulb, plus another in a floor-standing lamp. Not as bright as originally, but much better. 

I had a long weekend, as I was off work on Friday (the joys of not having a full-time contract) and got a bit of an urge to dive back into some CAD work, so I continued work on my LSWR 4-carriage block train.



Friday was spent drawing up an underframe to go with the already-completed bodywork of the 6-wheel full-third, before going for a nice amble to the hacklab and cutting out a prototype kit. This got taken home, and assembled on Saturday... mostly. Several of the bits didn't quite fit! So I redrew the bits over the evening, then popped back to the lab and cut a complete new carriage kit for the full-third, along with the brake third. The brake third was mostly completed while watching the @BlueLightning's YouTube stream, along with a fair bit of work on the full-third. 



These are to be fitted with lighting (hence the cutouts in the compartment dividers) - I found a lighting kit with strip PCB to allow the fitting of surface-mount LEDs in whatever position is needed, which works out to a shade under 30' in scale length, thus fitting perfectly inside the carriages. The idea is to fit wiring between the carriages (I've tested this and it works nicely over complex trackwork) along with the scale couplings, and a button cell battery with a floor-mounted switch in the full-brake. A section of the floor of the full-brake will be removable (held on with magnets) to access the battery holder.

 

 

Also visible are two lumps on the bufferbeams. These are magnets, temporarily stuck to magnets behind the bufferbeams, which I intend to use for side/safety chains within the rake. The idea is to keep fixed-rake trains semi-permanently coupled on the layout and in storage, to avoid having to fiddle with scale couplings, wiring and side chains too often. I'm planning a cassette system that will fit into a wrapping-paper-sized Really Useful Box, which should, theoretically, allow me to pick up my 6-carriage LB&SCR set train in one go as well.

And finally... a nice pile of parcels was awaiting me when I arrived at the office this morning - those Chinese Norwegian wagons, a Hornby Acho SNCF goods wagon, and a Hornby LMS pug, ripe for bashing...

 

Interested to see how the wagon conversions come out.

 

The coaches are looking stunning.

[Skinnylinny]

Well it's been a month and a half, I probably ought to stick my head in here occasionally! A belated Merry Christmas to all.

Things have been quiet on the layout front, on account of finally getting help with various mental health difficulties, combined with an exciting work project. I've also been learning Fusion 360 again, and I'm much happier this time. So much so, I am moving over from SketchUp full-time.

My latest project for the layout is this LSWR 16' open carriage truck (I forget the date, and I don't have it to hand - I want to say 1880s-1890s?). Drawn as ever from drawings from the Weddell books (Volume 3 this time). There are many details still to be added and fixed (not least the incorrectly-mirrored axlebox cover on the right-hand axlebox!) but it's coming along rather nicely. The wagons in question were vacuum braked, with brake pipe standards which folded down horizonally to allow unloading of road vehicles without getting tangled in the assorted undergubbins. Major parts still to be added are the brake mechanism (which will largely be made up of wire), vacuum pipes, end-plate supports (buffer mounted), and wheel-restraining bars, which could be positioned in various slots along the top bars. These will be printed separately to allow me to tailor the wagon to a suitable load.

[Skinnylinny]

Well, the brake pipes were a right faff, as the standards bend both sideways and backwards, so that required learning a new technique. Then the bag needed to be curved in multiple dimensions but also to line up with the standard and the dummy, so that was another new technique. It didn't look right as a smooth tube so after much experimenting I think I've figured out a way to represent ribbed vacuum brake hoses. After that, the rest of the brake gear came simply enough, so with the exception of pockets for NEM couplings, the carriage truck is complete!

Now I need to decide what to work on next, while watching Gary's stream this evening... 
 

[Skinnylinny]

Well this is certainly starting a new project with a bang! Because of the various military installations near Linton (specifically around Bisley), it seems likely that explosives traffic might appear at Linton, even if only passing through. The fairly standard design of gunpowder van, based on the GWR iron mink didn't start to appear on the LSWR until 1904, so in order to have an appropriate wagon for the start of my time period (1900-1910) I've started modelling a rather cute 14'6" wooden gunpowder van from the 1900 batch. A slightly earlier design (of 1888) is described in the Weddell book as "almost identical... but only 9ft. 4 3/8 ins, high" as compared to the 10' 1 7/8" of this prototype, so the model might be tweaked later on to represent this also.

 

[Skinnylinny]

Well, the gunpowder van is now complete (at least in CAD form), and I have to figure out how I'll paint it once I get it printed. Unfortunately, I can't find any livery details for these wagons. Weddell (vol. 4) mentions minutes from the Traffic and Locomotive Committee meeting on 29th September 1853 "it would therefore be better to fit a wagon for the purpose [of carrying gunpowder], the wagon to be painted a distinguishing colour and to be always used when powder was to be conveyed." with a note that no further mention of said colour or special markings is found anywhere in the minutes. I've only been able to find one photograph showing an LSWR metal-bodied gunpowder van in service. 

 

There is a metal-bodied LSWR gunpowder van in the National Collection, which photographs show as being an orangey-red (certainly distinctive from the dark purple-brown used for most LSWR goods stock!), although as this is stored outside, it's hard to tell whether it is a weathered and faded bright red, or was originally painted orange. It is certainly carrying a fictitious number, however! It appears to be liveried similarly (but not identically) to the wagon in Plate 1.43 of Weddell vol.4.

At the moment I'm leaning towards a nice bright red, using the photo in Weddell as a basis for the lettering, with black buffers and metalwork below the solebars, but would be delighted if anyone has better information.

Edited December 30, 2020 by Skinnylinny

[Skinnylinny]

I'm trying to slow down so that I don't have too many models to print when I get back home. However, I'm working on one last one - an 1882 LSWR birdcage brake van. It's of the type generally known as a "road van", although I don't believe the LSWR used that terminology. The guard had an enclosed compartment below the birdcage (with no windows except the birdcage!), and an open veranda at one end. The other half of the vehicle was used for small goods consignments that wouldn't have required a full wagon for each station, such that the guard could drop them on station platforms rather than requiring time-consuming (and wagon-consuming!) shunting.

I've been playing around with the materials appearances in Fusion a bit too, and while I'll acknowledge the lettering leaves something to be desired (completely wrong in typeface!) it'll be replaced by HMRS transfers once printed. Still got many small details to add to the body, and the underframe to work on (the axleguards are just placeholders, pinched from another wagon).
 

 

[Edwardian]

On 04/01/2021 at 10:53, Skinnylinny said:

I'm trying to slow down so that I don't have too many models to print when I get back home. However, I'm working on one last one - an 1882 LSWR birdcage brake van. It's of the type generally known as a "road van", although I don't believe the LSWR used that terminology. The guard had an enclosed compartment below the birdcage (with no windows except the birdcage!), and an open veranda at one end. The other half of the vehicle was used for small goods consignments that wouldn't have required a full wagon for each station, such that the guard could drop them on station platforms rather than requiring time-consuming (and wagon-consuming!) shunting.

I've been playing around with the materials appearances in Fusion a bit too, and while I'll acknowledge the lettering leaves something to be desired (completely wrong in typeface!) it'll be replaced by HMRS transfers once printed. Still got many small details to add to the body, and the underframe to work on (the axleguards are just placeholders, pinched from another wagon).
 

 

 

Wow, that's stunning.  My Barnstaple Town project would greatly benefit from one. 

[relaxinghobby]

Looks like the LSWR lantern lookout or birdcage lookout brake is an extension of the standard LSWR goods van of the same era. With the three panels on each side and X configuration diagonal framing. I'm thinking of a possible conversion of the Cambrian Kits models van, make a longer chassis add a veranda and contrive a birdcage lookout for the roof?

 

Photo by Cambrian kc115

 

Edited January 6, 2021 by relaxinghobby
Picture

[Skinnylinny]

I did ponder this, but there are quite a lot of variations. The veranda-end fixed panel looks to be about the right size for a conversion from the Cambrian D1410 van, but the sliding door on the brake van is substantially narrower than the D1410 (4'6" wide on the brake van, 5'9" on the D1410). The non-veranda-end fixed panel on the brake van is another foot less wide than that on the D1410 (5' vs 6'). Add to that the fact the Cambrian kit is on a steel underframe, compared with the wooden one of the brake van, the brake gear being completely different...

I can't imagine you'd have much of the kit left (in the finished model, at least - it would probably mostly end up in the bits box!)

[Skinnylinny]

Well, I've been home for a few days, pottering about. The first gunpowder van has come off the printer, and is looking pretty passable, I think! I've decided that, as the roof of this vehicle is simple (no ventilators etc), it would be easier to get a nice smooth roof by curving plasticard. By omitting the floor, I've managed to reduce the suction on the print, meaning it's much less likely to fail when printing. A few other tricks have been used, including liberal use of filleting to avoid sudden changes in cross-section wherever possible, as these seem to lead to the dreaded print lines.



Now, to load the carriage truck file onto the printer, and continue work on the brake van. This is nearly complete, wanting a few more bolts and some lamp sockets before printing.

[Skinnylinny]

Not much of an update but I just had to share this photo - I knew the gunpowder van was small, but I didn't realise it was this small!

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, Skinnylinny said:

Not much of an update but I just had to share this photo - I knew the gunpowder van was small, but I didn't realise it was this small!

To make it bigger, it needs to be blown up...

[Skinnylinny]

Anyone who tries to blow up my wagons will find themself at the end of my very short fuse!

The 3D printed wagon collection is definitely growing. Clockwise from middle rear: SER round-ended open (SR D. 1327); LSWR 5-plank open (SR D. 1309); LSWR Medium cattle wagon (SR D. 1508), LSWR open carriage truck, LSWR gunpowder van of 1900



The carriage truck isn't quite right yet - this one needed its supports adjusting so is a bit warped, and has a chunk missing from a bufferbeam, but the brake gear and the other delicate bits have all come out nicely. 

[Mikkel]

Very nice. Out of interest, does the hot water method work for straightening out 3D printed wagons, do you think - or would that be a Very Bad Idea?

[Skinnylinny]

Thank you. The hot water trick does work, yes... to a limited extent. I was inspired to try by your blog post about the LSWR stone wagon, as it happens. I made a mess of that carriage truck by using too-hot water, and it warped sideways as well as lengthways, in a way in which I couldn't straighten it out because of the details being too delicate.

The reprint has shown I have made one other mistake, namely the bottom of the floor is fractionally too low so it rubs on the wheel flanges. I plan to thin it slightly and add some strengthening ribs, which should hopefully result in a free-running wagon.

[Mikkel]

Thanks Linny, good to know. I have a couple of wagons I can try it on.  Good to know that the water can be too hot!

[Steve Smith]

I can confirm some 3D printing resins are definitely thermoplastic.  I modelled the Yard Crane for Verwood in 3D CAD and the first test print was in what was described as an 'ABS type resin' in a fetching translucent blue.  The prototype is not a balanced design, and both jib and pillar distorted in the mild warmth of October sunshine.  To ensure some semblance of rectitude in the thing, both pillar and jib have had to be reinforced with brass tube. 

http://yeovilmrg.org/verwood-and-semley-yard-crane/

 

If anyone has seen the feature on Semley in the January 2021 Model Rail, it is that very first unreinforced crane, as test built and painted by yours truly, that has somehow managed to sneak its way into at least one of the photographs!

 

Steve