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


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I can remember watching the landing live on TV (shows my age!), grainy black and white video.  Everyone was enthralled by it.

 

I visited in 2011 with my grandson. We not only visited to VAB, but also one of the launchpads.  The VAB had one of the Shuttles in it being prepared for permanent exhibition.  We were standing about 20ft away from it.  As you say, really brings home the effort put into these things.

 

Jim

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Happy birthday Linny, - that is one marvellous cake, - well done to all concerned.  And as for the Lego Saturn V, - Wow!

 

Good to see that you are looking more well and are on the mend.

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Thanks, all. It was a really lovely day, but I feel like I'm paying for it today! Had a long lie, and I've just finished breakfast and already feel the need to sleep creeping up on me again. I used a lot of energy yesterday... or at least so it feels. All we did all day was a half mile walk, and building a Lego set. Even our meals were delivered! 

 

I think today is going to need to be a rest day after what really shouldn't be an energy intensive day... 

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A quiet week this week, with large chunks of it spent asleep (went for a 5:30pm nap yesterday and woke up at 5:30am today... this after a 13-hour sleep on Wednesday night. I've been signed off for another four weeks, so I see much more rest in my future.

Not much to report on the modelling front - a bit of plumbing work on the A12 (and the discovery that an assumption I'd made was incorrect, so I now need new tender wheels!):

1762779127_A12Render.png.bcb171b4b6c8140ee1a2b3c5107f2023.png

Some more work on the Bug, which now has its carriage rear mostly drawn up, and most of the roof detail added...

 

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And today a lovely (and long-awaited) parcel from Kernow, which goes very nicely with my other LSWR stock. The lighting in the photo makes the Kernow model look darker than my own brake van (left), but given that's supposed to represent an older, worn vehicle that's probably not so bad!

20210731_102422.jpg

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On 31/07/2021 at 10:44, Skinnylinny said:

much more rest in my future.

Now, if you can just turn the old comment that someone was so obsessed with the hobby that they were modelling in their sleep into reality...

 

I like the fact that you can't really tell which of the road vans is home-made and which is proprietary but I do prefer yours, not least for the birdcage and the fact that it just has more of that elusive atmosphere that I for one value over finescale perfection. 

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4 hours ago, CKPR said:

Now, if you can just turn the old comment that someone was so obsessed with the hobby that they were modelling in their sleep into reality...

 

In the manuscript of one of his middle period symphonies, Joseph Haydn wrote the first violin and horn parts on the wrong staves. He added a note on the score: "written in my sleep". 

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Another fairly quiet week this week - nothing really to report beyond some more work on the A12 and a lot of sleep. 

It turns out that I require 15mm tender wheels for the A12 (3' 9 3/4" on the GA), but I can't seem to find them anywhere! Markits offer 14 and 16mm, and Alan Gibson jump from 14.6 to 15.6mm (which I guess would probably be the closest, although tyres tend to get smaller, not bigger, than nominal, due to wear!). I have to admit to balking at spending nearly £10 (plus postage) on 3 pairs of non-driving wheels though, especially when Hornby tender wheels can be got for sub-£5 for three pairs!

The firebox plumbing is now complete and closer examination shows I was way off with the whistle positions, so these have been changed. Lamp sockets, vacuum pipes, and some underframe detail (brakes and guard irons) now adorn the loco, and NEM pockets have been drawn in too.

2133251944_A12Render.png.408eb64e16f383260dec6d7b5c899514.png

 

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The two renders show just how much more cluttered the driver's side is, compared with the clean lines of the fireman's side. The Westinghouse pump, and the reversing rod make up most of this mess. 529 was a screw-reverser fitted loco, for which the reversing rod ran diagonally, ending up higher up the cabside than the lever-reverser versions, which had a horizontal reversing rod.

Nearly there with the loco part, I just need to figure out how I'm going to mount the pickups, and design a motor mount for the combined motor/gearbox I'll be using.

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Huzzah, the loco body is done, and the loco chassis is complete apart from motor mount and pickup mounts. 

Still a fair bit to do on the tender, though, and then I need to do the cab interior detail parts...

1700948802_A12Render.png.ce2245f081d196d70a375a98aedb6019.png

Edited by Skinnylinny
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Thanks, Neil! I'm really very pleased with it, as it stands. 

I think I must have been sitting funny today, as I've got a... tender behind!

Lots of work on the tender today, including toolboxes, lamp sockets, brake handle, pipes and shoes... I've decided against modelling the steam heating pipe, at least on the 3D print, as it'll get in the way of the tension lock coupling, and is likely to be very delicate, hanging down below the bufferbeam.

1589958657_A12Render2.png.19591ff923233d0cca547651f007b29a.png

 

The motor/gearbox combination fits snugly into the firebox and between the frames, and the chassis now has a motor mount added, so that's just about finished... 

image.png.339ab0650c7a3e0313b672725ef7dee8.png

About the only thing left to do is the cab interior, which will be a separate part for ease of painting. Then there should be plenty of printing in my future!

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With the A12 now being ready to start printing later today, I decided that I'd allow myself to start a new project on the "One out, one in" principle...

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An LSWR 16' horsebox should go nicely with the open carriage truck (as seen here), and make an interesting addition to the occasional passenger train, while also making use of the end-loading dock on platform 3 at Linton Town. This was started last night, while watching Gary's stream on YouTube, and the body is already substantially complete, leaving me just the underframe to work on later. 

The roof will be made of plasticard, in order to get a nice smooth curve, with 3D printed oil lamp and socket plug. Fortunately, these vehicles didn't have any rainstrips on the roof, so other detail there will be minimal. This also allows me to get a nice thin roof, and still have access to the interior to paint the groom's compartment and fit glazing.

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It's been pointed out that while full-colour renders are lovely... a dark livery like the LSWR carriage chocolate really doesn't show up the detail very well, so... 

I got a free half-hour on the train, and pinched some bits from previous designs, so the horsebox now has the start of an underframe.

270923992_LSWRHorsebox.PNG.70ac9c175126b9edb4f7a382aec0a887.PNG

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  • Skinnylinny changed the title to Great Southern Railway (Fictitious)
39 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Remind me, please. Which N20 variant is that?

It's this variant: 

image.png.c85ee6d9f486bf4a1a0119f010533803.png
I've used gear ratio D, which as 12V gives a top speed of just over 80mph (unloaded) which seems reasonable enough for a Victorian express loco!

The output shaft is a 3mm D shaft, with a circular central section, and it's a friction fit with a knurled centre section. A quick tap with a hammer popped it out, and a 3mm Romford axle fitted perfectly. I've removed the two brass spacers either side of the output gear, as I intend to secure the drive gear to its axle by sliding it to one side, applying a small amount of adhesive, then sliding the gear back into place. This then gives an easily repaired fix, which will be sacrificial if the wheels or coupling rods bind.

 

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I bought mine on eBay for about £3 a pop, although the seller has now raised their prices. They can be found fairly easily by searching eBay for "N20 dual"

Oh, and a mist of primer has happened, which means I've noticed that the valve chest has printed... unusually? I'll need to tweak that too. Very close to being there though!

20210818_113139.jpg

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Interesting: the use of spur gears is what makes the motor/gearbox units so torquey, so what's the pulling power like? 

How does it compare in terms of noise?

 

That said, it's a lovely arrangement and very compact. I wonder if one will come along which is L shaped, and slightly shorter (i.e. with the motor mounted to the side rather than the end)?

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There are quite a lot of interestingly-shaped gearboxes available. This thing certainly seems pretty torque-y though! As for noise, it's basically silent up to about 80% on the controller, then a slight gear whine, but pretty quiet overall.

Not sure I quite understand what you mean by L shaped, are you thinking more like a traditional model railway motor/gearbox combination? Here are some of the variations I've come across:
image.png.41992534c7888346e0e1d88a244d505c.png

I'm especially intrigued by the jackshaft-type drive on the bottom right! Bottom left is a 3D printer extruder, while the middle bottom seems to be part of a linear actuator of some sort.

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Bottom right might be a vibrating tool, for massage machines (and other uses!) but it does have a crankpin.

I was thinking of something a bit like the RG4 in shape, preferably with a thin and tall gearbox, putting the output axle below the motor - in my case, to drive the rear axle with the motor going vertically up the firebox. 
The icing on the cake would be a double-shafted motor to which I could add a small flywheel!

Of course, I can do all this already, but to be able to buy something like this for less than a fiver, we’ll, that would be something, wouldn’t it?

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