Smoke and Mirrors

[Dickon]

My take on 'Waiting for a Train' is a motor fishing vessel leaving a harbour basin and finding that the bridge across the entrance has closed to allow a train to cross.  To stay within the allowed 8" square foot print I have decided to build the bridge as though it has been cut longitudinally down the centre and mount a mirror immediately behind it to give the impression of the full width bridge. A glass mirror would give a visible gap between the two images of twice the thickness of the glass, so I am using a sheet of mirror polished stainless steel which reflects off the front surface with almost no visible gap.

 

The height of the bridge and viewing/camera angles are crucial as I don't want to see a second boat apparently approaching the bridge from the other side.  Raising the bridge as in the second mock up has helped to mask the unwanted reflection as also will the train.

 

Cutting a loco and a box van longitudinally down the centre will be fun particularly as the only N gauge loco bodies I have spare are white metal.  I'm hoping that a Dremel table saw will cope; if not I might have to speak very nicely to my neighbour who has a milling machine.

 

 

[Dickon]

Having now found that the concept will work,I spent yesterday making a support for the backdrop mirror and worked out the positions and sizes of the major elements such a the bridge abutments and a length of quay.   The right hand bridge abutment is built of stone to match the quay which predates the railway whereas the left hand abutment is brick, I guess because that was the railway company's or bridge builders preferred material.

 

Today's job was to install the right hand abutment and the quay, both of which I'm quite pleased with. I have had to black out the underside of the bridge to avoid reflections and also to paint the back of the signal box/control cabin matt black as its reflection could be seen through the bridge structure. I'm still not sure about the brick base for the cabin and am thinking that I might mount a single story cabin on piles to add a bit of structural interest.

 

Still to come are the train, people, a couple of navigation marks on the edge of mud bank (starboard hand as convention marks a channel for vessels coming into a harbour or river unless you are in N America and my boat is leaving).

 

And then it all needs to be weathered!

Edited January 23, 2019 by Dickon

[Dickon]

Sadly the Dremel saw wouldn't cope with cutting a white metal loco longitudinally down the middle.  However, I have succeeded in bisecting an old Farish Gronk 08 bodyshell by hand with a sharp razor saw and then smoothing the cut by lapping it on emery paper on a sheet of glass.  I would love to have a steam loco on the bridge in place of the Gronk but it will be very tricky cutting it without damaging the chimney and other gubbins on top of the boiler.  I am however, growing to like the Gronk as its wasp stripes add a bit of colour as well as helping to disguise the cut edges , so I won't be too dismayed if I fail to cut a tank engine in half without damaging it.  Whatever loco I fetch up with will need to move back a bit to mask the reflection of the footbridge handrail in the mirror.

 

 

[Marly51]

Love this model, Dickon!

[Dickon]

A group of us were talking about this model in the pub last night. Given that the competition rules require two railway related components, do my half bridge and half loco (and their reflections in the mirror) count as one or two?

 

 

[Stu70]

Dickon I do like theme of your cake box. The mirror does work nicely within the layout.

[Dickon]

I've just realised that the reflections of chickens in the mirror on some of the photos are the pattern on the kitchen wallpaper.  I'll have to take my photos somewhere else!

[Dickon]

International port traffic regulations state that a narrow channel should be marked by three vertical green lights when it is safe to  proceed and three vertical reds when a vessel should stop and wait.  My closed bridge should therefore be showing the requisite red lamps.  I've been playing about  experimenting with 0.5 and 0.75 mm  fibre optic cable.  I am happier with the larger diameter cable which gives me 4.5" scale lamps as the scale 3" lamps look a bit small.

 

I wish I had thought of it earlier as the cables have to pass through the bridge abutments to a red LED out of sight behind the model; hopefully I won't have to dismantle too much. 

 

More photos to follow once I have completed the installation to the satisfaction of the port safety officer and the harbour master.

[TheQ]

And just to prove it, here is Breydon Bridge that admits Boats from the Sea /Great Yarmouth up to Norwich, or at least it would do if it wasn't broken again... https://www.edp24.co.uk/business/breydon-bridge-great-yarmouth-stuck-1-5891893?action=login

You can clearly see the two pillars with the lights on

Edited February 14, 2019 by TheQ

[Dickon]

The signals for a channel wide enough for two way traffic are a bit more complicated. My cake box bridge is sufficiently narrow that I only need to regulate one way traffic, so I'm only installing fixed red lights.  The counterweight at the top of the bridge would swing outside the allowed width of the model if I had made the bridge capable of opening so I have no need for green (safe to proceed) lights. 

 

You will just have to imagine that they would be there in the real world!

Edited February 14, 2019 by Dickon
grammer

[Stubby47]

"White and/or yellow lights displayed to the right of the main lights"....

 

...but they're on the left in the images (and as viewed from the vessels) !!  Aaaggghhh!

 

Loving this entry, a real out-of-the-box idea.

 

[Dickon]

"White and/or yellow lights displayed to the right of the main lights"....

 

...but they're on the left in the images (and as viewed from the vessels) !!  Aaaggghhh!

 

Yellow lights on the left  of the main display allow small vessels to proceed outside of the main channel which is  controlled by the lights.

 

Yellow or white lights on the right are for local traffic regulations set by the local port authority

 

Trust me....I'm a lifeboatman

[Stubby47]

Ah, that makes much more sense, my initial reading ( as an ex-dinghy racer but now confirmed land-lubber) was down the column and not fully appreciating the text to the right.

 

Edited February 14, 2019 by Stubby47

[Dickon]

The fibre optics are proving much more fiddley than I had ever imagined. Being quite springy they need a conduit of tube to prevent them from lifting the bridge.  Getting them  through the top of the mounting post, the conduit and a hole in the backdrop is like threading three needles in a row. They  are also quite brittle and will snap if bent too far. 

 

The good news is that the idea does work, but I have had to order more cable to complete the job.  A better man than I would also replace the wooden poles with plastic as the spring in the cables has elongated the holes so the lights don't all shine in the same direction.

 

I've had to order more cable, so I'm making a start on a second diorama while waiting for it to arrive.....

 

[Stubby47]

Have you thought about using  a transparent plastic rod, painted silver, then with a black outer coat, with three 'light's, fed from a single LED tube?  If the lights only need to glow, rather than be blinding, this might be an easier solution.  (Feed the LED up through the brick wall into the post).

 

 

Hornby used a similar method to provide lights on the front of some of their steam locos  

[Dickon]

That looks far neater, I might give it a try

[Dickon]

18 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

Have you thought about using  a transparent plastic rod, painted silver, then with a black outer coat, with three 'light's, fed from a single LED tube?  If the lights only need to glow, rather than be blinding, this might be an easier solution.  (Feed the LED up through the brick wall into the post).

 

 

Hornby used a similar method to provide lights on the front of some of their steam locos  

 

Stu's post got me thinking and I've come up with a plan combining his methodology with mine.  I've replaced the wooden posts (or piles in marine parlance) with aluminium tube which holds the 'lamps' square with their mountings.  The fibre optic cables then pass through the backdrop lower down so the curve is easier (as in Stu's diagram) and they no longer need the conduit to keep them clear of the bridge.

 

I preferred the look of the wooden piles, but there is a good real life justification for using tube as with greenheart timber piles now costing £4000 a piece a lot of them are being replaced with second-hand drill pipe from the offshore oil and gas industry as they wear out.

 

My fictitious  harbour master would approve.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 20, 2019 by Dickon
punctuation

[Keith Addenbrooke]

On 20/02/2019 at 10:35, Dickon said:

 

Ah, 08 113 - I'd wondered if it might be from an earlier post: my childhood layout (track on bare boards) was N gauge and I had an early Farish model of this. From memory the couplings on mine were upside down. If I remember correctly it was stabled in Cornwall? Nice to see it again.

[Dickon]

Ah, 08 113 - I'd wondered if it might be from an earlier post: my childhood layout (track on bare boards) was N gauge and I had an early Farish model of this. From memory the couplings on mine were upside down. If I remember correctly it was stabled in Cornwall? Nice to see it again.

 

She is (or was) indeed an early Farish.  She fetched up in my scrap box after donating her chassis  to a J94 saddle tank. The only reason she is on the bridge is that he proved much easier to cut in half than a steam engine. The outside frame chassis underneath her is from a later Chinese Farish which donated its workings to a Southern Railway Maunsel shunter (I love those sloping rear windows).

[Keith Addenbrooke]

5 hours ago, Dickon said:

Ah, 08 113 - I'd wondered if it might be from an earlier post: my childhood layout (track on bare boards) was N gauge and I had an early Farish model of this. From memory the couplings on mine were upside down. If I remember correctly it was stabled in Cornwall? Nice to see it again.

 

She is (or was) indeed an early Farish.  She fetched up in my scrap box after donating her chassis  to a J94 saddle tank. The only reason she is on the bridge is that he proved much easier to cut in half than a steam engine. The outside frame chassis underneath her is from a later Chinese Farish which donated its workings to a Southern Railway Maunsel shunter (I love those sloping rear windows).

Thanks for the explanation: covers the one thing I'd not worked out - I was fairly certain my 08 didn't have the outside frames. All makes sense. Looking forward to seeing the finished module - an excellent cakebox idea.

[Dickon]

I have at last got all six fibre optic marine traffic lights to work. The lights looked white in early attempts to photograph them despite being red to the naked eye.  I eventually realised that the fibres were losing light from the sides of the stubs that protrude from the fronts of the piles. I have largely solved the problem by shrouding them with short lengths of tubing. They also look quite a bit brighter.

 

The fibre optic cables all come together in a short length of aluminium tube with the light source at the other end.  

Edited March 6, 2019 by Dickon
added extra photos

[Guest]

On 05/03/2019 at 13:36, Dickon said:

 

 

 

 

Really nice modelling !

[Sweet pea]

Nice cakebox modelling. I like how you hide the battery pack for the water way light.

[Dickon]

I've just written 197 words which hopefully describe the concept behind this model.  The next challenge to photograph the thing with no extraneous reflections in the mirror!

Edited March 25, 2019 by Dickon

[Dickon]

On 25/03/2019 at 10:35, Dickon said:

The next challenge to photograph the thing with no extraneous reflections in the mirror!

 

Job done? Using a part-folded grey felt jigsaw puzzle caddy as a neutral backdrop screen

Edited March 27, 2019 by Dickon
just noticed that there's no buffer on the back end of the half Gronk! There will be tomorrow....