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Ross' N Gauge Workbench - "Magical Mystery Train Tour"


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4:45am and I really need to go get some kip, but I really wanted to get the underframes done for the restaurant cars :)

 

I think they're looking great!

 

Also added some plates, cups, wine glasses and lights to the interiors :)

 

Ross.

 

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Forgot to show the underside of the Underframe yesterday.   Remember this is in N gauge :)

 

Got two of them (1st and 3rd) printing over night :)   Hopefully they'll come out nicely and I'll be able to show them off tomorrow!

 

Ross.

 

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Excellent, you can't beat Kings Cross for a terminus layout, although quite compact it still requires a decent space to do it to scale. I love the place and when travelling to London will always opt for a service that terminates there rather than Thameslink, even if  travelling onwards is a faff.

 

I have a Templot plan for the 1890's servicing point (where suburban platforms 14 & 15 were) and it needs a fair amount of space just for that (I am in 4mm) 

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First test print of the underframes (now including the interiors on the same part).   I think it came out fairly well, although there are a few issues like the lamps on the tables are too thin and some broke off while removing the print supports, something went wrong with one of the buffers and one of the headstocks and they didn't print correctly - but its nothing I can't fix and I'm quite chuffed with this as a first attempt.

 

I'm away for the rest of the day making a presentation to NASA, so I'm not likely to have any more updates 'til at least tomorrow.

 

 

Chris/Dave: Thanks for the appreciation.   Do you have  a thread for your Templot plan?   My KX work has slowed a little to get these Gresley's done, but next week I think I can get back into it a bit more intensively.   Hopefully I'll get to show more progress on that front soon.   I'm currently just modelling the KX passenger station circa 1990-2000 ish (which is going to be about 10-11 feet long) but the larger station of old is on my long-term radar.   There are a few other higher priority projects ahead of it though, such as Doncaster, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh - and I really want to try building my own APT-P, but it's on there :)

 

Ross.

 

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2 hours ago, RBTKraisee said:

Chris/Dave: Thanks for the appreciation.   Do you have  a thread for your Templot plan?

 

There isn't at present as it might appear as a club/group effort, a case of 'wait and see' with it.

 

I am modelling 'Sandy' which is further down the GN main line and doing it in 4mm (OO) and I'm currently putting together the stock for it.

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Dave, I wish you luck with Templot and I'll look out for it whenever you make a page.    In the meantime, your work on Sandy is really impressive.   I must say that I don't have the patience for the brass kits any more.   I "served my time" with brass nearly 20 years ago, when I made a hyper-detailed 1:144 scale kit for the Saturn-V launch tower that sent Apollo missions to the Moon.   My kits had 39 full A4 sheets of brass etchings, a stack of laser cut acrylic, dozens of styrene and cast parts, a mahogany base and they even had a lunar plaque with unique serial number!   The whole lot weighed over 15 kg!   So if I never see another brass kit, I'll die quite happy :)   Not exactly model railway related, but as I'm reminiscing (LOL, blast from the past!), here is a pic of the kit's brass etching pack, and a shot of one of the 9 service arms from that tower, for anyone who might be interested:

 

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Back to railways :)

 

As I couldn't sleep tonight, I decided to do a little more work on the Gresleys!   I think I've fixed the problems on the last print, and I also added the stepboards - yeah, I'd forgotten those, doh! :blush:

 

I've also designed a fitting to prevent the bogies turning excessively (currently allows a sweep of 25°) - and through that piece, I now have a hole that should allow me to pass a pair of thin lighting wires up into the body of the coach, so it's a two-for! :)

 

Question for readers:   What lighting kits would you recommend me to support?   I can design any fittings in at this stage, but I'm not sure who's kits are popular in the community - I could do with some feedback from y'all!

 

Test printing again and this time I'm particularly interested in checking the clearance around the wheels.   The CAD suggests there are going to be some issues that will need to be resolved.

 

Ross.

 

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On 14/05/2020 at 04:50, Hilux5972 said:

Following this with interest. I’m guessing you’ll have Hogwarts up near the Viaduct somewhere? 

 

To quote one of the late, great Ian Richardson's most memorable characters:

 

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"You might think that, but I couldn't possibly comment"

 

While I have my home layout, I'm laying the groundwork for a really large layout down the road - or should that be down the track? :unknw_mini:

 

It's intended to be mainly prototypical layout, based on the ECML from King's Cross to Edinburgh via Peterborough, a dog-leg out to Nottingham, then Doncaster, York and Newcastle, and continuing farther North to the West Highland Railway via Glasgow, Fort William and all the way up to Mallaig, where the Ferry will head for Skye.   That's the core route.   I'm attaching a map below (rotated to get a landscape view, so more city names would appear!) and I'm primarily modelling the white line up the whole country.

 

My current working title for this is the "Magical Mystery Train Tour" and it will have the underlying theme of one of my other passions: "British Film & Television".   Under that massively broad heading I can happily justify including references to any films that had part of their production done anywhere in the UK (that would allow me to include things from such diverse sources as 2001, any James Bond, Mr. Bean, Dr. Who, the Beatles, Outlander and Pirates of the Caribbean if I wanted!).   I love this theme because it really removes the limits of the imagination for me, while still allowing me to do it in a mostly-prototypical style.

 

I want to accurately model a lot of real trains from all eras, like the various Flying Scotsman's, The Jacobite all the way to modern HST's, Pendolino's and Eurostar.   By modelling York and the Railway Museum, I'll be able to include just about everything from the Rocket to the APT too.

 

My plan is to pepper the background landscape with a whole host of fun things from the silver screen, to entertain the kids.   Yeah, okay, that was a fib... Yes, Its really to entertain *ME*, but kids will get a kick out of it too! :)   A certain fictional castle might make an appearance in there too, just for those who can penetrate the enchantments.   It just so happens to be about 4ft tall when 3d printed in N gauge!   If you're a muggle, don't ask me how I know that.

 

And I might have the odd Shinkansen do a brief appearance, or perhaps the Polar Express, just for a bit of whimzy!   'Ahm just gonna have me some fun! :crazy_mini:


I figure I can get the first major elements up and running within 18 months (Kings Cross, Edinburgh, Glenfinnian and a certain station with a castle in the background).   But it's going to take at least 5 years to get it to a properly functional state with a handful of the major stations along the route, and even longer to add everything I want.

 

Initially it's going to be hosted at my office, where I have a lot of space available (and at over 5,000 pieces of track for the full setup this will need a *lot* of space).

 

While this is going to be a totally private layout, not open to visitors due to the licensing issues involved, the thought has already occurred to me that Orlando is just down the road from me - arguably the hottest tourist destination of them all - and if I could find a way to get all the licensing sorted out without killing the budget (yeah, right!) this could make for a real interesting tourist exhibit one day.   Once I've got the basic layout up and running next year, I'm toying with the notion of contacting the National Model Railway Museum in Hamburg to see if it might be worthwhile partnering to build an Orlando-based museum.

 

So there, you found me out! :drink_mini:

 

Ross.

 

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Couldn't resist putting the first two coaches together for the first time :)

 

This is final coach bodies for the 1st and 3rd class restaurant cars (left to right), the final interiors are in, the underframes look good with only minor refinements needed and the bogies are great.   Still waiting for my 7mm wheels to arrive to really get to test it out :)

 

The underframe is bowing quite a bit on the 3rd class coach (right), so you'll note the roof alignment is rather skew-whiff right now, but this is a sign of things to come and I'm actually really happy with progress so far.

 

And yes, you can see I'm clearly still experimenting with the painting techniques :)

 

Ross.

 

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Fixed the bowing in the underframes by warming up the plastic with a hair dryer, allowed them to get warm (careful to avoid them getting too hot), then stretched them like a bridge, across the gap made between a pair of books, placed a weight over the middle (being careful not to damage any of the detail work) and made it gently bow the opposite way, just a little, until they cooled completely.   Twenty minutes later they were still very slightly bowed the opposite way, but over night they seem to have settled into a very straight orientation.   Worked like a charm!

 

Anyhow, got a few deliveries of new toys to play with!   My new Zimo MX622F DCC decoder arrived from Streamlined Backshop in Indianapolis.   I particularly like the fact that Zimo put the PCB inside what appears to be a small silicone sleeve for protection.   This will go into my Dapol Hall when I eventually get around to ordering it! And yes, that's the one that will be getting a nice shiny new red coat of paint!

 

Also on the DCC front I received my Tam Valley Octopus III and Octocoder DCC daughter board too.   Looks like this weekend will be spent with my soldering iron and programming my Arduino!   And I'll need to design and print another one of those DCC++ boxes for this too.

 

Ross.

 

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A question for y'all...

 

What do you think would be a good approach for doing the curtains in the restaurant cars, like in Steve Banks' image below?

 

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The obvious approach would be to just 3D print them as solid plastic pieces that just look right once painted, probably directly integrated into the coach body/window frame, but inserting the window panes becomes a bit of an issue if I do that, so I wonder if there might not be a better option out there.   Ideas anyone?

 

Ross.

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Needed a little down-time this weekend, with my better half, so not a great deal of progress was made since my last post.

 

Mick, thanks for the info about MJT, based on that I just decided to integrate the curtains directly into the existing 3D print of the coach body for the 1st class restaurant car only and below is the result.   I guessed right first time, and there is a perfect amount of space between the curtains and the body to insert the panes of glass!   I've primed and painted the pumpkin base coat here already because it shows up the details a bit better than the clear resin I'm currently using.   Eagle eyed among you might also notice that I've added a knob to the gangway door and a pair of lamp holder brackets too.   I don't think there's anything else to do to this now, so the two end coach bodies are 'finished' as far as I'm concerned.

 

Below that is the adjusted design for the interior/underframe combined module.   I had to cut off some of the seat sides to make room for the curtains to fit, but the curtains would have hidden them anyway, so nothing is lost.   I'm trying an alternative screw fitment in this set, and I'm still not quite happy with the results so will be experimenting some more to get that perfect later this week.   And I will get that kitchen car under way too!

 

That's it for now, Ciao!

 

Ross.

 

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If you do plan on adding a bit of magic to the layout, I would highly recommend this model. It’s one of the foam Wrebbit 3D puzzles. It builds up to an impressive size, a little over a metre wide, and is a pretty close size for scale 1/76. Took me maybe 3 days to put together. May look a little off with the jigsaw ends sticking out in a few places but it is far and above anything I could have scratch built and painted! 

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Hilux, that is pretty cool!

 

I actually need an N gauge version and came across this 1:800 scale model of Hogwarts by Joshua Neil Arthur that can be 3D printed.   Its a beautiful rendition in that scale, but when scaled up to 1:148 it loses a lot of detail :(   There is no brickwork, which is something I really want to include, which has left me starting to design my own! LOL :rolleyes:

 

Joshua used drawings and pictures of the "real" 1:16 scale model that was used in all the films, currently at the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour in Leavesdon (you gotta go see it if you haven't already!) for reference, so I suspect his dimensions are fairly close to authentic (prototypical?? :blink:).   Using the same landscape as the 1:800 model, rescaled to 1:148, this one is REALLY BIG.   It has a footprint 2.38 x 2.42m and stands 1.23m tall, including towering cliffs rising from the waterline (it does depict the boathouse and stairs).

 

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I had intended to come over to Blighty and make a point to visit Leavesdon this autumn, hopefully organising some access to the behind-the-scenes drawings with the organisers there too, but as my better half is in a high risk category for Covid19, all those plans are presently on hold until we see what happens regarding second waves.

 

Progress on my Hogwarts model is real slow (not to mention that my poor laptop running SolidWorks can hardly cope with it - for example, I started opening the model to get the measurements when I began writing this reply and some 20 minutes later it still hasn't opened, as I complete writing this missive!) as I want to get the Triplet and King's Cross station models completed first, and then I want to get my home layout finally up and operating!   But my personal goal is to have a finished 1:148 scale Hogwarts within the next ~18 months, and I will show progress.

 

When the time comes, would anyone prefer I break the Harry Potter stuff out into its own separate thread?

 

Ross.

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Busy week at work which has prevented me from doing much, but here's an update.

 

First, the Gresley's:   The 7mm Dundas Models wheels arrived today!   Yay!   They look great - perfect scale wheels - but there is a fitment issue, as I suspected there might be.   They're clipping the underframe when they turn about half way to what would be needed for 1st radius turns :(  I haven't measured exactly, but as it stands I don't think they would be able to go around anything less than 18" radius!   Additionally I would need to make the bogies about 1mm wider to fit the axle properly.   So that isn't going to work.   Drat, because the Dundas wheels are really nice!   I'll have to find another project to use them on :)

 

I have some 6.2mm wheels coming from NBrass (along with a pile of other great bits!) but with post the way it is, I expect it will still be another 2-3 weeks before they arrive.   I've also got some Dapol couplers coming from DCC Supplies too, so I'll be able to try integrating them into the design.

 

Also on the Gresley front, I'm making continual progress on the Kitchen Car:

 

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And I received another pack of electrical stuff from Amazon today, including connectors for my layout's power distribution, a Male<>Female 25-pin connector pairing that will allow the layout to be split into two quickly and easily, a variable DC power supply unit that will allow me to vary the voltage between 3.3v to 24v and two sets of LED's.   The first set are 100x miniature white light LED's for lighting coaches, inserting into the lights along my King's Cross layout and for a variety of signals that I'm going to design one day.   The second set are just cool - they're orange/yellow "flickering" LED's.   I have an idea that I'd like to actually show the firebox glowing in some of my loco's ;)

 

I really need to get my soldering iron out soon!

 

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Oh, and my soon-to-be "red" Hall, together with an A4 Mallard, are also finally on the way!!   And I decided to pick up a cheap Dapol Gresley LNER 3rd, just to see how they did them.   I don't actually expect it to be used, but it will be a useful reference to see how their teak panels look.

 

That's all there is so far.   Hopefully work won't need quite so many overtime hours over the coming weeks!

 

Ross.

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Finished designing the Kitchen Car body.   Am attempting a print over night and if all goes well, I should have some pictures to share tomorrow.

 

I think I'll be able to have a go at the Underframe tomorrow and then we shall finally see how the whole triplet looks!

 

Ross.

 

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The print of the Kitchen Car body came out great!

 

Its in clear material so doesn't show well in the photo here, so I'll prime it later and take another shot, but for now I can say that all the details came out beautifully crisp and clear.   I'm a very happy bunny :)

 

Ross.

 

 

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Three body shells finally make the whole Restaurant Triplet Set! :drink_mini:

 

Forgive the bleed-through of the white primer through the Pumpkin base on the 1st coach (right) - I was a little too eager and didn't wait long enough for the primer to dry fully.   It won't hurt anything, but you can see a few little white patches that I'll touch-up manually a little later :)

 

Enjoy.

 

Hmmm.    Really should clean my keyboard more frequently...

 

Ross.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

It has been too long since I last posted here, but between a lot of overtime and a computer crash, progress has been delayed.   None-the-less I finally have a new update to share!

 

The designs for the Gresley Kitchen Car and its underframe are now complete!   Woo hoo!


I've also tried to replicate a simplified version of the common bearing over the shared bogies.   This is a prototype design that I want to see how it actually comes out when printed, before refining it any further.   I'm printing a full set of all three underframes over night so I will hopefully have more pictures to share quite soon.

 

Another tweak done recently was to the bogies, to accommodate the prototypical Dundas 7.2mm wheelsets that came earlier, and I think the results are working really well now.

 

And on another subject, I think I now know exactly where my big office layout is going to go.   Let's just say that at 28m in length and 15m at its widest, an N-scale prototypical replica of Doncaster yards in their entirety, is really going to be something to behold!

 

Ross.

 

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2 hours ago, RBTKraisee said:

Let's just say that at 28m in length and 15m at its widest, an N-scale prototypical replica of Doncaster yards in their entirety, is really going to be something to behold!

 

:o...............:O...............:swoon:

 

You like a challenge...

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12 hours ago, 73c said:

Hi Ross. Did you enjoy the video clips I sent you?

 

Yes Phil, I did, thanks!

 

For those who don't know, Phil is Chairman of Railway Vehicle Preservations Ltd (RVP), based at the Rothley Carriage Works.   In response to another post on the forum he very kindly sent me the two videos below that show the Travelling Post Office (TPO) in action on the Great Central Railway in Leicestershire!   Deb and I have already put that on our "must see" list for the next time we're over in the UK - maybe late summer next year.   We'll time it for one of their gala events and enjoy the ride!

 

Whenever we do come over next, I also want to see the Gresley Quad-Art set that has been restored and is operating on the North Norfolk Railway that you told me existed - I hadn't realized any of these dual-bogie sets actually made it into preservation, so I'm delighted that I will still get the chance to see one working :)

 

Here are the two vids of the TPO for others to enjoy too!

 

Cheers,

 

Ross.

 

 

 

 

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