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Lime Street Station


Les Green
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Les

 

How much do these rapid prototype masters cost. I was considering having a set of 7mm APT bogies made this way and would be interested in who did this and the cost.

 

My problem is producing the CAD drawings!

 

thanks

 

Paul

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Have a look here - a Dutch company now with headquarters in New York but I believe the majority of the work is still produced in Europe - http://www.shapeways.com/materials/frosted_detail

 

Some of the materials have a definite life though - between 2-5 years but painting and careful handling should extend that. JLTRT uses a high-end 3D printing technique for their kits.

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The rapid prototypes we made for Lime Street were done using the stereolithography technique. Basically a bath of liquid resin is used. The resin solidifies where two lasers intersect. The method Shapeways use seems to be based on solidifying a powder. The resolution we got was, if I remember correctly 0.01mm, where Shapeways quote 0.1mm. If we had to do some more items Shapeways looks like a place I would try out, if the prices are acceptable.

In the early days of stereolithography the resins used were hygroscopic, meaning they absorbed water, resulting in a short shelf life. The models first went soft after a few weeks, then very brittle. Modern resins last a lot longer. Painting the models prevents water absorbtion and therfore prolongs their life. Our masters were made about four years ago and show no signs of deterioration despite being unpainted. All our drawings were produced in AutoCad in 3D. Importing the files to an .stl format is relatively easy. From these files the models are produced.

Unfortunately I can't comment on price or where we had them made. It was a friend of a friend of a friend sort of job. I can help on how we produced the 3D drawings if required. That was a me job!!

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  • 1 month later...
  • RMweb Gold

Quick progress report:

 

Today, John, Brian and I brought the layout home from storage where its been for several months.

Looking forward to getting my hands on the controls in the not too distant future.

 

Steve.

 

 

 

The "not too distant future" came today.

 

In the meantime I've been away on holiday for several weeks, but the time has been used to excellent effect by John and Brian.

The layout is in a new, permanent, custom built home (more details sometime) and the greatest care has been taken in its assembly.

(Previously, the layout has only been assembled in rented industrial units and at exhibitions, which has always imposed time pressures)

 

The laser levelling technique we use has been modified slightly to ensure true level assembly over all the length and depth of the layput.

Known faults in the layout from previous outings have been rectified. Again something not always possible with the majority of the layout in storage most of the time.

 

The result shows!

 

John, Brian, Rob and I have had our first team operating session since the Manchester show last autumn.

We got through a full operating schedule with almost no "hand of God" incidents. I overran a section break once, and a point blade failed to close fully on one occasion. A re-wheeled loco presented a short between wheel and pony truck, and a slight binding on three frogs. These have been logged for attention, and the remedial action will subsequently be entered into the log book.

 

With access to the layout readily available, we all expect progress on the many sub-projects to be rapid. We'll try to keep you up-to-date on this Topic

 

Steve.

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Guest jonte

The "not too distant future" came today.

 

In the meantime I've been away on holiday for several weeks, but the time has been used to excellent effect by John and Brian.

The layout is in a new, permanent, custom built home (more details sometime) and the greatest care has been taken in its assembly.

(Previously, the layout has only been assembled in rented industrial units and at exhibitions, which has always imposed time pressures)

 

The laser levelling technique we use has been modified slightly to ensure true level assembly over all the length and depth of the layput.

Known faults in the layout from previous outings have been rectified. Again something not always possible with the majority of the layout in storage most of the time.

 

The result shows!

 

John, Brian, Rob and I have had our first team operating session since the Manchester show last autumn.

We got through a full operating schedule with almost no "hand of God" incidents. I overran a section break once, and a point blade failed to close fully on one occasion. A re-wheeled loco presented a short between wheel and pony truck, and a slight binding on three frogs. These have been logged for attention, and the remedial action will subsequently be entered into the log book.

 

With access to the layout readily available, we all expect progress on the many sub-projects to be rapid. We'll try to keep you up-to-date on this Topic

 

Steve.

[/size]

 

I'm in awe of this layout, Steve. This really is serious modelling of the highest quality and I thank you for sharing it.

Having embarked on a journey on the Northern Belle from Lime Street only last week, I can vouch for it being a true miniature of the real thing. Tremendous!!

 

Best wishes,

 

Jonte

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Congratulations on getting the layout up and running - now all we need are lots of photos ;)

 

Here are one or two to be going on with:

 

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Rob refreshing his memory with John before we started running.

He'd not seen the layout since Manchester last year.

 

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Brian deep in thought?

 

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The first working lunch.

 

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We'll never find the damned screw. The first to go missing since moving in!

 

 

No doubt more, with a bit more layout content will appear in due course.

 

Steve.

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I believe I've mentioned previously that all the semaphore signals on Lime Street are to be operated by servo motors.

The controllers for these are being developed by Geoff Peters, who is responsible for all the wizzy computer stuff in the control system for Lime Street.

The signal controllers will be fully integrated into the route setting system, to ensure efficient operation with minimum delays.

 

The controllers for Lime Street will be able to look after some eight servos each, but the exciting news is that a "two servo" version is being developed in parallel which will go on general sale in the not too distant future.

 

I brought an early example home with me to try out.

I'll start a new topic to report on it as soon as I can.

I can tell you now it has some very good features to ensure easy installation and setting "out of the box".

 

Steve.

 

 

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The layout is in a new, permanent, custom built home (more details sometime)

 

 

 

 

Today has been a special day for Lime Street Station....

John and Pauline hosted a barbecue for the builders of the layout's "home shed" and their neighbours who've had to tolerate lots of minor inconveniences during the past six months or more whilst the building has been constructed.

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The"Builders" received a great round of applause when they handed over the keys to John,post-3984-0-29349600-1311455176_thumb.jpg

and John and Pauline then cut the ribbon on the door. (note the address)

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A few members of the operating team were on hand to demonstrate the layout to the visitors.

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John had even managed to lay on the Red Arrows.

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(They flew past an their way to the Southport Air Show.)

 

Inside, John described the present state of his project, which is in its third incarnation over a period of more than twenty-five years.

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The next week or two will see some fairly intensive work on the layout's operation.

We hope to improve the sequence of operations to eliminate undue delays in the movement of traffic in what was quite a busy terminus.

 

Technical developments will see progress on the station roof and the signal control system before the layout will be partially dismantled to allow the scenics to be progressed.

 

Progress reports on these will be made as and when we have the opportunity.....

 

Steve.

 

 

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Prior to the above mentioned opening ceremony a bit of progress was made on the station structure.

 

 

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The completed columns were trial fitted to the station platforms. They will now be removed for painting before their final glueing in position.

 

Also I managed to knock up the first of the roof trusses on the morning of the opening ceremony. Only another 39 to make!

 

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The remainder cannot be made until the columns are fixed. Only then can we measure the truss span dimensions. The one I made for the opening ceremony was made to the drawing dimensions. Hopefully this will be correct to at least one of the final measured dimensions!!

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Now for the really mind blowing post regarding the Lime Street Layout project. John recently moved house so that he could have a big enough garden in which to build a shed to house the layout. The shed was started in January of this year and we had the opening ceremony yesterday. Six months of building.

 

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The site is cleared and measured out

 

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The pile driver moves in!

 

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And the concrete floor is laid.

 

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Inside is almost complete.

 

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Awaiting the doors

 

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Which are finally fitted

 

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A few more internal walls to build

 

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And another internal wall

 

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And the room is completed and carpeted.

 

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John finally brings the layout to its new home.

 

I said it was mind blowing!!

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The 3D CAD model of the North Western Hotel is progressing well, as I have shown in a previous post. I have now completed a 'proof of concept' model'. The model is about 1.2m long and is huge!

 

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Shown in the back garden on completion.

 

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The view no one will see as it will be almost hidden by the station roof!

 

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And finally in positon on the Lime Street layout.

I have omitted the roof and pinnacles. They were not needed to prove the hotel concept. I have never made a model of this size before. Awesome!

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That well-known saying down in NZ - O for awesome!!! pleasantry.gif

 

But isn't it nice to be able to build such a large conceptual lump of foamcore and say - YES it works! Looking forward to seeing all the laser detail on the outside. This whole layout is shaping up to be stunning.

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As you can see the hotel sits in a hole in the baseboard which is 16mm deep. The concept model should have had 1/2mm clearance all round in the hole. The width was perfect and has 1mm front to back movement. The length just fitted in the hole with no clearance. The 1259mm long model was 1mm too long - failure!! (blame it on the thickness of the glue!)

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The 3D CAD model of the North Western Hotel is progressing well, as I have shown in a previous post. I have now completed a 'proof of concept' model'. The model is about 1.2m long and is huge!

 

 

And now for some thing completely different....

Some of you might have seen this in the "Signalling.." area of RMweb, but its all part of Lime Street Station.

 

This LNWR Duble Arm Ground Signal controls the movement of engines from the turntable to platforms Ten and Eleven.

 

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The model is just 13mm high.

It is worked by two servo motors, mounted "below ground", and is lit by a grain of rice bulb.

 

If you want to see more about how I made it, see this topic http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/36330-lnwr-miniature-arm-ground-signals/

 

Steve.

 

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