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North Welsh Coast Railway - Welsh Dragon Rail


Anthony Ashley
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Dear Howard,

 

Nice to hear from you and thanks for the comment.  Since the last post I have electrified the 4 points on the passing loops between Penmaenmawr and Bangor. I have added the ply boards under the cliffs leading back to Penmaenmawr and I have also added foam to provide the base for the cliffs between the rail viaduct and the second avalanche shelter. Lastly I have been busy continuing the plaster work from the viaducts back to Penmaenmawr along the cliff area. Photos are below:

 

Foam added to provide the base for the cliffs. The oddly shaped foam is to recreate the contours on the cliff side. These pieces will be covered in plaster rocks   

IMG_6036V2.JPG.7f5b70b6da164729fb5e4218eb82d5df.JPG

 

Although it looks weird I have tried to recreate the rock formations existing on the mountain.

 

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Some of the foam has been covered with plaster rocks, but I still need to drip plaster from a pipette into the gaps similar to the rock face on the right of this picture. The cliff area from the rail viaduct to the back of the pictured avalanche shelter is all stone work so more resin stone work will be added here.  

IMG_6040V2.jpg.3cda9f9d5e6620f33b70a82d5b25bcf1.jpg

 

More foam formers have been added behind the rock face.

IMG_6041V2.jpg.d3730f4463b5981a5e90f5f987f5a14b.jpg

 

I shall continue to work my way around the layout doing the cliff face at this level. I will need to cast some larger plaster rocks to create the deep gullies that exist on this cliff.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

 

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Lez,

 

Thanks for the encouragement. The plaster process is quite slow. I have been slowly filling in the gaps. 

 

I had a train evening with club members the other night but had recently electrified the 4 points as part of the loops at the bottom of the layout. I had not snipped off the wires going through the tie bars on the points, so when I attempted to run a train it derailed. I tried cutting it back but did not trim it low enough the night was plagued with derailments which I have not had before. I did not find the offending piece of wire until the following day!. Very frustrating but I have learnt a valuable lesson to properly test the track immediately before running trains in front of anyone.

 

I have also down loaded Fusion 360, which is a free 3D modelling app for drawing and creating models for 3D printing. I have got to the stage of creating a 2 story house with outlined windows and door frames. I am going to attempt a house with bay windows. I need about 60 of them for the layout. Once I have finished the design I can print it using a Resin 3D printer.

 

Photos of more plaster work are below.

 

IMG_6042V2.jpg.616deebd27272434a099b26959153930.jpg  

 

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I shall keep going with the plaster work and work on the Fusion 360 bay window building. Once I have done a reasonable area of plaster I shall need to fill in the gaps with pipette and plaster.

 

Regards,

Anthony Ashley

 

 

      

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25 minutes ago, Anthony Ashley said:

I have learnt a valuable lesson to properly test the track immediately before running trains in front of anyone.

Won't make any difference, Anthony. Everything will work perfectly when you are on your own. As soon as anyone else turns up, it will turn into a crock of sh1t (to use the Australian vernacular).

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2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Won't make any difference, Anthony. Everything will work perfectly when you are on your own. As soon as anyone else turns up, it will turn into a crock of sh1t (to use the Australian vernacular).

 

many years back, I was chief sparky and tea-maker at the late Ken Stansfield's lovely 7mm model of Swanage.  We could have days of faultless running, but get the video camera out...

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Kris, Simon and John,

 

Thanks for the comments. Plaster work is very slow but steady unfortunately. Hopefully the layout behaves in the future.

I have finished the front of the 3 D model so have a couple of photos. It has taken me about 12 hours to get this far, including many moments of frustration!!!!!

 

1321148465_BayWindow2.PNG.433071cd6563160064a19e0636dd11ea.PNG

 

243940275_BayWindowHouse.PNG.a28031f23485603e9a135e0634d970fd.PNG

 

This is what I am trying to replicate.

259210902_BayWindowHouses.PNG.7cca7bf2ba866b2da06d6aff36b1057a.PNG

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

 

 

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Anthony,

 

please send me your 3d files, I have Solidworks CAD at work, and I can drive it. 

 

I suggest that you separate the yellow glazed brick from the structure, so that you can spray paint them and then put them on as an applique.  It might be a tad fiddly in 2mm but it will save hours of very fiddly painting (of course, I'm assuming you don't like very fiddly painting, I loathe it, but you might have different tastes!)

 

Happy to have a go to see if it would help.  What does your printer require?  STL or some other format?

 

email in PM

 

atb

Simon

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It's good to see the building progressing. Learning the a 3d program is time consuming but ultimately worthwhile. I also find it very satisfying watching the items I have designed printing and going from the stage of seeing a computer generated image on the screen to having something that I can hold in my hand and knowing that I have created it. 

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Simon,

 

Have you received the #D building file. I sent it via other mean over the week end. Hopefully you are able to open and read it. Thanks for your help as this is my first foray into 3D design. I am happy with how it looks at the moment although I have to add a 25ml squared area at the back and design the bay windows, which will be the most difficult part, and then attach them to the building. I am doing lots of different train tasks at the moment so will get to it soon.

 

Kris I agree that building the original design from Goggle street view measurements and then printing and finishing it will be great. I shall be using Scale scenes brick and other paper from them. Thanks for your comment.

 

I spent all of the day before yesterday on line trying to purchase 20 15V 6A power supplies through Alibaba. It took a long time but I saved a lot of money in the end . I will need most of these to power the switch decoders. I have found that putting 4 on the same power supply needs a fair amount of watts. They are ordered now so will need to wait about 3 weeks for delivery. I can then power up all of the switches.

 

I have finished applying the water based paint to the cliff area that has been finished. After one coat of paint  it becomes very obvious where the no more gaps has not been properly covered. I then had to reapply the pipette applied plaster to cover these areas and repaint again. Photos are below of the finished area. Next is dirt (coffee grounds)  and vegetation application on the horizontal surfaces. 

 

IMG_6074V2.jpg.a49fd4d24c378d3ffa4d45336971658c.jpg

 

IMG_6075V2.jpg.a5f50dd0786e839cdc7672646d62e57e.jpg 

 

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I am also working on the Conwy goods area mimic board and lever frame system to manually control the points in  Conwy goods yard. Heaps tp do so hope to get motivated over the next week or so. 

 

All comments are gratefully appreciated. Thanks for your interest!!

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

 

 

 

 

 

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That's good,  I'm mega busy at work with a new project, which is quite demanding, but working out, slowly.  It's not very railway model oriented, however.

 

Anyway, I have downloaded your building shell today and it appears to have come over ok as a STEP file, it is 59.5mm front to back, which would be nigh on 30' in the real world.

 

I'll have a bit of a play with the building and see if I can make some useful suggestions.

 

more soon

Simon

 

 

 

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Dear All,

 

Have been working on the lever frame for the Conwy Goods Yard and am ready to connect the wires to the frame. Has anyone else done this and is there an easy way to do it.  I spent an hour or two connecting the first wire and struggled as there is quite compressed area to work in. Any ideas. The wire has to be bent to a 90 degree angle and then slid through the lever.

 

Also worked on the foam creating the cliff area. Photos are below.

 

Foam will bulk out the cliff face to hopefully a reasonably accurate rendition of the real thing. 

 

Simon,

 

I have sent you an updated version of the model. The dimensions were measured from Google Earth so should be reasonable accurate. I have yet to model the back section, which will be printed as a separate piece as I can ot fit it all onto the printing plate. The back section is about 25ml by 25ml and is shown in the photo below.  

1176139837_Roofview3Dbuildings.PNG.8763ea0aba3c88c0d0451bcdd82da079.PNG

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IMG_6081V2.jpg.305e27cf401870173b02738dc8f950ff.jpgIMG_6081V2.jpg.305e27cf401870173b02738dc8f950ff.jpg

 

 

Tunnel has been created as well.

IMG_6082V2.jpg.6c17eee2a92f416e198f4ae793fda5e8.jpg

 

Further work to install the lever frame and then create more plaster pieces using the molds.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley 

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Good to see that the house is developing. Will you be able to print the windows? They look to be very fine. What I have found is that I need to make compromises in this area to enable a successful print. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Simon and Kris thanks for the questions. Simon I shall ask my son the size of his printing plate as I am not sure. Will gat back to you. For some reason the last file I sent the window bars were not attached to the building, not sue why.

 

Kris I have had a mate print 0.3ml window bars so hope they will work.

 

Last 2 week have been absolutely dreadful  due to a bad back.  I have been unable to sit at all and spent virtually the last 2 weeks lying down waiting for the back spasms to stop. After the second visit to a physiotherapist this morning and acupuncture the pain in my leg has at last vanished more or less. I would not have believed it before I experienced it. 

 

I think the back spasms are attributable to crawling around under the layout putting in micro electronic boards for the mimic panel, followed by setting up the wires for the lever frame switching 4 days later. I might need to do more back exercises in future! You never appreciate your health till you loose it. Regardless to say there has been no modelling over the last 2 weeks. Hopefully on the mend, with more back exercises and a return to the layout over the next few days.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

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Simon,

 

I checked with my son. The plate size for his Photon Mono printer is 202X128 ml.

 

Thanks again for he help. Sorry I did not respond earlier but as explained above I have been out of commission for2 weeks.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

 

 

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Anthony

 

please don't apologise, I have been quite busy (it's budget season, and I'm in the midst of launching a new product, they are not comfortable bed-fellows) so I haven't spent any time on your houses.  I might get a chance this week, but probably next...

 

I sympathise with the back - I had a dreadful time of it some 22 years ago when my son was around 1 - he kept standing up and then falling over, and I kept picking him up til one morning I couldn't...  A combination of morphine, physio, a velcro-elastic-girdle thing and a book called "Treat your own back" proved quite successful, though it's not a rapid process.  I found it important to move as soon and as much as possible.  Even now, I can wake up in the morning and realise that I have slept at an angle and it can start to ache a bit, but moving usually sorts it out.   All the best and hoping you feel better soon

 

Simon

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Howard,

 

Thanks for the good wishes. 

 

Simon,

 

I agree  with your assessment of backs. They seem to be suddenly injured and then slow to fix. I shall take your advice and diligently apply myself to the hourly exercise regime prescribed by the physio. 

 

I want to get on with the cliff face working back to Penmaenmawr, having created the foam base and moulded a lot of plaster pieces. 

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

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