Leaderboard

By the way, here's one I made earlier: The turntable is a CD disc that rotates through 180 degrees - actually a bit more, it's a cam arrangement - using the coffee stirrer in the bottom right of the picture. Wiring is just two wires running up through the baseboard and soldered (it was made in the days when I was still willing to engage with this dark art) under the rails. The ballast is chinchilla dust. The sidings are rope shunted using the bollard (a push pin) to the right of the turntable.

Just a few night shots to show off the under roof section. I quite like this shot - look at those superb valves and cocks under the cab. It's a beautifully detailed model. A final shot of the whole layout. The points are all push pull and the frogs are juiced by the blades, as in the old days, and as long as you keep the blade contacts clean they give no trouble at all. I'm rather proud of the small control panel and took my time with it. All of the connections are push together types and were salvaged from an old 'on demand' boiler that was being disposed of at work.

Just the same for me I spend ages trying to find short-cuts and 'cheat' solutions. Mike

The printing time depends mainly on what one is printing and the printer being used. I printed a HO scale Lancashire boiler as a paperweight for a friend of mine, using a printer very similar to Mr. Oxon's. I think it took about 6 hours, but printing with a laser like Shapeways does, using powder, often takes days and sometimes weeks. As always, very interesting work Mr. Oxon.

Great atmosphere, really does say London.

Brilliant work, Mike. I’ve lately become fascinated by early steam locomotives and have been investigating the various range of kits. Brass stuff is hard to construct and paint and it obviously takes years to learn the skills. 3D printing therefore seems the fast forward way of construction for this era and you seem to be in front regarding this. In awe of anyone willing to experiment and lead the way - just like the prototype! Gooch was years ahead of his time too and Brunel was lucky to have found him because, I believe, his initial loco designs weren’t up to the job. Great stuff.

Really nice model, great work. I always use Narrow Planet for etched plates, their quality is second to none. https://shop.narrowplanet.co.uk Alex.

That's a great looking layout. The shot with the 2hal looks very like the approaches to Victoria.

Don't worry. I just spent an hour trying to figure out which end of French mixed trains the passenger carriages were marshalled. The answer was that it all depends though I assume that in Britain, with our strange affection for unfitted-loose coupled wagons, they were always next to the engine.

Great praise. Thanks, Mikkel. You know, my modeling obsession drives my wife batty sometimes. I’m not a drinker so this is my way of relaxing and, consequently, my out put is very high. I’m not a great Telly watcher either so that probably contributes too. The lock down was very boring and we weren’t able to go into Killarney for our usual walks, meals and cinema trips so there was little else but to get my head down on the bench. However, we were luckier than most and could still go for long walks down the country lanes out our way - so I’m not at it all the while! You mention that you only seem to post when a small detail is completed, but ‘what’ detail it is! I am, as always, in awe of your skills and patience. That’s another problem I have; impatience and a need to find shortcuts toward completion. Hence the wire and 2D textures - not everyone’s idea of railway modelling though.

Wonderful, Mike. The master of atmosphere - and much more. The "Lyceum" structure, while simple in some ways, is a visual delight! I'm impressed how you keep turning out new layouts (even when they are revamped ones). The rest of us post when we've got some small detail done, you post every time you've got a new layout.

Many thanks Mike. Lots of ideas for stories, but I can't seem to be bothered with them at the moment. I keep getting the camera out, only to end up running trains instead. Thanks Alex, I agree about Narrow Planet, the number plates on the Dean Goods is from there. They don't seem to have standard GWR works plates in their range at the moment, but maybe I should get in touch with them and see what can be done. On this subject, I have been wondering about something. The 1978 Slinn version of GW Way shows this drawing of a GWR works plate. I have also seen it on one or two high end 7mm models. GWR Swindon Works Plate by Star Cross, on Flickr However, I understand that it is not in the current version of GW Way, and all the photos I have seen of Dean Goods has the more oval works plate. Don't have a good picture but they are similar to the tender plates like this one: GWR Swindon Works Plate by Hugh Llewelyn, on Flickr The latter style would be what I'd want for my Dean Goods, but I'm a bit puzzled about the story of the first one, and what locos carried it. Anyone know?

Thanks, @Pacific231G. That's a great website (although I was shocked at my geekiness when I realised I went to the Paperwork section first).

I've been looking at some photos of stub switches on D&RG RR and on simple turnouts the moving rails slide on plates that limit the travel with the tie bar assuring the alignment of the opposite rail. At any rate that's what I think I'm seeing but the images are here. http://www.drgw.net/info/StubSwitch.

Hi Mike. Good to have you back, it's been too long! Back to Perry Barr form. For some reason High Trees just didn't quite do it for me. It seems that your more constrained projects are a more natural fit for your style of modelling. I don't mean to push you into a particular box but you do seem to have a particular talent for tightly defined scenes. Look forward to more pics of the latest opus. David PS I would expect a blanking plug to solve your problem with the Q1. DCC chips can be very variable in performance when asked to process DC.

Beautifully conceived and photographed. You have shown that RTR stock and careful weathering can bring that elusive sense of 'reality', when treated so imaginatively Mike

With a two-position stub, all you need is a stop of on the outer side of each fixed rail to obtain alignment. They remained in use on some industrial NG lines, notably those using double-flanged wheels, until those systems closed in the 1960s. There might even be the odd bit left in a slate slab works now. For double-flanged wheels they have a pivoting rail instead of a crossing, which makes any linkage more complicated.

I should think maintining the operating linkage to keep adequate alignment became an issue too. How are you doing that?

Hello Mike, glad to see that your work is as excellent as ever. Hope all is well with you. all the best, Alex.

Wowzer! Fantastic attention to detail and research as per usual. This is just a lovely model and think you have amazing building skills in this fiddly scale. I can feel another story following along shortly with the Dean Goods as star. As always I am in awe of your abilities. Brilliant workmanship.

Excellent idea! Love to see more of this develop as it is a pity that you can only mostly get carriage kits in brass which is notoriously hard to paint. It would be brilliant to see them printed with the colours and lining if this was possible. Very clever stuff.

Thanks Mike - a very kind remark. Having had a career as a research scientist, I'm always chasing ideas - some work, some don't but it's all good fun

I always admire people who think outside the box and try new ideas. Without them the hobby would never advance. Nice one!

David Jenkinson wrote a book in the Wild Swan series about coach building. His technique was to cut frets from plasticard, overlay these on thin plasticard sides, and then fix the assembled (and potentially painted) sides onto a structural box which comprised the partitions, seats, and floor, and whose sides were cut away so the window edges did not look unprototypical. I have not tried the approach, but it seems an ideal one for silhouette cutters, and, maybe for 3D printing too - your skins are very similar to his assembled sides. might be worth a look. atb Simon

A slightly creepy title, but a most interesting development! Nine minutes is, I believe, next to nothing in the 3D printing world. I agree it would be good if the inner body can be made thinner, in order to avoid too much thickness potentially showing in the windows. And the most interesting way.