Wayne Kinney

Although they do have location pins on the bottom Sorry, trade secret

There, 30 little puppy's ready to be sent to for casting

Thanks Frank, The bases are manufactured from a specially researched mix of resins and colour pigments using a high quality professional 3D printer (which was a large investment). It took me 4 months to perfect the resin mix, working with 3 different resin companies. Also, finding the right machine was very difficult. The advantages of this approach, compared to injection moulding, are: Manufacture of a HUGE variety of formations not financially possible with IM. Fast 'prototyping' and revisions. Opens the possibility of offering different standards (00 'Standard', 00-SF, EM), again not financially possible with IM. Possibility of making 2/4 bolt chaired versions as 'custom' orders, rather easily. Inclusion of more specialty chairs as per the prototype. To go from idea, CAD and final product in weeks rather than months. More intuitive to tweak the design, test and make improvements (for example, rail fit to chairs). So the final material for the base is a mix of 3 different specialty resins to attain the desired properties.

Thanks Martin, I added the infill for strength and cast-ability. I believe I can reduce this and still have it cast fine, as the other end is unsupported anyway.

LOL...I was reading the photo from left to right, maybe better to say 'as in the diagram'...

Haha, for some reason I kept thinking you were referring to the section after the nose of the V:

Oh! Are you referring to the infill in this section?

Martin, The design of this was completed before our previous conversation about this

OK, here are some photos. Vacuum Wax Injector machine, hooked up to a vacuum pump and compressor. The silicone rubber mould is clamped between 2 pieces of acrylic to get the mould tightly together without deformation. Final waxes are then sent off to be cast in Nickel Silver. The machine takes 3 hours to warm up , if you shoot too early, there will be trouble! (Oh no more innuendos, please!!!) But being serious, you can see from left to right, waxes attempted after 15minues, progressively up to 3 hours.

It's a different profile that Peco use, but they can still be inter-mixed.

Not sure now whether to upload the photos of me shooting my waxes....

The wife wasn't....oh man, I'll get my coat...

Also, thought I would clarify, I will be using the EMGS code 75 bullhead rail on all versions of the kits, not just the EMG version.

I wondered how long it would take

Kit's will be released in this fashion, yes. Most likely in the order 00 'Standard', EM and then 00-SF. I'll release the B7 in all three versions before moving on to the next formation and so on. Right now, as I am still in the prototyping stage, I require feedback from all standards before committing to several things... EDIT - Don't worry, things will move quite quickly

Working on the next stage ...the EM gauge version. I have also had another development regarding rail. The EMGS has advantageously agreed to supply me with their code 75 bullhead rail. So I will now be using this for the turnout kits, not SMP rail. This has delayed development of the EM Gauge kit by a week as I needed to redesign the fit of the chairs to the wider rail profile. It also put it under gauge by 0.05mm, so I need to compensate for this in the CAD. I've just made and cut the rubber silicone mould for the 00 Gauge 'Standard' (1.25mm flangeways) 1in7 crossing frog. Going to be shooting waxes of this today, I'll post some pics of this later on

Thanks Martin, I am glad you have mentioned this, it's a big feature of the kits, many of my N Gauge customers have done just this with their kits. Obviously the base would need to be fixed down in the curve before cutting rail to length. I'll get an example or two built up and show the result on here once ready

Hi Rob, 16.2mm gauge only applies if you have chosen to go down the 00-SF route. Otherwise, just ignore it and choose the 00 Gauge 'Standard' with 1.25mm flangeways. Having said that, my suggested approach of transitioning the gauge within a 00-SF turnout was so the modeler doesn't have to think about it, therefore being no more complicated to build the kit.

We will see

Thanks again Martin for your input and suggestions. As I've said, it's in the design stage for 00-SF, I'll make what the majority want to see. I'll base it on the feedback I get from here and other sources.

Thanks Martin, I'm not worried about names, but geometry. Given that there is no 16.2mm plain line flexi track available, I would design my 00-SF point work kits to join up with standard 16.5mm gauge plain line. So at some point I would design the gauge to transition between 16.2mm to 16.5mm at the exit roads, ready to join. The question is where to put that transition. No, I would design that transition in myself. I would not feel comfortable offering kits that have exit roads at 16.2mm gauge. OK, this would be fine if one turnout kit immediately joins to another, but as you say you would not see the difference, it would be standard 16.5mm at the exit roads. Or to put it another way, how many 00-SF modellers use 16.2mm gauge on the plain line? I would imagine most use 16.5mm plain line. So again, from a design perspective, where does that gauge transition happen?

The gauge would flair out from the wing rails of the crossing frog to the end of the exit roads... Many 00-SF modellers only narrow the gauge through the crossings. Is it better to transition over a shorter or longer distance? Which is most visually obvious?

Thanks Guys, The logic is to mask as much as possible the gauge narrowing to 16.2mm. You are correct Martin, that diamonds and slips would be 16.2mm throughout. I got an email earlier from a potential customer also requesting for 16.2mm gauge throughout the turnout as this would also reduce the gap between the stock rail and 'open' switch blade - a very good reason indeed! Anything is possible as I am still in the design stages for 00-SF, would be good to get more feedback there. Either approach is no problem, but I would like to settle on one of them.