JCL

Thanks For the compliment Jaz! A fair bit of work to do on it, but I'm getting there. I have to say that joining the rmweb is the best thing I could have done. The advice you can get on anything and everything is just fantastic.

Hi Jaz The scenery you have been moulding (and setting fire to) on the previous page looks great! Although not quite your area, I did live in Hebden Bridge for afew years, and the profiles of your hills took me back to that time. The colour of the river as we'll. we used to tell our friend's children that the water came from the coca cola factory. BTW, ou could always claim you were burning back the heather.

Looking good How are you going to do the fancy security bars?

Thanks Al, I take it you're on a late one again. I'm recutting the last set of steps as I type this. Then I'll glue them up and put everything away. I remember doing an upgrade test in dev. It took 24 hours to run, and involved about 6 different processes, each of which had to be set off manually. Unfortunately it tended to crash 22-23 hours in. And about the manual, when I asked for one from the supplier and they tore off a piece of paper from a notepad and wrote the password on it. That was pretty much it. By the time the project had finished, I gave the supplier the manual I'd written through trial and error. Heady days. Nice people as well.

It took a couple of false starts, but managed to get three of the four sets of steps done. You can see now that the steps into Wainfleet town centre won't have the landing (unlike the prototype). You can also see how tight the space is between the steps and the signal box.

On that, over here you can get electric tea lights powered by a watch battery that flicker away for only a couple of dollars! Here you go http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FLAMELESS-CANDLES-FLICKERING-LED-TEA-LIGHT-CANDLES-BATTERY-TEALIGHTS-ANY-QTY-/380734451359?pt=UK_Candle_Holders&var=&hash=item58a58aae9f

Blimey, I was only at Westerham Station earlier. You're both cooking on gas!

Wow, you're fast! I'll be interested in how you texture that grass sheet.

Oh! I did note the good reviews, just thought it odd. Thanks for filling me in, I've learnt something today.

As an aside, I've been cutting some awning tests. The awning has an unusual edge in that it's in pairs of planks, and one is longer than the other. Also, it appears that the planks are slightly different widths Like the handrails on the footbridge, the cuts were made into .010" plasticard. I had to unscrew the bottom of the knife to make sure that there wasn't any debris in there before I started, and because there are lots of cuts at different angles and I was using an off-cut of plastic for the test, I had to use some tape to make sure the thing didn't move around. The first image shows the cutting pattern. I created a unit (on the right) that I could duplicate as many times as I needed. Each colour is a different cut. The red line is 5.2mm long. This photo shows the two tests that I did. The upper test piece is 65lb card to see if it the machine could handle this detail. The cutout below that is also card to show what one pair of planks looks like. The card I used got fairly fluffy, so the slots weren't too great. The photo also shows that I didn't cut along the top and release the planks from the surrounding material. The set next to the ruler shows the same cuts in the plasticard. The photo has been blown up somewhat, and to the eye, the slots are pretty neat looking. Certainly from a couple of feet away and painted they'd look ok. cheers Jason

Strange, "I AM LOOKING FOR ABOUT £325 ON A BUY IT NOW" but no BIN button. Unfortunately, my eyes rebel against a block of text like that. :-/ Mind you 100% positive feedback on a couple of thousand sales.

Hot dawg! As they used to say in these here parts thirty or so years ago I've managed to glue up the two rails without them warping. The rails themselves were fixed to a board to keep them flat using double sided tape. Just as a reminder, they are .010" thick plastic. I then I glued some .015" x .040 " strip to the inside and outtsude of the upper edge of the rails to add strength. After each gluing I held them down with a thick ruler for a while to dry. After that I glued the balustrades on the other end to the bottom rail and left them to dry for quite some time. Finally I glued the two halves of the steps to the bottom rail. In the post above you can see both the top and bottom have rails. After the balustrades have been glued to the side of the steps I cut the balustrade off a couple of millimetres above the bottom edge of the step sides. Then it''s just rinse and repeat for the other side. Finally I've just a bit of patching to do of the balustrades that didn't glue properly. So I've another two to do like that, then, because of lack of space, the last one won't have the landing half way down and will be just a straight set of steps. Looks like I managed to knock the signal box roof slightly :-O We had our first flakes of snow in town today, so I'm currently enjoying Tom Baker as Doctor Who on the TV. The sci fi channel has been running a series of "biographical" programs leading up the 50th anniversary programme I assume. Each edition culminates in an example of each doctor's adventures. Pyramids of Mars this evening!

Now that's a nice looking station! Lovely colour. I don't remember when you are setting this, will you be modelling the canopies? Those columns will be interesting, do you think you'll do something similar to the capitals on your footbridge, or put something together with a product like Daz? (Is it Daz, or is that the washing powder? It's been a while). I wonder if some sort of beads would work? On a side note, I once spent a weekend in Bakewell, staying at a B&B. the door was opened by an older gentleman with a helmet shaped wig. He asked us if we wanted the four poster bed. When I asked how much it was, he said an extra pound a night. Well we thought why not? When we got to the room, which was lively, we found that the bed was a ordinary one with four broom handles nailed to the corners, and skirting board nailed to the tops! To be fair, it was worth an extra pound a night. Next morning, we went down to breakfast. A full English was on offer, but for no particular reason my wife said she didn't want eggs. Well you'd have thought she'd asked him if he worshiped the devil! He strode off to the kitchen, calling to his wife, "You know that blonde one? That blonde one in there? She doesn't want eggs! She doesn't want EGGS!". My wife went bright red, I can tell you. It didn't help that the owner did a passable Brian Blessed impersonation. Have to say, it's genuinely one of the best weekends we've ever had. There other stories, but they have been changed in the mists of time, and may or may not be true. Sorry, back to you Al

I believe it is, it's a bit faster by all accounts. I've already re-cut the lattice, so I'm going to do exactly that. I think I'll pop down to the local glass cutters and get a couple of pieces to make sure that I can square everything and flatten it without it sticking.

Crikey, I've just been catching up the last dozen or so pages - I can't believe it's been so long since I popped along to this part of RMWeb, I must pop in more often!

Hi there Gravytrain was very encouraging when I was building my signal box because I was a bit fearful over the complexity of doing it (it's the windows!). Well I got it finished all bar the levers and here it is below. GNR signal box, Wainfleet, England. Thankyou

Right, I've rejigged the rails for the stairs. I realised that one balustrade per step wasn't enough, so I've changed it to two per step which has turned out a lot better. If anyone is reading this in the future and would like the settings, what I did was this: Took a sheet of .010" styrene/plasticard sheet Drew out the rails to be .080" wide Cut them out with the following settings: speed: 1, thickness 33, blade depth, 10, double cut = yes, mat = yes I also realised after I'd done the cutting that I had mistakenly copied the rails and pasted them over themselves. This meant that the rails were actually cut four times, not two - this made a huge difference, and is better than just running the cutting program twice. This is the first time I've been able to actually cut shapes in styrene without having to go around the edges with a knife. Here's a photo of the second try with the rails cut from styrene and the prototype below them cut from card.

Here I am listening to Katy Perry for the first time, looking at the first lattice that I've put together. Unfortunately its wavy. I suppose I could save it by gluing on the top rail, but I'd like to get it right instead of cleaning up something like this. Luckily I can recut the lattice as I kept the file. Reading up on the interwebs I've found out that I've made an oh, so common mistake, which is to treat the Ambroid pro weld that I'm using as if it was tube glue. This has never been a problem in the past, but it seems that you can't do it when laminating. I've read two ways of doing it: tack down one end, dry, glue a bit, press, dry, glue, press, dry and so on to stick the layers down. Finally putting weight on them to keep them flat while they dry. clamp the lattice together, leaving a bit open at the top, then brush the top with glue so that it flows between the layers. Once the top is dry, turn the lattice upside down and do the bottom. Does anyone have a preference or better way of doing things? Apparently you can hear Katy roar; which is nice.

Yep, that's great! I can easily get the 3.2mm tubing here, I'll have to go to the information superhighway for the others. The great thing is that I can get on with the build using the original columns while the tubing is on order. Back to the handrails today. My puppy had a bad night (as well he might), so I don't think we'll be going far today.

Hi Al As an aside, I'm thinking about the columns as well as I'll have to get the tube on mail order (none the right size in Lethbridge). I have 2mm/.080" styrene rod (product code 212) that's a good fit for the column diameter. On your build I remember you used 2mm rod as the core of your columns when you reduced their overall thickness. What size tubes did you do to go round them? I've been looking on the Evergreen site but I'm afraid I just can't work it out. In the meantime, here's the prototype stair rails. I don't normally colour the parts in, but I thought it would make it easier for you to see. The blue is obviously the rail and balustrades, and the green is the bottom edge that will be glued against the steps. The balustrades will be longer than I need so that they will overlap the bottom edge and are joined together by a big blue tab at the bottom.. The red lines will be cut and show how far up the balustrades the green edge will be glued. I'll glue them down and then cut the bottom off. This will mean that the balustrades will be parallel. The bottom light blue pieces will be glued either side of the top rail to provide a bit of strength. That's the theory anyway. I'll print the whole lot first to make sure I have the sizing right, then I'll cut them out. That's a job for tomorrow though! cheers Jason

Me again. Before I do anymore lattice work around the bridge, I've come to realise I need to get the steps sorted out and the handrails put onto them. I could measure them up, but to be honest, I've decided it's probably more accurate to scan them in and work off that. This will also mean that I'll get the angle of the steps correct (I don't want railing posts to come out other than vertical. So below is a photo of the steps. The longer set is the set of steps that come unadulterated in the box, the shorter one has been cut to provide me with a set of steps from the top to the landing halfway down. Then I increased contrast and rotated the steps so that the platform at the top of the main set are horizontal. I also overlapped the steps from the plans to give me the size of the landings. I had to change the steepness of the steps to match those of the Hornby footbridge. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because I'll need to find less space. It looks a mess at the moment, but like the foggy morning I woke up to this morning, the sun will come out and the distractions will fade away later on. Two things I see at the moment, is that the handrail rods on the plan are too close together, I'll be doing one rod per step, and the step sides on the plan are slightly too narrow and part of the steps will be showing if I don't thicken it up a bit. Here's the tracing that I've done in the plotter software. I've deleted the background image for clarity. I'll add it back and then put the posts in. Oh, it's balustrade, isn't it? I'm going to make all of the handrails the same length and tidy them up. When I come to apply them to the sides of the steps, I'll just just them off at the bottom end to the right length and put a newel (?) post in. (It's all coming back to me now). That's the idea anyway. I'll be up early morning Thursday, as my dog, Austin is going to the vet for that once in a lifetime operation. So, unless he sleeps a lot in the afternoon, I'll probably not do much more until Friday. While he's in there I'm off to Lethbridge to see if they still have a model shop, otherwise I'll be putting the Hornby columns into a dremel or something and sanding down the capitals. The new capitals are keeping me awake. There's every chance I'll be using a Biro end if I can't find anything else/ Catch you soon.

Yep, with you there, did it twice these last two days. "After the latticework, lots of little bits of microstrip no longer hold such a fear for me :)" That has to be the understatement of the year!

It was the thing that was worrying me the most after the signal box! Platelayers hut or something after this to calm the nerves

Cheers for your post Al, I needed a bit of encouragement today. Before I had a plan I actually moved the ton of gravel on the drive to avoid making a start! Mind you, the gravel pile has been bugging me for a week, and once we get 2-3ft of snow out there it'll be too late to shift. I could use the waste bin letter box for junk mail - haha I've done the cutouts, but I don't think I've still got the right settings for the cutter. This is the first project I've used styrene on, reading back you;ll see I'm generally a card kind of guy. I was worried about the card warping on this project. The cutter pretty much cut through most of the plastic and I then ran a knife around the edges to free all of the bits. The pieces being cut out are shown in the first photo. As you can see, the diagonal lattice is within a rectangular frame as seen on Welwyn North. Then I used styrene glue to weld the layers together to form the back of the footbridge. Finally here's a fairly unforgiving detail picture of the lattice with the slightly wider top and bottom inner frame horizontals, and the slightly narrower outer frame horizontals. It doesn't matter how hard you try, the register between the different layers will generally be every so slightly off, so I have to do a bit of light sanding to make sure everything is square, and to remove any glue debris. along the top. To give an idea, once the drawing was done, it took about 30 minutes to do the cutting mask, 30 minutes to cut (there's a lot of pieces there), 45 minutes to finish (but if I'd got the right settings and the plastic had cut through correctly this wouldn't have happened) then about 15 minutes to glue together, position etc. I'm not sure that this is quicker than styrene strips, but I know that the angle of the diagonals and the gap between them all is the same across the board. I'm really pleased with how that piece has come up, and thanks to everyone for your encouragement!

What I did in the end was use the cutter that I have to cut the shapes out. (Yep, I'm lazy in that department, or maybe I just need to squint too much). I started with the drawing that I did and transferred it to the plotter software. There I drew around everything. The red lines in the image below show where the cuts will be. I Saw Al used .010" styrene, and I happen to have this in, and as the diagonals had a "border" around them, I used this fact to create all of the diagonals in one go, at the same time enclosing them in their frame. There are three layers, the two layers of struts on the outside, and an inner layer that is basically a frame with deeper borders. (I'm sorry, I'm more of a printer than an engineer!) I'll post the cutouts when the cutter has finished its work. Yep, if anyone's asking, this does feel like cheating!