Rods_of_Revolution

I love these old films, it's like a different world now. It's also amazing to see the variety of goods which travelled by rail, yet often on models the goods transported are often far more limited in their scope. Thanks for sharing that link! Thank you everyone else for your contributions. Cheers, Jack

Shapeways allow multiples of the same model to be sprued together for almost all their materials. The whole purpose of sprues is to lower processing time and make the prints cheaper. For example, I have used sprues for N scale tail lamps, as digging out 60 individual N scale tail lamps and cleaning them up is much more difficult than putting a single sprue of 60 into the ultra sonic cleaner. You're saving on processing costs as Shapeways are saving on processing time. The thing to keep in mind with sprues is that they increase the amount of material used, but can also make your model box volume bigger (a number which is part of the price calculation). For example, if your box volume 100x10x1, it'll be 1000mm3, if you add a sprue in such a way that it increases the height by just 1mm, your box volume is 100x10x2, it's now 2000mm3, twice the size, even though the sprue itself is only 100x1x1. You might find it better to place the sprues so they make the model longer, so it's now 120x10x1 and 1200mm3; so rather than a 100% increase in the size of the box volume it's only 20%. I fixed some models for someone who got caught out by the box volume, they'd paid over £200 more than they needed to for previous prints of the exact same models. I made some sprues a couple of mm shorter and it saved the chap about 30% of what he was previously paying. Here's a 2D representation: All the best, Jack

So Calne station would perhaps call Chippenham (the junction station with a reasonable yard) and ask for five LOWFITs. Chippenham may send four LOWFITs and a CONFLAT, if that's what they had in the yard at time? If Chippenham didn't have suitable wagons, would Chippenham call Bristol (biggest yard) and ask them? Thank you for mentioning the Handbook of Stations. A quick Google, and I see there is a facsimile of such a handbook from 1904, so I think I'll purchase a copy, as it'll make for interesting reading. I see the Barrowmore Group have some useful documents here regarding the loading and dispatch of wagons. A slightly tangental question, if they were end loading multiple flat wagons using a ramp, would they put boards between the wagons and load them at once, or would they position each wagon individually for loading directly from the ramp? All the best, Jack

This is a rather a broad question, but I'm interested to know how a customer would go about arranging for the conveyence of their goods and how BR would go about accomodating such a request. For example: Joe Bloggs of Calne makes agricultural equipment. He has five trailers which need to go to a customer Scotland. Does he call his local station and ask them? Does he call someone else in BR? What information would he need to give them about the load? Would BR decide the best station to deliver the trailers to in Scotland? How would the local station know which wagons they needed and how would they request the wagons? Or would someone higher up send the appropriate wagons to the local station with paperwork telling the station staff what those wagons were for? Was there a book which said which wagons could be used for which load and was it left to the local station to decide how things should be loaded? If Joe Bloggs' trailers would fit in a mineral wagon and the sending and receiving stations had appropriate cranes, could they be conveyed that way? Would the process differ for one off shipments and regular shipments? How did the arrival of TOPS change the process? Thanks, Jack

If you want plastic then Shapeways or a similar company could 3D print you one if you have a 3D model. If you don't have a 3D model you'll need someone who can create one for you, and for that you'll need dimensions. If you want one in metal then you'll have the option of machined or cast, or a mix of the two. The original keys would probably have been cast as blanks and then machined to suit. If you wanted some casting you'd need a master, which could be wooden or 3D printed. If you want some machining then a technical drawing would be required. Cost-wise, whichever route you go, will probably be around £80-90 per key. All the best, Jack

Thanks for getting back to me, chaps. That's two out of the three wagon types, which is very helpful. All the best, Jack

I agree with Corbs, that 517 is a bad model in my opinion. Shapeways models like that 517 suggest that the person building the model was inexperienced with modelling software, or perhaps more specifically, modelling for 3D printing. The cylinder on the left is 'low poly' like the 517. The cylinder on the right is 'high poly.' Below is a funnel I made; this is how a model should be made with regards to polygons (numbers of faces/sides): All the best, Jack

If people want cheap 99.9% pure graphite, rather than the clay/graphite mix found in pencils, you can buy carbon graphite electrodes for welding, which are very pure graphite and cheap. You can get them on eBay as well as other places in both rod and plate form. Cheers, Jack

Pretty much as the title says! I've got some Peco Pig Iron and Plate kits. I also have some Lowfits which I 3D printed. I was wondering if anyone knows if anyone supplys decals? I've look on Fox/Railtec/Precision but I couldn't see any in N scale. I was a bit suprised I couldn't find decals for the Peco kits as I would have thought them common enough that someone would have produced decals for them; or perhaps they have and I'm not looking hard enough!? Thanks, Jack

Water fasting is a very good approach to take and I know several people who have cured various ailments through it. There is a process in the body called 'Autophagy' during which time the body purges and recycles defective cells. The process only really kicks in after 24-48 hours of fasting (no calories). Going without food for a few days was common during human evolution and we thus evolved to make use of this time to repair our bodies. These days, most people have never gone 24 hours without food, so they develop all sorts of longterm and usually minor ailments which autophagy would have prevented in our ancestors. It's worth doing a bit of research on 'autophagy' and water fasting online, then go and discuss it with your GP to see whether they think it's worth trying and whether it is safe for you to personally undertake. Here's a acedemic paper on fasting and how it relates to skin health: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6413166/ I hope this is of some use. All the best, Jack

The obvious choice is to return to the original timetable. No one loses their job and the worst possible complaint will be that the railways were as crowded as they were before. If it turns out that demand settles at 80% of pre-government restriction levels, then adjust the timetable to suit at the next timetable change. Previously the railway was often running at over 100% capacity, so even if it only reaches 80% of the previous demand, this probably equates to near 100% capacity in many instances anyway. Cheers, Jack

I think you're probably right about them not running in passenger trains. Since I made my model I have also seen them in Southern Region Green and Engineers Olive. Perhaps they were used to heat engineering mess vans at some point, as the mess vans were often older steam heat vehicles. They're certainly a nice novelty, and if I'm ever the quiz master in a railway themed quiz, they'll provide an interesting answer to the question 'which was the shortest Mk1 based vehicle?' Here's my attempt in N scale: Cheers, Jack

The main issue in Cornwall was the length of such wagons, as the track work in clay facilities and on the branchlines was of a tight radius. I was talking to someone in Plymouth a few years ago who was involved with train planning in the area. They told me that anything with two axles that was longer than a VGA was a 'no-go' as it would require gauge clearing the wagon (bufferlocking being the main issue,) which wouldn't have been worth it for the occasional Speedlink/Enterprise working. This is probably why modern aluminimum sided two axle ferry vans were so rare in Cornwall, as many of them are longer than a VGA. I can only recall seeing one photo and that was a Spanish registered Transfesa branded van. Cheers, Jack

I'm lucky to have known Geoff for the last 20 years. He was a great man, who was very approachable in all matters and always happy to help. He was also a mastermind on many subjects, especially with regards to Western diesel hydraulics, authoring a book on the subject, "Westerns, Warships and Hymeks at Work." Geoff was the impetus in the starting the Bently Model Railway Group whilst at the school from which the club derives its name. Over the last couple of decades he's been at the helm of the club's flagship show, Trainwest; A show which is very highly regarded amongst the model railway community. He leaves a big hole in both the BMRG and model railway community. All the best, Jack

One such "well known freelancer website" is Fiverr. There are hundreds of people on there doing CAD work for reasonable prices. Choose someone with good reviews and a skill set that supports 3D printing, and you'll likely receive good service. As someone who has done professional CAD work, I'll give some advice to assist in getting successful CAD work done. Make sure you give the designer as much detail and information as possible. 2D sketches with dimensions, photographs, descriptions. If there is something that isn't clear, the designer will try and extrapolate from the information they do have and potentially make an error, which you might have to pay extra to have corrected. Usually some revisions will be inlcuded in the price, but if you need more, you'll have to pay. Also, don't forget, explain things which may seem obvious to railway modellers, but not to someone with no knowledge of railways; For example, a designer may make a funnel a solid piece with no hole in the top, if they don't have photos showing the top of the funnel, it may not be obvious to them that it should have a hole in. Secondly, makes sure you know what file type you want and what material/3D printing technology you wish to use. If you want a part designed to print in Shapeway's FUD material, tell the designer that at the start; Then they will know the design limitations that are placed on the model they produce. If you don't tell them, you may waste money on a poor 3D print, and then have to pay to have the model fixed and for a second 3D print, a costly excercise! It's also worth remembering that you're paying for design work as well as CAD work. If you can't use CAD software, but you can do "back of the envelope sketches," you can design the part yourself and convey that information to the person doing the CAD. It's so much quicker and easier to draw up a part in CAD software if you have all of the dimensions required. If a designer has to start guessing, extrapolating and emailing the client with 101 questions, the project time will grow quickly. Hope this information is of some use. All the best, Jack

As you say, for the first period you'd have the Mk2. The Mk3 was introduced in 2001. From 2001 Mk2 tail lamps were still used, but they were retrofitted with reflective patches like the Mk3 had, as this was what the standard at the time (and now) required. That's not to say every Mk2 got reflective patches, or that they didn't come off in service. In fact, I've even seen photos of Mk3 tail lamps with the patches missing, so they do peel off, probably with some assistance from bored ground staff. Cheers, Jack

It depends on the era you're modelling. If you're modelling today, then I think there are only a couple left running in EWS maroon. If you're modelling the early 2000s, it's theoretically possible that you'd have six EWS ones in one train, but statistically unlikely. From my photographs, I'd say about a 20 to 1 ratio of silver to maroon (VGA/VKA) in the 2009/10 period. Cheers, Jack

After doing a quick bit of research, it's a Varney Scale Models model. See the discussion, and an image of the car you have, here: http://www.tycoforums.com/tyco/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12923 Cheers, Jack

I can't remember exactly when I joined as it's been so long. It was either 2006 or 2005, the date on my profile is 04/03/2007, which I think is when the current RMweb was started. RMweb is a really good forum and always has been. I definitely read it more than I post, but I do occasionally chip in. I've also been to a few of the SWAG member's days down in Taunton over the years. I've grown up with the forum, so whilst the forum has changed, so have I. It's always however, been one of those few constants in life which has always been there to go back to. Even if I feel I don't have the time or the enthusiasm to model, I can still come here and find all sorts of inspiration and support, and soon enough the enthusiasm is renewed. I have also made friends on the forum; It's always nice meeting members of this forum in real life at shows and putting a face to the name. People here are also friendly and on several occasions people have sold me rare items I've been looking for, or they have even been kind enough to give them to me for nothing. The members are also willing to share their knowledge with no expectation of anything in return, which is a huge boost to those in the hobby and RMweb really allows that knowledge to be spread far and wide. Something else notable about RMweb is that it's still a 'classic' style website. These days many websites have disappeared into Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Twitter etc and this handful of websites make up the majority of many people's web-browsing experiences. I can remember the early days of the Internet where I could find a new website and get lost exploring it for hours, each website being different and reflection of its owner and/or community. RMweb still has the feel of a small community and website (despite its size), so it brings back the nostalgia of the 'good old days' of the Internet. It's difficult to quantify how much RMweb has contributed to the hobby over the years, but anecdotally I've lost count of the number of times someone has said to me 'I saw this on RMweb and gave it a go' or 'I got contacted by someone RMweb and they had some decals for a project I am working on.' I have also met many people through RMweb who have helped me in the hobby. RMweb has definitely made a significant and positive contribution to the hobby, so I, and many others, are really grateful for that. Anyway, I hope to be here to toast the website again in another 15 years time! Cheers, Jack

That's just moving the problem. You'll create an environment where people will assume it's safe to cross between rail vehicles because there is no headlight on. Then one day someone forgets to turn the headlight on, or a defect means the headlight isn't on, so someone else, thinking it's safe, crosses inbetween and gets crushed.

That may stand true for a very small number of places. Today, for emergency calls, the geographic coverage is around 90%; Unless you're in mid-Wales or the Highlands, you'll almost always get a signal for emergency calls, even if you can't get signal from your provider for a standard call. So for the overwhelming majority of accidents there will be phone signal. Regards, Jack

This is true for people hit by trains and you're right about the reduction in dangerous operations. Many injuries on the railways come from other sources. If you're working with power tools and you manage to cut yourself badly, you could be in a location, where pre-mobile phones and air ambulances, it would have taken hours to get you to a hospital, during which time you could die from blood loss. These days you can call the emergency services directly and if the incident is serious and in a remote location, they will dispatch an air ambulance and provide treatment advice over the phone. Back in the day it wasn't possible to tell whether a driver was eating, smoking, doing a crossword, chatting to the secondman etc, etc, all of which could be missing from the driver concentration stats, where as mobile phones and service providers have records of all calls made, so every instance is visible in the stats; This skews the statistics. The mobile phone isn't the issue either, it's the people using them which are. Mobile phones are a factor (not necessarily the cause) in about 35 car crash deaths a year. I don't know how many times they have stopped serious injuries from becoming fatal ones, but anecdotally they definitely offset the number of deaths they were a factor in causing with lives they have saved. Imagine a car crash on a country road in 1992, it could take 20 to 30 minutes to drive to the nearest occupied house, call the emergency services and try to describe the location of the crash. These days, people can call the emergency services the moment the crash happens, someone will have GPS on their phone to give the exact location of the crash and the emergency services can give immediate over the phone advice on treatment to administer. Mobile phones are fantastic tools in saving lives and I believe they more than offset the number of accidents they cause, not to mention the actual cause is the person improperly using the mobile phone, not the phone itself! All the best, Jack

Technology plays a big part in the fewer deaths occurring on the railway. The prevalence of mobile phones means that aid is much quicker to arrive, there are also a greater number of air ambulances; Both of these things mean that when life threatening injuries occur, even in remote areas, a fatality is much less likely than it used to be. The number of train movements is a bit misleading, as whilst there are more train movements overall, there are fewer high risk ones. Compare the amount of shunting that was going on in 1992 with 2014, there was a lot less in 2014. Whether it's freight or passenger, there used to be a lot more movements that resulted in railway workers going between vehicles, which is probably the most deadly job on the railway.

I think that's only because they are aimed at the broadest range of people, most of whom will be working near main running lines. That said, I think they are just as relevent regardless of whether the context is a main running line or a depot/yard. If you're ground staff and you need to move to a position to see a train back, but that position isn't covered by an authorised walking route, you just don't use an authorised walking route, because their isn't one and the rules state you 'must use authorised walking routes if they are provided.' If they are not provided for the position you need to be in, then you access the position whilst observing the rules listed after: If you have to cross the line, you must not step on rails or sleepers or between movable parts of points. If you have to use a mobile phone, first move to a position of safety and then stand still until you have finished using the phone. Do not wear anything that makes you less able to see or hear approaching trains. Do not allow yourself to be distracted by anyone or anything. Keep a good lookout for approaching trains. Make sure you look up at least every 5 seconds so that you can reach a position of safety and be in it no less than 10 seconds before an approaching train arrives. All of those rules to me seem valid and appropriate whether you're on a main running line or a depot/yard. I do think the last point should be expanded to include trains at rest, so you need to be able to get to a position of safety with 10 seconds to spare should a stationary train begin to moving. Even if you're ground staff, unless you've got a specific reason to be between vehicles, always making sure you're at least 10 seconds away from being hit by a train is reasonable whilst moving around the yard. As ground staff, 99% of the time you'll be in a position of safety anyway, as no one makes a habit of hanging around in the 4ft. That's my take, but I've only worked around depots and not out on the mainline.

The rules state that 'You must use authorised walking routes if they are provided.' At Tyseley Depot there are authorised walking routes, but it requires that you walk all the way to either end of the depot to safely cross. A member of staff may choose to disregard the rules and cross in between trains as it's quicker than walking to the authorised crossing, but they may a price for doing so. The bottom line is follow the rules and use the authorised walking routes.