Rods_of_Revolution

Strange, I assumed it would be the same as an attached image. Try this: http://imageshack.us/clip/my-videos/839/yjw.mp4/ Cheers, Jack

Here we go, a video showing the uncoupling/coupling operation. Apologies for the quailty, I had to compress the video to make it small enough to upload. Kindest Regards, Jack

I'll have a go tonight Pete and see what I can come up with! Cheers, Jack

Hi guys, thanks for the positive comments. Pete, on the locos I have the same configuration as the wagons, buffer beam magnet one end, elastic and magnet t'other, but I have a piece of steel wire vertically down from the buffer beam for the magnet to stick to, this keeps it bent round when not in use and looking like a brake pipe so it doesn't stick out like a sore rapido! Jon and Mike, the elastic is a little chunky for a scale brakepipe, but I think you can get smaller magnets though they cost more and I haven't found a seller on eBay. Certainly worth experimenting with, I'd be well impressed at seeing working brake and vac pipes in N that's for sure! Kindest Regards, Jack

Will, I think having the magnets side on would mean they are more likely to slide apart, there is little friction to be overcome when sliding the magnets over each other, which is good for uncoupling when mounted end on, but would reduce the "draw bar" strength and make uncoupling more difficult if mounted side on. The weight of the vehicles is enough to keep them in place, because you're using the nearest axle as the pivot point when pushing down the weight of the wagon has the mechanical advantage over you and because metal on metal presents little friction the magnets slide down and out of each other's fields easily. rcmacchipilot, the length possible will depend on several factors; The length/weight of the train, the ammount of fiction in the wheelsets and the tightness of the curves. I reckon 30 wagons if the curves are not too tight and the wheel sets are fairly free rolling, interestingly when you start a train you have to do it like it would be done in the real world, you have to take the slack out of the couplings before you put the real power down, otherwise you risk the front magnet disconnecting! If you want to run longer trains you can just add more magnets, have two, or even three end on in each buffer beam and you'll increase the coupling strength. Kindest Regards, Jack

Coupling is easy, just lift the magnet with a hook and it'll locate itself, to uncouple just use the bottom of the hook and push the magnet down and it'll slide down and off. Kindest Regards, Jack

That livery is all wrong! It's no where near white enough!!! Seriously though, they're looking great! Kindest Regards, Jack

After searching for a coupling which was reliable, unobtrusive and still allowed for easy shunting with a shunters pole I was at a bit of a loss. The rapido is plain ugly and poor for shunting, the DG I found fiddley to assemble and tricky getting them to couple and uncouple if not perfectly assembled and mounted. The Micro Trains couplings are ok, but expensive and still fairly unreliable if not quite lined up right. So, I had a bit of a brainwave, a year or so ago I read an article by Jim Smith-Wright and he had used magnets and elastic to create connecting brake pipes. I thought perhaps I could mount something similar in a central position and use it as a coupling; N Scale being smaller, the stress on the coupling being less. I did a few experiments and I have devised a visually unobtrusive, easy to shunt and cheap method of coupling. It's fairly simple; I purchased the magnets from here. I then drilled a 1mm hole centrally in the buffer beam either end. One end I used some superglue and just pushed the magnet strait in the hole. The other end I glued in a short length (length depends on wheelbase and minimum radius curve the model must negotiate) of elastic; To the end of this I glued another magnet. Now I have couplings which are much smaller and more covert than Rapidos, couple regardless of height and are cheap to make. Things to watch: Make sure the polarity of the magnets is correct, or else they will repel each other! Hope this is of use to someone! Kindest Regards, Jack

Wow! They're excellent Ernie! Time to make a brew (or 3) and make good use of the Flickr slide show function! I really appriciate you taking the time to make them available to all, Many thanks, Jack

The Mercig models are superb (and expensive) but if I work on a model myself I have the satisfaction and pride gained because it's something I have made with my own hands. That said, if I won the lottery......

Ok Pete, I'll have a Google of Mercig's stuff. That'd be great Jo, that's if we get any weather worth fotting in! Remind me to bring your DMU book and your ballast wagons! Cheers, Jack

Thanks Pete, Looks simple enough to do and does look much better, there could be an issue without 2mm fs wheelsets in the rolling stock to the lower them as well. My coupling method means occiasionally the buffers touch, so they need to be roughly the right height. I'll experiment! Cheers, Jack

Thanks guys, I'll have to look into lowering it, there is a much bigger gap (relatively speaking) than on the 4mm tractor, is there a "how to" around here somewhere? For the head light I plan to drill a hole in the nose and then mount a spherical bead cut in two on peice of wire bent through 90 degrees. Paint the back black and the front silver with a blob gloss varnish on to give that lens look. Kindest Regards, Jack

I know Pete was eager to see 175, so here she is; Could be better, could be worse! Still plenty to do, all the detail parts, headlamp, windows back in, finishing up the weathering. The 3 part plow is a 3D Print, so it's a bit of an experiment! I decided on 37175 as she was in Cornwall during the 1980s but also in Scotland, so at somepoint I expect a Dapol 26 will cross my bench to become a partner for 175 on my other (non-existant) layout set in Scotland. Better finish the Cornish one first though eh! Kindest Regards, Jack

Hi Pete, I'll try and take some photos of 175 tonight, I still have to finish the weathering, add the buffer beam details and the nose headlight! Cheers, Jack

I used the existing holes as "pilot holes" and took a drill bit in a pin vice and opened out the holes to the same size as Parkside buffer shanks, I also wrapped a piece of masking tape around the drill bit so I knew how deep to go. I hope this helps; Cheers, Jack

Thanks, I'd love to model 7mm scale, only I lack the time, the space and the finance for such endeavours. At least with N scale time is the only thing I lack! Kindest Regards, Jack

After a member (I won't name names as they may wish to remain anonymous!) on here kindly offered to sell me some clay hood kits he no longer required I became the proud own of 12 Parkwood clay wagon kits. I built the kits and mounted them to Peco chassis, I then finished them off with Parkside buffers and Scalescenes OO clay hoods rescaled down to 1:148 (This took a little trial and error and to get the width right I had to print them longer than scale and then cut them down). I still have to trim the hoods a little and finish the weathering. Here's the first four, the remaining 8 are in various stages of completion 37175 is poking her nose into the picture, more on her another time! Kindest Regards, Jack

I collect models in N scale and it's often worse than OO, I do away with the factory boxes strait away, Dapol are the worst and often I end up breaking detail off trying to extract the model. Perhaps this is why detail parts are becoming more and more seperate?! Kindest Regards, Jack

I'd redesign the model with open windows, FUD isn't much good for creating transparent surfaces (They call it FROSTED Ultra Detail for a reason ) and to remove the windows, damaging the model is a real possibility, as you found out! One the whole the print is looking nice, i look forward to the next blog post! Kindest Regards, Jack

Stu, take a look at this picture on Wikipedia, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Tivedshambo_2006-03-22_Kyle_of_Lochalsh.jpg I'd go with no.1 Pete, the station building is white so it constrasts with the dark hills, because of this my eye is also drawn to the building rather than the backscene, so I think you have no worries with the backscene distracting from the forground. I can't wait to see the next installment! Kindest Regards, Jack