sjgardiner

Great, as much as I normally don't want sound, listening to that is yet again making me re-consider my choice when i make the final payment in May! Guess i have a few weeks still to hum and haw about that decision. Thanks for the quick answer to my email as well Charlie, appreciated. Cheers, Stephen

Maybe I should ask offline, but I assume I'm not the only order from Canada or overseas, does your daft website have any clue on shipping to Canada or vat reductions if it's being shipped overseas? Depending on options, it may be easier/more effective for me to ship to family in England unless some are finding their way to Rapido around the corner from me for distribution on this side of the pond. I won't be making my balance payment till may on budget reasons. One question I have, does the non sound dcc version have all the light control functions, or so I need to find the extra ££ for sound I don't really want for that? Otherwise, the samples look great! Cheers Stephen

Whoo Hoo!! A City of Truro run/re-run. I missed it before and that's one I've wanted. I'll be ordering whenever it goes up on the Locomotion site. Cheers, Stephen

I was going to be a smart alek and say the first rule of Rapido Bus is no one talks about Rapido Bus, but i way blew past that one!! I've learned over the years that your road trips sound a lot more degenerate than they probably were if you tease that you aren't telling people the good stuff!! Stephen

For anyone who hasn't figured it out. Jason is both a good business person, and a good time. He is equal parts serious and silly in good measure. If you ever do get a chance to chat trains/buses/Doctor Who with him, you'll no doubt enjoy it. Today I had the pleasure of another road trip day with Jason on the Rapido New Look Bus to a train show. You can read about our silly day out (sadly, to protect the innocent, the silliest of our on-bus commentary is for riders ears only!!). That said, you can read about the highlights on my blog about our day out here: https://sjgardiner.wordpress.com/2017/03/05/2017-copetown-train-show/ Cheers, Stephen

You definitely used the surface texture of the WSF to your advantage. You would likely have had a smoother starting point with FUD, which is what i use for most of my 3D printing, but when painted and weathered, as you have shown, you can certainly get acceptable results from WSF if you understand the limitations and how far you can push the material. As someone doing effectively the same thing (modelling all the pieces in the collection of the museum i volunteer at), I always enjoy your ongoing project updates. Been a while since i've been to Didcot, i should try to get back the next time I'm in the UK! Stephen

And Finished: Sometime when i've either built a little diorama or find someone with an OO9/HOn30 Layout i can run it on, I'll post some pictures/video of it running. From it's humble beginnings, this makes a very nice locomotive. I hope everyone else who has bought a Bachmann Skarloey to convert has their project go as well as mine. I've linked to my blog with a bigger gallery of completed pictures and the previous posts i made on my conversion: https://sjgardiner.wordpress.com/2017/01/29/talyllyn-photo-gallery/ For those wondering, I didn't install the Narrow Planet Cylinders and motion. I don't have a great deal of experience soldering, and rather than do something that I can't undo in trying to assemble that kit, I've kept it aside, and somewhere down the road when i feel my skills have hit the right point, i can install the more to scale cylinders and metal motion. Cheers, Stephen

An update, not quite finished, but the finish line is in sight. You can read more about what i've done on my blog, and a couple of pictures are below: Blog Entry - https://sjgardiner.wordpress.com/2017/01/22/talyllyn-takes-shape/ Cheers, Stephen

I guess that means I'll finally have to settle on which of Taw or Exe I'm going to order and place my order. I just placed an order for a bunch of OO9 track and wagons I've been waiting to order when my credit card billing period ended yesterday, next order will be to get my L&B/Southern locomotive. Stephen

Same question re confirmation, and an add on regarding shipping, I'm in Canada, though depending on shipping rates vs VAT exemption I could have it shipped to family in the U.K and just pick up on a future visit. I assume specific shipping options will be addressed in May at payment of balance? Conversely, I'm close enough to Rapido that if North American orders are being dispatched from Rapido in markham, I can always pick it up there. Otherwise, it looks great and I'm excited to get my First Scotrail version next year. Cheers, Stephen

Underbody/interior on rapido uk product page. http://uk.rapidotrains.com/class-156-dmu/ I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of the boy shells of the samples as well. Stephen

I've been slowly working on a conversion amongst my many projects. I have many sheets of BR lining, but i've just ordered a set of daniel11's decals to make my life easier. https://sjgardiner.wordpress.com/2016/11/26/oo9-talyllyn-3d-printed-bits-and-stripping-paint/ I'm doing the previous lined black livery, personal choice, while i think the red looks very sharp, i like the black lined out look. Stephen

Worked fine for me to make a deposit on a First Saltaire Unit. It will blow away the Lima Regional Railways Class 156 that my grandfather gave me when i was a kid, but it will be nice to have a modern well equipped 156 i can operate, and my sentimental childhood 156 that can sit on the display shelf! Having seen Rapido's new underbody mechanism with their RDC samples in Canada, i think people will be very happy with the 156 when it arrives. Stephen

I want to order one, but need to be sure i have the $$, every month of delay makes it more likely that i can order one of the southern liveried variants. Stephen

And some pictures from Michigan City last Thursday: Street Tracks by Stephen Gardiner, on Flickr Driving in front of the Train by Stephen Gardiner, on Flickr Street Running by Stephen Gardiner, on Flickr South Shore Line Electric by Stephen Gardiner, on Flickr Cheers Stephen

I'm on my phone and reading al the pages is not possible, but I just got the South Shore Line electrics running down 11th Avenue in Michigan City Indiana. On our way to Chicago for the New Zealand-Ireland Rugby on Saturday, so no photos till Sunday night/Monday when home. Was cool though, my first time seeing street running. Stephen

I'd been saving up a log jam of projects, test models, and a couple of requests to re-scale items for N Scale anticipating the usual US Thanksgiving Black Friday sales in late November, this has let me move up a whole batch of things by over a month!! I like sales like this! Stephen

Congrats on the Designer Spotlight Knuckles, nice to see some model railroading work get some love from Shapeways PR instead of all the other things people do! Stephen

Yeah, that is gorgeous. I really want one, but i don't absolutely need one. Hopefully at the end of September with a bit of luck when my budget is less messed up they won't be sold out and i can actually consider buying one. But if not, c'est la vie. Well done though to Hattons and DJM, they are great looking locomotives. Stephen

Just means more time for me to hum and haw over making a decision on whether to buy one or not! Though there is always the chance my budget will actually let me buy one by then! Stephen

Out of curiosity, can you post a picture of the parts diagram for the locomotive? It doesn't seem to be on Bachmann USA's website that i can find, and i'm curious if the face is mostly removable as most of the other Thomas line items seem to be, or if it will need to be cut off when the locomotive is dissassembled. Edit: Checked again and the sheet seems to be there now, wasn't last week at least that i saw: http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/dwg/dwgs/NARROWGAUGESKARLOEY.pdf It appears that the face is an easily removable part that can be replaced with a new smokebox door. I can see me producing a 3D printed new door to fit the Bachmann mounting lugs if i do go ahead and buy one. I'll have to see what the $$ is at my local shop for it and if they can order one to see if its a worthwile entry into narrow gauge modelling. I'm tempted to pick one up and use it as a base for a conversion to a real locomotive as others are doing/discussing. Stephen

And I just keep repeating to myself that "I don't model narrow gauge" as j work to convince myself to not order one of these!! Then again, I said the same thing a couple of years ago about London transit and I now have a lovely bookshelf diorama with a pannier and a MetVic Bo-Bo... Stephen

The Canadian Cars are all wrong for steam anyways. Steam never hauled the Stainless Steel Budd coaches (proviso, i'm sure i've seen an odd shot here or there with a Budd in consist, but on a go-ahead Basis, the Budd equipment was introduced with the all-diesel Canadian as a marketing tool of modernity). If you just want a Canadian to have one, they turn up from time to time on ebay or in stores. Credit Valley Railroad in Missisauga has an Action Red on consignment for about $2K Canadian, or at least they did last thursday when i was in. If you want accurate steam-era passenger cars, you can build a fleet from BGR Resin kits - http://home.cogeco.ca/~bgrgroup/index.html or run with various RTR heavyweight cars from Atlas (ex Branchline molds) or Walthers in CPR Tuscan that will at least approximate the look of a Steam Era passenger train in Canada. Cheers, Stephen

Finally got Monday pictures from Exporail and a couple from the voyage home posted: https://www.flickr.com/photos/55976115@N00/archives/date-taken/2015/10/12/ Stephen

Three of them were dragged from Montreal to Ottawa behind a service train last Thursday or Friday. They were still there when we passed through Sunday, and as far as i know, they are still sitting at the Ottawa station. Stephen