alanbuttler

That's great Jeff, I'm glad you got chance to see them. It always gives me a shot of inspiration each time I pop by to look at them.

Made some steady progress on the yard the last few evenings. I've only old maps or plans to get dimensions of the outer buildings, the rest is having to be worked out from various photographs, counting bricks, taking some best guesses! The smaller of the 3 buildings near the yard wall was the lavatory, the large brick building was the electrical substation for the works, the wooden building next to the works entrance was the boshing plant for cleaning locomotive components. The oil & gas works are next on the agenda. Reg has quite a few photographs with this building in view (see back through this thread).

Hi all, it's been some time since I was in a position to recommence work on the diorama, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel, come October I'll be able to make some real progress. It's almost a year since this project started and over six months since I was able to do anything productive. Working away from home however has enabled me to visit many preserved railways which I otherwise wouldn't have and get valuable reference photos of the clutter in a loco works such as Tyseley or Llangollen. Coming back to the project with fresh eyes has let me see things a little differently, in particular with the Sketchup model. In its current form it is way too complex, with over 1.4 million individual lines and that's just the walls! It makes navigating the 3D model impractical and resource hungry. Using components more wisely would also save on resources and make it easier to make bulk changes to repetitive architectural formations, such as archways, windows etc. I'd used that feature to an extent, but only after discovering it halfway through the 3D build. Another major issue is exporting from Sketchup into something like inkscape or Illustrator to prepare the artwork for the laser cutter. Drawing brickwork in Sketchup creates many more lines than are actually needed - every line connection creates a separate line. For example a row of 50 brick headers in sketchup would create 50 separate horizontal lines where the vertical line of each brick intersects, whereas in inkscape it would be one long line. To the laser cutter with artwork from Sketchup, that means 50 separate horizontal lines instead of one long one which must take considerably longer to etch. It's also a problem when colour coding the artwork for inner or outer cuts as it is seriously time consuming selecting each individual line. This time round I'll post up some of the time saving techniques I find, for arches in particular as they can be a pain to get right. On a different note altogether, I found some more information on what locomotives passed through the works on the website Shed Bash. This link shows that some other non-Cambrian locos were spotted in the works, such as 5MT's, the odd Grange, County, Hall or Castle, LMS Jubilee's and 8F's and finally 9F's. More to come soon

Forgot to mention - categories also help organise individual project posts in a blog!

I'm still not sure myself about the thread v blog to be honest I think I chose a blog for the individual loco projects to make them easier to read through historically using the tags, where as with a long mutlipage thread like my works diorama it can be hard to follow progress of individual tasks, especially when I'm prone to flitting between them! I think for the reader and individual thread is the easiest option, but they can be hard to find so having some kind of index to project threads on your blog page or in your signature can help alert people to new content which they won't be following.

My pleasure, glad you found them of use I've got a few others yet to post when I find time, but you can find them on my flickr album pages - you might find 1466 and 1450 useful for your Shipston branch 1450 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/cambrian_al/sets/72157644570392668/ Sets - https://www.flickr.com/photos/cambrian_al/sets

Thanks Peter, I had to play about with the image a bit in lightroom, I'd left a filter on the lens so the original was quite dark, but the side effect has given it the painting like quality. Getting the train in was pure luck, I'd just turned back to the car when it came past and had just enough time to whip off the lens cap again! Here's one more, what a mind boggling escher-esq construction! Balcombe Viaduct by CAMBRIAN AL, on Flickr

Balcombe Viaduct by CAMBRIAN AL, on Flickr

Many thanks, I had a really enjoyable day down there, I'm glad you have that impression of timelessness because that's exactly how the whole day felt there, especially around the coaling stage. Such a shame that more of these structures don't still exist.

Didcot coaling stage Didcot Coaling Tower by CAMBRIAN AL, on Flickr

Hi Mikkel, this looks very interesting and in a similar vein to what I've experimented with on my Oswestry works diorama. I used rare earth magnets with some success to move the works traverser, powered by a lead screw and stepper motor. Maybe that's a little overkill for this! But motorising an under-board magnet could be achieved with something like another section of track slung underneath the siding with a cheap 0-4-0T with a corresponding magnet fixed to the roof... another heath robinson suggestion I've not had any time for months to progress those ideas with the works sadly, but in the back of my mind I've been thinking I'd have to look at a solution similar to this to move wagons or tenderless locos around the works as it was all done by pinch bars. No locos in steam entered the works as far as I can gather. Will be interested to see how you progress with this one good luck

One more, thanks for the likes! Stanier Black Five Class 5MT No.45428 'Eric Treacy' by CAMBRIAN AL, on Flickr

A few from the NYMR this weekend Pickering Station by CAMBRIAN AL, on Flickr LNER Class A4 No.60007 'Sir Nigel Gresley' by CAMBRIAN AL, on Flickr LNER Class A4 No.60007 'Sir Nigel Gresley' by CAMBRIAN AL, on Flickr

5643 on shed at Sheffield Park 18th July 2014 and at Horsted Keynes earlier that day

GWR 2884 Class No.3802 at Llangollen 8th July 2014

Llangollen 8/7/14 https://www.flickr.com/photos/cambrian_al/sets/72157645578267002/

Rood Aston Hall, Earl of Mount Edgcombe and Duchess of Sutherland at Tyseley, 5th July 2014

Superb as ever, I particularly like the use of the plunger pickups, very clever

92214 in action on the GCR, 22nd June 2014

Looks good, I started out using sketchup for the same purpose of proving the concept of what I was making in 3D first. I went of from there though to use that model to get it laser cut instead of using other methods - it takes a bit of work to adapt your sketchup model but its well worth it in my opinion! There are quite a few good tutorials for the more complex operations like bending your water pipe, this might give you a starting point http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Pipe-in-SketchUp-With-the-Follow-Me-Tool

Great stuff, I was there too yesterday, still to go through my pics but it was a lovely weekend for it. The class 9 under the bridge is super!

Hello sorry missed your response some how! Yes 1432 was a regular for many years, along with 1458 and 1459.

'The Earl' at Welshpool Raven's Square 15/06/2014

'The Earl' at Welshpool Raven's Square 15/06/2014

Lovely, I was going to head up there yesterday, I wish I had now! Is that the Cambrian liveried No.9 ?