JohnBS

Roger, I have just completed artwork for a trial etch of a Saint chassis and details, to go with the 3D printed superstructure. Depending on the results of that, and on when the commercial N-gauge Castle is actually available (watch Hell freezing in the background), the next project is to be a Star in 2mm FS. The chassis for that will, of course, be the same as for the Castle, give or take the length of the firebox/cab section which I'm sure can be made adaptable. I also intend to produce a compatible Star superstructure as a 3D print, in 2mmFS and in N-gauge.Watch this space, John

Jerry, Any Tucking photos from tucking Wells? John

What is on my workbench? See below - now you see a remarkably tidy workbench: And, abracadabra, now you see the appearing lathe. And I made some boiler fittings and a flywheel with it. John

That one train must have taken about six month's of Highbury Colliery production. John

Looking good Ian. John

Jerry, Lovely model. Watch out it doesn't get smashed by the next down express. John

Jerry, Brilliant!! Hope that they don't get filled-up with paint. John PS can you make a couple of dozen for Totnes signal posts?

I'm not familiar with colliery sidings but, IIRC, Dainton Quarry sidings (at the down end of Dainton Tunnel, between Newton Abbot and Totnes) had three roads with a private line link from the quarry and a loaded and empties road, crossovers to a central loco release road and short headshunts beyond the crossovers. Connection to the down line was via a facing point near to the tunnel portal, in front of Dainton Box and there was a short head shunt, enough for a couple of brake vans or cripples. There was also an inclined refuge siding with a trailing connection to the up line opposite and a trailing crossover between up and down running lines which extended inside the tunnel. I never had the opportunity of seeing these sidings in operation ('Stationmaster' may have access to operating instructions) but, from photos, I surmise that operations were as above. Brake vans would have been 'parked' either at the headshunts at the end of the sidings or in the headshunt near to the box, depending on the direction of travel of the next diagrammed outgoing train movement. In general terms, I assume that, for an installation with a single access point, a three road group of sidings would be a normal minimum to allow for a loco release road. John

Julia, Lovely work - such an elegant bit of design and execution John

Julia, I see that you've mended your car door lock at last. John

Andy, A propos turntables, a thought occurs to me. Old hard drives (of which I'm sure we all have many) have beautiful bearings and, with a new cosmetic deck would be fine for 50ft plus turntables. The only thing is, don't use the HDD motor or you will have a very dizzy loco indeed, probably embedded in the wall! John

Jerry, The layout and stock all look brilliant. But perhaps I need to buy you a paintbrush. Wonderful, John

Rich (post 356) and all, Again, perhaps not the right place but here is my take on a quickie cardan shaft. Yesterday I decided to reduce the loco to tender gap on the Dapol 2884. The existing draw bar link is of plastic so was unadaptable and I replaced with a shorter scratch-built version in 0.25 copper clad fibreglass - easy and took about 30 minutes and I didn't even need to undo the fragile jumper cables. Then moved on to the cardan shaft. The Dapol drive doesnt have an outer sleeve so the shaft is centred by the bore of the sockets. As such, you can't just use a dumbell-shaped piece of bent wire. So I picked out a length of nickel-silver wire (Eileen's) about 0.50 diameter and bent one end into a J shape. In the J, I soldered a short section of the same wire at right angles and then moved on to the other end. Using the existing Dapol plastic shaft as a gauge, I bent another J shape (in the same plane as the first) and soldered a similar length of wire at right angles. After a minimimum of tidying-up and trimming back the cross bars to suit the sockets in the loco and tender, a working cardan shaft. The solder joints were sufficiently small to fit inside the sockets and centre the shaft. Then dipped the thing in gun blue and rinsed. All in all, this took about an hour, including making one to the wrong length! And no drilling involved. The shaft is in the loco at the moment but I will post a photo when I next take it apart. John

Jerry, TM is looking wonderful - another little gem from the Warminster production line. I must admit that the Manor looks brilliant - is it a fine-scaled Ixion ? Even the diseasels don't look too bad! John

Jerry, Thanks. How was Nottingham? John

Hi all, Today I'm mainly doing buildings . . . . Totnes is still woefully short of buildings - necessary to get the contrast between the town and the south Devon countryside, An important group is at the town end of the River Dart bridge, an area known as 'The Plains'. I've made a start on a group which includes a substantial Regency terrace and a couple of buildings at the beginning of Fore Street. This group is in the middle distance on the model so warranted taking a few shortcuts. I started off by researching on Google Maps and sourcing one or two historical photos on line. This gave me enough to produce a set of 2D CAD drawings of the main elevations, which I then printed out. The drawings were separated into layers, the first layer being printed on copier paper and PVA glued to mounting board, This included all the main outlines and the window panes and formed the structural base for the elevations. Second and further layers were then printed on 250 micron card, sourced from our local stationers (A4 sheets of very smooth, hot-rolled card) and these used as overlays for areas of added relief (pilasters, cornices, tile hanging etc). Drawing of the front elevation of the terrace - all layers Each individual building was assembled with a board floor and with sufficient formers to support the roof. For the latter, I used the 250 micron card, printed with a tile pattern. Chimneys, cills, gutters and other basic details were added, in board, card and cocktail sticks. Cottages behind the terrace, (in the card) Finally, it came to painting. I used match pots of emulsion for the basic masonry colours and artist's acrylics for the rest, mainly applied as fairly transparent washes to preserve some of the printed lines. Finer detail in the form of etched balcony and area railings were added to front elevation - a nice contrast to the mass of the masonry. Front elevation Rear elevation The whole assembly is now ready to be slotted into the layout and I shall be moving on to the Royal Seven Stars Hotel, another substantial piece of real estate. John

Mark, What is a "Rix" uncoupling pick? John

Jerry, Now I know why you have been so quiet over the last weeks! Looks very good but you could always save a bit of time and effort by using Peco track (waiting for the explosion . . .). John

Here's one I prepared earlier - still running on the N-gauge chassis. No 1506 0-6-0T ‘Saddle Tank’ c.1922 An antique tank engine – many were later converted to panniers. Built 1878 Withdrawn 1937 Buried under this model is a Farish ‘pannier’. The mechanism has a replacement worm and worm wheel set, giving an improved reduction ratio of 21:1 instead of the original 16:1. A new keeper plate is made from copper clad PCB, with phosphor bronze wire pickups. Brake gear, sand boxes and guard irons are fitted. After separating the superstructure, all the boiler fittings are filed off to leave a flat top. To this is araldited a nice fat sheet of nickel silver, Then the whole lump is ground and filed down to the correct profile, checked with a simple metal gauge running on the footplate. The footplate itself is shortened slightly and new smokebox and boiler fittings are added. A new old-style cab and bunker is formed of sheet metal.

Jerry, You've been hiding your loco-building light under a bushel! Two diesels (one actually finished) and two steam - not to mention John's delightful loco. All very impressive, keep up the good work. Me I'm just churning-out buildings for Totnes. John

Julia, Delightful stuff - may I join the queue for a CoT etch. I have just bought the Bachmann 00 City of London (CoT no longer available) and it looks drop dead gorgeous in Venetian red so I am totally smitten. I have a 2D CAD drawing I did for my Bulldog - you are welcome to a copy if of any interest (Autocad or .dxf). Back to the No. 4 boiler, there are photos which show an intermediate cladding band between the transition from cylinder to cone and th SV position, as on your 3D visualisation, so it all depends on what the relevant contemporary photo shows. Keep it up, I look forward to postings of further progress. John