peter220950

It seems to be an obsession about cleaning, rather than restoration, the bolts had all been replaced with highly polished stainless rather than chrome, but it was shiny! There were some proper bikes there as well. As well as a couple that just needed that bit of TLC Not really sure if these two fit in this thread or not, Peter

This 750 Suzuki was at a recent show I visited, it looked like the owner had more time on his hands than was good for his health! He reckoned he did actually use it on dry days, it having done 400 odd miles this year, though it then took another two days to clean when he came home. He also mentioned that he believed it owed him around £16k at the moment, and that didn't include his time. Perhaps O gauge isn't that expensive. Peter

Percy, Annie, and Clarabel in a steamy ménage à trois, Peter (Is that anything to do with hump shunting?)

That's the long term plan, the ones I have used to date are just to test the concept. The problem is that it's really the wrong time of year to get much traffic on any of the preservation lines. I really need to set up on a fixed tripod that will allow the video to be edited without getting jumps where they blend together, and it probably needs most of the day to film, so weather is important, I'm not standing in the pouring rain all day for an 8 x 8 cakebox! I will scout out a couple of the favoured locations in the next week or two, but it will probably be spring before I can get the finished set of videos taken. In the interim I shall do the mechanical work on the smoke generator and get the bridge built, now I have some idea of where the bits fit. Peter

It was something I wondered about, again presumably simple with an Arduino and a servo, but only if you know what you're doing, I'm currently at the opening the box stage, but I do have a year to learn, and I also have something in mind for the Cameo that would use the same principles. If the video and Arduino starts can be synchronised relatively accurately it should only be a matter of setting a counting sequence to follow the timings of trains on the video to operate both the air pump and later the signal. One thing I need to check out is whether the signal needs scaling down a bit, I am following the forced perspective thread with interest, and will need to do a bit of maths. Peter

Bit more studying today, which has only really highlighted that I need a video of my chosen location before I can get much done on the scenery front. It will need to blend in with the real scenery. Some time was spent sorting out the position and height of the bridge in relation to the screen, and it even looks feasible to connect tapering rails to the rails on the screen, if anyone managed to peek down onto the track too much. The idea of putting a BR vehicle on the bridge is questionable, as it tends to block out a bit too much of the view, so I'm currently considering the back half of an estate car with a photographer getting equipment out. The requirement for two railway related bits should be covered by a railway bridge, with a bridge plate, and the top of a signal post, providing I can find a relatively high bridge to film from Photographer figures are available from Omen, and I now know where all the smoke gubbins will fit, it just remains to be seen how I activate it, manually with a cheap remote is easiest, but it would be nice to be able to leave it to do ots own thing. I suspect I'm not going to be able to trigger it from the tablet, so it looks like it might be down to timing the loco passes on the video and setting up a series of timings to synchronise. Sounds like it might be a simple Arduino job, but my Uno has been sitting on the workbench for about 3 years and I will need to learn how to use it first, but then isn't that the point of these Challenges. Peter

Not quite as I read it, the rules state "The rules are simple enough. Entrants must build a diorama that can fit in a standard 8-inch square cardboard cake box – the sort available from shops that sell cookery items. You don't display the model in the box (unless you want to) it's simply a guide to the maximum size, a bit like the cages you find at airports to show how large your suitcase can be." So it can be displayed within its own box, as long as the diorama fits within a standard box, which it will do. Peter

Well the mock-up didn't quite go to plan, Once built it highlighted a height problem, it's not that the height difference between tracks is an issue, but when you add in the support that is below the deck it far exceeds the box. I could have compromised by making a smaller height difference, and cutting down the support deck, but this seemed to make the whole thing a bit pointless, it would just become a freelance hoist, and I wanted something based on reality. A trip up into the black hole that's our roof dug put some of my 00 from the 1970's, and it started to look a bit more feasible. but for some reason, probably why I gave up on it in the first place, it didn't quite seem to do it for me, then I went back and dug a bit deeper. Now I always felt that TT was the greatest missed opportunity in model railways, if it had come along a bit later, when mechanisms could be engineered better, I think it could well have taken over as the most popular scale, but it somehow missed out. Using 3mm/ft the hoist may be a bit more challenging, but I think it gives greater scope to get a decent representation of the Leytonstone lift. I have also found some more photo's of it in use, so I will now start to plan the mechanical bits in detail. Once up and running the walls and building can be built around it. Peter

Might be worth a trip to Betws y Coed to see the work of the Master, Jack Nelson http://www.lnwrs.org.uk/Modelling/JackNelson.php Particularly Wavertree Station http://letsgoloco.co.uk/tag/jack-nelson-diorama/ I think Copenhagen Fields also played with reducing scale, but not sure if this was just buildings getting smaller towards the rear rather than the full tapering forced perspective. Its a fascinating subject, but it's hard enough to manage in one scale never mind different ones at either end of a model! Peter

No, it's poncey Architects trying to make things look old, quite a few around us, Either that or the builders can't count, and keep running out of windows. Peter

This was a bit bl**dy stupid when they built a recent development by us, being fibre optics I don't think they can move it without a huge cost. Peter

Instant disqualification - 'serious' - outside the spirit of the competition. Peter

Working with the diorama bases you get a leeway of 3.2mm on the width, and 2.4mm on the height, as they are to metric equivalents. - (and yes, I know I'm not the first person to work in metric.) I'm more woried how they will get them out if they're wedged in tight. And for those bending the rules to the limit, there's nothing about the box being dry, wet it and it will expand a bit (about 1.5%, just tried it). Peter

Or Stubby's Snuff, not to be sniffed at.. Peter

Close, Bourton on the Water, 48th state of Japan. Peter

Went out into the Cotswolds today and after a nice man in a GT6 let my grandson sit in his car. we found this little cracker, Once again it brought home the fact that what used to seem big cars are quite small in todays world. Peter

Surely it's not too difficult to find something close to your heart! https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/brands/arcade-bathrooms/sanitaryware There's a long tradition of sanitaryware manufacturers using canals to move their wares, Any idea where your scene is based? This might give a further steer as to traffic. Peter

Indeed! https://goo.gl/images/977Hx7

True but the idea goes back to 2010 on this forum, and probably earlier on the previous version, as Stubby points out, most 'new' ideas are re-incarnations, for my sixth box I'm thinking about recreating early Hornby O gauge, wwith their first shot at electrics. Should keep the grubby fingers off, Peter

One a month is the target I reckon, Peter

The one thing I have found on all these challenges is that nothing is new or original! - from 2010.... https://youtu.be/06vwe4bgC4s4 Peter

Oh, hang on a mo......? Peter

Good idea, but I think I have enough on my plate with 5 boxes and a cameo, so it would have to wait until everything else is done.........but it is worth thinking about.......... and I might build it with that plan in mind........ Peter

A sign would be more interesting visually than more windows but make sure it isn't too loosely connected, - it might fall off. Peter

I had settled on a quartet of cake boxes, but a couple of remarks on one of the threads fired off something in my brain that gave me an idea for a fifth, yet to be even fully formulated, that would give the whole project a nice coherent theme. As always when I'm looking for inspiration I put my new idea into Google, and I had decided to base my boxes on the 5 senses, and there couldn't be a better hint that I was on the right track than one of the first images that came up. So there we are, I'm now at five boxes not four, they will each be themed as one of the senses, some, like the cake will be easy, taste. Similarly the box of cakes in the cake box will be smell, it is a chocolate cake factory after all, and that's already thought through as to how it will work, I have all the bits I need to sort it. The view from the bridge will be sound, I have yet to fully experiment but want to hook up a couple of speakers to the Kindle, to enhance the bass, so that just leaves touch and sight. My initial thoughts were for a sight layout with a long train of some sort, possibly on a viaduct or similar, and using my old friend from Palin's Yard, the mirror, but it looked like it might be difficult to get a decent viewing position, and there is quite a lot of degradation of light in the mirrors. I think the 1/12th layout will be suitable to cover sight, after all people will look at people looking at a layout. This leaves it down to a touch layout, likely to feature some sort of animation controlled by the viewer, yet to be decided, a crane, rail mounted digger, or similar. Favourite at the moment is something which may be of use in the future, so it really ought to be O gauge, and I'm looking at the Leytonstone wagon lift. The principles of operation would be the same as my tippler, with a winding motor controlled by a hand held switch, and travel limited by mico-switches. In an ideal world a loco would push a wagon onto the platform, then withdraw, the hoist would lift, and a second loco would pull the wagon away at the top. This has more than a few problems, there isn't room for a wagon and a loco to sit to the side of the lift, and there would need to be automatic uncoupling. It's easier in 4mm, but the work would be wasted, in 7mm it might get re-used, so it looks like it may have to be a compromise, with just a wagon raising and lowering. It's tight height wise, so I need to get some rough plans drawn up, I suspect the control hut may push the rules to the limit by being spring loaded to retract when the lid goes on the box, but time will tell. Not what I really set put to do this morning, but I do have a year to do them, and much of the componentry is already lying around. My feeling is that it does make a nice rounded set, rather than a ragbag of disparate ideas, though some further thought is now needed to harmonize their appearance. And then there's the small matter of a Cameo, still at least I'm only doing one of those! Peter