MikeOxon

indeed it does. The problem seems to be that RMWeb adds stray characters on the end of the link - delete those and the original link works Mike

Many thanks for the link. I was amazed to see the similarities to my own 'design', which was loosely based on American practice. I like the idea, described in the article, of running back to the depot with two sets coupled together - totalling 3,200 hp. Quite something for 1908 It was interesting to see the interior too. I bet those resistor grids got hot at times! Mike

I didn't hit your problem with the W-irons, since I folded the long tabs first and, when I subsequently folded the sides, they seemed to mate up quite well. They also ended up slightly further apart, so not as splayed as yours but still not parallel. I agree about the under-size holes but, from comments I received on my blog, I was given to understand that this is pretty usual -still annoying, especially since opening out the holes in the very fragile brake shoe assemblies is b.... awkward. On the second chassis I made, I opened out all the holes while still on the fret, which was very much easier - see my diagram at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1405/entry-13324-six-wheelers-wip/ I also agree about the screw heads not fitting in their recesses - the instructions say they are cheese-head screws but those supplied with mine were CS, that didn't fit as described. If you've not found out already, you'll also need to open out the slot in the centre carrier for the 0.9mm rods from the end units to pass through - not easy, either, and should not be necessary! (the slot is in the foreground in your last photo) I gave the kit a 'thumbs up' because it does its job (when completed) very well, and covers a wide range of different wheelbases (which I needed). I do, however, empathise with your irritations over the fit of some of the parts. I came to this kit from a 'Scale Link' horse bus, which was extremely fiddly to build, so this kit seemed very straight-forward, in comparison! Mike EDIT: corrected name of source of horse bus

Give us a clue If you had crouched down a little, you could have missed out that horrid debris, showing above the platform edge. Otherwise, nicely observed. Mike

Photographs can be painful! I make something that I'm really pleased with and then take a photo and see all the mis-alignments,out-of-square bits, etc Fortunately, it seems that other people's eyes are more like mine than like my camera Mike

I always enjoy reading 'work in progress' reports - so long as you have the time and energy to write them. Your attention to detail is way beyond anything I do (yet!)

Great modelling, even if it's a depressing scene of devastation. It must be a very strange feeling to 'finish' something Mike

May thanks for your very detailed exposition on coach building. I have found loads of great ideas in this thread, which I hope to put into practice myself, soon. I found your analysis of the styrene warping issue very revealing, and your experiments with D-Limonene seem to be proving your point. On my own, similar, seat units, I added side members, which have reduced the problem very considerably but not so elegantly! The whole subject of glues is a thorny one, especially when one uses several different materials in construction. The ability to 'weld' plasticard with solvent is an important factor, when choosing this material, so anything that reduces side-effects is very helpful. I am currently investigating adhesives for attaching card to plastic and am experimenting with some book-binders' glues, which seem promising. Mike

i should have realised that you would have got it right - I corrected my earlier comment Mike

Strange coincidence! I don't like centre cab designs very much. Mine has roots in a Pennsylvania LVDC design for New York in 1909 - but heavily modified to capture something of Crompton's locomotives and Dean's liking for curves and clerestory roofs. Mike

According to Alan Peck's "The GW at Swindon Works", Dean wrote to the electrical engineer, Crompton, in 1892 that he had been instructed by the Chairman to discuss the subject of electrical haulage through the Severn tunnel. It seems that Dean showed no enthusiasm for the idea - perhaps he saw it as another potential 'atmospheric railway' type of disaster - and the correspondence fizzled out. Instead, Dean went on to build the 4-6-0 'Crocodile', to haul heavy freight trains though the tunnel. But what if the line had been electrified. What might a Victorian electric 'crocodile' have looked like? There's an article in 'The Engineer' dated June 13th,1890 (I like to keep up to date with my reading), which discusses the potential for development of main line electric traction and suggests some design parameters. (see: http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/4/49/Er18900613.pdf ). Crompton designed small 4-wheel locomotives for the London underground but these would be inadequate for main-line use. The Engineer article suggests that a heavy six-coupled locomotive, with 6 foot diameter driving wheels, each directly driven by an electric motor, might provide sufficient adhesion and power for main-line haulage. In view of the need for heavy freight working on the gradients in the tunnel, .then a double unit would seem appropriate, given the motor power available at the time. Six 150hp motors would provide 900hp and an overall weight of, perhaps, 70 tons, which should do the job fairly well. Possibly, the biggest issue at that time would have been the design of the power station itself - a state-of-the-art requirement, to match the engineering of the tunnel itself. It could also have been used to power electric pumps, anticipating the modifications eventually made in the 1960s. So, I give you the Dean/Crompton electric 'crocodile': Mike

I can feel the weight and strength of those girders! The young woman on the right makes an attractive addition to the pic

There's something I find rather fascinating about your latest, Western Sunset! I like the way the 'rhythm' of the curved line of seats echoes that of the orange doors along the train. At first, I didn't like the waste bin but it does echo the tower above the train, and the people add human interest. Even the circular sign on the path fits into the composition - it should be a GWR 'shirt button' (though not at that location!) An extra millimetre on the RHS would have got the whole of the end of the train but perhaps cropping a little off - back to the orange - would avoid that slightly unfinished look? I prefer this to some of your other recent shots where the train seemed too 'incidental' to the scene. Mike Edit - I didn't expand the pic to see that it is, in fact, complete

Nah - they're 0-gauge! When I first scrolled down to the first photo, my immediate thought was that it was a prototype photo! I use the same technique of a real sky 'backdrop' for my own model pics. I think it works very well. There's definitely something odd about that 56xx boiler though - in the photo it looks to have a reverse taper behind the smokebox. I'll hope to see these for real at Abingdon. Mike

I agree that brass is wonderful stuff - very forgiving!

I'm not sure I understand your comment re. TIFF. The format can handle colour and is what I've used for my printed coach sides, as described in my blog post at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1405/entry-13122-instant-chocolate-with-cream/ Mike

JPendle said: "I then printed it out and then cut it. After I'd done this I compared the pieces I'd cut to some I'd cut by hand and founs that they were bigger, around 10% bigger! " You could check the preference settings in the Studio software, There are settings in 'Studio' for import options, in the File | Preferences menu. Make sure you select the option to import "as is" - mine was initially set to "Fit to Page" I also note that there are printer options too - mine was on 300dpi, which I have changed to 1200dpi - hopefully for crisper details. Also, i always convert images to TIFF rather than JPEG, since the compression applied to JPGs can 'lose' fine details. Mike

Thank you, Mikkel. I can now confirm that 'welding' the sides to the ends has been sufficient to hold their shape. On the next one, I think I will incorporate a 'lip' on the edges of the roof, to conceal the join and ensure that the sides are held along their length. I've now added solebars, made from styrene channel. I fixed the ends of these but left the middle section free to flex slightly when the Cleminson centre unit slides. I intend to use the Silhouette to make some Mansell centres for the wheels. Mike

Thank you Snitzl. I value your comments. Mike

Good questions, Mikkel! I'll let you know when I have the answers I'm hoping the ends will be enough to hold everything true but, if not, I shall put some angle members inside the eaves of the sides. You are right to describe me as an experimentalist but I also like things to be simple, so I try to avoid complicated formers and braces. Sometimes, following the prototypical construction methods can be fascinating, but they are often not appropriate for a small-scale model. Mike

Since my last entry, I have been making slow progress with my coach construction. In fact, there has been a lot of trial and error, as I tried to find a way of incorporating printed sides from my Silhouette cutter. I have not scratch-built coaches before, so had a lot to learn, for which the various posts by Mike Trice in the Silhouette cutter thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouettecameo-cutter/?p=1278380 have been particularly helpful Although I had previously found that it is possible to use an inkjet printer on styrene sheet (by coating the surface first), I could not get as crisp an image as when using real photo paper. I've now evolved a system where I use photo paper for the outer layers of the coach side and 10 thou styrene for the inner layer. This allows me to weld the sides to other styrene components by means of MekPak (or similar). Another problem I had to address was how to achieve the curved 'tumble home' in the lower part of the coach sides. I finally hit on a method that uses a curved brass chassis to support the lower sides. I started with a simple rectangle of 10 thou brass sheet then scored and bent the edges to the required profile. I find brass is much easier than plastic card for this sort of task, as it holds a curved profile of its own accord. The brass platform also provides some weight, low down, and provides a secure fixing for the Cleminson chassis. I then glued the laminated sides to the outside of the ' upturned boat' profile of the chassis. For glazing, I used overhead-transparency acetate film, folded to a U-shape, to fit between the sides and under the roof. I built the seating and partitions as a separate module, which could be dropped inside the curved sides of the chassis. The 'seats' are simply cut from a length of styrene square tubing and serve to hold the 20 thou plastic card partitions in a vertical orientation. Side bars made from plastic card strips prevent the floor from bowing - which it does, if not reinforced in this way. The various parts fit together as shown in the following photo: The roof caused me a lot of head scratching. I tried building a box section for the clerestory out of plastic card but found it difficult to get the right profile. It could probably be done with thin plastic card and a lot of transverse formers but this was clearly going to be a fiddly assembly task. Then I thought I would try folding thin (5 thou) brass sheet, which proved surprisingly tough to fold to the profile I wanted. It would have been easier with proper bending jigs, as I was just using a vice and pieces of angle aluminium as a former. As it was, I had to work on the metal rather too much, to achieve the profile I wanted and it cracked along one of the folds. I repaired and stiffened the structure by running solder along the insides of the folds but, I think I will fabricate the next design from separate sections, soldered together. The rather rough bits will be covered by thin (10 thou) plastic card roof sheeting and by the printed clerestory sides, which I made in the same way as the main body sides. The structure is now coming together and I feel that it is going to work - after severe doubts earlier on in the process! Mike Next Post PS - I notice that I put the roof on the wrong way round for the photo! The clerestory lights do line up with the compartments! PPS - The sides are only tacked together with Bluetac for the photo - I hope to achieve a better fit in the end! PPPS - Th final coach can be seen in 'Railway Modeller', Nov.2014, "Computer-aided Cutting"

In post #541 of this thread, I described using a 1/8" diameter diamond dressing tool to etch the surface of plastic and brass sheets with the Silhouette cutter. Subsequently, when trying to mark small circles to represent rivets, I found that the results were rather mis-shapen. Investigation showed that the small diameter tool was only held on two moulding 'pips' at the tip of the pen holder, as shown in the photo below: The result was that the tip could rock slightly from side to side, so distorting curved shapes. I'm sure that this problem could be solved in a number of ways (e.g. adding packing around the tool) but I saw that Amazon also listed a 15/64" (6mm) tool of similar length, so decided to try this as an alternative. I cleaned up the end of the pen holder with a drill to provide a round aperture and inserted the larger tool, which was also held more firmly by the two fixing screws on the sides of the holder. As can be seen in the second photo, below, the diamond tip is now held firmly in both vertical and horizontal directions and engraves circles successfully Mike

and don't forget the crottin cheeses

Thank you for the info. I believe I read all the instructions, which are mainly very good, but did not spot any reminder to open out the holes, except if using an inside-bearing centre axle, when there is a note to ensure a running fit for the axle. I'll know to always check this point in future - one learns by experience. Perhaps, one day, I shall have made enough mistakes to be classed as an expert

I always enjoy 'before and after' views. There's something very satisfying about turning a simple cardboard box into a beautifully detailed model