MikeOxon

Thank you for the comment KH1. It's easy enough to deal with, but even easier if done at the outset!

This is an update on progress with building my GWR 6-wheel coaches. I have printed the sides, using the Silhouette cutter, but there is still work to do on the upper sides - why did I have to choose to build clerestory roofs! I have, however, built the Cleminson chassis from the 'Brassmasters' kit, so will share my experiences with this, so far. The kits are very well presented with detailed instructions and the 'extra bits' needed to complete them - wheel bearings, nuts and bolts, and brass rod. The etches themselves are very crisp and of an appropriate strength and thickness. I have scratchbuilt a simple Cleminson chassis before, so was able to appreciate how well thought-out this kit is. The way it can be adjusted for wheelbases from 18 feet to 27' 6" is very clever and I think the instructions do well to recommend using a highlighter to mark the options for the model under construction. It would be very easy to look at the wrong row of figures, otherwise! I suppose it is fair to assume that anyone making these will know a fair bit about what they are doing, but a few points could usefully be explained in the instructions. The two plates at the ends of the chassis have to be registered with marked slots and orientated correctly but it is not explicitly stated to which side of the chassis plate they should be fitted. Once you are into the swing of things, it becomes obvious but it would be good to be sent in the right direction at the outset. Some explanation of the function of the three 'pips' on the strengthening bars would also be useful. A minor problem is that many of the holes in the etches are fractionally under-size - better that than the other. I found it was necessary to ream them out a little for the (supplied) wheel bearings to fit and, also for the various 0.9mm brass rods to be inserted. I had already folded the parts, when I realised this and it is quite tricky opening out the holes in the very fragile brake shoes. I used a 0.95mm drill in a pin vice but it could still snag sufficiently to bend the brake hangers and mess up my careful alignment with the wheels. The small slot in the centre section also needed easing a little to let this part slide freely. I strongly recommend that anyone following in my footsteps should check all these clearances and open out wherever necessary before removing parts from the fret - I shall certainly do that next time. A final minor caution - put some loctite (or similar) on the nuts that hold the end pivots - they fall off in no time, if you don't! I'm pleased to see that the result does its job perfectly under my coach so, all in all, I think this is an excellent and well thought-out kit. Next job is to build the clerestories Mike Next Post

Glad to see you have take account of all the factors - I wish the climate change predictors could do the same! That plant-pot session sounds great

i spotted another photo of some one horse trolley design carts on the excellent Warwickshire Railways site at: http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrhd705.htm Note the text stating "Driver arrangements varied between areas; the Birmingham pattern had a box seat raised some 10 inches above the flat vehicle floor." Mike

Just counting the bricks in that small panel behind the bed-head yields 20 rows of10 = 200 bricks, so you are going to need a lot to represent all the rubble! Of course, you will use modellers methods to simulate the depth of the heaps and just use the individual ones on the visible surfaces! (won't you? ) Mike

I had assumed that this was a 4-cylinder engine - small cyls both outside and inside the front wheels. This would reduced the sid-to-side oscillation to manageable levels

I think you'd have a better chance of a response if you put this in the Classified - Wants area of the Forums. Mike

Many thanks for your detailed reply, Paul. I encountered this situation as a real problem when I was trying to incorporate a three-way point into an existing layout - see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/73339-scarm-layout-design-software-with-3d-–-all-users-topic/?p=1155042 I solved it in the end but it involved a lot of trial and error. As the video tutorial shows, the software needs 'help' when creating reverse curves. My suggestion is that, to make the software even easier to use and more versatile, it would be good to put some programming effort into making this process more 'intuitive'. This might involve some iterative solving technique to be built into the program. Mike

I agree that the wheels and axles do not 'work' in etched brass. Since Langley supply wheels separately, I may replace with those. There's a lot that I like about the brass kit, but the shafts and undergear are just too thin. Mike

That's the plan - I have a lot of work to do on the scenics, which I hope to get around to, when I stop building locos, coaches, and other vehicles Mike

There's a photo of a TVR horse lorry with a front board in 'Great Western Way' (p237 - 1st ed. 1978). The driver seems to be in the usual front-left position, rather uncomfortably perched on the front board. Mike

If you look at the video with all the flat carts in Glasgow that you posted earlier, most drivers are sitting on the load, or on a box, or just dangling their legs over the front corner - or they are walking with the horse! One is sitting right at the back of the cart with long reins! We soft 21st century types expect our creature comforts but, as you also commented before, in those days men were men! seat!!! pah!!!

I agree. On the other hand, there is a crispness about the body, which is lacking in the white metal version.

Lighting for model photography is a subject in itself. I have a couple of old150w halogen security lights that I use but they do get very hot! I replaced them in their original function with 10w LEDs and, as these are getting much cheaper, I think they are the future for lighting model railways. They emit negligible heat and provide a good bright white light - better than the compact fluorescent type.

Very atmospheric views, Mikkel. I particularly like the horse, with its head down in the bucket, and the way you have fashioned the weather sheet. On the subject of lettering, did you look if there was anything in 2mm scale ranges?. I feel that scratch-building is the way to go for these vehicles. The construction is generally fairly simple and plastic card and rod provide very good representation of the wooden construction of the real thing. Somehow, white metal or brass don't seem 'right'. Now you just need to build another dozen or so, to create the type of scene shown in your recent video posts! Mike

I hope that the design effort doesn't move too much into 'cosmetics' - this is not a railway simulator and I'd prefer to see more improvements to the program's useability as a track design aid. I still find reverse curves with flexible track quite tricky. For example, I find that a simple reverse curve made up of fixed sections is quite hard to replace with flexitrack between two fixed points. I would also find it useful to be able to check clearances as a long bogie vehicle is moved along a curved section. mike

Well, only two buses actually, but the latest one has given me enough trouble for 40! I described building a GWR horse bus from a white metal kit in an earlier post and commented then that an etched brass version might provide better details. I've now tried the etched brass kit from 'Scale Link' but it's not been easy! In fact, decidedly 'trying' at times. If you suffer from any signs of hamfisted-ness or less than perfect eyesight, do not attempt this kit! By 4mm standards, it is very fiddly and, as I progressed, I felt often needlessly so! The etch is only about 7.5 thou (0.2 mm) thick and hence, bends very easily. The instructions suggest building the box structure of the body first, which is only held together by a micro-thin strip above the rear door! I found there was no strength in the body, to allow me to either glue or solder the floor-well into place reliably. In the end, I flattened out the body again and soldered the floor-pan to one of the sides and then folded the body around the floor-pan, to solder the opposite side. This worked fairly well. Throughout the construction, however, it is impossible to apply any pressure, when attaching parts, as the structure just collapses. I found this very frustrating on several occasions. The instructions suggest fitting tiny details, like the lamps (very basic, with no back, bottom, or top) and the handbrake-lever, early on, where they would subsequently be very vulnerable to damage during the rest of the construction. I would say "do not do this!". There are many other places where both the design and instructions leave something to be desired. For example, although there is a very fragile brake lever, there are no brakes on the wheels! To assist construction, I used Blu-Tack to hold some of the tiny parts together during assembly..This was particularly useful when soldering the axle strip to the notches in the springs on each side of the body. The use of such a thin fret is a liability in several areas, not just from its lack of strength. For example, the wheels are only a scale 1/2 inch thick, rather than about 2.5 inches for the real coach. The axle itself is just a flat strip, so the wheels do not rotate, despite a complex construction involving two minute washers inside, and a washer and hubcap outside the wheel. The designer apologises for there being no working door handle but I would much rather have seen some etched spring detail, brakes, and ribs on the roof in the correct orientation. An advantage of etched brass is that some fine details, such as the rails around the roof, can be included but there was no obvious means to connect these at the corners. I left short lengths of the sprues in place, to facilitate connection, but there was still very little attachment area and, in trying to hold these joints together, I inadvertently broke off the rear rail - what was that about ham-fisted! I'm not even going to attempt fitting the micro-fine strips that are intended to form the beading around the body sides, though I might try sticking them with the paint, later. So, in summary, a delightfully delicate but somewhat flawed design. I feel that a mix between the rather 'chunky' white metal kit and this 'fragile' etched brass version could have resulted in a very good overall model. Next time, I'll scratch build one! I have another of these kits, to make a 'Victoria' carriage, but I am going to think how to provide a more robust structure, before starting the build, and I'll probably use different wheels. Good news - I've heard that my Cleminson chassis kits will arrive shortly - apparently, there has been a problem in the sorting office, which delayed my order - so I'll soon be able to put together some coaches, using my laminated sides Mike

Diamond scribers back on Amazon this morning (Sat 1st Feb) see http://www.amazon.co.uk/Round-Grinding-Single-Diamond-Dresser/dp/B00AUB86U0/ref=sr_1_5?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1391251685&sr=1-5&keywords=diamond+dresser

Re. my earlier post about a diamond scriber, I also bought a 9.8mm diameter dressing tool (too big for the pen holder of the Silhouette), Although it has a large 0.5 carat diamond, it is not so well polished and has a relatively coarse tip. I recommend anyone planning to try this method to look for the finer type of stylus, as shown earlier at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/?p=1324112 9.8mm dia. diamond dresser Mike

yes, and one in the eye for those who say all GWR engines look the same! It would be easy to find three 517s that no casual visitor would ever think were the same class - much easier than with a trio of A4s, say Mike

Oh, light-weight stuff The primary vessel of a Pressurised Water Reactor runs at around 155 bar (2,250 psig). The water remains liquid at 315°C due to this pressure.

I think that part of the success of the diamond is due to the small tip radius. Guessing that this is around 5 thou diameter, The surface contact area on the brass sheet calculates to about 0.00002 square inches. The cutter force at a 'thickness' setting of 33 is 230g (0.5 pounds), so the pressure over the contact area works out at around 25,460 lb/sq.in. (try that for a boiler pressure!!!) This is why diamonds are used for applications such as LP record styli. Other materials simply wear away under the pressure (even at a few grams playing weight): Trying to increase the contact area would reduce the pressure and, hence the depth of cut. If the lines are not sufficiently visible, I would suggest drawing a group of closely-spaced lines, rather than trying to increase the stylus size. On my sample, the lines are quite clearly visible, though I haven't tried painting yet. Mike

Thank you Don. Certainly a very variable 'class' but they all have lots of character. Plenty of scope for building some more, different ones Mike

Since the diamond point is simply 'drawing' on the surface, I didn't think it should cause a problem. If anything, I suspect there was less drag than on the styrene - the scribe marks are very fine. Mike

I have followed up a suggestion made by raymw at post #394 of this thread.( http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/?p=1294473 ). He suggested using a grinding wheel dressing tool as a scriber. The specific model he suggested is no longer available from Amazon but its 9.8mm diameter was rather large for the Silhouette penholder. Instead, I have tried a 1/8" x 2" Round Shank Grinding Wheel Single Point Diamond Dresser Tool from Amazon. EDIT see later post #577 for 6mm dia. tool,which is a better fit in the pen holder. This fits easily into the pen holder and, with a net weight of only 4g, seems unlikely to overload the cutting head. The diamond point was protected by a plastic cap and I reversed this to the other end, to provide a grip for the set-screws in the pen holder. For a model that I'm currently planning, I shall need a diagonal planked floor, so I traced a drawing of this, using the Silhouette 'Studio' software, and then stuck an offcut of 30 thou styrene sheet onto the cutting mat. I selected a 'thickness' (i.e. pressure) setting of 33 and double-cut mode, and then 'drew' on the styrene with the diamond point. The results were very pleasing. I have used oblique lighting in the following photos, to show the score marks more clearly and, in the first picture, I have not brushed off the swarf, to indicate what was removed. The diagonal 'planks' are 2.3mm wide. Remember that this was just a traced drawing, so the cut lines are a little strange in places, but a close-up shows the quality of the scribe lines. Flushed with this success, I then mounted an offcut of 10 thou brass sheet on the cutting mat and repeated the identical process. Again the results look good, with clean sharp cuts. There was a fair bit of plastic swarf on the end of the pen holder after cutting but this brushed off easily and the next photo is of the diamond tip after the two trials described above. The machine showed no signs of distress during the drawing process, which seems to proceed exactly as if drawing with a pen. My mind is now racing with a whole new set of possibilities for this 'simple' cutter - diamond-etched plates, etc, etc Mike EDIT these dressers seem to have disappeared from Amazon - the supplier was named as 'sourcing map' and they list them at http://www.sourcingmap.com/1mm-taper-point-3mm-shaft-grinding-diamond-diamond-dresser-cap-p-430823.html?currency=GBP&zenid=9ba7783952d253a8354f74558056e3ac EDIT2 back again (1 Feb) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Round-Grinding-Single-Diamond-Dresser/dp/B00AUB86U0/ref=sr_1_5?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1391251685&sr=1-5&keywords=diamond+dresser EDIT3 (11 Mar) Larger shank (see Post #577) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Diameter-Tapered-Diamond-Dresser-Grinding/dp/B009IO8CK4/ref=sr_1_14?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1394448896&sr=1-14&keywords=diamond+dresser