Jump to content
 

drduncan

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,852

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Comments posted by drduncan

    wenlock

    Posted

    19 hours ago, blenny said:

    Julian here from Taff Vale Models.  I've been reading this thread with interest. Those kit builds are superb and I look forward to seeing the painted models. I would like to mention that the length of the model from the U9 kit we sell is, as it should be, approximately a scale foot shorter than that of the R2 from the same range and is not a case of "creative" marketing :). I also agree that the photo's on the website are not clear, this is something I am slowly addressing across the range within our online shop.

    Having said that, I feel that the profile error on the existing U9 etch is unacceptable and with that in mind the kit will be withdrawn from sale in its current form. In order to address this in the longer term, I am in the process of drawing up a new version 7mm/ft. kit for this type and may well release a 4mm/ft. version too if there is interest.  Just to prove it, here is one of the new coach sides I am working on:image.png.30c9143158d8845cb7814a8f4841cc19.png

     

    I'll be making changes to the chassis design, lamp irons and other details as the kit develops. So I don't hijack this thread, I'll start a new one on this subject once I have something on my workbench. I have had a request for a U10 as well so currently mulling that over.  Morgantown Crecent!

    As I recall from Richard’s splendid site a U10 is identical to a U9 with flat ends but with a clerestory roof. It stuck in my mind as a good candidate for CAD as I’d get two coaches for only a bit more work than for one - and then I got seduced by the power of the Broad Gauge (at least for a little bit).  
     

    For Regularity: I’m working on a D2 to go with my Blacksmith R2 kit…

     

    Duncan 

    • Like 1
    Dave John

    Posted

    On 23/05/2021 at 00:23, Dave John said:

    It may well be Regularity. However they have no couplings and so can only be propelled. 

     

    Um, a sneeze of bogies sounds just wrong, 

     

    Two of them will end up with magnetic ajs, but I want the corridor connections to look as if they are connected so I'm going to have to think something up. 

    If the corridor connection is flexible could you use small rare earth magnets to make the illusion of working connections complete?

    Duncan

     

    • Like 1
    MikeOxon

    Posted

    On 23/04/2021 at 05:24, Mikkel said:

    Very nice, I'm looking forward to the rivets. Won't that be tricky for the printer?

     

    That boiler support arrangement for the early locos sounds bit dodgy!

    The Fusion 360 pattern tool allows you to ‘follow a path’ eg the edge of a saddle tank and you can tell it how far apart you want the rivets.  I am using it on the locos on my 3D workbench with some success (but not on one particular design and I can’t fathom why).

    D

    • Informative/Useful 2
    MarshLane

    Posted

    My son has an n gauge layout in order to keep clear water between daddy’s trains and teddy’s trains.... it hasn’t worked....

     

    He was entranced by John Greenwood’s north Cornwall layout at Jerry’s show and complains constantly that his model railway isn’t a proper one (ie not up to exhibition standard). He was 7 last week.  
     

    Still it might give me an excuse to do Keyham in 2mm - it will never fit in the space available in 4mm (I was thinking Ivybridge and then Saltash in 2mm but others have got there first ....).

    D

    • Like 3
    MarshLane

    Posted

    Rich,

    As an EM modeller, mixed gauge GWR to boot, I think your plan and reasoning is excellent.  I have thought many times that if the n gauge offering 30 years ago was as good as it is now I’d have gone to 2mm rather than EM (although that would make scratching my broad gauge/mixed gauge itch a really difficult task pre 3D printing...)

     

    I look forward to reading lots more....

     

    Duncan

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
    drduncan

    Posted

    On 01/03/2021 at 11:14, Captain Kernow said:

    I'd echo what Mikkel has said here. This is just superb information.

     

    The tips that Duncan has so kindly provided are also very relevant if you are building your own chassis, either from a kit or from scratch.

     

    The tip about the 30 thou on the GW Models wheel press is intriguing and I may well try that myself.

     

    One thing that I do try to do, when building a chassis kit with AG or Ultrascale wheels, is to make as many of the wheels sets as possible, capable of being dropped out for maintenance.

     

    Dear Cap'n K,

     

    Thanks for the very king comments and you are absolutely right that the points I make are just as relevant if you are building your own chassis.  

     

    Having wheel sets that can drop out is a boon, but very often hard to achieve in practice.  Some years ago I had a lovely chat at an exhibition with the extremely pleasant Chris Gibbon of High Level kits (I think he has the best designed chassis and instructions on the market) and he agreed that it was useful, but from a designer's perspective hard to achieve without making things either over complicated or hard to assemble (or both).   I don't think he is wrong...  and so many people have so many different preferred methods of current pick up and compensation that pleasing all of us is, I think, impossible!

     

    That said, I do try to build my chassis with drop out wheelsets, but my good intensions often get frustrated by:

    • Springs on the chassis preventing hornblocks dropping out  (this can be designed out but often isn't on chassis kits)
    • Fixed rear axle for 3 point compensation (CSB gets round this, but very few chassis that I've come across are designed for this and it can be a big job to do yourself)
    • Hornblock design (some are better than others for 'drop out' design - Highlevel are my preference)
    • Motor unable to pass through chassis (and unable to easily remove it from the gearbox in situ).
    • Pick up bus bars getting in the way  (it all depends on how much is visible when peeking under the boiler.  Some locos are very open and you can see everything (or the lack thereof) between the frames, other are less so and better candidates for busbars above the line of the axles)
    • Break gear rods getting in the way. (Can be designed out, but can make things very complex)

    Still it can be done, but isn't for the fainthearted or the inexperienced chassis builder unless the kits is designed that way.  Split axle chassis are probably a good starting point as they solve the pickup busbar problem, but the others will still remain.  

     

    All the best 

    Duncan

    • Like 1
    • Informative/Useful 1
    Brassey

    Posted

    Although I must confess to a weakness for the small and large metro ever since seeing one pictured in the late Victorian early Edwardian period at Newquay with a train consulting of a 6w clerestory luggage composite at each end of a bogie brake tri-comp.  

     

    Happily, pI got a Metro in a job lot of built non runners.  I’ve stripped it down but it will need a new chassis if I keep it: it has a cast white metal one at the moment.  
     

    D

     

     

×
×
  • Create New...