otherplanet

How would BR delivery vehicles have been refuelled at in the 1950s early 60s? I am thinking small urban stations, rather than the bigger city goods yards. Would they have received a dedicated fuel supply to store on site. Or would they have just refuelled at the local petrol station with everybody else? Thank you

On investigation Das Micro receivers are not dsm2/dsmx compatible, so would need a different transmitter However It appears that mikromodelbau.de still have some deltang Rx in stock. Not cheap & a maximum of 1 per order. But they have accepted my order. They also state that they are working on their own replacement, but it will use a different protocol

Eek. That's a disaster. I have just enough to complete the Stronach Dutton fleet. As I bought spares after the last wobble in supply. But the new club layout is being planned to support a 1960's fleet. I know Micron were working to develop their own alternatives, but they seem to have stalled after the first one There is also the Das Micro range, but they don't seem to be so sophisticated in the secondary functions and integration of the motor ESCs etc. Never tried their reciever, although the motor drive board I got worked very well.

Further development work. The tractor needs to mount and dismount from the rail bogie, so I have been trialling different ramps. It took a bit of debugging, but the dismount now works reliably 10 out of 10 times. Remounting is much harder, mostly reliable if you manage to line it up within about +/-1mm left to right. Which needs more practice! The original ramps tended to slip around as the road wheels touched them. But adding magnets underneath gave enough grip for them to work. The magnets also mean the ramps can in theory be moved out of the way once the front wheels have passed, rather than bumping the rear wheels over them. Either by sliding the magnets under the track. Or tilting them by 90deg, which will cause the ramps to tilt on their sides. At least they work when I test by hand. I haven't tried building a mechanism to do it yet. Either way. They are a bit chunky to be prototypically moved as each ramp is basically 2 half sleepers glued side by side. But anything less requires exceptional driving accuracy and is too inclined to topple over with the weight of a misaligned tractor. Rubber tyres are still in development. Applying the recommended cure time left them hard, with poor friction. So I am running a trial comparing cure times. The best so far is slightly higher friction than EFE lorry tyres. But not as good as a rubber band. Not yet tried them on the RoadRails tractor.

A short video of the Guy tractor hauling my newly finished models of the 4 wheel wagons that ran on the Stronachie distillery tramway. Unfortunately quite a bit of wheel slip, so still work to do. But I am very pleased with how they look as a set. This is running with the plasti dip coated wheels. I will run a series of tests and then convert to the new soft resin tyres and compare the performance

My latest experiment is to try printing rubber tyres. I have been wanting to try this for a long time, even before I had my own printer. However the price of prints from the printing bureaus that could do elastomeric materials back then were extortionate. These days there is a broad range of flexible resins and I finally got to a useful point in a project to make it worth giving it a go. Below is 2 sets of prints, the grey wheel hubs are my usual hard resin. The white are the corresponding tyres in Resione F39. (I haven't finished cleaning off the supports etc) The F39 is described as a soft rubber like material, its a little firmer than I expected, but has printed very well. It doesn't show up well in the white, but there are features in the side walls and a tread texture on the circumference. The surface finish seems to be fairly grippy, I am using a set of EFE tyres as my point of reference and without resorting to a scientific test, they appear to have similar friction. Obviously friction is the key requirement here to ensure good traction, I chose a white rather than a black or grey resin as for the older vehicles some of them pre-date common use of carbon black in the tyres. and even modern tyres aren't jet black, at least not on the tread surface. So my plan is to try some of the dyes that are available and see how good a colour match I can get. If all else fails, there is an equivilent black resin from the same supplier. The wheel hubs on the left are from the Stronach Dutton tractor, essentially the same model as I made for the original model, but with the tyre section removed. My hope is that these will make a better replacement for the current hard resin wheels painted in plasti-Dip. The wheel hubs on the right are for some 1950's lorry's that I am working on for my club layout, my hope is that being able to make the wheels will give more flexibility in design. But also means I can shape them to suit the wheel bearings etc. I will let you know how they perform, once I get something running

I recently joined the East Bedfordshire Model railway society. We were at the Stafford exhibition last weekend which was great fun. I took the fleet of lorries, they are mostly rather early prototypes for the layout. But it gave a good chance to dust off the old ones, and give the new ones a proper shake down and see how they worked. Mostly things went OK..although the layout was never designed for the road vehicles to move, so the hills are steep. The yard is narrow and the gates glued with one closed, so only the K8 could leave the yard. Never the less. I was very happy and there was much interest from the visitors.

That's really nice work. Hats off to you. And we'll done for finding that problem on the buses. That is a good trip to keep an eye out for.

Do you have the selects function enabled (intentionally or otherwise) And if so, is the transmitter setup for it too. There is a mode, at least on some receiver's, where the reciever will continue with whatever it was doing when selecta is changed to another 'notch', until it switches back. I think deltang referred to it as cruise control or something similar. So if the selecta is drifting off the relevant output setting you could loose control. Not sure why that would interact differently with multiple transmitters though. Either way. Congratulations on winning best layout.

That's an impressive kit and build. Well done. I have seen it on shapeways. But it's not my era. Is this one all gears, worms and lead screws. Or does it have any of the functions powered by winch driven fishing line? I've seen that type of drive on a number of the excavators on YouTube and I'm interested to know what the subtleties of implementation they might use. But the direct drive via lead screws looks more robust

For some EU suppliers. The previously mentioned solExpert. But also https://www.mikromodellbau.de/ And https://shop.kkpmo.com/index.php?language=en&=&= In the UK. You already have them in you list. But http://www.micronradiocontrol.co.uk/ have a really good reputation for their knowledge and helpfulness particularly with respect to the deltang receivers and transmitters No connections other than as a satisfied customer.

I appreciate that this is being a bit cheeky, as I have been sharing the build of this project in the "Radio Control" section. But I realise there is not so much cross over between the readers of the threads and thought this might be of interest to the "Road Vehicles" group as well. I have been working on a representation of the Stronach Dutton, Road Rail tractors. As found in the book by R G Cash plus several websites. These were built in the 1920's as a solution to creating a light weight, low cost railway solution that could be built with much lower weight rails as they didnt need to carry the weight of a heavy locomotive, or incurr such heavy engineering works as they could climb steeper hills. I have used these various sources to reverse engineer it into a CAD model, which I have printed on a Phrozen 4k mini printer. The resulting model is equipped with proportional radio control allowing steering, and forward reverse, plus the turning on the rear light should it be required. It therefore can run on the road, and when using a 3D printed bogie under the front axle, it can run on rails. For more details, the main thread is here.

Thank you for the thoughts. I shall have a look at those. I also found some 3D printed resin figures, which whilst not heavy, were very nice. Military figures, for a range of different forces in a small set with a couple of different poses inlcuding changing gear on each side. The british army drivers have relatively little "uniform" being coat off, with braces showing. Things like the helmet proved relatively easy to file off. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353321732871?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D245820%26meid%3De9ef5f558a9b4e468d09d4c91fb00111%26pid%3D101195%26rk%3D9%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D353385772074%26itm%3D353321732871%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLv11WebTrimmedV3MskuWithRevOptLambda85KnnRecallV1WithCassiniImageSim%26brand%3DUnbranded&_trksid=p2047675.c101195.m1851&amdata=cksum%3A353321732871e9ef5f558a9b4e468d09d4c91fb00111|enc%3AAQAHAAABMBTnULwZvkwwvWb54Sp3TESux6kFTXxeByyFeTbBEJTAHELVvJ%2BnpiRCZsaEJO6SgqSsQIHvbg9YL2jxELBYJZWPAuIRQj6%2FC29lmsqlxuBANzF9vwNwtN%2FyDnrirEhai6ShSu5AU9noAMSUzCMvkOI3WZ2H1wCLUzAnXlT7arx%2BoptCufG%2BkImbmYjnU5Ibny6ARc4MeC1M2Z6yODc7YCE1HDNqCI9K0HlQNWDJEfd8D7s%2BWZ99G5l%2FA%2B9CpMafiMTg8Or8bz0EZ2RSGhrgOtPpZdvld42QUsATzHXF%2BODhu3uoY26dBbmp61izALZGa24ZQcOHU5aJCee62oCrYv3ziZDvyOo%2B07ZO2LnZHoYb7QbUq1amvn2eJNjTjWP73HEzsGDtOuyg9%2BC2A5o9ioY%3D|ampid%3APL_CLK|clp%3A2047675 They also come in a range of scales including 1:72, 1:76 and 1:87 I have tried adding a jacket, to one, but so far my sculpting skills have failed me, so I need to try again. One nice detail is they ship inside their own little 3D printed protective cage. However these will be for a future project, the white metal figure, whilst too tall added the much needed weight and has been installed. However, I am always looking for more for the and appreciate the suggestions Thank you.

Oh. that is a real shame. They make / made superb models. If I had known I would have put in one last order.

However. Here are a couple of the latest photos of the Road Rail tractor This is now about cosmetically complete. I need to find a metal horn to go by the driver. something robust enough to survive contact with my fingers or a crash into the trees. But other than that, I am happy with the weathering and extra details. At least until things progress significantly on other parts of the project. I may yet go back and have another go at jacking up the front a little, its too easy for the wheels to catch the underside of the cab and then the wheel locks and everything goes sideways. and one in artistic black and white

Thank you for your comments. Yes unfortunately many of my photos were lost in the great purge. I had left it in the hope that more would recover themselves. But I think that time has passed. I should go and replace them, but it never seems to float to the top of my to-do list. Part of the problem is several of them were cropped etc specifically on phones which are long since retired, and therefore don't have an exact matching file name to search for in my archive. I will try to get around to it. But dont promise anything soon.

I love these low squat style of locos. They look so purposeful and technically efficient to squeeze everything needed into the minimum height. Nice work Giles.

I am intrigued by the reason for not being able to run on normal 2 rail power, all the options I can think of suggest it will be an interesting project. If you are unable to remove the batteries and therefore must recharge. The best you should expect to achieve is about 1hr recharge time. But there are 2 considerations. Firstly, maximum charge rate of the battery. You should avoid charging at a rate of more than the capacity per hour. E.g. if it's a 250mAh battery, do not exceed 250mA charge rate. Note, may still take more than an hour. It's more complex than filling a bucket from a hose Secondly, available charge rate from your battery. This sounds obvious, but at the smaller capacities you are likely to be using for OO9, it is harder to find fully adjustable chargers. so if you can only find a charger that runs at 200mAh and 600mAh, your 250mAh battery will obviously take longer. Your discharge rate / time has more variability depending on your motor choice and battery. You can buy batteries with higher discharge rates ("C" rating) but if you are making use of this, you will have run out before your recharge hour is up, assuming you are running continuously. Your receiver will also brown out before you get to completely flat (Batteries don't like that anyway) Apply a healthy dose of safety margin. My 70mAh battery trucks draw about 65mA but only last about 40 mins heavy running. My first exhibition with these, I had 2 road vehicles, and only occasionally had to swap the batteries instead of recharging. But I had the safety net that they were secondary operating feature to the normal railway. Things were not going to grind to a standstill if I couldn't keep them running I am planning a small radio controlled exhibition layout and consider 3 locos to be the absolute bare minimum. 1 running, 1 charging, 1 spare. (And would rather have 4). And I have other moving stock on the layout which will run alternately with these locos, to spread the running time over a longer period. If you would normally have 2-3 I would recommend 3-4. And try them out for prolonged running sessions before your first show. Oh. And remember, the batteries will deteriorate with use, which will eat into your safety margin. Good luck and please share your progress.

Running on rails is an important aspect of whether this is usable. So I have started a small test track / running-in circuit. Of course as soon as the first decent section is laid, it needs to be tested to make sure the I haven't messed up on the min radius or gradients. I have used very fine N gauge ballast to represent the roadstone set into grooves pressed into the Das clay on the outside of the rails. The video on BFI showed the sleepers were covered between the rails but only by a shallow depth of soil leaving a relatively deep trough. The tractor seems to ride OK although the bogie snags on the slightest obstruction and needs better quality bearings. I have now added home printed decals for the number plate, axle weight and speed limit plates and name plate on the front of the cab. I also decided the roof in the same yellow as the body just didn't look right, so I have changed it to white. Which feels much better, if a little 'Stroudley-esq'

What is your time period and subject matter of choice? There are a wider range of civilian prototypes from the military model trade if you look beyond the big names. For example WD models do some subsidiary trucks that were available before WW1 and we're then both resold by the war department and continued to be made by the manufacturers for many years. The same principle applies to some vehicles every era since. If you Google Henk of Holland. His website is an encyclopedia of the military modelling world. There is a couple of threads in the road vehicles section of RM web that have discussed alternate sources of OO scale vehicles. Although this does suffer the same problem of a prominence of die casting. Are you open to 3D printing. There is starting to grow a range of vehicles available to buy ready printed, or download if you have access to a printer. It's not a huge range, but noticeable growing. Again. Don't just stick to the big names like shapeways.

Its been a while, as usual. All the hard work on the uncoupler proved fruitless when the battery proved to be slightly bigger than I had thought (should have measured it more carefully.) So the uncoupler has been removed and the receiver, wiring etc all installed. I have also detailed up the cab, added a driver, the grills to the back and some paint. After a little running in, it is now pretty smooth and I am very happy, the 3D printed gears are currently holding up well, but time will tell. The steering has a little too much travel so the front wheels can catch the chassis on full lock, but they turn smoothly and precisely. I am not happy with the front compensation which has sagged and doesn't compensate, so the front is a little too low and it waddles over bumps. There is still much detailing to add, from the crank handle to the tail light, number plates and some light weathering. Colour was selected after a lot of online discussions, review of the photos and discussions with some people who have spent a lot more time studying the prototype than me. One mentioned a memory that the Stronachie tractor was described as yellow or lime green. Given that Yellow Oche was a common, low cost colour at this time and the whiskey industry is obsessed with the colour amber. I decided to go with that for the body, the early photos show the wheels and axles in a much darker colour, and I think the brown contrasts nicely. I am still not sure whether the roof shouldn't be white. Its almost invisible on the photos, I am a little concerned it might look too 'Stroudley'. The big glowing light in the back is the status LED from the RX43 receiver, it will need to be covered over, but not until the tail light is fitted to substitute as the feedback. Until then it will have to look like there is a fire in the engine bay

Thank you. That's a different source, I have not heard of them before.

Thank you. Unfortunately Andrew Stadden's figures, whilst beautiful, do not really include any in suitable poses for drivers. I had forgotten about Dart castings, which is odd since I do have some of their other kits in my stock box. Unfortunately most of their figures with suitable poses are also in uniform, but there are definitely some possibilities there. Thanks.

Could anyone please help with sources of model drivers for fitting into the cab of road vehicles. Specifically my interest is Edwardian to mid 1920s. Ideally I am looking for cast metal as they are for 00 scale radio controlled vehicles, therefore every fraction of a gram is valuable for traction / steering performance. But resin, 3D prints etc are tolerable if metal is not available. I am also most interested in general goods, IE not uniformed bus drivers, although these are of interest. I am modelling in 00 scale, but I am open to using 1:87, especially as the inside of model cabs tend to be undersize due to practical limitations on wall / roof thickness. I already have a good stock of Langley figures, but run out of the most suitable without resorting to duplicates, so wish to move away from this as my main source. They also seem a little large (again especially when squeezing into a cab) I have found some good sources on military figure sites. But they tend to have very distinctive uniforms. Whilst I don't mind a bit of tweaking, filing or adding sculpting paste. I would prefer to minimise the effort. similarly locomotive footplate crew tend to be uniformed and often the wrong pose, although at least raised arms are easier to repose than when folded in the lap or other normal seated figure poses. Any suggestions welcome. Thank you in advance

Technically the Kiel Kraft Foden is the C-type that wasn't launched until the 20s. The WW1 model is the 'Foden 5 ton'. Which has squarer panels down the side of the boiler rather than flared. Traction engine steering rather than Ackerman and a number of other differences. But you may consider the differences small enough to suit your needs.