bill-lobb

Yep, I'm pretty sure that is the one. I really like those cranes. Now I'm going to have to start thinking about checking the 2mm Scale Association D299 kits for those washer plates.

One thing to be careful of here. The date is 1920, which is after common user rules were introduced during WW1. Prior to WW1 a wagon had to be returned empty to the owning company. Under Common User they could be used as wished by the company on whose rails they were unloaded. This would have led to a greater mixture of wagons than would have been the case prior to that. There is a photograph in (I think) Midland Record of the Midland Railway's Avonmouth docks near Bristol. In it every wagon is Midland, except for a couple of Somerset & Dorset.

Good tip, Jerry. I just gave it a try. As far as inside straps are concerned, if I believe the RCH drawing in the Ince Wagonworks book there are more than outside. Each side of the corner plates have two internal washerplates corresponding to the two lines of bolts and a short horizontal one across the top - a bit like a tall thin Stonehenge. There were two of those assemblies for each cornerplate, plus the side knees and straps holding the door together. That's just the drawing of course - I don't know how the wagons were actually built because not many photos show the insides. I really shouldn't take photos of my models. That gap between the headstocks and solebars is worse than I thought. Bill

True, But apart from allowing the cylinder centre to be closer to the frames, it also applies the major thrust to the leading crankpin closer to the wheel, so that doesn't need to be so beefy. In any event, off the top of my head I believe the Midland Compounds, NER Class Z Atlantics and the Adams Radial tanks all had the connecting rod inside. So it was not too unusual an arrangement. Edit. I'm not 100% but it looks to me as if that Hudswell Clarke 2-4-0 a few posts ago has the same arrangement.

Where the drive is onto the leading coupled wheel it is possible to put the connecting rod inside the coupling rod - see the Midland Compounds. Bill

So... Midland Railway, Bristol - Gloucester in the 1840s?

I have a bound copy of "The Locomotive Journal" published by ASLEF for the years 1906 - 1907. In it one F W Brewer wrote a monthly article on locomotive matters. He decried building large locomotives on the basis that it was inefficient to build expensive locomotives that then spent much time working at less than full capacity. If that was the Midland board's view it would seem they were not entirely alone. Bill

The outside LP cylinder cranks were set at 90deg to each other with the inside at 135 so as others have said the answer is 4 beats . However for a period no 1098 was modified to have the 3 cranks at 120 deg to each other. That must have sounded pretty odd.

I went for the Powercab on the basis that it was not too expensive but allowed full programming unlike the other starter price systems. I didn't want to buy a full system and then find I didn't like it. The tradeoff is that it only allows one other throttle to be added, but that is not an issue for me. Bill

Interesting. I had missed those NSR wagons. The NER drawing was apparently dated 1879, so a similar timescale.

Ah yes - I do have that book. My turn to admit I had forgotten about it. Bill

Thank you, Andy. It looks fine on paper, but I haven't managed a decent print yet, partly (I hope) because I have changed to a new type of resin and am still experimenting with the settings for it. I'm possibly being a bit perverse as every photograph I have seen looks like the Tatlow drawing rather than the one I am using. As I say, I just like it. Is the NERA album the "Diagrams of Wagons"? I find those rather tantalising as there is enough detail to get you interested, but not enough to make a model without further information. Bill

That does sound reasonable, especially given that the earliest of these wagons incorporated parts from earlier wagons. Bill

Hi Jim, That is exactly what they look like, but in fact there were buffer shanks and heads protruding from the ends and a leaf spring connecting the two shanks behind the headstock. See the attached extract of R H Lacy's drawing from North Eastern Express. The photographs seemed to suggest that they were changed for more conventional buffers, as in the photo in Andy's link. I personally have never seen anything like them in ay other wagon, so I wanted to model them this way. Now I just need to work out how to model the chassis and the also rather unusual NER Central Division brake gear. Bill

I'm working on a 3D print of one of them. Mine is based on the drawing that was in the NERA magazine some time ago, and doesn't look quite the same: it has a single row of bolts on the cornerplates and the bufferrs housed in rather strange extensions to the solebars.

I'm really enjoying this thread. It makes me all nostalgic for my days at junior school racing the trains that ran along the Fawdon Waggonway beside the playing field. You are probably already aware of it, but if not there is a decent photograph of one of the Charles Roberts hoppers and some dimensions in Bill Hudson's Private Owner Wagons V 4, Plate 87. Bill

At least part of the reason David went for 3.14mm to the foot is that it is an approximation to the value of pi. He calls it P pi scale. He teaches maths after all.

I can't speak for all, but the Chitubox slicer allows you to copy the same thing multiple times. Bill

I agree, I am no expert in Fusion 360 but I find it very slow. I once timed it at 5 1/2 minutes pause while it thought about creating an ellipse. Could be my computer I suppose, but I don't get anything like that in other programs I use (Designspark Mechanical, Blender and DoubleCAD). As far as 2D CAD is concerned, you doi seem to be able to export dxf files, but I have not found any way of creating layers within the drawing. Maybe it is hiding there somewhere.. Bill

Thank you Julia. I am not too confident of doing things as drastic as changing the motor as yet. Bill

Hi Julia I have looked at those Usova spindles before. What do you think of using their planetary gear head rather than fitting a new motor to reduce spindle speed? Bill

I am with Chris here. I have tried OpenSCAD, Sketchup, Designspark Mechanical, Fusion360 and Blender. Admittedly I am still learning that last 2, but OpenSCAD is most definitely my favourite. I find it less likely to produce leaky meshes. Reteurning to etching, I have no experience whatsoever, but the 2D CAD package I use is DoubleCAD -a freebie from the TurboCAD stable. It appears to be positioned as a rival to AutoCAD LT. Bill

Thank you for that. The detail certainly looks very good. Do you know a UK supplier? At the moment I don't seem to be able to find one. Now I am torn between doing the sensible thing and following proven experience or following my contrary side and trying something new. Bill

Can I ask a question? I am just coming to the end of the bottle of green resin that came with my Photon. What sort of resin does anyone prefer for their models? Does anyone have experience of Weistek ABS like resin?

I'm pleased it has made someone happy. Bill