andi4x4
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Posts posted by andi4x4
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Nice to see some I.O.M stock behind that, Neil ! Is it a Roundhouse "Katie" ? I have some of the matching "Pairs" coaches and an Accucraft "Viking", but, as yet, nowhere to run them !
I also recently took delivery of one of the new Mamod battery diesels "Bolton" - placed my order as soon as they were announced, and it was delivered within a couple of weeks. Have to say, I am very impressed with it so far - Build style/quality is typical Mamod - simple but effective - easy to dismantle for modification, etc. It was supplied as manual control, but, I will eventually be converting it to RC and adding some detail.
Looking forward to the release of their new Stirling loco early next year, too.
Hopefully, the new year will bring better luck with house purchases and will see me with property which will lend itself to the construction of a garden railway !
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Hi All, slightly off Topic.
But I'm proud to announce that I have won the 2017 Bala Christmas Painting Competition, as voted for by the people of Bala in the Tan yr Hall Gallery.
This was the Painting that I submitted, with Bala Lake / Llyn Tegid, and Arun Mountain in the background. Click on painting to enlargre
See my comments in post http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/120051-kings-moreton-wr-through-oxfordshire/page-97#entry2895422
I was impressed then and still impressed now !
Congratulations on winning - it was well deserved !
Did it sell ?
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Duncan has a preference for Steam so we tried a couple but for some reason, tonight they were on strike, slipping with just 20 Vans behind the Black 5 and the Jubilee slipping with just a few Fish vans and the 8F giving up after a few inches.
Snow Go ?!
Or Wrong kind of (tea) leaves on the line !?
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That is already turning out to be a very photogenic little layout, Andy ! Superb use of a very small space !
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Oh my Andi.....
What a trauma you've encountered here ....hope that matters will be resolved soon, perhaps can only look at it that 'fate' has intervened to enable you to search again for the right property and 'home' that is waiting for you all.....?
All the best as always....
Bob
Thanks Bob,
That's exactly what I keep telling the missus - she is deeply disappointed as she fell in love with that property the second we walked in the door.
Still, Hoping to go an view a couple tomorrow, one with a 35 foot loft room, all insulated, powered and ready to use !
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Well, I thought it was about time for an update - -
Having had to extend our mortgage offer TWICE due to delays by the vendors, things suddenly all seemed to start moving very quickly towards the end of October. Eventually given a completion date of 17th November, solicitors called me in on Friday 9th November to sign in readiness for exchange ( everything done my end ) with an expectation of completing on the 14th - I then get a phonecall on Monday 12th November informing me that the vendors had pulled out and removed their property from the market !
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!
So, since that weekend, we have been living out of boxes and suitcases (apart from the last week where we were away in the motorhome) and are now back to square one - looking for a house and about to start the mortgage application process all over again !
So far, it has cost us solicitors fees, mortgage arrangement fee, survey fees totalling about £5000, with nothing to show for it and no way of claiming it back.
FUMING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On the plus side - Daughter number two has asked "Grandpa" to build a railway for Grandchild Number One - so, railway modelling has recommenced in the form of a "Trainset on a board" with a couple of sidings and a passing loop. Not quite my thing, but, at least I will be able to run some of my own trains until I hand it over in January !
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Not bad, Bob, Not bad !
Careful positioning of the rake so that a coupling stops at the mid point of the curve would further reduce the 'apparent' gap at the doors, as the opposite end of the coaches either side of the coupling would be on straighter track, thereby lessening the associated angles a little. Give it a try, you'll see what I mean !
I think that is a job well done, and once all the buildings and canopies (if any) are in place it will be far less noticeable. Definitely better than my last effort !
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Jump on Google Earth and take a look at Sutton Coldfield station in the west midlands. It has an interesting history, being ex-LNWR and the track layout there has changed dramatically over the years. It has an "overhead" (of sorts) station building with a road way that runs down from the upper level where the station building is, around the outside of the former goods yard (now carpark) down to track level, then continues past and down further to a road under bridge. The topography alone would make it an interesting build, however, for operational interest as a layout, you would need to either combine the former LNWR terminus station and goods facilities and current through-track formations, or just model the the LNWR terminus as it was.
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Bob,
If you are looking to go the Mercontol route, here's a link I found a couple of days back while browsing 3mm scale stuff.....
And....
www.3smr.co.uk - find it under TRACK
and eBay too - often get lever frames popping up on there.
Edit: I ought to say, no connection, never even used Mercontrol or the suppliers listed - Just coincidence that I happened to remember where i saw them a few days ago !
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Stunning paintings, Andy, especially the first one ! I agree with the comments about prints, I would be tempted with a print of the first myself ! I think I have said before, regarding your hand painted backscenes, that you should do prints - I am sure they would sell - both artworks and backscenes ! In fact, the top half of that first painting of Bala Lake would make a cracking backscene itself !
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Cheers for the info on the switches guys......I am intending to use single pole
http://www.kyteslights.com/product_info.php?cPath=36&products_id=185
So as soon as I have these (after next payday) I can begin to crack on with the isolated sections......following that I want to use tube in wire / levers for throwing the points.....(Mercontrol the ideal supplier I believe)....?
Regards as always,,,,
Bob
Same thing, but cheaper - and postage is included ! Figure out how many you need and get them all in one go - and don't forget to add a few extra, just in case !
No connection to the seller - I am just a serial ebay browser ! Pays to shop about !
Andi
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Hi Guys..... As they say in some parts around here..... ' A'it gettin' dark early now' ?
Looking for guidance on how to wire up toggle switches.....for isolated lengths of track.....will be placing plastic joiners on the 'live' rail to break the feed, keeping the 'negative' rail fed from the bus wire beneath, what would be the treatment for the live feed.....and how is the toggle switch wired into the mix....? Sorry to be ' slightly dense, if not solid north of the neck' !
Regards as always....
Bob
Would help to know what type of switches you are using,but, assuming you are using either on/off or on/on sub-miniature toggle switches it is fairly simple. A single pole On/On switch will have three contacts (six if it is Double Pole) so you need to connect the incoming supply from the bus feed to the centre pin, then either one or the other of the outer pins to the track. If using Double Pole (6 contacts) then you need to be using the pins on the same side of the centre line. Usually an Off/On switch will only have two contacts (or 4 if Double Pole), so that speaks for itself.
Andi
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As well as weathering locos, I'm also been working on the rolling stock. This is the latest work-in-progress.
This is a Schienenwolf, or rail wolf / rail ripper. A German rail vehicle built to destroy railway lines through the use of an immensely strong, hook-shaped armored plough.
It predominantly saw service on the Eastern Front during the retreat out of Russian and Poland as part of the 'scorched earth' policy.
The Schienenwolf tore up railway lines, bridges and signaling equipment, and denying the Russian Army the use of the infrastructure to supply their own troops.
It was used attached to the rear of a loco - in the case in the photos it's two BR57's. The hook was lowered into the 4foot and as the locos moved along the line, pulled the rails out of alignment and split the sleepers.
The model is made from chassis of a short wheel based wagon that's had one end cut off. The hook and all parts in white are made from plasticard. It'll get a cost of grey paint over the next few days and then I'll have to find a couple of locos to haul it.
Some nice modelling of a very interesting prototype ! Looks like a brutal piece of kit - I thought they just blew everything up, didn't realise tools like this existed !
Looking at the B&W image of the prototype, it looks like it has derailed itself (nearest rear wheel to photographer) - or is it an optical illusion ? I would imagine that derailments were quite common judging by the way this thing works, but then, I don't suppose anyone would notice it much behind two large engines, and with track damage being the whole point of this tool, they wouldn't be too worried about any damage done by the wheels being off the rails !
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Did you bake a cake in between times?
T'is looking good although I wonder if, given the shallow width of the land between stream and railway, whether the land would be quite as high.
Flood prevention measures, maybe ?
Looks great Andy ! Sticky buns are obviously doing you good !
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Bob,
You might find this useful - I found it simply by googling "00 platform clearances"
I have posted a link rather than poach from the originators website - you might find some other useful info on there too !
Coming on nicely , and , as slow as you may think it may have been, you have made more progress than me in the last 3 months !
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Yes the View finder was one big problem I had yesterday with the sun in my eyes.
When I came to do the editing, I found the distant shots were mainly of clouds and trees, which was a shame because the Hall coning into Quorn from way, way away chuffing like billy'o and sound the hooter was awesome, but no good when I'm waving the camera around in the sky like a demented moron.
Having been photographing motorcycle racing as both a spectator and as an accredited photographer for many years, I have found my most useful piece of equipment to be one of these :-
KM looking really good now, Andy !
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Edit, yes I do remember that record, I now have a vision of you running away from me STREAKING
That is an image I really wish I could 'Unthink' !!!!!
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Hi Andy,
Yes thats a thought. I've just run it through the pre-flight checks on their website, and as suspected the handrails and horn fail because of thickness, but they are easy to remove. Interestingly the entire frame and box has come up at about £82 for printing, which considering its size, in O gauge, and the amount of detail on their, I thought was quite good. I am, however, giving some thought to acquiring a 3D printer now
Rich
I nearly bought one a couple of years ago - there was one for sale in a local second-hand shop for £200 - but, I backed down as I couldn't see a printer that cheap being of much use to me at the time !
The horns and other details are not a problem in the CAD software so long as you can draw at high resolution, it's the limitations of the printing process that cause most of the issues with detail due to the resolution of the printer. Generally speaking, from what I have been able to glean from 'tinterweb, if buying your own printer, the more they cost the better the resolution, and therefore, the less tidying up will be required on the final form. From what I have seen recently, there are some really good 'hobbyist' 3D printers around now, but, they may not be big enough to do your centre cab loco in one shot. You may need to split it into 'panels' or at least 'modules' (chassis/footplate/frame, front bonnet, rear bonnet, cab, etc).
There are a number of sellers on eBay selling 3D printed kits for locos and rolling stock, in various gauges, might be worth a look to see what is available and what the printed, unfinished items are looking like.
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Thanks Brian!
Our posts crossed I think! You never know ... the odd one or two might even appear on eBay
Rich
If you are going to use Shapeways for printing, you could market it through their website ......
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Finished the Fowler Centre Cab this afternoon, trying to hide my disappointment at not getting to Telford this year! Eager to find out whats next from Minerva!
Here's the finished CADs for the Fowler Centre Cab however, it should fit on the Ixion Fowler Chassis ok, if I've got my measurements right. If anyone notices any missing bits, please shout. Its not an exact copy of the one pictured in the previous post, but really close to it - close enough for me! Next job is to get one produced and try it!
Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 16.47.03.pngScreen Shot 2017-09-02 at 16.47.12.pngScreen Shot 2017-09-02 at 16.47.20.pngScreen Shot 2017-09-02 at 16.47.50.pngRich
That looks superb, Rich, it's going to make an impressive little loco !
Only thing I would suggest ( and I have no experience of 3D CAD or 3D Printing) is that the smaller details such as airhorns and handles/handrails, and possibly, the exhaust stack and buffers, may be a problem to the print process. If I was building this myself, I would prefer these be left off the finished print and let me fit them myself from brass wire, etc or the infinite range of parts commercially available for detailing. May even be able to scavenge some of these parts from the original model.
Are you planning to have the body and footplate printed as a single piece ? Might be an idea to print body and footplate as separate parts - would make getting into the cab for detailing and painting a lot easier !
Metrocar looks good too ! You're really getting the hang of this CAD malarkey ! I was looking on Shapeways the other day at G scale stuff, and noticed that some of the kits on there for the larger scales ( 0 gauge and upwards) can be really expensive, presumably due to the machine time and volume of plastic used - just a note of caution ! Some of the LGB sized loco kits were several hundred pounds !
Best of luck with them both, looking forward (whichever way is 'forward' ! ) to the centre cab being finished !
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Hello Andi,
Hope you are better from your back!
Great to see some updates although you are moving but by the looks of it with a new canvas with a possibility of an incredible space with your layout! Can't wait to check it out!
Good luck with the move and have a good weekend
Hi Des,
Thanks for the good wishes, Back is all better now ( Touch wood ! ), but the house move has hit a snag
We were told 4 weeks ago that the searches had commenced and that we should be all done and ready to exchange by the end of August. I rang our solicitor yesterday to find out what was happening as no-one had been in touch with any updates, and was told that the searches, in fact, have not yet started as our solicitors have still not received essential documents from the vendors solicitors, who in turn, cannot send out said documents until they have received essential documents from the vendors themselves ! So, from having been told 4 weeks ago that we should be in by first week in September, we are now actually no closer to moving than we were 4 weeks ago !!!
P****d O** don't even come close !
As for a 'blank canvas', the current plan is to continue with the existing modular layout and simply modify existing boards, or add new/extra ones to fit the available space - once the Man Shed is built ( if we ever move that is ! )
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Man shed sounds like a great idea, but remember a 8X6 is only 5 feet 6 X 7 feet 6 inside really need 15 feet X 6 inside for your layout, so maybe 16 feet X 8 feet. And we get fatter, our backs don't bend the little step and easy duck under becomes a torture!
I wondered about a big caravan as a layout room, dead easy to move if you move house... A double garage with layout loft above could be good. Move a couple of beds in for TT week, you could live there and let the house out....
16 x 8 David ?! That's a little small for a Man Shed, don't you think ! Lol !
Planning regs here on the Isle of Man are a little confusing, but, I have figured out that there is a big difference between a Shed/Home Office/Outbuilding with a max size of 15 sqm (16'x8') and a "Garage" with a maximum size of 36 sqm(20'x20') ! Neither of which require planning permission ! All I have to do if find out where they draw the line in the definition of Garage or Shed, and whether or not a "Garage" must have access to a road, or just enable a vehicle to enter the building !
Still haven't moved yet, waiting for searches to be completed, but should hear something soon, now !
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If things are not glued immutably down on the 00 layout, may I throw in a suggestion?
I rather liked the earlier 'double ended Minories' form that you discarded in favour of a dead straight run through in order for your Western not to foul on platforms when using the trailing crossover at the 'tunnel' end of the station, if I am reading the situation correctly. Another way around this, which would retain the 'Minoriesosity' of the plan, avoid fouling because of the Western's overhang, and extend the length of the run around loop in the station, would be to move the trailing crossover onto the curve and make it of one right handed point on the road occupied by the Western in the photo and one left handed one on the other road, which would be the up if it was Birmingham Snow Hill. This would be very much in keeping with the Minories spirit of having no reverse curves over pointwork.
You would still have to be careful of platform clearance and probably have to fit scratchbuilt platforms to the site; good news is they are platforms, not rakes of panelled coaches or Beyer-Garratts. Clearance can be determined in the following way:-
Using your longest vehicle, probably a mk1 64 foot coach for what looks like your period, or the Western if it's longer between the bogies, sellotape marker pens to the centre point of the coach and one corner on each side; use different colours if you like, but so that the tips mark the bare baseboard. Push the coach around the entire track plan by hand, with the track temporarily pinned down, making sure that the felt tips draw lines on the baseboard. You will have to lift the vehicle over pointwork or crossings. Don't do this on drawings of the track plan, do it on the actual track for accuracy. You will now have loading gauge width lines showing the limit to which your platforms can overhang, plus the limit of clearances on curves and for lineside objects, with a safety margin of half the width of the felt tip pens. Where lines of the same colour intersect, the coach will foul. Where lines of different colour intersect, the coach will foul a similar vehicle on the other track. IIRC I picked up this tip, which has served me well over many years and which I originally used in pencil because felt tips hadn't been invented, from Cyril Freezer's '60 plans for small railways', the very publication in which I first encountered 'Minories', which I still think is one of the best track plans ever except for the lack of goods facilities without which I could not live, so it would be appropriate for your layout!
It is worth doing this exercise whatever track plan you adopt, and can save a lot of time and money later!
If you are running class 40s, 44/5/6, or Southern Railway 1Co-Co1s, check the clearances of these as well. If they foul, it might be an excuse for changing locos, an excuse for both more locos and more movements. There were plenty of examples of this on the real railway, outlined in the working timetable appendices, of places where certain classes were prohibited on the grounds of length, for instance Westerns were banned from parts of Margam marshalling yard in case they grounded on the hump of the loco release road. A classic case for Rule 1, with a loco bringing in a train from the tunnel end, and coming off to head to the shed to be replaced by a Western or Peak. In the other direction, this is less likely as the train will have to be stopped on the main running line, but they did it at Carlisle Upperby, and it's still feasible on through freight work.
I've just messed up the lovely plan you'd settled on, haven't I, and you've got to go back to square one and think it out again. Well, you don't have to, but it's an option if you wanted to...
Hi Johnster,
Thanks for your ideas, definitely worth looking into, I think ! The beauty of the modular method I chose to use, is that, I can just build a new board to replace an existing one without having to do a major rebuild of the railway. However, as I am sure you have discovered yourself over the years, nothing is ever set in stone !
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Andy, I watched your video on the landscaping/static grass, and now I understand why you seem to make such rapid progress !
Looking superb, loving the embankment and the fields, and as for the stone gate pillars - most field gates here on the Isle of Man are just like that, mainly because, most field boundaries are either dry stone walls or 'Manx Hedges' - basically, long piles of stone covered with earth and turf. Stone pillars are needed to give the farmers something solid to fix gate hinges to !
Keep up the good work, cant wait for the ballasting to start - it'll really start coming together then !
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The white stuff
in My Garden Railway Topics
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It's a nice pic, Jack looks to fit well with the I.O.M stock.
I had a garden railway when I lived in the UK with a variety of stock and locos, both live steam and battery, but sold the lot before we moved to the island as I knew we would be in properties without gardens for several years. Regret it now, of course, especially as one of the steamers was a "one off" , custom built by a friend who is sadly no longer with us. Still, it all went to people who I know would have been using it, whereas, if I had kept it all, it would have languished in storage for over ten years !