Dunalastair

Of course, it did not always go to plan at Ramsgate Harbour - though you cannot blame the turntable. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=228309766435873&set=a.180969101169940&paipv=0&eav=AfYksOy_twITua0Bv05Uf4TLZtXXB4MGbk8D0vdNP-OETgA9lAiRd6KeSUbhs0Sm9Iw&_rdr Sadly, there was also a gradient related accident on the NG Tunnel Railway which later occupied part of the site. https://theisleofthanetnews.com/2018/03/23/ramsgate-tunnels-has-big-plans-starting-with-the-new-home-front-museum-and-tunnel-teas-cafe/tunneltrain/ I remember reading about this when I modelled the other end of the Tunnel Railway.

More controversially, perhaps, try the Japanese approach (where houses are often notoriously small) and try the 'Shorty' trains, e.g. Bandai, Kato or even Rokuhan. https://www.japanrailmodelers.org/pages/modelingjapan/btrainshorty-pt2.html Unless you have a ballroom to build a scale model of a station, with the correct distance out to the distant signals, then model design tends to be about selective compression. So why not compress the rolling stock in proportion? A shorty system with UK outline stock and UK style scenic treatment would be good to see. It won't satisfy the rivet counters, but if the object is to 'watch the trains go by' then perhaps the Japanese have the right idea. Alternatively, go narrow gauge with four wheel carriages...

As did Edinburgh Waverley, which before recent changes had a pair of double-length platforms flanking the central island - otherwise only the sub platforms offered through options. Was it such an unusual arrangement? Central islands seemed to be a popular way to rebuild major through stations in the C19. And that is before thinking of single sided stations like Cambridge was until recently.

Though for many years, ECML trains were hauled by the NER through to Waverley - the NBR gave away operation of its main line to gain powers to run the less profitable single lines into England.

No, not a personal hygiene product, Ladywash was a fluorspar mine with a narrow gauge tramway on the surface, one of several near Eyam in the Peak District. More details can be found in (https://pdmhs.co.uk/MiningHistory/Bulletin 14-5 - Tramways and Locomotves at 20th Century Mines in the Peak District.pdf), and in British Small Mines (South) by A J Booth Though there are schematic plans (which differ) and photos, I have struggled to get a picture of how the site went together, especially the orientation of the mine head gear (most fluorspar mines were drifts, not shafts). The preliminary render below shows where I have got to - the buildings in blue still survive, the rest was demolished last century. The mine headgear might be a challenge to print! I'm thinking A4 static diorama so about 1:300 scale. These are the surviving buildings, with the open shaft in front, once covered by a building but now open. Until recently, this provided ventilation for an active drift mine further west. https://derbyshiremines.blogspot.com/2019/02/ladywash-mine.html 18" gauge battery locos were used underground and also on the surface. Frustratingly, I cannot find any useful mapping on NLS. I have asked on the IRS forum, but If anybody here has any further information / photos then I would be interested.

Looking very good. Reads as if you are rising to a significant challenge at that size. Walls and gables? Hopefully you will get further than the current condition of Invershin on the Far North line. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invershin_railway_station

An excuse to remember the 'Royal Crampton'? https://steamindex.com/people/crampton.htm

I think it might depend on the period - and also the age of the installation. A quick photo search seems to turn up both extremes and everything in between. But I agree that it should look better 'mucky' and I look forward to seeing what you can manage within modelling constraints.

Not unlike the discouraging of Scots and Gaelic north of the Border, and indeed regional English dialects further south. Even now, while RP might be out of fashion, Estuary English seems to have taken over in much of the South. But I don't think that I have ever seen a railway sign in (Scottish) Gaelic before the current fashion. Did the Irish companies have (Irish) Gaelic signs before the Free State?

The most productive years for the UK lead industry were mostly before the railways arrived. Roman ingots are perhaps older than most, but the mines have been yielding lead for roofing, plumbing and munitions for many centuries. I'm not sure that I'd want to try to lift this one - 140 pounds. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/2000-year-old-hunk-roman-lead-found-wales-180975187/ Nor, indeed, use it to sweeten wine, as the Romans apparently did.

Water additive, e.g. antifreeze / inhibitor?

If the units lock together to make a rigid whole (perhaps a big 'if') then a pragmatic approach might be to have a supply of precision levelling blocks (aka magazines and books) to hand and a simple 2D spirit level to verify that it is level for an operating session. If you can get within a half degree then you should probably be OK - converting angles to gradients and comparing to the prototype should give an idea of what models might object to.

How did the buildings make the journey from Ukraine?

... and how did it get there?

As well as the various examples of mechanised UK canal haulage, the narrow gauge Pentewan Railway in Cornwall was recorded as using loco haulage on occasion to move sailing vessels into and out of the notoriously silted harbour. Though you might expect the locos to lack sufficient weight, it was apparently not unknown for a substantial marine hawser to break.

This was my 3D printed version of a French/Belgian barge-towing narrow gauge electric locomotive, rather crudely spliced into an original image. This is a more conventional photograph of the model, on 16.5mm gauge Tri-ang track. Note the double roof, reflecting a warmer climate.

My own ventures into forced perspective (some of which are described in the dioramas strand) employed 3D printed parts. I found that an overall albeit simplified model in my preferred 3D design tool helped see what did and did not work. 123D can toggle between orthographic and perspective views - more sophisticated tools may allow more control. So much depends on the viewpoint - inevitably what looks good from one view may look very odd from another.

Looks good. How do you envisage operating it? As a confirmed diorama-builder, I always wonder how such micro micros can sustain interest.

Yes, useful discussion, thankyou. The printer has been working overtime, and most of the parts needed for the diorama are now available, albeit only the loco has been painted. With an untidy railway room as a backdrop, a mockup assembly yields this arrangement, which brings home just how tall this is going to be - especially as the overhead gantry crane and cabin are still sat at ground level. I am still not sure how I am going to arrange the support for the cabin girders or indeed the lower part of the hydraulic ram. I suspect that there will be an element of try-and-see. Whose bright idea was it to build this at 4mm scale? I did consider 2mm scale and apart from the lack of an opening end door wagon, that might have been more manageable.

1829 Stourbridge Lion? Pre-Rocket? But no door - only a painting of a Lion. https://www.therailwayhub.co.uk/62622/stourbridge-lion/

Yes, thankyou, I had a long and interesting telephone conversation with Mike Smith, who made the presentation on the Works. Among other interesting snippets, he suggested that there was an electrical feed from the gasworks. This was apparent when the bridges were demolished to stop children accessing the gasworks site. The powered capstans on the SG were apparently electric (despite what I thought), but the tipp(l)er was hydraulic, probably with an electrically powered compressor in the building under the hopper - hence the windows and door for access. He is local, and had established that he had a family connection with the coal traffic on the canal, before the railway connection was put in.

A previous prototype thread addressed the coal tipper linking the MR at Stroud with a NG tramway serving the local gasworks. https://heritage-hub.gloucestershire.gov.uk/autumn-2022/local-history/stroud-local-history-society As the project has moved from research to 3D printing components for a diorama, I thought it was time to start a build thread here. This is the Hornby end-tipping wagon I bought for the project, suitably weathered, sat on a simple mockup of the tipping gantry. And this is an earlier version of the 3D model. The Muir Hill loco, NG wagons, main hopper and the SG wagon gantry have now been printed. Hopefully more will be posted here as further progress is made and the camera is found.

It is an Monoprice MP10 Mini, which I believe is a near-clone of a better-known design. I use whichever PLA filament I can get cheaply from ebay. I have previously used other Monoprice filament printers - this gives comparable results but on a larger buildplate. I do also have a resin printer, but had trouble commissioning it and have stuck with filament since. Conventional wisdom is that you need to go to resin to get anything better than 'plastiscene tube' models, but I have had reasonable results from filament printers, I like to think.

Sorry to confuse - locos at Stroud, horses at Berkhamsted. Guilty of conflation, m'lud. One account of Berkhamsted has it that working of the 'fulls' was part gravity, part horse. It must have been an interesting sight, as expresses roared by on the embankment above.