TangoOscarMike

I remember Boilerplate from years ago, when there were just the edited photographs. I hadn't seen the subsequent developments - thanks for bringing them to my attention. And yes, something like that.

I have a question: Do you need to take precautions to prevent the DAS, as it dries, from distorting the card substrate?

That's an excellent idea, and it hadn't entered my head, even though @snitzl posted pictures of a robot fireman not long ago. It ought not to be too hard to make a little robot out of scraps of plastic and wire. But on the other hand, I could design a robot in the computer and then pose it in lots of different ways, to create a general variety of (3D printed) robotic railway workers. Food for thought.

Thank you! This thread could end up being a sort of Rosetta Stone of 009 dimensions!

I sometimes think that I could win an Olympic gold medal in procrastination. But it's impossible, of course. Anyone who fills out the application forms is automatically disqualified. When it comes to painting models, I keep thinking that I should dab a little bit more on before varnishing. I never finish painting - I just give up at some point. So I've given up: My streamliner and tender are painted and varnished ready for the lining transfers (which I haven't yet printed). And the crew is ready. I'm happy with the fireman, but less happy with the driver: I was aiming for "Gent", but I seem to have arrived at "Geezer". Ah well. I wish now that I had a woman to drive this engine, but it would have been harder to find a suitable figure as a starting point. A farmer, perhaps.... Next time, maybe....

I have three of these chassis, so I'm going to start with three identical coaches. Or near-identical: I might make one with fewer windows, for 3rd class. I then have two more chassis. One is of similar length to the three, so I might try to make the same coach sides work, or I might make something a little different. Maybe an old-fashioned carriage-style coach, inspired by @BernardTPM's examples. The other chassis is a little longer, and I reckon I'll be able to fit two passenger compartments and a guard's compartment on it. At some point in all this I will square my shoulders and make a locomotive body. Then when I've used up all my N-gauge rolling stock, I will pause for breath and contemplate my next actions! (some Dundas kits, perhaps). I could consider bogie coaches, but I probably won't want long coaches, because if when I make a layout it will be as small as possible, so long coaches might be a bit self-defeating (the Ffestiniog bogie coaches look incredibly long to me). On the other hand, Peco sell pairs of bogies on their own, so that's tempting. As for jigs, this one was very easy to make, and so for future purposes I'll probably make additional jigs precisely tailored to the chosen dimensions. The jig was made as follows: I designed scribbled the coach with the free LibreCAD 2D drawing software, then made a jig/template picture consisting of a rectangle for the coach sides, surrounding by lines to indicate where the cuts and strips should go. I printed this onto ordinary paper, then glued the paper onto two thicknesses of cereal box. I cut out the rectangle. I fixed the whole thing to a sheet of plastic using the masking tape and superglue trick. The jig doesn't help with cutting out the coach side. I measured and cut a rectangle of plasticard then put it in the jig. But my measuring and cutting was good enough - it was a nice snug fit.

Thank you very much! When I was a teenager, or before, I fiddled with various models and half-assembled kits, but I never managed to make anything that pleased me, or indeed finish anything at all. It's taken adulthood (accelerating rapidly towards dotage) for me to develop the ability to complete projects. I don't think that I'm especially more skilled than I was - I think that it has more to do with realising that applied patience leads to results. There are other factors, or course. It helps that I can make precise drawings on the computer and print them. And these days I can buy more or less whatever tools and materials I like, without worrying about parental approval. On the other hand, I will need spousal approval for a lathe or a 3D printer - one fine day.

Two coach sides almost complete in the jig. For the horizontal strips I clamped a steel ruler against my marks, then glued the strip up against the ruler. For the vertical strips I used a small length of brass U section, with slots filed for the horizontal strips, as a guide. The result (still some finishing to be done). I took the pair of sides out of the jig, turned it/them over and put them back in to attach a thick horizontal strip, which will locate on the floor. And finally I separated them. Next the ends.

I also find that Evergreen plastic sticks together in an orderly manner.

Every hour or so today I've risen from my desk to glue a few more pieces of plastic strip onto the coach sides. The jig served me very well - I just wish I weren't so messy with the glue. I'll post pictures tomorrow, if the weather holds. I live in Germany, so now I'm (somewhat? mostly? who-knows?) cut off from British model shops, and forced to forage locally for supplies! I expect that you live in the UK, so my supplier probably wouldn't be much use to you. However, that's not the important thing: I'm using the universally available Evergreen materials. In this case, the Z section is part no. 757, the largest Z on their website. I spent quite a while designing with the smaller 755, before becoming aware that my design had silly little steps, and switching to the larger size. P.S. On the Evergreen web site, and in my picture, it looks as though the Z is made of three uniform flat strips at right angles. But in fact the angles are somewhat smaller and the outer strips are a little tapered, so it is actually somewhat more like the letter Z.

No, it's fine. "Just For Fun" gives you carte blanche!

I've cut holes in the central part of the Z section, removing most of the material, then attached them to the floor to form the steps. These pieces, in addition to being steps, locate the floor properly on top of the N-gauge chassis. It's not so clear in the photograph, because the floor is (intentionally) shorter than the chassis. So here's a clarifying doodle.

A little progress: I made a jig for cutting window apertures and applying beading. The long piece of plastic is two coach sides, and the smaller piece is the floor. The Z section will be used for steps.

Thanks for the detailed feedback Bernard. These dimensions are indeed similar to the Peco coach, so I reckon that DM75 and DM76 are actually a bit small to represent "normal" prototypes. Although I daresay that the huge variety of real narrow-gauge railways produced coaches this small. So I will crack on with the proportions of my paper mock-ups. I have some evergreen strips in the post - with a bit of luck the parcel will arrive today.

Thanks Bernard, that's certainly a piece of the puzzle (also, nice coaches!). What isn't evident, of course, is how big they are. If you wouldn't mind the trouble of posting dimensions, or photographs with a figure (or with a Peco coach, if you have one) then I'd be much obliged. I reckon these coaches are longer than mine (based on the number of compartments) but it isn't easy to be sure at this angle. I'd also be interested in an account of where they came from - it looks like a quite a bit of blending of kit parts. I'm particularly interested in the carriage-style coaches, since I've had a few stabs at this in OO, and I'm thinking of something similar for at least one of my N-gauge chassis. Perhaps you've already posted more details of these somewhere in RMWeb - I've just had quick rummage and couldn't find anything, but then there is an awful lot of content here.

They are DM75 and DM76. Their other offerings may well be more similar in size to the Peco coaches. Before I bought them I tried to find a size comparison online, but without success. Perhaps some kind soul could post a picture showing a wide range of 009 4-wheel coaches side-by-side. Perhaps it will be me, one day!

I love the quality of your drawings.

I hope that it makes them happy. They've put their creative energies into making something nice. If somebody continues the creative process, making a nicer model or just a different model, then surely that's something to celebrate. I would be delighted to see people taking a saw to one of my 3D printed engines, and making improvements. Or, maybe they just think we're a crowd of hooligans.

I've decided to use the Peco coach as a guide to dimensions, rather than the diminutive Parkside coaches. For now, at any rate. Here are mockup paper coach bodies on two of the chassis. The untouched items of N-gauge rolling stock contemplate their fate.

At long last I've taken some action. For the converted N-gauge rolling stock I'm planning to stick with the original couplings. But I have a Peco coach with a Peco coupling. So on one of the N-gauge chassis I've replaced one of the couplings with a Peco one. In fact, I lost one of the couplings while tinkering with a dismantled van. So I had to replace it with something anyway. There was a little bit of carving, to make room for the Peco coupling, as well as a 1mm plasticard shim. The coupling is superglued in place, and then entombed in epoxy putty. I took some in-progress pictures, but indoors at night, and they didn't really come out. Height wise it looks about right, and it works. So now it's time to build some coach bodies.

Hey, that's good. Before the paint it was bits of toy train glued together. Now it's a model locomotive.

Time flies! I had a jar of Tamiya bronze paint, a sort of metallic brown, which I'd decided to use for the fat pipes. But when the time came I found that it was dried up, so I prevaricated for a bit, then ordered another online. The painting is mostly finished now, although there's still some touching up to be done before I apply the lining transfers. I need to decide whether or not boiler bands are called for. I gave the driver a bowler hat. I'm not best pleased with it, but I think it'll be OK with some paint on.

Magnificent! Presumably the white base of the jig is plasticard. Are the black parts also plasticard, or did you use something less susceptible to the saw cuts?

Well, it's none of my business to give you a pep talk, but I can say that I approached the brass chassis with lousy soldering skills from various electronic projects. And I found that my lousy skills were useless, because the large pieces of metal absorb heat much faster. But in the end the thing holds together and the dodgy soldering is hidden under black paint. And hopefully I've learned enough to do better next time. When I was at school I used to think it was absurd to give me art lessons, when I couldn't do art. It honestly didn't cross my mind that art could be learned - I just thought the world was divided into people who could draw and people who couldn't. And I suppose it didn't occur to any of the teachers to clarify this point.... Me too! I have three GWR four-wheelers from the olden days - those were all the coaches I ever had back then. The one shown at the beginning of this thread is still untouched, with the roof half on and half off. Fitting an interior wasn't supposed to be destructive, so I had no qualms about doing this to one of my childhood toys! I've been feeding my 4-wheeler chopping habit by buying coaches second hand from a well-known online vendor.

I've just googled images of SR Queen Mary Brake Van... I think provided the dimensions work out (and it looks as though they might) this is an excellent idea. 6 compartments, I imagine? Nile joined two 4 wheel bodies together, and that was part of my inspiration. I sometimes consider doing this instead of making another 6-wheeler, possibly using Stafford Road Model Works bogies.