Mike Harvey

To overcome the issue with small radius curves I draw everything in 1:1 scale in SketchUp. Rolling stock, buildings, everything. The curves are then nice and smooth when scaled to production size, and can be reduced to a selection of scales. As an added bonus a 1:1 texture also reduces nicely to the scale required.

For information, the recommended minimum curve radius for Magnorail is 7cm running in the normal track, but there is a special return wheel which allows a turn through 180 degrees with a radius of about 2.5cm. I use this at the ends of my N scale dogbone test set-up. It is not as noisy as a train hammering around at high speed, but often seems noisier on video because of way that small microphones seem to enhance the volume of the higher frequency sounds.

If they think they can sell 500 but the minimum production order is 1000, then it's probably not going to be made. They do remake things which sell well and match current technical standards. Older models are being revised for DCC sound and newer decoder interfaces.

You can generally order/pre-order new stuff direct from Tiny's website. Tiny Online store

Reading the later comments on Hattons page, it appears that the Class 800 is not fitted with lighting, but can be retrofitted. https://www.hattons.co.uk/newsdetail.aspx?id=949 This is the comment:- − Hattons Tom Nick12 days ago edited Hi Nick, thanks for your question. I've just this morning spoken to Gaugemaster who have confirmed the situation regarding the interior coach lighting. The coaches do not come pre-fitted with the lighting kits but they can be added at a later stage if required. Single coach lighting kits come under the code 11-211 and six packs are available under 11-212. We'll be adding these to our system this afternoon and I'll make sure the article is updated with this information as well. Once the lighting is fitted then it will work on analogue or DCC but if you want it to be controllable on DCC then you will need to fit the interior lighting decoders too.

Kato have a video showing the quality of one of the pre-production cars. Starts at around 6m 36s in the video after the ads. Some seriously good quality coming along here.

Hattons announcement was one year and 3 months ago. Seems there has been a lot of input in that time. Oddly it appears to have just pre-dated Hornby measuring up a coach in the south of England.

There was another piggyback concept used by Charterail for their Pedigree Petfoods contracts which was based initially on loading trailers via a swinging side ramp.

I know we are all concerned about this from a UK perspective, but the UK is just a test run for the same chaos being applied across the whole of the EU from July 2021. If I read this correctly the rules apply to transactions within the EU. https://www.pwc.ch/en/insights/tax/new-ecommerce-eu-vat-rules-july-2021.html

Very neat result, Nick. Looks like it will match well with the Revolution ones and the various continental style 3 axle units.

A few months back I made all my files for SNCF coach bodies on Shapeways available to download. They are 1/160 scale and designed around parts from a cheaply available donor coach. Strangely, testing some of the files revealed they had been changed - in some cases normals were reversed so not immediately printable. Anyway, I then moved the files to Google docs and provide an updated post on SNCF and French N gauge topics on here and other sites. This seems to be working OK. One enthusiastic user has printed everything on his filament printer which I think is set to the cake icing layer thickness. He is happy with them. The original files were designed around Shapeways tolerances, and intended to be printed roof down to reduce the impact of traces of support material. It turns out that some very good prints in resin can be achieved with the coach end at the bottom and printing vertically. So a long print time, but scope to load up the print bed with several coaches at once. That learning process has been shared so everyone can benefit from the knowledge. I can see why @rue_d_etropalwould not want to be directly involved in providing downloads, especially given the size of the catalogue of items he offers. I think that the use of Shapeways as a repository for selected free downloads is a practical solution. But there will always be those who are not happy with the free file but want it gift wrapped in a padded envelope. :-) My advice would be “design your own”.

No. They were loaded on a 'plane. :-) Class 92s inbound! - Revolution Trains

I have added another file to the list. This is test coaches Su 234 and 235 used by Agence Essais Ferroviaires. Two vehicles were converted from the B5Dux/B5Dd2ux (ex- B6Du/B6Dd2ux Vu86), and seem to be used for testing traction. Good photos appear in the recently published Tome 4 of the Le Train Corail archive. The corridor side of the coach is unaltered from the original B6Du layout, so the half drop window has been replaced with a plain non-opener. On the compartment side, the window layout has been revised slightly, and the small window at the baggage end of the coach has become an air intake for a (motor?) generator set. I have not changed the roof to show the exhaust for this, or for any ventilator changes which are not clear enough in the photos. I have had a couple of prints run off which are in the paint shop now. Screenshot of the body:- STL file download here:- https://drive.google.com/file/d/13sXULO0zEFmQ5Q9PjdRcN8R2BAkZwPrF/view?usp=sharing Raw prints received from Hexa-cubed:- Test coach at work:- http://www.vuesurlavoie.com/picture.php?/10471-090923_DSC_1277/category/750-vossloh_euro_4000

VAT inclusive pricing is all well and good in theory, and certainly easier for the UK consumer to understand. Shapeways which shows its prices to me in GBP still manages to lose the original price, add a processing fee, buy a van to deliver the parcel, and then produce an invoice in euros, so that the original price is lost in the mist of add-ons and currency conversions. Getting it to show me prices in euros still doesn’t avoid most of the shenanigans.

A big "thank you" to @Quarryscapes for mentioning Hexa³. I had just completed the drawing for the body of a French Railways traction/load testing coach in 1/160 (operated by Eurailtest/Agence Essais Ferroviaires in the real world) so although that was Saturday I uploaded the file on the Hexa³ website. There was an exchange of messages on Sunday, and the two beautiful grey resin prints arrived today, just 4 days to the minute from the original upload. In between times James at Hexa³ sent me photos of the finished prints to check that I was happy with them. As I have written elsewhere, these coach bodies are designed to accept windows, gangways, interior fittings, chassis and bogies from a proprietary donor coach. The tolerances are deliberately tight on the design to ensure everything fits closely, The print is perfect from that point of view. So I would certainly endorse the recommendation from @Quarryscapes. Certainly worth a try. The print is 163mm long to give an idea of what is being presented. The roof ribs are to scale, so 15mm high, and the grilles on the bodyside air-con intake are at 23mm slats with 16mm gaps. The rendition of the roller shutters is limited only by the quality of my drawing.

No, I understood exactly what you wrote. I do not pay a direct fee as I stated, or a combination of a fee and the currency transaction. I recognise that I do not get the current trading rate for the exchange. The point of my question, poorly expressed, was "where can you make a small currency exchange at zero cost?". Your answer is now clear. Nowhere.

I must be really fortunate as neither of my two UK banks charges me to send or receive funds between my accounts and other party accounts in Europe. I pay in the destination currency and the currency conversion rate from GBP is stated at the time of the transaction. Similarly, I receive funds in GBP with the continental sender paying the specified rate for the conversion of his local currency to GBP. I have not yet worked out how to pay someone in euros without a conversion from GBP since my account is in GBP. Maybe @Crosland can enlighten. There has to be a conversion somewhere.

I have only printed N scale buildings and N motorised chassis housings in unpolished un-dyed WSF. The grain is not an issue. The tolerances for the chassis housings are critical. It has an interference fit over the commercial motorised chassis and then clips into the body of an Oxford Diecast bus. Yesterday, just over 3 years after the first installation I had to remove the housing from the first bus I converted to change the Lipo rechargeable. It unclipped from the body as planned. The motorised chassis unclipped as planned too. After reinstallation everything was back to how it has been for 3 years. For all 3D design and printing, my view is that choosing, the material and technology, and understanding tolerances and the process of a particular printer, are likely to deliver optimum results. I would normally not print N body shells in WSF, or on a filament printer, but others have been happy using my files in this way.

I signed the production order for the relabelling from PROCOR to Caib in the late summer of 1988. Given the PPM frequency and the excellent facilities available at the Mendip quarries almost all would have been completed by the summer of 1989.

I had not spotted the Ford Cargo in the 1/160 range from Axel's Bazar. The box van could be a useful rescale to 1/148, as with the Renault Midliner. Axel's Bazar by Axel_Vega - Shapeways Shops https://www.shapeways.com/shops/axel-s-bazar?section=N+1%3A160+-+Trucks%2C+van%2C++bus&s=0

In Old Delhi.

The simple method is to feed power from the track on the main layout which is to receive a train from the traverser and, if the traverser is not a through track, use a buffer stop at the other end. A jack plug would seem a fairly foolproof solution. A physical barrier at the open ends might be the default solution if the human computer controlling the process is not reliable.

@Rapidoandy That looks great Andy. Not to mention Jason's fashion sense in the video. You even got the Brummie pronunciation of buses into the heading. :-)

There was a Farish Class 87 so possibly a risk for Revolution if Farish suddenly decided to dust theirs off.

The casting alloys available now allow detail comparable with injection moulded plastic with the bonus that they can be denser than the old mazak material, and offer extra weight which benefits traction on small models. The new generation of Arnold N steam locos use cast metal for many body parts.