jonhinds

Procreate is similar to Photoshop, so not the best software for design work. For instance, you can’t draw a line with a predetermined length. There are guides that allow for drawing perpendicular straight lines and certain angles, and you can use layers to trace. I use lots of workarounds as I’m familiar with the software. I’ve seen Inkscape recommended for Mac/PC, which is proper vector software and probably much better. The iPad and pencil are amazing though; very quick and responsive.

Many thanks! I’m a little reticent given my soldering skills aren’t the best, but from the sounds of things it shouldn’t be too difficult.

Bradford Interchange’s resident station pilot. I’ve been faffing with an iPhone photo filter app and quite pleased with how this pic came out. Eventually planning to have this converted to 03371 with conical exhaust. The real thing was based at Hammerton Street until 1983. It then moved to Newcastle until its 1987 withdrawal, and survives in preservation at Rowden Mill Station. It’ll need DCC conversion as this isn’t one of the new batch of Farish 03’s. Can anyone recommend a good service?

Well, everything seems to be running a lot better now, although DMUs still have a tendency to lose power at low speed compared to locos (fewer pickups?). Dug out a couple of channels in the cork for the Peco concrete platform edging, which will be elevated around 3ft above the rails. Retaining wall also weathered and detailed. Started making the front of the Red Star building, scribing brick lines into 30thou plasticard with a Tamiya scriber. I went to the trouble of measuring a standard brick at the location, then counting bricks to approximate overall dimensions. I drew the design template on my iPad in Procreate.

Made some fair progress on the overpass this week. Painted & weathered the support girders and concrete panelled section. Now superglued in and looking suitably grim for the era.

Aye, the lack of rigidity can take a lot of getting used to. I think a slight kink here and there can look prototypical, as long as nothing’s derailing or losing power. I certainly couldn’t go back to code 55 now that I’ve gone to the dark side. Today I’ve been running the powered car of the Farish 150, and as long as it’s running at a certain speed over the turnout frog and certain rail joins I can get smooth running. Fortunately the natural stopping point of the powered car when orientated to the buffers seems to be fine as sits on well-behaved plain track. So even in worst-case scenarios it’s still possible to run things! There aren’t any electrical dead spots far as I can tell, so I can only guess that it’s a mixture of uneven track (trains do wobble a bit on the turnouts), the gap(s) between frog and certain rails, and possibly a bit of excess solder that’s slightly insulating particular spots. All hopefully fixable.

From the looks of things you shouldn’t have too much trouble with yours. TBH my first crossover is a bit of a dog‘s dinner in all respects. I think it might be possible to rectify the issues, it’s just there’s so many things that might be causing them! Some are somewhat easy to rectify, others (wonky track alignment) might be a bit tougher now everything is glued in. The tolerances are pretty unforgiving at this scale. I’m considering joining a local club and perhaps asking an experienced member to have a look, since your point stands about things being possibly more fixable than they first appear. Annoyingly, it wouldn’t be as much of an issue if the turnouts were located at sections where stock is likely to run at a scale 30mph+, but they’re all near stopping points.

Thanks! It’s reassuring that my situation isn’t totally uncommon. I find that running the trains at modest speed over the problem areas is fine; it’s slow running that’s the issue. I can’t face another go at the crossover just yet (it actually took a couple of frustrating months to get it operational), but it will definitely be replaced. I’m reasonably confident I can do a better job with the benefit of 20/20, it’s just getting over the sunk cost fallacy at this point. I’ll probably just putter around with the scenic area for a month or two and return to track building when my confidence is up. I’m looking forward to British Finescale’s new easy build turnouts kits eventually coming to FB rail, but I may have to replace the turnouts long before those arrive.

Despite the operational woes detailed above, I’m having loads of fun learning the scenic side of railway modelling. This (coarse) attempt at an OFF indicator for train dispatch is my first go around with rivet decals and airbrushing.

Time for a bit of a rant (feel free to skip this!) Well, it looks like my rookie attempt at code 40 track laying has come back to bite me, as locos are persistently stalling at various locations around the layout. As the track and wheels are clean, I think the culprit is the poor tolerances in my point construction as that’s where the majority of faults are occurring. Looks like it could be any number of things: poor soldering; scratches on rail heads caused by aggressive sanding (a very early mistake); uneven track height; the oversized gap between the live frog and some adjacent rails. The reality is that I probably should rip things up and start again more carefully, but it’s taken so much to reach this point! In retrospect, I think a small shunting plank might have been a better first layout, or just sticking to code 55. I’m in a bind, as it’s getting to the stage when I’d ideally like to weather and ballast the track, but given the poor running it seems a bit silly. On the other hand, I’m not sure if I could face relaying half the layout again, particularly if it means replacing turnouts. Sigh.

Thanks, that looks like the best option for me (had a go with decals today and found them a bit of a faff). Seems it’s just a case of sending formatted Adobe Illustrator files to PPD. Hopefully not too expensive for what I’m after.

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Thanks, that could work! Looks like the right size as well.

Double post, oops!

Hello I’m posting here as a ‘tourist’, given that I’ve just started modelling in N gauge. I’m new to scratch building and hit a snag replicating riveted detail on an iron bridge. Wondered if the experts here would be able to suggest a good approach? I don’t own a 3D printer, Silhouette cutter (etc.) so mainly reliant on my clumsy fingers. That being said, wondered about getting something made up by a professional service. The images represent the iron side panelling of an overpass (light grey), with riveted detail (blue) and slightly recessed areas (bounded by red lines). The rivets are approximately 0.2mm - 0.25mm with a gap of 0.25mm - 0.3mm (rivet plus gap equals about 0.5mm). The rectangular areas bounded by red are recessed by 0.1mm; they could also be approximated by an etched groove along the red lines with no actual recession. To 100% scale on A4 sheet: Closeup: The two approaches that seem promising are a 3D print or an etch to make up the panel. It’s 201mm in length so may need to be assembled from shorter pieces. Thanks in advance!

Thanks, that’s a great idea!

Well, I’ve hit a snag! I want to model the riveted detail on a section of the overpass, but without access to a 3D printer I’m not sure how to do it. Too small to punch in the rivets with a pin, and looks a bit fiddly to do with decals (certainly as I’ve not used them before). I’m stuck for now

Bit more bridge progress. Modelled & primed the upper concrete section. Quickly tacked everything together to test-fit; quite happy so far. Just needs painting, gluing and weathering now. Appears that the overpass / bridge was partly rebuilt, possibly when the Exchange was relocated from its old site in the 1970s. Hopefully the remaining section (on the left ) should be straightforward to model: Old and new at Bradford. by John Whiteley, on Flickr

Lovely selection of 150s!

Also more or less finished detailing one corner of the layout, including a little platform barrow.

It’s been a fair while since I did anything on the layout, but made a bit of progress this week. First up, the overpass that represents the scenic break. I decided to start with these distinctive-looking supports: I modeled this section using Foamex board and styrene strip. Unfortunately I went a bit heavy with the CA glue so there are visible blobs on several supports, which I only noticed after priming. Also a few visible gaps in the joints on curved sections. They’ll be painted very dark blue and all but one will sit in shadow, so I can live with it.

Nothing new to report on the layout, however the 47 has returned from Mercig Studios. I went for the works, including the fine etched handrails and roof fans. Admittedly, the cost of cab lights and detailing could’ve bought another 3 or 4 47s, but I couldn’t be happier with the single one I have!

Ah, wasn’t aware of that. Many thanks!

Is this the issue? https://www.railmags.org/index.php?id_product=7031&rewrite=pmr-1984-may&controller=product