RBTKraisee

Yay! 35 hours of continual printing, and 7th time lucky!! LOL. That got a bit arduous. C'est la vie. The very last print was actually messed up by the slicer program that prepares the final file for printing - a really weird error occurred where it placed an extra bit of material right in front of one of the doors, blocking all the details with a blank flat block Bizarre and frustrating issue. I sent example files to the manufacturer of the printer & software to see if they can resolve the issue - and switched to use a different program which supposedly doesn't deliver as good a final surface (no anti aliasing), but the results actually came out fine, as you can see below. I also switched to my old iPhone for the pictures. I think it does a slightly better job on these. Still need much more powerful lights though. Regardless, I'm a happy bunny now that I'm over this hump. I kept myself busy with other things throughout this time though... And yes, I said this was going to be an eclectic collection... I've finished my designs for some isolation track joiners to allow me to use my Peco electrofrog's without modifications. I've got a variety of connectors that allow me to mix and match any of my Peco and Atlas track, bringing the railtops to exactly the same height, and also inserting sleepers in the right places, without me needing to do any additional work. These will come in very handy on my next layout: I also printed a track way gauge to my own preferences: I've designed a box for my DCC++ Arduino and Motor Shield too - ready to print: And I did a little more on King's Cross station too, with the central columns of the main shed now finished (about half way through the Western ones too): Enjoy today's updates and please don't be shy to leave feedback! Ross.

So I've been trying to 3D print this coach and I've had a series of small problems to resolve. I'm just starting my fifth attempt at these 5 hour prints - fifth time lucky, maybe? :) In the meantime I made myself a simple light box from a spare carboard box and some tissue paper. It has already helped me to take better photo's of these parts. I primed and base-coated some of the failed 3D print parts, because they'll at least give me something to practice my teak painting techniques on before I try on a "final" part, so here are a few of the photo's of those - you'll see the failed elements in some of the pictures, but just ignore them. Also, I finished off another batch of my trees. Enjoy! Ross.

So the 3D test print of the teak coach went fairly well I have a few things to fix, for example there are some printing lines that need some gentle sanding, and I need to make the handrails a lot thicker, and the body bulges out a bit around the side/roofline transition because the roof sagged a bit, so it will need some internal reinforcement and supports, but those are fairly easy to fix, so for a first attempt, I'm actually quite chuffed! Next up, tomorrow I'll sprays some primer and pale yellow base coat on and see what the details look like under some paint. Also gotta figure out how to get better pictures of all these things. Definitely need more light. Ross.

LNER Teak Triplet update: 3rd class restaurant car now has corrected fans (thanks Mike!) and I've added the roof gutter and label board mounts too. I'll try printing it now... Ross.

And now for some of the real bits Ross.

And finally, my "big" project... King's Cross station. Now, progress isn't fast, and I had to start completely over because of a screw-up with the wrong scaling, but things are finally on the right track (heh), and I've got some additional updates coming down the pike soon. But for now, here's a bit of an archive covering some of the work I've done already... Again, a really big thank you to Mike for access to his invaluable archive! Enjoy! Ross.

I've been doing some, I guess, beta-testing for SCARM on the track planning side too - pushing the system beyond its normal limits. Using Google Earth as a basis, I've put a number of track plans together, covering a lot of sections of the East Coast Main Line (ECML) from King's Cross to Edinburgh Waverley, and also continuing up through Glasgow and up the Western Highlands Railway (WHR) to Fort William and on to Mallaig - one of the most scenic routes I've ever encountered. I've been using Peco Code 55 track for the majority of the plans and so far, starting at the southern end, I've got King's Cross, Hornsey Yards, Nottingham, Doncaster (holy cow, that's a big plan!), York, Newcastle, Edinburgh Waverley, Fort William, Garelochhead (I'd love to model the sub base at Faslane) and Glenfinnian Viaduct. I've made a start on Peterborough too, and I want to add Grantham, Alexander Palace Yard, Durham, Glasgow, the Beasdale Climb and Mallaig, then I'll start looking at the Midland, West Coast, Southern and South Eastern lines too! Anyway, these were a lot of fun to assemble and I'll post updates here Ross. Kings Cross: Doncaster: York: Newcastle: Edinburgh:

Another thing I've been doing on and off recently, is experimenting with Luke Towan's wire tree technique. The guy is amazing and I've had some good success replicating his technique so far, and best of all these come out really cheap. I can make about two or three a night while sitting with my better half watching TV in the evening, and I figure a year from now I'll have over a thousand trees of different sizes, all for under $50. Here's a pic. Ross.

So I'm new to the forum, and I'm using the Covid lockdown to get back into the hobby after a 25 year hiatus. I'm an ex-pat Brit now living on Florida's Space Coast building satellites, so when I have some spare time I'm now trying to put together a layout in UK N-gauge (1:148) - which is pretty unusual on this side of the pond - and this workbench is going to cover a lot of different areas, so expect a bit of an eclectic mess as I chop and change subjects and get stuff done First off, the last few days I've started designing a Teak LNER Restaurant Triplet to go with a full 12-car A3 Flying Scotsman rake. It's based on the 1923 Gresley designs and I have to thank forum regulars Mike Trice and Steve (Atso) for a lot of help and support already, on many fronts. The first carriage I'm doing is the 3rd class Restaurant Car, which I'm going to 3D print on my Fauxton. If anyone can suggest where I might find some 7mm diameter wheels in stock, I'd be very grateful Ross.

This is awesome info guys! Hadn't come across steel sleepers before, so that's another topic I'll need to keep my eyes peeled for. The accuracy of my plans just keeps on improving, thanks to all the insights and experiences of all the folk on here. I can't say a big enough thank you to everyone so far. Ross.

Okay, after watching quite a few vids, it looks like by the year 2000 the whole ECML was probably already concrete sleepers installed all the way from Kings Cross up through Edinburgh - at least on the main lines. I'd guess this was done to support the HST traffic a couple of decades earlier. Likely there are lots of wooden sleepers on some of the branch lines and yards along the way, but haven't yet found much footage for any of those - will do more research on that. Concrete also seems to be predominant across to Glasgow and up to Craigendoran Junction, where the West Highland Railway Line actually begins. That's where the concrete seems to give way to wooden sleepers. So that's my current working plan then. Unless anyone knows different, of course? Ross.

Hadn't thought of that. Thanks! Ross.

I'm looking to model parts of the East Coast Main Line, connecting to sections of the West Highland Railway Line up to Mallaig, aiming to replicate things around 1990-2000 era, and wondered where I should start researching which sections had been switched to concrete sleepers and which remained on wooden? Can anyone recommend some good places where I should start my investigations? Ross.

It's wonderful to see such care and attention put into classic tools like this. Sadly my Father's set of these (and compasses) got water damaged after a hurricane a few years back. I'm currently on the lookout for some quality replacements because of these guides. They are inspiring. Ross.

While I really appreciate the compliment, I've got a loooong way to go before I'd feel worthy of that word. Gimme a few years, let me finish my Gresley Triplets and my King's Cross station models successfully, and then I'll be on the right path :) Ross.

Thanks cypherman, That helps. There's also a load of "People who viewed..." links there too, which I'll rummag through to find the smallest unit possible. Cheers, Ross.

So, the push at work finally wound down and I managed to get a few hours this afternoon out on the patio, in the wonderful Florida spring weather, playing with my airbrush! The test process involved five different thinning percentages, starting at ~30%, increasing at about ~10% per try and ending at ~70% thinner. And I tried each of the them three times in a row, always doing it the same way - spray something and immediately try to disconnect the bottle within about 5 seconds of the last spray job. I did a couple of extra tests here and there, where I tried waiting two minutes before removing the bottle, to try to give the paint time to run back into the bottle of its own accord. And I ran an extra test on each cycle, using Tim's suggestion above, of opening the valve without airflow, holding it for just a few seconds to allow the paint to run backwards into the bottle, and then disconnecting the bottle immediately after. I did each test cycle a total of six times, with six different colours; three Vallejo acrylics (one was a primer) and three Model Master enamels (no primers). While not every test was 100% consistent, I did managed to get enough information for me to answer the fundamental question to my own satisfaction. The results are quite simple, and in hindsight, fairly obvious: 1) Regardless of acrylic/enamel, the thinner the paint is, the more likely it is to spill back down the feedline as soon as the bottle is removed. 2) It doesn't seem to matter how long you wait before disconnecting the bottles, the paint does not want to flow back into the bottle without active encouragement. 3) Tim's approach of opening the paint valve without air pressure, works in nearly every case - Thank you Tim! I only had one single instance where that technique didn't work, and that was with a medium thinned (~50%) acrylic black primer that dropped a single droplet out about 10 seconds after disconnecting the bottle, as I was getting my cleaning gear ready between paint change-overs. Thankfully it hit the tiles in the yard and was easy to clean up. So thanks to everyone for your suggestions and insights! I'm a very happy airbrusher, once again! Ross.

Hi All, I'm sure I can't be the first person to ask, but a quick search didn't turn up a prior thread... What is the smallest clock/watch mechanism people have found for use on model railways? Ideally Quartz, and something that isn't expensive. I'm modelling King's Cross station in N gauge, and there are a number of clocks in the tower and over the platforms. The real size for the smaller clocks would be around 3 mm in diameter, but I don't expect such a miracle I can find some inexpensive ladies watches that are under 10mm across and they could be made to work pretty well, but I wonder if there's anything a bit smaller that 'those in the know' can point me towards? Thanks Ross.

Hi Tim, Are those definitely TSO? Some other sites suggest the 374-012x models are SO, so its a bit confusing. As I understand it, SO coaches feature a 1-aisle-2 seating arrangement, with tables, whereas the TSO has the 2-aisle-2 seating, with the aisle straight down the middle, also with tables. I'm definitely after the TSO to make this particular rake accurate. Sadly, being in Florida there are no local dealers that carry any Graham Farish stock that I can just pop into to go have a look (beside the current stay at home orders), so I've got to rely upon websites reporting details accurately (!) and any good quality photo's that I can hunt-up. I like that website - its info is presented really succinctly and clearly. Definitely bookmarked! I've been using https://www.modelraildatabase.com/grahamfarish/coaches/ and the photo's on many of the pages are really useful. Mike Trice, here on RMW, also helped me identify the correct model that I needed for this (and other, easier to find, coaches too), so real kudos to him too! Ross.

That's a good idea! Thanks, Ross.

Agreed. I'm using 12 AWG for the bus and 18 AWG for the feeders, generally aiming to keep feeder length to 12-18 inches at most. I'd be the first to agree that its overkill for this particular 8x4 ft board here, but I'm using this as a practice run for something a bit larger that I'm planning to follow up with! I'm also planning to use a PSX-1 circuit breaker in addition to my Roco z21's own protection - again, overkill for this small layout, but gets me the practice I want. And the PSX can be used with my Arduino/DCC++/JMRI alternative controller, removing any worries about potentially smoking the motor shield board. Ross.

That's really helpful to know. Seeing the numbers definitely sets my mind at ease Thanks Parax!

Fair enough, good to know I'm not going to be screwing things up - at least not in that way Thanks guys, Ross.

Should the main wiring bus need to follow the track? For example, imagine a layout with a figure-of-eight configuration. Your main power bus could follow the track all the way around, or you could install a single pass across the long axis of the layout and your feeders then drop 'wherever' is closest. In the latter scenario, don't you risk potential issues with DCC signals meeting at slightly different times, because the feeder drops could be out of order? I'd imagine it wouldn't make much difference on a small layout, but on a larger one it might become more apparent. Do any experienced DCC hands here have any ideas of where potential "red-lines" are hiding? I'm asking because for one of my layouts I've designed a triple-loop with a figure-of-eight on one of the loops, all fitting on an 2.4 x 4.8m (8 x 4 ft) board. It means a single complete circuit is going to be around 10m (60 ft) in length, but I'm a little concerned that DCC signal timings could get a little 'interesting' if I connect different sections of the three loops, off a single main bus - or would it be worth considering three busses, one for each loop? Any thoughts? Ross.

Quite unexpectedly work has totally slammed me, so I've only done one set of tests on this so far and don't have any conclusive results yet. I'm hoping to get a chance to get back to this and get a final conclusion over the weekend, if the weather allows and work doesn't need me to give up my weekend too. Whatever happens, I'll get there in the end. Ross.