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Northern Electric

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    Leeds
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    Trains, cars, electrical things

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  1. Modular design is necessary by virtue of the fact that the print envelope is limited, very limited in the case of my small-ish resin machine. And the fact that the parts need to be easy to pack for postage and arrive unbroken. It is possible to print even smaller and finer parts that this but they just become too fragile to survive the trauma of being posted and then handled for assembly. FDM is great for larger, bulkier structures, but for fine details and smooth finishes, resin/LCD produced a much superior product.
  2. Thanks for that. Good to know the tooling error are just pre production and being addressed. I'm really looking forward to seeing the updated samples! On the topic of quality + new factory, does that mean the quality of the livery application on the production versions will be better than these samples? There are a couple of areas where it could be improved IMO. Someone else already mentioned the slightly thin/transparent looking NSE decals on 86401. I noticed the yellow/dark grey border between the cab front/side on 86417 is a bit smudged in one place but nice and crisp in others... Both minor and fairly easy fixes I would hope/presume? But important if these models are to hold their own next to the Bachmann 90s and such like they will be compared against (and in many cases end up parked along side/displayed right next to.) Cheers
  3. Did anyone mention those same errors on the 86401 NSE and 86417 Kingsman samples too? It seems like Heljan chose the wrong body version for all three of these 86/4 special editions. Why!? They do have the correct tooling to depict the locos correctly! I know they are only samplers, but putting out samples with major errors like that, apart from making them look like they don't really know what they're doing, will also put people off preordering. And surely they don't want that? I'm in the market for 86401 but I'm not exactly filled with confidence so far, and thats coming from someone who has, and loves, their early edition AL6...
  4. Interested to know how this project is coming along... 🙂 Someone mentiond the pantogaph needs to be the Stone & Faively type, has anyone noticed the roof mounted fire extinguisher tank that shouldn't be there? I don't think these were fitted until about a decade after the period 86402 is being depicted in here. That shot from 1990 still in BR blue is actually quite fascinating. I thought they'd all received a sectorised livery by this point but apparently not. 402 must have been one of the last, if not THE last member of the class to be so treated, so is that what makes it unique? I might be wrong but also, was it not one of only a handful of 86s never to carry a name?
  5. I forgot to mention, I am still offering my 3d printed OLE insulator packs too, for people who may be looking to solder their own registration fittings for greater strength. I will also be doing the termination pulleys and counter weights too. I realise that being printed in resin and therefore somewhat fragile, these models will not suit everyone's requirements but, once constructed the portals are of reasonable strength and, if combined with soldered brass registration fittings, should be strong enough to form part of a working system with active pantographs. However any pressure applied by the pantographs would need to be minimal, as would any tension or lateral forces applied to the wires. I've not had the opportunity to test this out in practice but I do believe it could work. Currently I am selling these models from as little as £3.50 so they are certainly good value for the level of detail and realism they can bring to a layout, and also offer something new in the market place. 3d printing gives me the low-outlay high-flexibility tool I need to be able to try new things like this out a low risk that would otherwise not be possible. That being said, it does seem bizzare to me that after 60+ years, still none of the RTR manufacturers who operate in the UK will take this topic seriously but anyway, that leaves a gap in the market I will do my best to fill! I have decided not to attempt to address the issue of wires because there is no single solution that would please everyone, and it's an area of manufacture I have no knowlege of, or connections in. So I will leave it up for indivduals to decide for themselves what road the want to go down as regards wires (or not). I hope over time to offer further products, such as feeder station transformers, circuit breaker cubicles, possibly mark 3 and LNER DC structures too. Lets see how it goes!
  6. Finally (for now at least) I also have the large 4-track termination portal. This is the largest portal and the most difficult to produce and construct. The large gaps between the struts which are unsupported means it needs a lot of support material adding in the printing process to come out right, and it takes some time and patience to cut all this away. However the end result is quite pleasing. I'm currently working on doing the counterweights and guides to go inside the legs which you see on the constant tension ones (higher speed open-road stretches mostly). I've already designed the smaller 2 and 3 track version as well, just need to perfect the printing setup before its ready for sale. If you are interested in buying any of the above or would like to support or asist the project in anyway then please PM me, either on here or via ebay. Many thanks, Niall
  7. Similar to the above but with different style boom section - The tapered 4-track portal with a standard width of 295mm. Can also be made to 210mm with centre section of the lattice omitted. These appear to be found more often in/around station areas (they are everywhere around Manchester which is where I got my reference photos) and can be seen with both fixed equipment type fittings (the V-shaped ones, without any pulley wheels) and constant tension (L-shaped fittings, with pulley wheels). I'm offering them with the V shaped fittings as that seems to be more commonplace, but you can mix and match as required. Bottom pick is an example of the overlap fittings that I'm still working on (normally seen on the squared-off portal above), I will say though, its a bit of a pain getting them all lined up straight and neat!
  8. Here is the "standard" WCML portal, the one I think most people think of when they visualise the WCML. The 4-track mid-size lattice with ladder legs. As with the smaller 2 track version, this is flexible in how you make it up. I can be made up as a 220mm portal (2 or 3 tracks) or a 340mm portal (4 tracks with lots of room) or can be supplied with a reduced centre section to make a 290mm 4 track portal. I'm also going to offer a double sided leg so it can be built as a duplex as per the smaller version. I've also designed overlap fitting with the staggered type registration arms so you coulds simulate a boosted overlap section realistically. I need to tweak the print settings for those but will be offering them in due course.
  9. Mark 1 booster transformer towers. Can be made up as singles, or connected with a piece of H-beam to make a 2 track. I'm working on the 4 track version at present. Current iteration of the transformer is slightly different to the one in these photos - The radiator fins are on the sides not the back and printed as part of the main unit making it a little simpler to construct.
  10. Same dimensions as above - 2-track lightweight portal, but with lattice type legs. These cannot be made as duplex portals however.
  11. 2-track lightweight portals, with ladder type legs. These ones have some flexibility - They can be made up as single or duplex portals and can be made with additional centre sections to cover 3 tracks and platform scenarios. However I did find that when extended to 4 tracks the boom section due to being so fine, did start to sag in the middle a bit so I now only recommend making them upto 3 tracks, or 4 tracks with additional ladder leg in the middle (like in the bottom photo)
  12. Hey all, So it's been a while since I last posted but I've made substantial progress since I aquired my own 3d printer late last year, and I've been working on getting the product as good as I can. I now have a range of mark 1 structures that I feel look good, are easy to construct, and are sensibly priced. I've been selling on eBay for several months now while making gradual improvements to the design and trying out different resin formulations, and they are selling quite well. People seem to be very happy with the designs. Due to keeping things as scale as possible, the registration fittings are delicate and therefore suitable for cosmetic use only. However, the portals themselves are reasonably resilient to minor knocks and bumps and when they do break, it is usually at the joints where you glue them together, so quite often they can be repaired. Failing that, even the more complex ones are still fairly quick to assemble (like, less than 10 minutes each) and not expensive, so replacing them isn't a big deal. The main questions in my mind now is the longer term properties of 3d resin parts and how they will hold up over time. It is known that they can warp and become brittle when exposed to sunlight for extended periods, so from this perspective priming and painting them well will be essential for durability as well as appearence. The other question is around production scale limitations. I'm pretty sure I could sell a lot more if I could make more, and in the more immediate future I could invest in another, larger printer (the first one I got has paid for its self several times over now) but due to the time it takes to print, wash and cure them the quantity is always going to be rather limited. Perhaps that is ok for such a niche product but I can see the limit would be a lot lower than with say, injection molding. But then of course 3d is much more flexible, and these days, cheaper to buy too. Anyway, below will follow a summery of products I am now able to offer to purchase.
  13. Nice work, and quicker than expected! 👍😆 Thank you. I presume any thumbnails have to be re-uploaded?
  14. And there was me thinking this was the faults and technical help section for discussing such issues... Thank you for setting us all straight, very helpful of you.
  15. Not wishing to sound pushy at all but, do we have a rough idea as to when things are likely to be restored? Basically my entire history apart from DMs has been wiped so I can't access any of my past threads, posts etc from my profile. I'm assuming my thumbnail pic having gone blank is also connected with this and will reappear in due course? Cheers
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