m davies

CSX YN2 colors, or as near as...

 

CSX colors.jpg

Yup, those'll work.

I've been toying with a L1 build (making my own etches up) for some time and someone at Kettering yesterday said pop by here and have a look.

Nice build, very neat and clean, especially being brass, which is a devil to keep clean during a build.

I still get frustrated at how much solder I leave and have to clean up, the nack seems to be to use less solder and make sure the joint has as good a metal to metal contact as possible, the bigger the gap the more solder and the less strength.

Richard uses a blow torch, I've tried but it just sets off the smoke alarms and I don't yet have the skill set to use it accurately so am stuck with the ERSA for a while.

Building in nickel silver also helps, it's the same colour as solder.

Anyway, thanks for the kind words and Peter, keep up the good work, the attention to detail is certainly paying off.

Mickoo

Mick D

Phil,

Finally popped by, nice to see more progress being made, My Danish grandfather had one of those tractors on his nursery or plant school as they call it over there LOL, big red thing it was, should of picked one up for myself on reflection, anyway, looks good with the bucket up front.

Best

Mick

Rob,

Well I promised I'd pop by and give y'all a look  nice to see your progress and hope it goes better this time around, it was a shame to have to see you pull your old boards up.

I keep looking at my garden, no where near as big as yours but could get a circuit in, but will need some 'negotiating' where the track bed would pass over the new decking LOL.

Keep up the good work.

Mick

A bit like me with French Railways then. I do like the SNCF....

Nice!, thanks for sharing.

Kindest Michael

Thanks for that Brian, I guise it was not seeing what was in the photos, in that I expect to see only two pans.

 

OzzyO.

Its the pans that generally dictate the locos operational area, Germany, Austria and Switzerland all run the same voltage, but each has a different loading gauge profile, the swiss runs a very narrow pan head and thus their OHLE posts are much closer together on corners than the rest of Europe. AC2E (Euro) all run with four pans. Cab signaling also dictates countries of usem but thats something one generally cannot see from the outside, other than the senors dotted around the chassis.

185s are a nightmare, some run with two, some with four and it makes no odds if they are AC1 or AC2, just different batches with in the class.

For anyone really into modern Euro locos then this site is a must, details all variants, nice color renders, details and technical differences, not just TRAXX but other modern builders http://www.railcolor.net/index.php?nav=1405653&lang=1 be preparedto spend a while here, theres a lot of info!.

Brian thanks, makes sense, with these two versions they can cover about 80% of all TRAXX models with little tooling differences. An Re6/6 would be splendid indeed, or a DBAG 189.

Kindest Michael

Now thats more like it !, I've been looking at their 185, mainly to scale off for a 1:32 model.

You have to be carefull with the TRAXX range, especially the export variants and more so SBB where they had rentals on their books over the years.

TRAXX AC1 can be spotted by the flush lower body and tucked back lower nose, also no sand box filler holes and a flat cab roof, SBB have these as 482-001 / 034

TRAXX AC2 can be spotted by the dropped down lower body near the buffers and flat lower nose and holes in the solebar skirt for sand box fillers and a depressed cab roof panel, SBB has these as 482-035 / 049

Both of these classes are AC only and work Germany - Switzland routes.

SBB also owns some TRAXX MS in the guise as 484-001/021, only differ in detail from the AC2 but are AC/DC machines and work Switzerland - Italy only.

Heres a photo grabbed off the net (copyright exists with original author) showing the cab nose differences between AC1 (left) and AC2 (right).

Brian, where did you get your model from please?, I looked a few months back and couldn't find a UK supplier.

Kindest Michael

It does look very nice indeed, its a shame you cannot get kits like this in 10mm, then you could really go to town with the details .

Best

Michael

I've suspected for some while that the models were 3D printed, at least the master and then castings taken and it has always been there (layers) in a very tiny amount, photos do tend to bring the worst out but those battery boxes look slightly worse than the rest of the model, paint will tell the full story though. I like the lagged pipe along the footplate, nice attention to detail there.

Best

Michael

Now that does look the business, very nice Ken.

Best

Michael

Must admit I have not done anything to it since I took these pictures as I have been busy uploading pictures onto my Flickr site.

Glad to see you have joined the 'dark' side , your site has been and always will be an excellent source of reference material, really pleased to see you went pro and kept the large images and allow people to download, I hope no one abuses your trust. To be fair, disabling download is pointless, all anyone has to do is actually view the image full size and then go to their internet temporary file folder and the image is stored there on your computer, simply drag and drop and save as you wish. People are either unaware of this loop hole in preventing people from downloading images or they're just spiteful, the internet is for sharing and I'm pleased you share your images freely as do I. I do hope some day to upload my detail shots, no where near as many as you and none are heritage stock, all modern as and when I get close enough to it, locos or stock.

Best

Michael

Hi Michael. Yes, the Lizzie is quite a build. (It's driving me nuts as it's so time consumimg.) I have had to give myself some breaks from it as I'm waning a bit..

 

The PC is running very well now. I have now two rail simulators running, Microsofts and Railworks 2. Both running faultless. Start up and web surfing VERY fast. (So it should be as it's a high spec PC compared to my previous one.) It was basically operator trouble.

 

Thanks for the good wishes, it's my mum that's been ill, not the wife. Happily mum's rallied round and is now back home looking after herself with a bit of help from the family.

 

I have been taking photos as the build is progressing and will post them later.

My apologies, post amended accordingly.

Railsims's, I used to develop for MSTS, but no matter how good your artwork (see two virtually finished locos below) the sim never matched it due to its clunky graphics engine that could not render high resolution artwork so I got out of it and back to FSx, never really got back into Railworks and recently retired from commercial FSx work, I prefer more tangible modeling these days, 7/10mm trains and 1/96 warships (nautical). Mind many of the 3D meshes are now being reworked and parts hived off for this new 3D printing process which is gathering pace. The ability to use 3D models to make parts for casting is terrific, my only problem now is lack of time, I thought I'd have more time after retiring for FSx work but I've less, all that spare time is filled with so much more exciting things to do LOL.

Please excuse the diversion below, some renders of 3D models, if this OT is a problem a moderator or I can remove them accordingly.

Kindest

Michael

Ken,

Now you have my 'full' attention , a 7mm 'Lizzie' is to die for, 10mm would probably give me a seizure LOL, fingers crossed it'll be painted in BR green LOL, I built a 4mm one (#10 Lady Patricia) 15 years ago, still pride of my now vastly reduced 4mm collection.

I see your still fighting that darn PC of yours <grin> and sincere wishes for your mother.

Kindest

Michael

Thanks Michael,

 

It would be unfair to adjust any of the parameters at this stage particularly as they've appeared in print and not just on here. The 20" x 11" was designed to facilitate certain things (witness ovals in 'T') and limit others (reducing the temptation to make 4mm+ 'work').

 

I know that's not the answer you're ideally seeking though.

Andy, thats fine, it was a tentative suggestion and I expected the sizes would be locked down due to other agreements/involved parties or this late after the challenge started.

Not to worry, I'll have to flex ze old grey cells some more to make a 7mm idea work , my eyes couldn't possible cope with T LOL.

Thanks for the quick reply and clarification it is much appreciated.

Kindest

Michael

Andy, is this size set in stone, I'm tempted but the ideas I have all require a few inches more in length and less in height or width, last year it was an area size that had to be met, could this year, tentitive suggestion here, be volume driven?, I'd willingly loose a little height to gain a few inches in length, the intention is something 7mm based and 20" is cramped, yes I know its supposed to be a challenge LOL. I know that loosens the boundries, but keeping the volume and say one of the 20x11x11 dimensions would allow something like 24x9x11 or other combinations so long as one side is fixed at one of the orginal sizes (20" or 11")and the volume is at or below 2420 Cu". I'll probably pitch in anyway but thought I'd ask first.

Kindest

Michael

Alright!, now I'm interested, this new ultra material looks perfect for 7mm details, need to redress my masters, price up and order, finally might be able to make some progress on this stuff now, thanks for the heads up and watching you pioneers very closely .

Kindest

Michael

Petri, very nice modeling!, I think sanding works very well with your prototype as it is naturally a smooth curved shape, for square or hard edge shapes then sanding may loose some of the original shape with rounded edges etc, one of my projects is a DB E10/E50-51, which also has a smooth curved cab so your process will work very well. I am also impressed with your multi media approach.

Best

Michael

I've been following this thread for a while now.

 

The one question I really have is "is there anyone offering a better service?"

 

You have spent quite a bit of time refining the CAD files for the models, and its doing them a huge disservice IMHO to print them out at a poor resolution.

 

I ask simpy as out here in the colonies we have acess to much better resolution RP printing with very fine resolutions.

surely there are similar setups in the UK?

You and me both, I'm itching for better resolutions to be offered and I dont mind paying a little extra either, I just cannot find anyone in Europe who offers a better resolution, although my parts will be drasitcally bigger (7mm and some 10mm) I still think they will need too much cleaning up to cast from.

Best

Michael

Hi Michael

 

I am coming to similar conclusions....the gauges etc. look different too.

 

Perhaps corrosion was an issue with the originals....I think that I used the phrase 'modified' as a catch all for replacements and/or modified etc.....yet you are right 'replacement' is probabley a more accurate description.

 

CME

Going one step further I've been looking at other BRCW locos, the 26 only has one tank with a similar shape and thats the water tank for the boiler (fuel being an inverted T shape), better yet the 27 has two tanks, one for water and the other for fuel. The class 27 water tank is very similar in shape but they visually look slightly shorter but I cannot be sure, I'm just wondering if the replacement class 33 tanks are old class 27 water tanks or even new tanks from the same pattern.

Looking back through some old books, I've found 114 with larger tanks in 1977 and 026 in 1978 so the tanks go back quite a few years.

Best

Michael

Regarding the tanks, they do not look like the same tank, the original L shaped one has a smooth edge where the gauge is inset, the solid one has a beaded lip around the gauge hole. I don't know for sure and have no proof, but my gut reaction is that the solid tanks are replacements, not modified originals, possibly due to corrosion or life expended?. The originals also have a radius-ed top edge, the solid ones are a much sharper edge and from photos it looks like the lower chamfer is a different angle between the two types. I've a picture off the net that shows #32, 102, 108 with a solid tank as far back as 1985.

Best

Michael

No problem showing 4mm front if it's still to do with the discussion on here Raffles.

 

Here's a picture of my DJH 47578 that shows their screens have a slight curve on the bottom as per prototype.

 

By the way I do not want to do another Heljan 47 with all the trimmings on it, honest Somebody else do it, please, I beg you.

The DJH Class 47 has about the best cab screen I've seen in any scale, there appears to be a subtle curve to the top as well.

I've started a thread specifically to this issue, can I post your image there as well ?.

Just got my Xmas bonus, may grab a Heljan 47 LOL.

Kindest

Michael

...and back again to the 47. (Sorry)

 

I think the main issue is the square appearance of the windscreens. A couple of weeks back we were moving some spares around, part of which involved moving some spare windscreens we have for '105/'376/'746 and I remarked to our CM&EE that it was an odd shape but there must be a reason for it's design. It would have been much easier to put glass in with straight edges, I'm sure.

 

I'm up at Toddington on Sunday so if the weather is nice I'll try and get some photos of the glass and that'll explain it better than I can with my words.

 

Now then, back to Das Boot.

Now thats interesting, I've always thought the 47 and 56 windscreen upper and lower edges were curved slightly, the Heljan windscreen isnt, like many others here, it 'feels' wrong and I cannot place my finger on it either, other than the previously mentioned side window height and perhaps a little too much metal work above the windscreens between them and the gutter. The 47 has got to be one of the hardest shapes to reproduce in scale models. I'd love to see photo proof of the 47 screen glass, I think the 56 is identical, much of the rest of the cab basic structure is as well.

Regarding kits, I have three MMP....yup none finsihed yet , two not even started!, I wish I had Brians speed and tenacity LOL.

Best

Michael

I don't know if you've seen the posting on the Shapeways forum, but there is a Dutch guy, Mitchell Jetten, - http://www.shapeways.com/shops/spoorobjecten - who has been trying a different process.

 

These shots of an N gauge train are the results

 

 

 

Which I think is very impressive.

 

Sadly he says this is 2 to 3 times more expensive than Shapways.

 

Tom

That does look very good, ideal for some O gauge locos I'm planing, sadly he does not seem to mention who the printer is, which is fair do's on Shapeways site, but doesnt help those looking for that extra finesse and smoothness.

Best

Michael

Hi Michael. Now I see how you almost wrecked the roof. Never a good idea to heat those delicate areas. You have to work crefully in those areas, just heating the areas around them.

 

I dot not think that tourch is suitable. The pinpoint flame heats a very small area and will be a bit too fierce. My flame heats a much larger area using a bigger flame which heats the metal evenly over about sq 1"at a time. Plus you can control the amount of heat the flame gives. On thinner metals of, say 15 thou brass, a less fierce heat is reqiured as opposed to 20 thou nickle silver when I open the valve to almost max.

Ken, I concur, with hindsight the torch I have is great for soldering pipework or silver soldering refridgeration pipes which I used to do a lot, but hopeless for small modeling work, your broader flame, more like a paint stripping blow torch is the way to go, off to B&Q tomorrow and source the correct tools, they say "tools never make a good job", but the 'right' tools certainly help .

Thanks for the info.

Best

Michael