apl31

Excellent work. What material are they printed with?

Rob, Thats either very modest statement or you’ll have teach me your design method, I must be doing something wrong, it takes me weeks to produce a model 😉

I was admiring the finish on your brass dome. I assume from earlier photos it is resin painted brass, Do you have a particular method ? what make of paint did you use? When Ive tried I didnt seem to achieve that realistic finish . Thanks. Aidan

The chairs appear to be in 2 halves bolted together through the rail but it could be later repair . Ive shown both sides. Each side of the chairs were 9" long 3-4" wide and finally the rail section. I seem to remember the Darlington railway museum currently closed for refurbishment had some of these blocks fitted with fishbelly rail, again I may be wrong Please note all sizes given are approx

The chairs are probably as originally fitted to the blocks as they seemed to fit the shape cut in block, which is surprising if the have been outside for ~200 years. The fixing hole centres were ~7" along rail and ~6" across rail.

As luck would have it my wife wanted to visit my son in Darlington today. So took a detour to the very large and well kept South Park. One of the oldest public parks in UK apparently . I took a few photos and measurements before my wife become too twitchy. The first shows a plaque confirming they were ex S&D railway. I measured 3 stones 24x25x10 inch 21x21x10 24x25x10 The height was approx. not sure if there was more beneath the mud. Ill send others separately

While mentioning small parts. If anybody is looking to fabricate small parts, its always worth examining electronic components. I was trying to make a fiddly lever from scrap the other day and decided to push out the pins of an IC socket. When unfolded it was very close to what I needed. I think they are nickel plated which solders well but I think needs good ventilation. I assume these parts are stamped out but they are very intricate shapes with slots which would be difficult to make by hand. Other useful parts may be 0.1" pin headers straight and bent and crimp connections. Its well worth looking if faced with small intricate parts. While the pins are within plastic bases in my experience they easily push out

These ones are assumed to be from original S&D railway. They are in South Park in Darlington. If of interest I can measure them next time Im down there,

Regarding NER signals this is part of a photo of an accident in Co Durham dated 1892. The Signal on right appears to have a notch and a "+" on the back. The one on left appears to have round on front. Although neither is clear.

That reference to brown and buff was interesting I had never heard of that. Probably not applicable to a horsebox, but for information, I believe first class carriages were lake and cream in 1870s-80s. There is a photo of such a carriage at Coniston c1870.

However there was a nice article in CRA journal August 2022 on M&C carriages. The illustration drawings of teak stock show black underframes. The later green carriages are shown with green underframes.

That Hamilton Ellis print shows teak (or something like it) with ironwork painted black. The image I was looking at has a reference 1953 which I assume is date he painted it. So it may still be a guess.

Timber, Thanks for the resin suggestion that looks very interesting. Its probably staring me in the face, but what are internal dimensions of ultrasonic tank. The only size mentioned is 1cm cube, which I assume is not it.

Another unusual subject a NER (ex S&D) smoking saloon of 1870s. Look forward to making interior - button backed chesterfield type seats.

Rob, A little example of why I find it so hard to finish models. As you know from the recent Leeds meeting, I had a nice print of this carriage primed and ready to go. At a certain angle I noticed a slight mark was visible. A little light sanding turned into heavier sanding, turned into scraping turned out into gouging which required filling... repeat. Decided it would be easier to reprint. Set the printer up noticed there was a hole in liner covering LED, repaired that. then spilt the tank of resin then found the resin bottle was empty. I was intending to stop printing for the winter anyway. Meanwhile.....

I had plenty spare time on my recent holiday to draw something new, its a NER luggage van from 1870s. A little bit more work to do. I wish I was as good at finishing things as starting them.

After a long time trying Ive finally worked out how to produce 3d boiler fittings in Freecad. My method is a lot more involved than that in the fusion 360 video mentioned on here last year, however it seems to be a reasonable end result and presumably it will print.

There was a recent discussion and photos on rmweb about these pre grouping containers Search for "Private owner furniture containers"

Very good. Do those first 2 operations fly cutting and turning base produce final shape or do curves need to be blended?

Jim, Thanks for the information on M Machine, unfortunately for me this is a week late. I spent a frustrating time last weekend stopping off at various metal suppliers between Newcastle and Darlington (where my son lives and where I now know M Machine is). They were either shut or didnt have what I wanted. I know, as my wife pointed out many times, I should have checked beforehand. I will now commit M Machine to memory.

I couldn’t resist starting the Furness tank etch, and it has gone together surprisingly well. I made a few errors and there are parts I would design differently, but for a first attempt at etching I’m happy. I don’t intend to rework design, not least because in colouring in artwork for etching I have deleted some of the original outline drawing. The photo shows the etched parts with a few additional parts – wooden buffer beams, resin buffer, clock pins to represent the tapered handrails and some additional reversing lever detail. The model breaks down into separate parts for painting – chassis, footplate (grey primed), bunker, smokebox. The outer sandwich and cab side plate overlays will be painted separately and glued on. The main error was when producing “U” shaped parts for a frame spacer and smokebox former, they were too wide when folded up, requiring a bit cutting and filing. I forgot to transfer some common holes and slots on different layers, but I had one for reference. With hindsight I should not have added the side angle iron detail to the sandwich plate overlay and added top angle strips beneath the footplate, it looks a little “heavy”. It would have been much easier to add some sections of angle iron as required. My intention with to cab was to have etch detail for the inside then add strapping detail to the outside, however I prefer the etch detail on the outside. Unfortunately, there is a cut out for brake wheel which would be on wrong side. I may still do it and mirror cut out, the cab back shape is a guess anyway. I am undecided how to make the firebox at present, with its brass beading on each end. The chassis needs more detailing and Im undecided how I’m motorising, pickups etc.. Ive 3D printed some detail parts including the spring hangers which were a nightmare to make in brass strip. Reading Ross Pochins articles in RM he had problems too, so I don’t feel too bad.

Pleased to see your getting to grips with printing after the initial problems we all had and still have.

The weight diagrams can sometimes state the footplate width in the information below drawing. Its a little more information to help work out other dimensions

Isn't that beautiful. Norman and Ross Pochin were very skilled people. I saw Trevor's amazing NER long boiler close up on Blakey Rigg at Jarrow last month. Luckily these days 2D and 3D designing can help us lesser mortals produce something reasonable.

For over 50 years Ive been waiting for someone to produce an etch kit for my favourite engine -Furness Rly 2-2-2WT. As nobody has to my knowledge, and unlikely ever to in S scale, I decided to have a go myself. Im not sure if “kit” is correct term, more like a set of parts to aid a scratch build. I will need to 3D print firebox and some other parts. I tried several 2D programs but found QCad worked best for me. The etch was printed by PPD and Im very pleased with the etch detail. I now need to find out whether I have designed it dimensionally correct. I have blue tacked a few parts together for the photo- the chassis frame and 3 part outer frame. As can be seen some parts are not folded yet or tabs removed. Im going to finish my NER van before starting this etch, but Ill report any progress.