Etched Pixels

It's only a pricing question. The high end commercial machines are producing stuff you can't easily tell from injection moulding in smoothness. It's just at the moment they are too expensive for production runs. Tech problem is solved though, just a case of costs dropping. Alan

Eventually I think. Still scratching my head a bit over the brake ends as they have a rather more complicated shape.

Test build completed. Quite pleased with this one. The close to scale bogie spacing limits it to about R2 curves but that's ok by me

I think you'll find thats standard Shapeways colour 3D printing (with a bit of polishing)

Do you have any images of them on a layout at normal viewing angles. I found the Mathieson ones looked brilliant against flat artificial backgrounds but showed up horribly with scenery ?

From 1905 the District Railway had pairs of short (26') BO-BO locos for hauling LNWR trains (and later used for some circle services and to haul LTSR/LMS through services). They rain in pairs back to back and delivered 1600hp off 8 200hp motors. They were actually quite spacious inside, the length as much as anything being the space needed to make the bogies both fit. They were also clerestory roofed Interesting comparison http://lurs.org.uk/documents/pdf09/oct/district_electric_trains.pdf‎ (Sorry you'll have to type the URL by hand, rmweb is in stupid mode and keeps randomly splitting it up)

And this is precisely why any decision about routes will be longer term and rigorously analysed. The economics of delays and closures will get turned into models, the risk assessments on the coastal route will get turned into actual numbers and values and costs. The local service benefits will be computed and so forth. It's also entirely possible at the end of this the answer will be none of the current three obvious proposals. Pulling traffic off the roads is not always a win either. The civil service likes to factor in losses in fuel tax revenue as an anti- to building the railway!

The BBC report as well as covering diversions also says "Damage to the track at Dawlish means that the line between Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot is not expected to reopen until mid April at the earliest, and in the meantime buses are replacing trains." but it's not clear if that is also from Patrick Halligate or elsewhere. Alan

Drainage on the levels is fairly irrelevant this time (except as a political football). There have been a few years that were unusually wet, but the heavy rains and damage over the past few years (think through all the heritage railway slips just as a starter) have been quite exceptional in themselves, and this year is simply off the scale. The levels haven't received that much water since records began, and by a large margin. If it's a one off them you can just relay all the cables, curse and get on with it, but the evidence on the weather science side is that it's not, it's part of an extreme weather trend. If the computer models continue to show this is likely to become a new "normal" winter then there will have to be yet more major (and very expensive) work at all the known flooding problem spots, and many of the "doesn't quite flood" locations which will all become 'floods all the time' spots - Exeter, Dovey Junction, Yeovil, Quakers Yard, and so forth. Time to spend the HS2 money on something a bit more sensible. Alan

In a sense there is probably a positive business case because already its an expensive piece of line to maintain, and global warming won't make it get any cheaper. There is also significant work going to be needed by the 2030s anyway. Viewed in the long term there is probably already a business case for moving the line inland (as opposed to via Tavistock) simply because that will cut the year on year repair bill, somewhat improve service reliability and lay the basis for electrification. Pity we scrapped the 76's they'd have been good on the Devon banks ;-) Alan

Big assumption is that they would bother. We have perfectly good diversionary routes here that involve a reverse and some hassle so FGW runs buses instead of diverting their trains. If there was an Tavistock diversion I imagine FGW would run busses instead of using it. So to "fix" the problem you've also got to fix the train operators. Alan

Network Rail video - I didn't previously know the line at Bridgewater was tidal ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b9X-FT1MXrQ

Roughly speaking that is how Indian Railways tackles some of these kind of problems in Monsoon season. But in rural areas of India labour is cheap and plentiful so hiring half the local villagers to fill a hole with rocks works. The debate about the route is rather like the debate about dredging on the levels. It may or may not have been a good idea, but in neither case is it the quick fix option. You have to fix it as best you can, learn and move on. For the new route (or for other clever fixes) you've then got time to cost it all and plan it properly. I wonder if Dawlish Station could be put in a giant plastic bubble for example - or even the entire section of line be covered by a giant plastic pipe. Keep the view but keep the waves off ;-)

At least not since FGW changed livery ;-) Your updates and insight are much appreciated btw.

Steep is fine (with a bit of levelling), modern trains do steep better than corners. The long term weather predictions are a currently continuous series of storms until at least the end of February and quite possibly longer. Indeed this may be a new "normal" mode of wather for a UK winter. That isn't going to speed up repair either. I don't think the "don't rebuild it option" is real - there's a small matter of nuclear goodies for the boys in Devonport, especially if the Scots leave the union. Moving it might be in the longer term. The costs go up year on year, the number of delays and lack of service days goes up year on year. The cliffs get more and more unstable. At some point it's going to be cheaper to fix it properly. The good new is Eric Pickles is now in charge of dealing with the floods, and I can't help thinking he'd fit that breach in the sea wall quite nicely ;-)

If it won't straighten I'd be tempted to paint it as recently bashed. Plenty of freight wagons appear to be considerably out of shape and it's rarely modelled!

I think so (well move the springs out a bit too) - some of the rest of the problem is down to wheel sizes, flanges and clearances and not really that fixable in N RTR. Alan

Battery boxes look mostly better - but with a new oddity - the back of the battery boxes looks a bit weird. Looks like someone has now gone and hollowed it out. That's going to look a bit odd when you see the underframe from an angle. Bogies look way better but I agree they don't seem to be quite right. Is it stretched to try and force the axles lower so that the wheel clears the solebars on curves ? In some ways its hard to tell when comparing with photographs at similar angles because the bogies are excessively wide so all the reference points are different. I am pretty sure the bottom of the bogie and the bottom of the springs is way too close to the rails however. Having a close look at pictures of the real bogies it looks like its stretched horribly in the bottom area but not high up. How much of that is the incorrect wheel size and N clearances forcing the breaking of the bogie I don't know. The springs seem wrong too - there is no spiral on them and someone has added an as far as I can see completely imaginary tapering cone to the bottom that just isnt present that way in reality. They also have the bar across at the bottom of the imaginary bit. The springs in the centre should have plate about 3.5/4 turns of spring coil lower plate small section below which is a kind of tapering cone (but not like the one there) Another obvious spot the bogie is putting the bogus into bogie is below the axle box If you look at photos of K41s the gap under the axlebox where you can see through to the wheel is rectangular, on the model that whole area is so warped its square! Gauging by the door in Fig 376 of Russell (Great Western Coach Appendix v2, p158) the springs are also much too close together. The distance between the outside of the springs on the photo is about 9mm, and of the door a bit over 8.5. Now while the door is a shade nearer, its a flat on image. The springs in the centre of the model are too close together.

Thats rather nice - echoes some of the foreign locos a little I do think you need to streamline the tender to match ? Ah yes found the one I was thiking of.. NSW 3801...

I did try 3D printing a Dalek but while there are various models of them none seem to scale down nicely for N.