Etched Pixels

I recommend the book "The North London Railway" by Dennis Lovett - yes, he of Bachmann - published by Irwell Press and recently updated.

 

Chris

I hope they've fixed all the mistakes in the version I had. It was a passable book, lots of nice photo material, very little on the stock and operation (less in fact than the Robbins book), and was more like a set of notes than an actual proper narrative.

Thanks for the pointers on NLR drawings.. I'd been hunting for some with a view to doing an NLR loco or two as well as coaches.

There is a certain amount of really interesting operational information in the Zerah Colburn book, not a lot but it was one line he recorded some of the performance information on.

Certainly a railway that in the early days was ahead of its time with clockface timetabling and train brakes.

I assume you've talked to the ***studygroup.co.uk folks. There is a fair bit of material (10,000 odd photos) in their collection

.

Hello Alan,

Good luck with them, I will be very interested in how they come out

Interesting material. It's more flexible than compressible although it does compress a bit. I printed three things in it to try

- bottle stopper for my MicroSol bottle (because the plastic tops they use seem to disintegrate with time). Works a treat.

- chain mail (one part print with interlinked loops). Interesting, but even with 1.5mm or so diameter links not that stretchy more flexible. I don't think you could print a properly functional costume chainmail bra with it for example.

- coach gangways. These are much too rigid to work as flexible gangways even using 1mm walls. I think it might work in big scales but you'd actually have to print real 1mm thick folds somehow.

It's got two very nice properties. The gangways "clip fit" into the ends - the clip fitting works really well and I think it would make brilliant joiners between parts or motor holders and so on. It's also quite robust so for low feature but thin parts looks like it might be a better choice simply because they'll flex not break.

I'm pretty sure you could make some very cool 'working' large scale springs with it too.

David - stick the bogies in hot (60°C or so) water when fitting the wheels. Same trick as heating resin to drill it for handrails - the warmer it is (within reason) the more pliable it gets. Don't go much hotter though as it rapidly goes through the "editable" stage (which can be really useful for things like printing security barrier then adjusting it when fitting) and the 'oh dear' stage.

I've been avoiding FUD for bogies likewise though - too light, too brittle. 3D printed Brass bogies OTOH ought to have awesome running behaviour so I may try some brass bogies for a couple of awkward projects.

Alan

3D overlays on etched cores doesn't actually work too well with N gauge axle lengths at least - it would probably work with 2fs wheels for some things but the minimum wall thickness drives you over-width very easily.

I tried the flat approach in FUD for one of the Met rigid 8's I was doing. The surface finish was better but it was near impossible to assemble and promptly warped all over the place. The one part shell on the other hand was a bit rougher than I'd like (because it unavoidably needs supporting material) but stuffed over the WSF interior/chassis block stayed the right shape.

If you want to avoid most roughness you've probably got to do the sides in another material (eg brass) or design very carefully to have no overhanging bits.

I had been wondering how it would look, mostly from my point of view for weight on the small locos and railbusses. So if I order unpolished do I get it like that or do I get entirely unpolished ?

And British Rail 9Fs proved to be fine passenger locomotives

Beautiful looking prototype Ben. I'd have gone with white metal bogie centres to get the weight where you want it but I guess you wanted to use ATM bogies 8)

I'm not sure you'd get one of those to print straight in any layered metal material - and it looks too long for the usual culprits 'lost wax' printing.

The centre of the wagon ought to be ok though - you've modelled a structurally strong arrangement of girder and trussing. If the ends droop you can in theory add some removable supporting bits.

For 3D print I mostly use the white aerosol primer they do, mostly because I have a GW in walking distsance and Halfords is not.

Enamels and FUD don't get along. Some primers seem to act as a good enough barrier between the two that it usually works out - Games Workshop I find does providing its had a decent coat.

It will probably set. The first time I hit this with a North London Railway coach it did eventually set - just took a few weeks !

yes - but thats getting a couple of stages ahead of "does it work".

Who will be the first of us to do working coach gangway bellows in Elasto Plastic?

Hope this helps,

Wild Boar Fell

I've just added some elasto plastic gangways for the ETR500 bits I'm working on just to see. I'll report back in due course.

I would have thought for that 1948- 1950s period that was actually a good and interesting choice but its a good question.

Great Western Coaches Appendix vol 2 p 158.

It shows W195 in 1949 (so late GWR c&c colours) bearing

PADDINGTON &

   PENZANCE

PADDINGTON &

    CHESTER

and the other panel

   PARCELS TRAIN

       BRAKE VAN

but unfortunately shows one side only

The photos also show 147 (Swindon & Carmarthen) both sides - with gas tanks, and a GWR all brown one with even more inconvenient lettering on it (actually has the train times on it!) which shows that the gas tanks appear to have been removed by that period.

Alan

The most generic I've seen is the Paddington Penzance / Paddington Chester shot in Russell, two routes for the price of one 8)

Any reason they are both Carmarthen rather than one being "Paddington Penzance/Paddington Chester" or similar as per other photos in Russell. Not complaining just curious ?

I assume the guards hand rail not being split is just a livery drawing quirk ?

If you want a batch its worth asking them. Dave (back before being NotDapol) was able to oblige for other bogie types. You will need to ask and be in with the running of the Cargowaggons. Maybe its the sort of thing the NGS could get involved in supplying ?

Those bogies used to be available as Roco spares - not sure if they still are

Dapol's has the 'A' frame ends. There are a good half dozen different styles of end, although I don't recognize the one you have there in any UK photos I've seen of an IWA/B. Both the IW and IWB have different roofs to your van. I think your van is one of the DB steel carriers (ILE690 "Holdall"). They used to run through the chunnel to Wolverhampton in the 1990s. If you remove most of the body and add stakes you get a Colas timber carrier from it, which is I believe where they all went !

If you want a "distinctive" van then the IZA and IVA are four wheel ferry vans which I keep thinking I should do but please beat me to it!

Alan

Cheers Alan,

Do you know anywhere who does etching that fine? PPD only do don't to about 0.2mm or 8 thou (ish) that I can see, possibly someone like PH Designs?

Thanks,

Wild Boar Fell

I've done 2 thou or thereabouts via PPD for one thing. I think Bill is right however that to get the sharpness you need at that resolution you would be looking at Chemix (aka Precision Micro and now Meggitt or some such as they've been taken over again)

Alan

Who will be the first of us to do working coach gangway bellows in Elasto Plastic?

Certainly an interesting idea and possibly the first "work suitable" use for it I've heard suggested ;-)

On 5 thou I suspect you are going to be disappointed - 2 thou maybe. But you'll still get the 'sense' of the writing being there so if you have the detail you might as well put it on.

Alan

Looks really good.

Have you considered simply starting at the beginning of the TOPS wagon list and working down

N or OO ?