Etched Pixels

There are some basic dimensioned drawings of the Barnum and a few other GCR vehicles in Historic Carriage Drawings in 4mm Scale Vol.1. They are not bad but contain the odd error that can be checked against photographs. There are also some handy diagrams in vol 3 in particular of Dow 'Great Central' I've been doing some of the GCR coaches in N in part from these drawings and they are certainly adequate if not perfection. Alan

Sun is an English word so pronounced the English way Clun would be Clwn if pronounced the English "Clun" It's like Sean Bean...

I believe some of the BHE castings/mouldings and etches were originally from Fleetline and MTK. Ray should be able to tell you what will fit as a result.

The two are not mutually exclusive as you can digitize, tidy and import an existing design and then re-work it.

With the Nigel Lawton motors at least the worm rapidly tears the motor apart (oops.. guess how I know) so you need to have something to take the thrust each end of the worm - eg washers and metal pieces secured to the chassis. Alan

Mike was still doing it last I checked, or you can 3D print your own for basic seating stuff.

Guess you need a couple of personnel carriers (permaquip unit 68803 and similar) - should at least be a lot cheaper to print although perhaps tricky to motorise 8) Alan

If you remove the weight of the heap (if you could which has its own logistics questions and would take years) you would then have to wait a very very long time for the land around it to stabilize because it will all flow (at very low speeds for the most part) towards a new equilibrium. There are as you say ways to tackle bits of it (and also to build sections line on something akin to a raft), but I would still be surprised if its open before December. Alan

If you "simply" remove the spoil heap (which is not remotely simple and would probably take years) then the resulting removal of the massive weight will itself cause all kinds of redistributions of pressure in the soggy ground and it'll move in all sorts of other interesting ways.

Fantastic model. I shall order one once enough pennies have appeared. Now I wonder if I can get the track cleaner in one end of it....

I had a fair bit of trouble getting the ridiculuously long standard N gauge axles (15mm) into a 3D printed bogie. It's just about doable but the width ends up a bit off. The 2mmSA does 12.25mm axles for N and those plus bearings fit rather better and allow for a fairly decent wall thickness. I have however gone back to brass for my next bogies 8) It's noticable that the newest Bachmann Farish vehicles are also using shorter axles even when combined with very thin plastic sides in order to get nearer to scale. Ben - I'm dubious about using those as casting masters. If your master isn't very finely polished and clear then your copies will also carry the same surface roughness and look frosty. If you can find something with a very similar optical behaviour then it might help perhaps - the same way coating the old Mike Howarth shells inside and out in gloss acrylic varnish does. Alan

FUD is definitely improving - although some of the wall thicknesses seem to have gone up - the pullman lamps I used to print no longer get through the system.

It is quite possible that the only thing that can be done is to sit and watch for a year or so. They can't work on a large heap like that while it is unstable - anything could happen.

You might also want to have a look at the work being done on N gauge code 40 track/point kits that Wayne Kinney is working on as 'fiNetrax' . It's conceptually similar but using cast n/s frogs and milled based pre holed for chairs so that aligning and assembling should be much easier Alan

I don't believe any of the modern heavy rail profiles in the UK are beyond code 40 or thereabouts. Some of the older pre BR branches and sidings could I think be quite reasonably laid with code 30 rail. Alan

Yes powerstations love the stuff - it's been a blessing (and in some cases a curse) because quite a few problematic spoil heaps went away - they used to dump the fine coals so it was actually cost positive to clean the tip up. It's been a curse in a few cases because junk land that would have been quite handy for building on has suddenely become rather valuable.

You can always ebay the prototype to someone who doesn't mind...

There will come a point where its quicker (and in overall costs in fines, to the bank and insurer) to simply give up and reroute the thing well clear of the mess. It could easily be a year or more otherwise.

It's not just the modern way. It's how it often used to be done too - ask the Gloucester 8) Quite a few of our coal tips are a) higher than the Netherlands and b) have bases that are 2-300 years old and predate any record keeping or real understanding of the problem. I think it's also a bit early to be assuming that the problem was solely modern or entirely the fault of the current mine owners, time (and the high court) will no doubt eventually figure it all out. As to their insurers - it may depend how much insurance they carry. If its not an unlimited policy the insurer may not be too worried, but the council may have a very large problem on its books if the mine owner goes bust as a result. Alan

Much as like the idea of dumping it all on Coventry I don't think people grasp the sheer scale of that tip .. it would take years of trains to move it all to Coventry, Newquay or any other big hole. Alan

I gather Alton Towers will be bidding on the franchise

I doubt a month especially if it keeps raining. It's taken local government in Wales 2-3 months to stabilize small colliery slips (or even potential ones). On the other hand I suspect it wasn't costing their insurers £100/minute or whatever Network Rail will show is their costing for the event (including loss of traffic over the long term, reputational damage and everything else lawyers are paid to add to the bill) Can't see moving it 50 yards right helping either. Thats an awful lot of unstable material that has to be stabilized or removed. If it all goes then being 50 yards away isn't going to be safe, 500 maybe 8) If it was a sweepstake I think I'd put my pound nearer 12 months than one for a proper fix.