rovex

Apropos of nothing in particular - How about a lifeboat station

A cornish pasty factory perhaps, or somewhere churning out cream teas?

Perhaps the Harbour wall could become the front of the baseboard, you could then extend the board slightly forward at a lower level to give the fishing boats etc. The space behind the harbour wall could then be taken up with warehousing, cottages etc giving the feel of the community the station serves. I know structure modelling is not your forte but you could probably get suitable models from the bachman and Hornby ranges. Seeing all these photos of the surgery go up is a bit like watching "Your life in their hands" and almost as traumatic.

Rule 6 - they must be a bus crossing a bridge over the railway

All you need now are a couple of big industrial units and an Aldi and you've got Wencombe 2015

Thanks for all the helpful replies. Having dug the chassis out again last night. The motion probably is nickel silver, I think it was the fact that the crank rod from the piston to the wheels on one side has been bent to fit that made me think it wasn't. Given the wheels a bit of an oiling and it now seems to run along smoothly. I shall try pushing it along the track at home and see how that goes. Dean PS, with regard to which axle to drive, the wheels on the second and third axles are flangeless and does this make a difference as to whether they should be driven? I don't have overtight curves, the usual really peco medium points are probably the tightest curves. My obvious concern is that if I drive a flangeless wheel then if this comes off the track on a curve the train will lose traction. I could replace one or both sets of flangeless wheels but will need to check whether this impacts on the engines ability to get round the layout. problems problems

I recently bought a brass and whitemetal model of a 47xx of Ebay. Its been fairly well built and sits on a brass chassis. The chassis is brass, the two sets of inner wheels are flangeless and there is no motor or gears (or indeed any pickups).The wheels turn fairly freely, apart from one set but it probabyl only need some lubrication. I'm puzzled as to the original builders intentions as the bottom of the firebox where presumably the motor would have sat has been filled in with plasticard and a representation of the bottom of the firebox made. This will need to come out. The boiler, running plate and top of the firebox is brass, the sides of the firebox and the cab are whitemetal. As I say its been well built but some remedial work is going to be needed. The tender is a mixture, the top looks to be from a Hornby King, the chassis is brass, again reasonably well built but would probably benefit from lubrication. So my question is what would be the best motor to fit, and what gears do I need and from where? Also I'm thinking of replacing the crank rods which are whitemetal and I've a feeling that brass would be preferable. Any thoughts. Finally and just out of interest anyone got any ideas as to the manufacturer? For what use there are I include some fuzzy photos (I really need another camera) Thanks as usual for all assistance

I must say I like your approach to the mods, this way it allows you to continue to run trains (just like the real railway used to do it), rather than the nuclear option of clearing everything. Will watch developments with interest Dean

How about a crime scene on that bit of scrubland behind the cars. Police and squad cars and some of that police tape!

Another doodle is this design for a cast iron clock to grace any park or Victorian high street (particularly it seems here in Birmingham). Its about 100mm high and is intended to be fitted with the scale link clock faces (although no doubt paper ones would just as well. Some scale link fretwork would also not go a miss but isn't essential regards Dean

Ok first few ideas. These show some designs for ionic and doric columns that I have drawn up. The ionic column has been done in both plain and fluted. The designs are 100mm tall but can be scaled up or down as needed. Alright classical columns may not be in great demand but you tell me who else does them? because sketch up shows every line - this one does not "photo" well but here's a close up of the capital showing the fluting and without flutes And doric. - I managed to get some of the lines to hide for this "shot" Dean

Hi all Having had some success with designing items for my layout and having these printed by Shapeways, Andy Y has agreed that I can publicise a little business venture I am considering. As some of you may know Shapeways allows people to sell their designs through their website, and indeed several fellow RMwebbers are doing this already. I have decided to try and create a selection of scratchbuilding aids for structure modellers. I have long been disappointed at the range of items available, for example church or gothic windows. I know of only one white metal version available and that is distinctly uninspiring. The laser cut versions I have seen advertised have been much better but distinctly flat. Also so many of the whitemetal items provided by one particular supplier are architecturally very dubious! I am currently considering the following: gothic accessories such as: 1 windows of varying sizes, suitable for churches etc. 2 doorways along the same lines 3 gothic style bay windows and oriels, 4 spires for the tops of buttresses. 5 balustrades Georgian and Victorian 6 door cases of varying designs 7 window surrounds 8 balustrades and pediments 9 columns (ionic, doric etc) - corinthian is currently beyond my abilities. I intend to spend some time over the Christmas period drawing up some designs, which I shall be posting on here along with the printed results. I don't expect to be able to give up the day job. If anyone has any ideas for other things they have been searching for and unable to find or which would be of general use, please feel free to post away. regards Dean

I've got the design of the facade finished and so thought I would share a few more pictures with you. Its succesfully loaded up to Shapeways - though that doesn't mean much until you try to print it. As the cost of likely to be 125 Euros I'm gonna wait until their next sale. I'll share the results with you In the meantime for those interested here is a link to one of the few images of the original regards Rovex

That thought had occurred to me. I know you can get laser cut windows from certain suppliers but to me they look distinctly flat, whereas with laser printing you can get more of a feeling of depth

Thanks Mikkel This was one days work - Its amazing how quickly you can knock something up. I haven't priced it up on Shapeways yet - it might be cost prohibitive. My inclination is to try printing it. It feels like cheating in a way, but when you consider the time saving. The rest of the building and the arcade behind would be plasticard. I'm also considering drawing up some gothic windows, bays etc for city centre style buildings, the rest being plasticard. As well as the time saving there is also the issue of being able to produce lots of idential items which if made the old fashioned way would look anything but identical. Dean

It being too cold to be in the shed, I have spent the day playing with Sketchup. Opposite the entrance to Snow Hill id the Great Western Arcade. It was built over the tunnel carrying the tracks from Moor Street to Snow Hill. Originally it had a very impressive facade but this fell victim to enemy action and was burnt out. Rather than restore it after the war it was demolished and for a long time the arcade was somewhat truncated. A modern building now occupies the site but the original arcade exists behind this building - albeit with a more simplified roof. I have decided that I would like to have the original building and so began my search for photographs etc. Surprisingly I've only found a very small handful of photographs. This is progress to date. Still some more to do and the original carved stonework will have to be reproduced in Milliput, my Sketchup skills aren't up to it.

Would that be why on some of my drawings, some surfaces are different colours even so in the same plane. It doesn't seem to affect the "printability", tho. How would you reverse the direction?

Perhaps its brand new King class locomotive

I've used Sketchup for my things, mainly becuase it was free and once I got used to it fairly easy to use. Something which I haven't found with my (admittedly limited) use of a few other systems - only problem I am aware of is that it does have a minimum radius (about 1mm - i think) which can cause problems with small items.

Thanks Weaselfish. There are some photos on this blog giving an impression as to how the Noth box was done http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/191/entry-6824-brackhampton-north-signal-box/ http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/191/entry-6857-brackhampton-north-signal-box-part-2/ http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/191/entry-14235-brackhampton-north-sb-goes-all-colourful/ These are probably the best ones regards Dean

some great photos, very atmospheric. Thanks for sharing