Fen End Pit

That is coming along nicely, the axleboxes look particularly good. Good luck with it. David

I wouldn't have thought so. The mashima's are better suited to a traditional worm gear arrangement. I think the secret to most of the Simplex/Ruston's is to use delrin chain drive. On the Simplex I think an N20 driving both axles via chains would be worth a try. David

It's not bad, the first ones I had were too higher gear ratio but I was after slow running. Ultimately you are not going to get as smoother running as with a decide Mashima or whatever from High Level which would have cost 10 times the price but you pays your money and takes your chose. There is quite a whine if rev'ed too hard but I'm pretty happy overall. David

Hi Chris I'm pretty sure that the wheels were just Alan Gibson 7mm scale 3' diameter wagon wheels. They work out at 21mm but close enough. For my Binnie skips I use Alan Gibson Lowmac wheels. Glad you're liking the blog posts... David

I was able to roll out one row of stones and then butt up the second row against it. There was a little bit of manual scribing to join the two rows together but it was surprising easy. Sculptamold is wonderful stuff for this kind of work, you had about 10 minutes of working time which was perfectly adequate. David

Who's wheels are you using and which quartering jig? If the answer is Alan Gibson do you get different behavior with the crankpin bosses loose and tighted? can you detect that one pin is binding when it sticks? Try wiggling each end of each rod along the boss and see which if any is stuck. Just how tight is everything? Obviously it needs to be tight but not so tight that things bind up. Your approach of making it roll as a 2-4-0 first is a good one. Good luck and don't get disheartened.. David

Nice progress, I look forward to seeing more of this. 16mm is a nice scale for scenic modelling David

I had the opportunity over the last few weeks to model up a batch of Cavan and Leitrim four wheel vans. These started out as rather odd wagons, with an external wooden frame and a central section of roof left open to be covered with a tarpaulin. Apparently they doubled up as both general goods vans and cattle wagons depending on weather it was cattle market day! As with all things C&L they were rebuilt over the years and the appearance in later years depended very strongly on who was in the workshop during the rebuild - it seems no two are the same. I've printed these at .03mm layer resolution on my Phrozen Sonic Mini 4K, print time was about 5 hours for the 3 wagons, I could have got 4 on the plate bed if I hadn't added another little project. I think this is called getting the maximum out of one print run. I've not done any clean up on these other than to remove the support structure, the bottom etches will need a bit of tidying up with a file. For reference these wagons as in 4mm scale for 3' narrow gauge and each wagon is ~ 62mm x 30mm x 32mm First up with have a van with full external framing, full length centre doors and sun roof. Next we have one with a drop down section and diagonal bracing on the centre doors. Finally we have a later rebuild with a lowered complete roof, planked centre doors and the original ventilation planks replaced. These will be delivered to the chassis workshop soon to be married with some etched chassis. This has been a fun little project and I look forward to seeing what the C&L (North Essex division) makes of them. At the same time I also drew up the back-head detail for my J17, this came out pretty well only I didn't allow enough space for the rear wheels (doh!). I think I'll probably add a few more pipe runs but I'm struggling to find any pictures of J17 back-heads. I'm very impressed with the Phrozen Aqua-Grey 4K resin, it does appear to print very nicely. David

Mary had a little lamb the doctors were astounded and everywhere that Mary went by gynecologists she was surrounded. sorry..

Very impressive, Couple of suggestions :- could the sleeper 'sprue' be made slightly thinner than the sleepers to aid cutting? Also ultimately the ability to specify key direction would be ideal so you could knock the keys in with the primary direction of travel on the line or have them alternate for single lines. Are you finding any problems with the brittleness of the resin? David

Over the last month PPD have been kept busy with a couple of projects. I've been helping my friends at Brassmasters with a potential EasiChas project. As I mentioned a couple of months back the cab windows provided for the J17 in the PDK kit I'm building didn't seem to match the GERS drawing very well. I received the replacement etches from PPD and will see how they go together over the next week or so. The second project has been considerably more complex. Following on from the Easichas for the Hornby J15 i thought I'd try to apply the same principles to the Bachmann Ivatt 2MT. This is very much a work in progress and at this point I'm still at the 'can I get these bits to fit together well enough for me to keep going with the build and find the next set of problems with the etch?' stage. So far I have made the Easichas overlay fit and got the basic drive assembled. This utilizes the original chassis block, motor and gear tower. I've spotted several mistakes, mostly in the form of 'that hole needs moving by .5mm' but nothing too catastrophic. I over compensated for the lack of clearance between coupling and connecting rod so the cylinders, which are currently too far apart, can be moved back to a more scale spacing. I was quite pleased with the way the cross head folded up and soldered together. Using a similar principle to the brakes on my J15 these etchings can be tinned, concertinaed together and soldered up before removing from outer frame. There are some minor tweaks to make but not bad for a first attempt. The replacement tender chassis etch also folded up easily. Obviously I still have to assemble the valve gear, brakes, cylinders etc but it is coming along. Wish me luck as I make my second attempt of Walschaerts valve gear. This time I have will not have the advantage of etches from Dave Bradwell or his helpful advise on the Scalefour Forum. If this doesn't fit together I have only myself to blame! David

I've not had a problem using multi-cored wire from old Cat-5 cabling with CBUS myself. It is great to move on from the CBUS test plank to actual implementation on layout where all the advantages of using a LCB actually come into their own. Well done. David

That'll be when Edinburgh is back in part of the EU. (runs for cover) David

I've been doing a number of projects over the last month. More on the etches for the 4mm J17 and also playing with the electronics for my level crossing. Meanwhile as a more practical modeling activity I've made a start on the shed which is my 16mm photo plank project. The sides of the shed were laser cut in 6mm and 3mm ply. I've deliberately made the back wall in two parts to give me some reasonable thickness for the wall. I have just sanded the outside and have the option to produce an outer shell in the event that I want to include the shed as part of a layout in future. The insides of the walls were covered in Sculptamold, a layer about 3mm thick. I've been really impressed by how Sculptamold sticks to the ply surface. After about 10 minutes of going off I rolled the surface texture with my 3D printed rolling tool. This came from the Thingiverse. I modified the original 'crazy pavement' version, doubling the diameter. This means that the stones became longer and more suitable for a stone wall. I also modified the shapes slightly adding a couple of extra lines with model filler. I turned the tool over so the pattern repeat isn't too visible, I also added some additional lines with a scribing tool while the Scupltamold was still green. Finally I used a stiff old toothbrush to add just a little more texture to the stone surface. The effect I'm after is going to be a weathered whitewash inside for the building like this at Threlkeld. The shed includes a inspection pit (which isn't full depth and will probably be covered with timber) and a wagon turn table which would allow a wagon (or loco) to be turned and moved off the running line. I had cut some ply to form the inset for the track but having seen how well the Sculptamold worked on the walls I think I may just use it on the floor. I'm thinking I want to go for a 'rustic concrete' effect - something that looks patched up and laid at different times. I'm thinking that maybe there were original pads installed for the heavy tools (power hammer, lathe etc) and then the rest of the floor was concreted later. The door lintels just had some scrap ply inserted when I added the Sculptamold, I intend to add proper lintels either of timber or maybe a modern replacement RSJ. The window lintels are just carved stone (I think I need to make these more pronounced). The windows are only a scale 5' wide which I think is narrow enough to cope with just a stone lintel. It has made a nice diversion from CAD and MERG electronics. David

try Abe books https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30582396978&searchurl=an%3Dgeoff%2Bkent%26sortby%3D17%26tn%3D4mm%2Bwagon&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title13 £13.33 David

That is coming along very nicely - and your fingers only show slight signs of damage! David

I found some of the drawings are on flickr. Hope that helps. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaytilston/3263186180 and https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaytilston/3263195550/in/photostream/ If you go through the whole photo-stream there are some nice detail photographs too. David

Over the last week I been able to build up the road surface around the level crossing and but in the Sculptamold between the road and river. I also 3D printed some picket fencing and the wicket gates for the crossing and fastened these in place. The overall effect doesn't look too bad. But then I looked back the the river and saw that what had initially looked like a perfect pour of Woodland scenics 'deep water' now looked horrible! I think the issue was that I poured one layer, realised I didn't have enough resin, ordered some more and pour a second layer about 2 weeks later. There appeared to be a layer of grey algae spreading between the two layers. As is there had been 'something on top of the first layer which has reacted, over time with the bottom of the second. I've decided I couldn't live with it so the whole load had to come up, fortunately without too much damage. I now have a quandary - I don't think I have enough resin left to do the job in one.. I think I'm going to need to take out a 2nd mortgage to buy another lot of resin to ensure that I can complete the job in one go. I managed to remove the bridge girders without damage and I think I can clean up the abutment enough in-situ. To add to the frustrations I have now got a bit stuck with the J20. I thought I'd attach the cab to the foot plate and made a start on etches. The cab front was missing any beading around the windows and lacked a distinctive grill for ventilation. On closer inspection it also became clear that the windows were a completely different shape to the drawings and photographs. If they had been a little too small it would have been easy but no, they are a little too tall and trying to fill the gap is a non-starter as if I solder a piece of brass in it will only fall out when I try to solder the front and sides together. The cab sides also have windows which extend 1mm too low and the holes for the handrails are too low as well. So it is a dive into CAD to draw new parts for the cab.... grrrrrrr David

Tommy and tanks - good combination. Just remember rule #1 - It's your railway - enjoy it. David

Hi Mike I put them up on the thingiverse originally. They are quite tricky to print. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3616864 David

I'd spent a fair amount of time trying to solder up a belpaire firebox and despite many attempts I really wasn't that happy with the results. So, as much as an intellectual exercise as with any practical expectation of success, I thought I'd try and model the firebox, boiler and smokebox up in CAD and try to print it. This is very much a 'work in progress' but the results are rather encouraging. The layer lines at a .03mm layer height are virtually invisible to my eye and will disappear even further under a coat of paint. I was astonished by how well the rivets around the smokebox came out and how cleanly the holes for handrail knobs have been printed. I printed the chimney and dome as separate pieces (and haven't cleaned the bottom of the dome off properly hence the poor fit). In terms of the actual model I think the smokebox door needs a slightly more pronounces curve to is and I believe I can probably add the sandboxes to the 3D print. I might just add the dome and chimney to the model rather than have them as separate pieces. I think a lot of the other issues are related to getting the printing support right, I'm wondering about modeling a support base in CAD rather than adding on in Chitubox. I was pleased enough with the results to dismantle the etched splashers on the my current footplate so I could match the 3D printed part with the etch - I think the footplate and cab are still best made from brass. Bear in mind that the holes left in the foot plate from the original splashers are over-size and I'll need to fill them to make them the same size as the 3D printed parts. When press down the gap between the 3D printed part and the footplate around the front splashers disappears. So I'm very much encouraged to keep going this route. I will solder up the cab and print the rest of the super-structure with a few tweaks and then see how it all looks. This was printed on a Phrozen Mini 4K at .03 layer height using 'The Technology Outlets' premier Low odour grey resin. Having read the latest MRJ I would like to refute the idea that this 'Dreadful 3D printing' kills craftsmanship.. It just takes a different sort of craftsmanship, just in the same way that photo-etching brass didn't kill craftsmanship when it meant we no longer had to cut everything else out by hand with a piecing saw. Please let me know what you think. David

I've been working on and off on making a level crossing for some years now. I've bounced between the electronic and purely mechanical option but finally come back to the electronics using an Ardiuno to drive a pair of stepper motors with simple micro-switches to detect the limit of travel. There is a 3D printed unit under each gate which can actually drive the gate nearly 100 degrees, this allows some over-travel in each direction to take account of the back-lash on the gates caused by there being a little bit of movement in the joiners which couple of top of the stepper motor with the bottom of the gate. I've obviously got a lot more bedding in to do and also some additional bits like the red targets on the gates and some small wicket gates. But for now it is working reliably and that is a good step forward. I've put a short video on Youtube to show it moving.

I think most people use totally over the top sizes of timber. Lots of diagonal bracing is the critical thing. David

I, like many others have been using MERG CBUS for years. This is a CAN bus system and works really well to simplify wiring on my layout. I only every have a DCC bus to the track and CAN bus to every board. Control panels just have four wires to the layout (12v power and CAN). David

I modeled up the alternative battery box which had the peaked roof rather than just a flat top. I also completed the second chassis, which had a couple of little modifications over the first version. This time I added the spring tags onto the High Level hornblocks and added supports for a length of sprung steel wire. The result is that the axles are now properly sprung. As the sprung wire connects electrically to the hornblocks and the wheels I used it to feed power up to the motor. I've also managed to finish the coupling rods on this one, fixing the crank pins in place and covering them with the 3d printed covers. This locomotive has a wheelbase of only 32mm and an overall length of 90mm. I plan to use some thin solder to make the wires from the connector into battery box and the control console. I'll reprint the chassis for the first loco and complete the pair. David