Darwinian

Under the Christmas tree for me this year were more servos from my son and from my wife an additional loco for the colliery work in the shape of a Hornby Peckett B2.

I found that with very gentle scraping with a sharp scalpel (almost no downward pressure) it was possible to gradually remove some of the numbers leaving the underlying green intact. It will be fitted with either some of my remaining Dingham's or Flippem couplings which I have ordered to see if they will be more successful on longer overhang vehicles.

Ah, but does he Finney approach solve the underhung springs fixed to the bottom of the frames so they prevent the wheel sets from dropping out issue?

14ba screws from below into tapped mounts on the inside of the outer frames?

If only two axles could the springs be mounted to a betwixt double frame keeper plate bolted to a fixing point between the wheels?

As well as a load of household DIY to do I seem to have fallen into something of a signalling wormhole recently.

The results of that are shown below. The signal isn’t yet connected to its servo but the MERG servo controls work and the switch on the test rig will activate the servo.

I wish all RMWebers and their loved ones a very happy Christmas.

Happy Christmas to you and yours Mr. Wolf. Thanks for entertaining us with your modelling (and other) journeys.

Adrian. (Darwinian)

This may be a daft question but how do you fit the post mounted guides for the weigh bar to signal arm operating rod? Before or after painting the post? If before does that mean you only bend up the operating rod at afterwards?

Thanks for all your inspiring posts on this thread.

Merry Christmas to all ANTB contributors and followers. Thanks for keeping us entertained through another sometimes trying year. 

21 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Wot like this. A cup of water some Milliput, a scrap of plastic card, a tool for shaping (I use a craft knife), a pencil and a 4mm figure.

 

Using the 4mm figure mark the height, shoulders and naughty bits.

 

Make a sausage of well mixed Milliput

Start to turn the sausage into human, the front half.

This is a basic person.

Start to make the face, wetting the knife to reduce the stiffness of the Millput surface.

Keep going.

Now start to dress the person and position things like arms and legs.

Give her some hair and a hand bag and a shopping bag by using the bits cut away from the sausage. Set aside to harden.

With the rest of the mixed Millput I get one of the production line out. I peel the plastic card off her back.

Turn her over to build up the back.

Starting to look whole.

A group waiting to catch a train and go shopping.

Add a bit of colour.

Blokes can be made as well.

Not as good as the Modelu figures or converted figure like AyJay has done, but each one is individual and not on anyone else's layout and fun to make.  

 

 

Basically yes, and those are blooming good.

Back in the day I couldn’t get on with the stickiness of milliput, hence using Fimo. It hadn’t occurred to me to sculpt half a figure at a time, that’s clever, so I had to employ a “skeleton” bent up from wire. It did have another advantage as it helped get the proportions about right and allowed for poses.

For window boxes make a solid core then overlay with thin side panels projecting above the core to give the appearance of thin sides. Just remember to allow enough depth that your flower clumps bases sit below the top edge.

You could sculpt your own too.

Milliput used to be the recommended material but I find it too sticky.

Years ago, in my youth, I sculpted some D&D figures using Fimo modelling clay over a wire frame. After baking to harden they are still intact 40 years later.

I was about to order some of the Hatton's Genesis six wheelers as the ones with torpedo vents on the roofs look remarkably close to the early 1900s Rhymney ones. Then I checked and discovered that only a few survived beyond 1926. The all third is a down-graded second too which I don't think the Rhymney ever had. 

Spent the money on a bargain Peckett B2 to help out in the colliery instead. I do need to get on with those signals, I almost have a working prototype for a post mounted rotating disc. 

On 17/10/2022 at 22:08, Mikkel said:

Looks great. So that's a C19, C10 and E37. A nice trio. Will there be more in this set? 

 

The set is to be C19-D37-C10 as a bit of variety from the top and tailed van formations. However I do have this to add as a strengthener?

There is also a set of sides and ends for a Falmouth Coupe in my kit stash but what I'd really like is an ex-rhymney carriage.

Nearly there on the D37.

Commode and door handles fitted along with handrails. The door handles are etched ones and I think perhaps I should have put them the other way up. The stalk is a bit obvious in this photo at this angle.

First pass weathering applied, the roof on this one is going to be pretty grimy but not so dirty that the underlying colour changes completely disappear.

There’s something about those lovely gloomy night time shots that makes me feel like I can feel the rain starting on the back of my neck.

Great modelling.

That's very nice Stephen. You are getting more movement of the spectacle plate than I am on mine. I think trying to get the arm operating rod at the top, as per my prototype photo's, is making the spectacle move less on mine. Good job Rhymney signals seem to have gone almost vertical when cleared (maybe that's why too).

A question for the signalling experts.

I seem to recall reading that the crescent shaped back blinders were fitted so that the signalman could tell at night if the signal had cleared (the lamp light would be revealed). They would not be fitted on signals facing the signal box.

Is that correct?

Would the back lens on the lamps still be showing on signals facing the box?

After a very enjoyable family holiday in the Peak district I am back to signal building. The ladder and safety cage have been added. The ladder is a Wizard models one although as a first attempt it's a bit wobbly, doesn't look so bad from normal viewing distances.  I also moved the spectacle pivot point down 1mm to make the drive rod to the signal board more horizontal. This of course meant taking the mounting arm/bracket thing off the post and re-attaching it to line up with the holes in the post.  This is very much a learning curve for me.

Here is the whole signal as it stands. 

If the connecting rods, crosshead or valve gear touch the insulated wheel rims then you will get a short. Assuming the mounting bracket and/or cylinders are metal of course.

Just going by the liveries I have on my 7-planks the Bachman is 13ton but the Cambrian only 10ton, which would account for the difference perhaps.

OK so this is nearly the end for the D37 build. I have added the grab handles and handrails but I'm not happy with a few and will redo them.

However I did knock up a coupling bar to look the part as the other connector in the set is a Bill Bedford cast equivalent. His is more detailed than mine but doesn't seem to be available anymore.

Much to my surprise this one works fine. It's just cobbled together from bits of brass wire and tube.

The larger tube on the right is tapped 10BA to take a bolt from inside the van end. The other end fits into a hole in the floor immediately behind the buffer beam of the adjacent carriage. 

Right, this didn't quite stand up to my idea of scientific study but for what it's worth.

Here are two lengths of fibre connected to the same LED using the socket to make them the same distance from the LED and in the same alignment.

On the left is an unpainted length, on the right one with a length of about 5mm painted White with Vallejo acrylic.

Not the best comparison as can be seen there is more light leakage from the sides of the fibres where they are taped down, especially on the unpainted one.  However it does show that light is leaking through the painted area to some extent, especially at the end of it causing a distinct bright spot.

Then I over painted the white with black. You can see the black painted section on the right fibre as it isn't leaking any light (it's being absorbed instead).

To be honest I cannot see any real difference between the two and the camera isn't showing much difference either. The bright light at the top is the back of the LED in it's mounting tube.

Looks like I'll get away with it, although obviously it won't be as bright as an LED in the lamp or the Steve Hewitt method of bringing the fibre optic in fro the back of the lamp.

18 minutes ago, Stephen Freeman said:

Painting fibre optic is likely, no certain to, damage it, resulting in more light loss.

I remember, and I think others will too an article in the Railway Modeller from the early 80s, possibly end of the 70's (not sure) by the late Bill Baker, which details the best method of installing a fibre optic cable without it showing.

The M&H lamps are large enough to easily take an SMD LED and you will get more light as well as not being visible.

I did wonder about the effect of painting. In theory the fibre optic works by total internal reflection of the light at the internal surface of the plastic fibre strand. BUT it requires the medium outside the strand to be less dense than the strand material (plastic to air) so any painting that doesn't actually affect the surface of the plastic might affect the transmission of light. 

Any damage to the reflectivity of the surface will allow light leakage (as seen where I have damaged it here). However the length being painted is very short so hopefully the losses will be small.

I use acrylic paints which should not damage the surface but I'll do a test to see. White first as it is more reflective but that may not matter.

I came up with this approach to lighting the lamps when [pondering how to light the rotating disc signals that are up signal posts.

I will report back when I've done the experiment.

The lighting is LED to fibre optic fed through the post. Rather than twisting the fibre optic into the back of the lamp I decided to try drilling the lamp out with a smaller tell-tale hole at the back by drilling right through the casting, the front lens hole was then opened out to half way through the lamp . A 0.7 mm hole for the 0.5mm fibre optic was then drilled up from the base. 

The fibre optic then forms the diagonal support on the lamp bracket. The end of the fibre has been sanded with fine wet and dry into a dome so emits light in all directions.

Here's a test with 9v battery power. The lamp is just placed over the fibre optic. I have damaged the sides of the fibre getting it in position so there is some light leakage in the diagonal bit. I will try again although it will be painted over anyway (White then black).

There is a little ambient light here, hence the post showing up. The lamp light is not bright enough to show in daylight but then neither were the prototype ones.

Most details of this are going to be covered in my thread in the signalling and infrastructure section however i'll put some images of the main stages here.

So after much fiddly soldering and making small components here is the basic structure for the starter signal. It will be LED/fibre optic illuminated and will be powered by servo.

Well I'm not sure this is absolutely true to prototype but it does work. Components are the MSE etches and bits if micro tube to form spacers and bearings. Posts are etched brass.

And here they are assembled on the post fittings.

First issue:

How do Rhymney Somersault signals work? 

I thought that like the GNR ones on the North Norfolk Railway the board pivot was nearer the top with the operating rod connecting to the spectacle plate below the pivot. That makes it lie along in front of the support arm, making it almost invisible. I assume it's attached lower down on the board (The MSE etched signals have two holes in the board)

However on P 88 of The Rhymney Railway Vol.1 By John Hutton there are pictures clearly showing the operating link rod above the signal arm pivot point. 

How does that link connect behind the signal board?

The pivot point appears to be central on one signal and above the center line on another.