Mayner

Some brickwork test prints before attempting a building facade. 1st attempt replacement chimney stack for Keadue Goods shed. The original (made using Wills scenic materials) disappeared several years ago after it became dislodged from the roof. Much quicker to draw a 3D model than to assemble the chimney using Wills scenic materials (Brick material sheets, chimney cap & flue) 3D model sample panel for flemish bond brickwork. Basically I "set out' the openings by laying two coarses of brickwork then copied subsequent coarses to the the top of the panel. Brickwork incl joints are close to scale dimensions, main point of the test was to check that the brickwork would look ok in 4mm scale. The test prints were printed vertically, horizontally and at 45° angle. The grey is an etch primer, the brown a custom aerosol I once used for painting CIE wagons. Progress with the facade beginning to add-in /sculpt the 'soldier coarses" above the windows and the archway above the hall door. I used a 2D drawing of the facade imported into Fusion as a template for the 3D model, one of the quirks of my 2D software is that it sometimes appears as a mirror image when imported into different brands of software something I have got used to over time.

Refurbed turnout in distance, need to remove dirty ballast before reinstating connection to the two sidings. Kind of reminds me of some photos I took of the Holyhead Yard Dublin after it was disconnected in connection with the Spencers Docks redevelopment over 20 years ago. Work in progress, replaced ties/sleepers on panel between the siding/loop and refurbed turnout. Ties on Stockyard/Freight House (goods shed) road quite bleached out will need replacement soon! Its useful to have a train to test the newly refurbed trackwork even managed to successfully run a Stock Special Reminds me of listening in (on a scanner) to conversation between a train crew and track gang during relaying work in the States about 10 years ago. A Canadian Pacific track gang had just completed refurbing a diamond crossing between CP and BNSF lines in Minessota. Asked a crew of a Shortline train about to diverge from the CP to the BNSF if they could continue on the CP line and run their train 9-10 time over the crossing to check that everything was ok, next CP train was not scheduled for several hours and track gang wanted to pack up and go home. Shortline crew were on a tight scheduled and also wanted to go home and declined the request.

There was an interesting article on G Class from a drivers perspective by "Spare Link" in a GSRPS ? 1980s newsletter. Apparently a G611 was once rostered to a "Guinness Shunt" at Heuston Goods to the annoyance of staff "do they think this is Duffy's Circus" (hadn't a great reputation at the time) , at one time a G611 emerged from the Phoenix Park tunnel hauling a pair of Cement Bubbles and a Brake then dropped its transmission on the climb from Islandbridge Junction to Inchacore. Possibly G611 Class rostered to heavy duties during the periodic loco shortages during mid-late 60s. The G601 Class was originally introduced with the "experimental" re-opening of the Banagher, Castleisland and Newmarket branches to regular good traffic, all three lines had closed to regular traffic in 1947? One of the ideas apparently floated was 'one man" operation, (possibly driver only of short unfitted goods?) While the Clara G Class appears to have been restricted primarily for working the Branch goods- (22 mile distance) & shunting at Clara (2 goods yards, 2 private sidings), the Castleisland and Newmarket branches are likely to have involved an element or main line working. Castleisland goods likely to be worked by a Tralee based G Class with the branch goods running through from Tralee. Similarly the G that worked the Newmarket branch may have been based at Mallow, with the branch goods running through along the Kerry Road between Mallow & Banteer. Spare Link wrote about the G611 that replaced a Midland Tank at Liffey Junction (1961-2?) working Edenderry Cattle specials (monthly?) from Liffey Junction (51? miles) and the final cattle special to Drumree on the Meath Line (track considered unsafe for anytrhing heavier. The Drumree special apparently received an exemption to load to 17 wagons (being the final train), the transmission overheated on the climb fromk Liffey Jnt to Clonsilla where it stopped to allow time to cool. Loco dropped its wagons by the cattle banks at Drumree then ran to Kilmessan to pick up a wagon. Shunting was challenging at Kilmessan and Drumree on account of the grass grown state of the track, apparently on the return journey the crew needed the help of some locals to push the loco and cattle wagons from the cattle bank road at Drumree to the main line rails were that slippy, train and crew eventually made it back to Liffey Junction. CIEs use of the G Class for branch line goods & main line "trip workings" was not unlike British Rails use of its 204hp 03/04 "shunters" while CIEs E Class and BR 08 mainly used for heavy shunting and short distance trip working. Interestingly in this part of the World small shunting locos were once widely used (operated by a member of station staff (not a driver) for shunting small/medium goods yards, speeding up service trains by minimising the time spent by main-line loco and crew shunting. These days small shunters are still widely used shunting private sidings at large industrial sites, main line loco & crew simply drop off and collect train of wagons.

I ordered two Park Royals. First one pre-order with IRM a couple of years ago & a second through Accurascale when the Palvans went on pre-order earlier this year. Yesterday (Friday this part of the World) received notification that both orders had been shipped. Original IRM order via Royal Mail, Accurascale order by DHL delivery expected 9 June.

This months Garden Whistle contains three useful articles/tutorials on 3D modelling. 1. A Well Wagon/Depressed Centre car. 2. 3D printing without the hassle. 3D printing figures from photos using AI 3. British Rail Class 27 Part 4 Cab (design and printing process. Models are all large scale! I'll forward a pdf. copy of the Garden Whistle if anyone is interested.

Worse still large scale 'standardisation' would probabably have cost more to implement than it would generate in potentially cost savings. Better to target investment in initiatives that would generate immediate savings in operating costs, such as the large scale superheating of small locomotives (incl J15) that generated an immediate saving in operating costs, through reduced coal consumption (10-15%), signalling upgrades Kingsbridge-Dunlaoire power signalling scheme and rationalising of signalling at major stations. (closing duplicate cabins Athlone, Claremorris, Athenry). An interesting snippet from "GSR Locomotives" is a comparison (from official records) of the GSR & GNR(I) between 1925-1940, although both companies were experiencing an underlying trend of declining revenue (passenger & goods), the financial performance of the GSR (from use of locos & stock) was superior. Its said that the superheating of the J15 & ex-Midland "Standard Goods' contributed to the GSRs superior financial performance.

One of the most significant remaining jobs in completing 181 & 229 is assembling the loco & tender brake gear. I had what was basically a beefed up version of the TMD/SSM gear etched to complete 124 as the brake gear was missing when I bought the loco as part of a job lot of part built TMD/SSM at a UK exhibition about 25 years ago and I found the brake gear quite challenging to assemble when I completed 191 about 31 years ago. These notes may be of use to people who bought my Superheated J15 conversion fret as it includes a set of brake gear parts. 191 assembled in the UK 1995, once my pride and now beginning to show its age. 124 completed in NZ approx 5 years ago, my own brake gear. I wrote about how I soldered the brake shoes to the hangers on this thread about 5 years ago, my description of how I held the components in place did not make sense and I had forgotten how I actually achieved it, so quite a bit of experimentation before I actually figured out how to keep the shoes and hangers in position when soldering. Fiddly not quite the word shoe on left hanger on right, holes drilled out 0.5mm Hole in the centre of the hanger is significant. Components folded for assembly, 0.55 hole in the piece of wood is part of the assembly jig Piece of 0.45 brass wire pushed into 0.55mm hole in piece of wood, threaded through hole in centre of hanger and soldered in place to form part of assembly jig. Shoe threaded onto wire, short end of wire fits into hole drilled in strip of wood (my tumblehome forming jig) possibly pine, more stable for this type of work than balsa. Hanger threaded onto wire, bent over at approx 90 using X-acto blade as guide shim, loose end of wire threaded between forked ends of hanger. (thinner end of shoe is at the top) Piece of stripwood holds the loose end of the wire and brake shoe in alignment while soldering. 1 completed brake shoe and hanger assembly, only 11 to go! Test fitted to 229. Two sets of brake shoes and hangers plus some spares. In early days GSR a committee was tasked with auditing Inchacore 'piecework' records as part of a money saving efficiency exercise. Apparently some of the the records bore little resemblance to reality, some J15 fitted with more than 6 axleboxes (at the time crews paid to repair locos on a piecework were paid for refurbing individual components on a loco. The same committee was tasked with recovering name & number plates etc. from pre-amalgamation possibly melting down into GSR stock of non-ferrous metal or sale. I'll assemble the brake gear as separate removable sub assemblies that fit to the loco, what I find the relatively straight forward part

Had a good little earner for a short time about 20 years ago re-selling newly released Bachmann American On30 stock bought cheaply in bulk on eBay from a box shifter in the States. Interestingly while mine and log cars sold out quickly, I struggled to sell the more high valued locos although I was the only 'stockist' in the country. At the end of the day the true test of the market depends on what people are actually prepared to pay, in the long term a lot of collections end up being picked up cheaply when owners loose interest or at deceased estate sales. About 10-15 years ago a member of the local garden railway group picked up collections from modellers/collectors who had lost interest/moved on only to loose interest in model railways himself. I visited a model shop in Auckland about a year ago with large stocks of diecast mainly from deceased estate sales.

Reminds me of a mix up with suitcases that occurred to a friend at Dublin Airport while returning from the York (Easter) Exhibition and several swap meets when his suitcase (full of diecast) was picked up by another passenger from the carosel and taken out of the airport. Everything was sorted out in the end with security supervising the exchange of suitcases, though in my minds eye I had a vision of a drug deal going wrong with one of the guys opening up a suitcase of die-cast cars at the exchange rather than a suitcase of drugs or cash. I had thought of buying 3 packs of vans with different end pressings and doors to make up 1 'variety pack" of palvans for myself and 2 to sell, but decided in the end it was not worth the hassle.

Catching up on some deferred maintenance replacing timbers/bearers on 1:6 switch/point Jackson City yard. I used AMS 3' Narrow Gauge (45mm) flexible track in combination with Sunset Valley switches/points when I started tracklaying on the Jackson County approx 18 years ago. I used Sunset Valley narrow gauge switches (approx G Scale) as at the time AMS did not produce narrow gauge swithces/points. I hand laid a number of switches using AMS rail on yellow cedar timbers/ties machined to match AMS ties to blend in better with AMS ties. I gradually ended up replacing most of the AMS & cedar ties with Sunset Valley as the plastic AMS ties began to break down as a result of UV exposure after about 12-15 years apart from some plaint treack and a single switch in Jackson City freight yard and some plain track on shaded areas of main-line which had shown little sign of UV deterioration. Anyway time to replace the timbers on the one remaining switch with cedar timbers after both 'headblock' that support the throw/locking bar to the switch broke off/failed during a recent operating session. Although Sunset Valley supply replacement ties/timbers as spare parts from the United States, I decided to trial FDM timbers 3D printed in the 'makerspace" at a local public library. Ended up using a PLA filament available at the library printers are unsuitable for printing in a UV resistant filament, but hopefully should last several years. Headblock timbers broke off severly decayed. Switch removed to outdoor work bench showing state of remaining timbers, 3 D printed timbers on right matching profile, length and spacing of Sunset Vally No6 switch. Just home from library Re-assembling switch with track gauges on curved/diverging road. Blue pliers is a special X-acto pliers for holding and inserting rail spikes. Spikes waiting to be driven home into 0.7mm holes drilled in timbers Jaws of pliers are milled to securely hold spike before driving home (hammer of pliers) Spike driven home, it was starting to get dark so had to stop for the evening for the second day

If I was a few years younger I'd probabably change to an electric car (charged overnight at home) to escape the clutches of the oil companies and ever increasing fuel prices. In this part of the World "in the interests of fairness" the Government have imposed Road User Charges (a tax per Km travelled) on 'light electric vehicles" to close the tax loophole where owners/operators of electric vehicles did not required to contribute to the upkeep of the roads through the payment of excise duty on petrol. At this stage its planned to replace exices on petrol with Road User Charges (RUC) a system already used for diesel vehicles (cars, trucks. vans), though its hinted that the new charges based on distance travelled could work out more expensive for drivers of fuel effecient cars that the current system (excise on petrol) RUC has a different meaning/connetation in New Zealand to the UK and Ireland . I last regularly commuted by rail (80 mile round trip daily) while working in London over 30 years ago, an enjoyable time young and full of energy, but can't say I miss the rat race with its overcrowded trains. My rail use in Ireland was mainly leisure travelling around the CIE/IE Network on rambler tickets while on my summer holidays in the 70s & early 90s, journies on the Enterprise & to Galway before leaving Ireland over 20 years ago. Lasting memories significant disruption (bus transfers) due to engineering works on both journies and a night time journey in the dark from Belfast Central to Drogheda (lighting system failure) and bus transfer to Connolly, we hired a car when we last visited Ireland 8 years ago.

A bit of digital modelling setting out/laying the foundations for the first of the Sackville Gardens buildings using Fusion 360. The first step was to find the originals for the external windows and door sets I had etched in 2012 and work out the approximate dimensions for the facade on the CAD I use for 2D drawing by literally counting bricks using Google Street view. I served my time with a Dublin housebuilding company (almost 50 years ago) that extensively used brickwork as a result of which gained both practical and theoretical knowledge of building in brickwork. The building facade on Sackville Gardens were laid in Flemish Bond brickwork when in its basic form each coarse (or row)of bricks in the facade appear as alternating long (stretchers) and short (headers) bricks. (I wont go into the actual arrangement of brickwork in the wall! http://www.1stassociated.co.uk/articles/brickwork-types-and-brickwork-bonds.asp I decided to 3D print the facades on Sackville Gardens rather than use Wills material sheets or embossed brickwork, in order to model flemish-bond brickwork more accurately with its use of cut bricks with their own nomenclature used to form ends, openings and corners. First stage was setting out the brickwork at cill level on one side of the door opening, distances based on horizontal brickwork modules by literally counting bricks. The 2D drawing was imported into Fusion 360 as a 'canvas" and then calibrated to one of the principal dimensions on the drawing in this case 123.4mm Forming the 3D model of the brickwork is basically an exercise in sculpture. The outline of the brick panel basically drawn as a 'sketch' in Fusion then extruded into a solid in this case 3mm thick. Brick courses then drawn individually as a sketch then sculpted into the solid using the extrusion tool set to cut. 1st brick by the doorway is a standard header, 2nd a "3/4 Bat", followed by the stretcher/header pattern all based on photos, plain panel under the window will be extruded as a cill. I will need to draw out the first two coarses above cill level, then simply continue to copy the two coarses until I reach head height, not a lot different to a bricklayer setting out actual brickwork, though with 1/2 brick cavity walls there was no need to use flemish bond while working in Ireland, may have been used on a facade on a project in the UK but I was well away from the nitty gritty of actually setting out work or co-ordinating brickwork with different building elements at that stage. Took about an hour to "sculpt" the brickwork on the left side of the window.

Ran some trains today while cutting old cedar shingles for kindling on the outdoor workbench with a band saw, today Friday is the begining of "Kings Birthday Weekend" in this part of the World the begining on metrological winter and usually a weekend of model railway conventions & events on heritage railways. Weather forecast is good for Saturday, but deluge promised by Monday! Jackson City yard fairly clear, leaf fall just about ceased from our largest trees & very little rain & weed growth during last 2-3 weeks. I had put #348 into the year to leave the main-line clear for our RGS Galloping Goose Motor #4 but her battries may be knackered did not make it far out of the garage despite fully charged batteries. K27 "Mudhen" 463 parked "in the clear" at Arboles to let motor #4 through. Two small trees on right appear to be 'miniature' connifers planted about 10-12 years ago, tree behind the tankcars a 'dwarf" species both of a similar size when planted. This area is in almost permanent shade and weeds quicly take over following damp weather, treated with weedkiller several months ago. #464 completed only two laps of the circuit before failing today, despite a fully charged set of recently fitted batteries. Although fitted several years ago #348 & #463 batteries still appear to be ok, still holding a charge. #464s batteries although new had been in storage for a couple of years, though may be ok for Motor #4 on passenger/mail/duties.

Possibly the key for releasing the ground frame for the Omagh Market Yard branch. There is a photo of a member of staff operating the frame at the branch junction & an Aug 1957 photo of an GG3 (Big D) shunting tank wagons at the branch terminus in 'The Great Northern Railway Itish Railway Pictorial, Tom Ferris Midland Publishing 2003.

Some work in progress on the 3D printed corrugated & concrete store. The walls were printed in two sections of 175mm close to the maximum length that could be printed horizontally on my machine. Roof initially in 2X100 & 1x145 mme sections (vertically!), but re-designed to print in 2 sections (with an additional stiffening rib) after the print began showing signs of bowing/deflection at the gutter line. Temporary positioned before final fitting by the backscene. The site is an at angle rather than parrallel to the backscene, will need to narrow one end and taper the roof for the store to fit! Concrete walls will be un-painted concrete (hopefully same paint match-pot as mill building, steel work and recessed doors green. Next challenge is a terrace of Victorian houses for the area between the maltings building and road bridge based on housing overlooking the railway on Sackville Ave and Ossery Road. I produced etched window & door sets for this frontage for my first attempt at a port layout about 12 years ago. Original plan was to use Wills material sheets but 3D modelling may be more flexible for modelling the actual facades. Next step is to 3D model 2-4 courses in Flemish bond brickwork, the basic 'building modules' of these houses before building the facades. Someday hopefully I'll get around to completing the maltings and tower building based on Grand Canal Dock, I have the windows somewhere the main problem is finding the willpower to paint the brickwork incl picking out indvidual bricks, 3D modelling individual bricks and mortar courses not really a problem to me.

Stainless steel stock sometimes tends to look quite battered and rough in close-up Stock from NZR presitigious Silver Star express stored in Thames after 24 of the coaches were re-gauged and converted for use on the Eastern & Orient Express between Singapore, Malasia & Thailand https://nzrailphotos.co.nz/photos/silver-star?page=1#lg=119&slide=2167 I suspect Irelands climate with its high humidity and rainfall & the use of unpainted aluminium had a lot to do with the poor weathering/severly tarnished state at CIEs 'silver locos and stock. NZR Silver Sar often appeared to be hauled by heavily weathered GM or GE locos which did not help the image.

Some SLA prints. Printed the walls of the Grainstore in two sections (each 170X60 on plan) with halved joints. Horizontal lines that were once a problem when using this printer now largely absent, but vertical lines/grouves present in one area. Main issue was the outer corners of the model peeling away from the buildplate during printing despite the using a build plate adhesive. I have re-designed the roof so it can be printed in two rather than 3 sections and added a reinforcing rib inside the bottom edge of the roof to minimise the risk of warping. The grainstore is intended as a low-relief building against a backscene. FDM printing at the "Makerspace" at a local Public Library. Trialed the local library to print replacement ties/sleepers for a point on my large scale garden railway & potentially buildings and structures. The tie/seepers are for a 1:6 point with rails fixed down with spikes, frog/crossing screwed down. Two of out local libraries have 'Makerspaces' for people to come in and learn how to use creative technology including FDM printing. Library facilitators appeared knowledgable and were helpful The Library charges a service fee per print (max size 250X250X250)not unlike the Set-Up once charged by Shapeways + material (filament supplied by Library or alternatively by customer) Two Set-Up/or two files were necessary to print the sleeper base for the 1:6 point. I'll probabably use the library printers or one of out local 3D printing companies to print buildings and structures for the garden railway. Pola American outline G scale building generally cost $500USD + shipping + customs on the new and second hand market. 3D Sleeper strip for point ened up costing $45 NZD approx £20 stg, $5 set up $40 filament used.

Some trials and Tribbleations with resin printing. I am currently experimenting with a (cheap) watershable for 3D printing some buildings as an alternative to my usual combination of plasticard and Wills Material sheets. I usually use a solvent based resin and wash up with "Resinaway" a non-flamable less hazardous alternative to IPA. Day 1. One print failure and two defective prints for no apparrent reason after approx 6 hrs print time. Last week I successfully completed test prints of plain and curved corrugated profile, though interestingly we had one failed and two successful prints of the curved profile. Printer and curing station set up in workshop/tool shed in garden. Day 2. Three successful prints following some minor modification to the CAD work Roof was printed vertically in three sections including gutter to minimise the stepped effect noticeable when printing a curved or circular oblect horizontally or a shallow angle. Next job is to print the walls! So far the waterwashable resin seems to be working out nicely with reasonable print quality, more easier clean up and significnatly faster curing 5min Vs 45-50 minutes solvent based resins. One major issue was that the Spec Sheet for the waterwashable resin was only available from the manufacturers website and the print settings on the 2021 sheet appeared odd/did not make sence. While the print quality at these settings appeared reasonable, but the settings seemed to be 'messing with" the printers brain the machine thinking it was halfway through the print cycle after successfully completing a print batch I eventually tracked down a Sep 2022 Spec Sheet with more realistic print settings, print quality continues to be reasonable and machine now appears to be behaving normally. Some blupers. I originally printed large tall items including this concrete grain elevator horizontally partly to fit on the print bed & keep the concrete 'lift lines' (as the shutter/concrete rose) horizontal. I 'discovered' the distinctive concrete elevator at the terminus of a disused branch line while exploring the network of branch and secondary lines that criss-crossed the Valley Region of North Dakota while en-route to New Zealand 20 odd years ago. Major risk of print failure and rupturing the PF fim in the bottom of the resin tray (with resin leaking onto the LCD screen) can occur when printing items horizontally or at a shallow angle. Occurs when the 'peeling force" of lifting the model/cured layer of resin clear of the PF film exceeds the physical limits of the film. Apparrently cured resin can become trapped between model and screen as the build plate descends punturing the film Majority of resin suppliers recommend printing objects at an angle 15-45º to minimise the risk of punturing the film and potentially damaging the LCD screen. Protective film to protect LCD screen from resin in the event of spillage or punture of PF film. Also carry a stock of replacement PF film! Screens become dirty damaged as a result of cured resin sinking to bottom of vat. Replaced PF film following photo! Problems with too shallow a print angle/poor set up. My attempt at a Clogher Valley Brake Van several years ago, possibly at a print ange of approx 15º print setup/supports insufficient to prevent floor and body distorting, these days I usually print stock and detail parts at a 45º using an engineering resin and experience few print failures. I'll probably end up producing a new or updated 3D model of the CVR van as some parts especially door runners were undersized for printing, I've have had an assembled Backwoods Minatures CVR van chassis somewhere for the best part of 30 years, I best catch up while I still can! Drystore walls corrugated iron over concrete are next on the list to print, I have a goods shed chimney to replace on my Irish narrow gauge Keadue layout after it disappeared 4-5 years ago maybe longer should be simpler to eD print than form from embossed plasticard

I am not sure about the situation in the UK but its become increasingly difficult to source resin casting supplies in this part of the World, my two main suppliers ceased trading during the past 20 or so years. Years ago I cast wagon sides and ends using similar methods based on a Model Railway Constructor article published during the 1970s (4mm LSWR layout), more recently (15) or so years ago I produced a batch of one piece narroow gauge open wagon bodies usingv a 2 part plug mould cast from a brass master, also used Shapeways prints as masters for resin castings. The wagon body (with interior planking) was intended to fold up from a single sheet of etch brass, with separate strapping and end post detail. The Shapeways print was used as a master for the resin fuel tanks used with my initial (2014?) run of CIE 4w Heating Vans, tanks on the two more recent releases of the kit were 3D printed from my original 3D CAD (3D Model) Personally at this stage I find that it take a similar amount of time to perpare a master/scratchbuild a model using traditional methods as it does to design a model for 3D printing. One of the advantages is that I find that I can modify an existing model with quite minimal effort on the computer screen. Ending up with 3 variations to the CIE 20T Goods Brake , 2 variations to of the GSWR/GSR/CIE 10T covered wagon and potentially Great Northern, GSWR, Midland variations to the "Standard" IRCH open wagon by quite minor changes to the CAD work chages to buffer shank & w iron design.

We had run into a period of settled sunny weather towards the end of last week, so decided to run some trains yesterday mainly to test the re-powered #464 while clearing our gardens of fallen leaves. I covered the saga of #464s recent failure & fitting of replacement batteries in a recent post on Large Scale workbench thread https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/16156-large-1203-scale-workbench/page/2/#comments, so time to put #464 to work with a freight made up to 8 cars and caboose, maximum that will fit in loops. Unfortunately more lively that before #464s batteries were not fully charged and had to return to the shops for 3hrs to fully charge her batteries after which it was dark and all trains put away for the night! As sort of compensation C19 348 (actually a smaller C16) (fully charged) gave a good account of herself working a stock train over the road, working 4 cars and caboose over the High Line above her usual limit of 3+ caboose on account of good (Summer) rail conditions. #464s crew placed the cars in the yard and placed the caboose on the departure road a fairly common arrangement, before running back light/off scene for charging. Posed RGS #20 on the table so she supposedly could work the return freight. #20 started life as a cheap Bachmann Big Hauler 4-6-0 bought on e-Bay about 16 years ago from a discount store in the States, later modified to resemble #20 at this stage anon runner waiting a battery & ECS (electronic speed controller/heart) transplant. Once one of the mainstays of the road seen little use since the arrival of the much larger K27 2-8-2 locos in 2017 & 2020. RGS Motor #6 on p.w. duties with the last of the railroads stock of yellow cedar ties, recovered from the 'main line" about 10 or so years ago. Cedar ties had been milled specially about 17 years ago for use on some hand laid switches and plain track. The Jackson County initially used AMS (Accucraft) narrow gauge flexible track on the main line when laid 17 or so years ago and "Sunset Valley" switches, AMS narrow gauge switches were unavailable at the time. To complete the road 3 switches and some plain track was laid on cedar ties specially milled to match the AMS narrow (American 3' gauge) ties, Sunset Valley used a shorter smaller section tie probabably closer in scale to Meter gauge /G scale track. Although cedar ties & a lot of AMS ties in main line use had been replaced by AMS about 15 years ago on long swicth in the yard remained on cedar ties which have literally rotted away despite being supposodely a durable decay resistant timber. It planned to replace with 3D printed ties soonish! Most of the main line was re-laid with Sunset Valley ties after the original AMS ties began to break down with UV light about 15 years ago. Some replacement Sunset Valley ties are beginning to show signs of 'bleching out" but no sign of breakdown or railfixing failure. Yep a garden railway probabably needs as much maintenance and replacement as the full size. Ironically treated pine timber has fared better than cedar. The freight house and loco shed are clad with trellis rail (ripped down on a bandsaw) glued to treated timber or ply substrate. Loco shed is stored under cover at the moment but Freight House lives outside all year, roof is a piece of galvanised steel recovered from a real estate agents sign

Had bought a replacement set of batteries to re-instate RGS #20 which had been out of service for several years (https://www.steamlocomotive.info/largeimage.cfm?which=265) Once one of the mainstays if the line loco had been out of service for several years (once her old batteries wore out) & #463 had arrived to take over the lions share of the work. A modified Bachmann Big-Haulier 4-6-0 loco had been re-built with shortened smokebox, new more correct funnel, new plasticard cab, tender body modified & fitted with airtank to resemble the prototype, converted to battery RC and more recently fitted with vinyl custom decals, but hadn't run in several years. Turned out that the ESC "electronic speed controller" in the Radio Control set up had developed a fault since the loco was taken out of service and no direct replacement available. Manufacturers/suppliers of battery/RC systems for model railways is pretty much a cottage industry the original system fitted to #20 was supplied by RCS (Remote Control Systems) about 10 years ago, the owner Tony Walsingham had since passed away, Deltang a UK supplier of compitable systems had ceased trading and Micron a current UK supplier did not expect to have a suitable ESC in stock for another month or so. So #20 is now in storage waiting parts. A more urgent immnent need arose when #464 failed in service last week with a weak battery and needed to be restored to service urgently. So fitted #20 batteries to #464 to ensure the railroad had one heavy freight loco & a back up. #464s electronic system! The loco is a Bachmann K27 2-8-2 released in 2007, at the time 'no 'large scale" DCC interface existed so Bachmann developed a circuit board intended to interface with DCC & RC systems. RCS developed a 'plug & play' adaptor to interface with the Bachmann board and a separate ESC and RC servo modules. As far as I recall the ESC plugs into the Bachmann board with separate screw terminals to the RC receiver and a sound board. More recent combined ESCs and RC receivers are a similar size to a OO/HO DCC decoder chip!. Two 7.2V car batteries are mounted on the tender floor below the circuit boards, the heavy duty wiring and connectors on the right connect interface the batteries with the control system! The K27 also fitted with a speaker! The wiring/control system of the Bachmann K27 was overcomplicated much of the wiring loom on the right is redundant, could be replaced by 4 wire if an when the existing wiring system fails. Small circuit board on tender floor at left is Phoenix sound system. Anyway replacement batteries fitted! secured with double sided tape to foam strip at floor level, with capton tape across side and top of batteries. RC receiver fixed in position at top of tender, boards powered up receeiving RC signal and loco in forward gear (green LED illuminated) Headlamp had come adrift from platform so clamped in place while glue setting! Out on trial successful trial run before dusk Fitted a headbrakeman's Doghouse to #464s tender although loco does not appear to have been fitted with a Doghouse while running on the RGS I bought one as a spare part from Bachmann several years ago & add a point of interest to the loco. Apparrently fitted to some loco to accommodate the 'headbrakeman' as a result of a government requirement because of insufficient space in the cab for the full 'headend crew", the enclosures were fitted with steam heating, otherwise a man could quickly freeze to death during winter on high mountain passes crossed by the Rio Grande.

This time some work on the dry goods store a typical concrete and corrugated Irish industrial building of the early mid-20th Century. Although I had a collection suitable(ish Wills Material sheets, I decided to use 3D printing. Building is based on photos of a similar store at the disused Ranks Clara mill over 30 years ago! Building had corrugated iron (steel) cladding above concrete walls served by a siding & driveway. There are separate corrugated canopies over the doorways and individual concrete loading platforms The model was designed using Fusion 360 most challenging part was drawing the corrugated profile of the cladding! Basically traced from a roofing manufacturers drawing of the profile used in the re-roof of our house last year The model is a background building in semi low relief againts the backscene Design wise the concrete and corrugated elements were drawn separately then combined. The overall length of the building is longer than the printer 'build plate" so is designed as two separate 3D models with a halved vertical joint. I have run some successful test prints of the corrugated profile printed vertically, with an approximate 9h print time (overnight) for each full height section. Figuring out how to print the curved roof was the challenging bit, as the terminology/userinterface used by Fusion (Autodesk) is different to a brand of 3D modelling software I had formerly used. I'll add a downstand rib to the inner edge of the roof to minimise deflection and need to add a gutter at the eaves/edge of the roof! I'll probabably print the corrugated roofing separately in a number of sections on its side to minimise the layering effect, minimise the build time and risk of collapse of a relatively thin section. The building/roof is over 300mm in length! I am trialing a (cheap) waterbased Chinese resin for the build, print quality has been good, but some of the settings on the data sheet do not make sense and slicing software is showing signs of confusion possibly age or incorrect info on the dat sheet A bit easier to edit that add a new post. Test print corrugated profile for upper storey. My resin printer seems to have bedded-in/settled down since I first bought it about 4 years ago, previously wagon prints were basically unusuable heavily marked with poor surface finish. Next stage is to print a section of roofing & including gutter

Spent a fair amount of time exploring the lines in the North and North West, including Settle & Carlisle, Ravenglass, Alston & even Warcop while working and living in London & the Home Counties between 30-40 years ago. For much of the time I had the benefit of a company car and no questions asked about milage or petrol use. A fan of David Jenkinson I checked out the route from Blea Moor Tunnel to Dent & Garsdale & his fictious branch to Kendal and the Coal Road over the moors from Garsdale Road (Dent Station) to Grasdale. Happy times!

I guess that I have gradually shifted from traditional (kit/scratchbuilding to digital modelling methods over the last 20 or so years as my eye sight got weaker and my hands less steady. First using 2D CAD to prepare artwork for my own etching parts rather than traditional drafting/scribing and cutting out parts with piercing saw/snips/craft knife and more recently 3D modelling to produce resin printed wagons. The shift to 3D printing certainly increased my own productivity compared to traditional methods adding 40 (complete) wagons of my own design to my personal collection during the past 4 years, compared with approx 10 kit built wagons during the past 20 or so years. We subscribed to Onshape & Fusion 360 (Autocad) 3D Modelling software for our commerical work producing successful models with either software. Onshape offer a freeplan for non-commercial use resulting designs become open source to platform users, a free version of Fusion 360 (with limited features) is available for personal use in some countries excluding NZ (I use a pay as you go subscription rather than an annual sub. TinkerCad (Autocad) is a free entry level 3D modelling software (Some of Rob S examples have been produced with TinkerCad). Currently I am beginning to use Fusion 360 to produce models of buildings, including typical Irish early-mid 20th Century corrugated iron/asbestos and mass concrete industrial buildings, I have enough wagons for now and probabably stick to etched brass for pre-amalgamation coaches. To buy or not to buy a printer? I only bought a resin printer after the bureau that successfully printed the test prints of several of our wagons refused to carry out further 'small scale model" prints because it wass not worth while because of the high reject rate and post print clean up cost (special effect and industrial work more profitable. At the end of the day I struggled to achieve an acceptable print quality with our printer (except fantasy animals/creatures for our kid) a Photon Mono. Eventually out sourcing our printing to bureau in China one of which (Facfox) consistently produce consistent high quality prints at a fraction of the price including shipping (to NZor UK) of using a local bureau/printer. I am finally after a lot of experimentation beginning to achieve an acceptable level of print quality with my resin (Anycubic Photon Mono X) printer, but planning to try the "makerspace" at the local Public Library to trial FDM printing of replacement sleepers/track base for my large scale garden railway & possibly buildings. A number of local engineering/manufacturing business that offer CNC milling also offer 3D printing services. Personally I think trialling some simple 3D models on TinkerCad to first get a feel for the modelling process, then some test prints at the library trialling different processes and possibly prints a local or Chinese bureau, before leaying out several $ hundred on a 3D printer. Starting commercially I had the advantage of using a professional designer who worked in the print shop that successfully printed out initial models and a print shop owner who from day 1 told me that he was reluctant to print small scale models. Gauge O and the larger scales tend to be more forgiving than 4mm and the smaller scales, FDM layer lines may be reminesent of wood grane and surface imperfections as millscale on steel

A Missouri Pacific Railroad director/senior manager put it succently in Beeb & Cleggs "Mixed Train Daily" that fast freight and mail had priority over passenger services because they were more profitable than passenger services when a MoPac crack streamliner was side tracked (on several occasions) to allow the freight/mail to run through non-stop. Traditionally 1st Class passengers, Season Ticket , Mails andGoods traffic paid the shareholders their dividends, Parliamentary/3rd later 2nd-Standard Class passengers were just a nuscience. In this part of the World long-distance trains are strictly for Tourists, everyone else can, drive, fly or take the bus. Mail has ceased to exist replaced by Courier/Logistics companies.