Maitland

Sorry about my lack of understanding, but I can't see what this has to do with Terry McDermot?

I used automatically generated supports from Photon Workshop, don't understand enough to do my own yet! Some obviously silly supports were edited out. The supports inside the tanks and those inside the splashers were a right b*** to get out.

Close, but no cigar... Apart from the hole in the bunker back, which is my fault (I dropped it while releasing it from the build plate) the faults are: the flaws in one side of the tank - it curves slightly at the front corner. The location tab under the cab door failed to print on one side the buffer beams have that "interesting" curvature on the bottom edge - it's supposed to be straight. The deck isn't rigid enough - it droops. The location tab serves the secondary purpose of making the cab itself a bit more rigid instead of depending on the thin connection over the door, so I'll make it into a flat plate recessed into the floor. Per ordure ad astra.. -

Semis were what we called Stanier Duchess class 4-6-2s back when I was the little boy watching the big kids with ABC books tick off the namers. I never did really understand train spotting.

And that's true, but look back at the 50s and 60s and 70s, and Great Britain.. well, mostly, England and Wales. There were a lot of young, energetic, motivated people, with just enough backing, through mum and dad, the University grants, and a fairly lax social security system, to spend serious amounts of time doing stuff they wanted to do. This was the age of canal restorations, Talyllyn, Festiniog (before the f's proliferated), Bluebell, but particularly stuff like the Stratford Ccanal and Stratford Avon "restorations" that used methods impossible today. When a government realises that you can pay young and hopeless people to gain faith in themselves and marketable skills, at the same time as creating community facilities that create a positive feedback loop that keep that sort of thing going, the heritage thing becomes sort of obvious. Until then we're in the hands of small- shop grocer economics for the plebs, and wow-look-at-that untouchability for the superstars. Back in the 70s Ireland was full of idealistic backpackers- I was one- they will have told their kids in English, French, Dutch, German perhaps about wonderful quirky Ireland, that's where to start from to get their grandkids on a train singing "are you right there Michael". I've no solutions, but I think the idea of generating infrastructure by using otherwise unused talent - unemployed kids, hey, what about refugees- is worth thinking about.

Looks to me like the Hornby van has a single radius arc, but your van seems to have a multi- centre or elliptical end. You might have to empty several beer cans to make sure you get one that's properly emptied. Real ale or cheap Rioja man myself.... Oh and by the way I worked out why the ironwork was missing on the van. It's a long story, but essentially I used the wrong stl that didn't have it on. Version control?

At least I know what I'm aiming for. I'll thicken that whole side up. Sacrifices some of where I thought electronics might go though.

Latest files posted anyway. I've taken the fittings off the boiler, and made them separate, so they won't need a pile of supports to cut off. I think the boiler might be best printed vertical, arse end first. I think I've been a bit too clever with the boiler fittings though. I made a little recess in the boiler and thickened the fitting to fit it, but show a little of the rim. The idea is to avoid very thin surfaces with supports just where they meet the boiler. It worked for the chimney and the dome, but I think I'll change it to make the bottom of the recess flat

About supports: I'm pretty sure Photon Workshop uses AI to create the supports. For a start, it supports things like individual rivets, but nothing like consistently, , and it doesn't do it on both sides of a mirrored design. It puts in little support branches that, like the Leek and Manifold, start nowhere and end at t'same place. But I haven't a clue yet where to put them manually, so I've got to start somewhere. I might try a downgrade to Photon Workshop- it's possible the latest release is a bit experimental. As for accelerations etc, I haven't found them in any setup yet.

Hang on a mo, I'll post the latest stls on Github. You can see the striations better in this photo. Both horizontal and vertical.

Not exactly achieved perfection so far. Suspended until I get a whole load more IPA and wife is out (she doesn't like the smell - of the resin, I mean). This was done with the Mono 4, standard resin and settings as Photon Workshop default (the biggest lump of loco body printed so far), then with thinner layers (0.03 v 0.05) and bigger support contact areas for the rest. It didn't seem to make much difference. In both cases I ended up with a lot of resin stuck to the FEP film. One problem seems to be that the print eventually peels away from the build plate. Levelling? I wonder if tightening the levelling screws - necessarily done with one hand holding the plate down - is moving the plate slightly. Perhaps a spring in there somewhere would help. Some sites recommend slightly roughening the surface with fine emery paper. I've got a small sheet of glass somewhere to ensure it stays flat. Also I'll try PTFE spray on the FEP film to encourage it to let go. Room temperature hovers around 20 at the moment (this is the cool side of the house) but it won't stay that way, and I can't wait for a heatwave every couple of year. It was probably about the same yesterday when I did the prints. The detail achieved isn't phenomenal - the rivet detail on the tank scarcely shows up against the build striations and the ironwork on the van is missing in places. On the upside, the strength of the product is alright. Throwing it across the room didn't break it.

Any chance of a link to it, or is it a state secret?

Latest updates to MGWR van added at https://github.com/PaulBurkeIV/CADModels. Includes an assembly including chassis for information only. The chassis is totally experimental, having a rocker for 3 point suspension, which uses a virtual centre at the middle of the axle. I don't know without trying whether this can be made friction- free enough to work.

I saw those toothed retainers, and worried about heavily loaded cattle trains bouncing about as they went down inclines and releasing the brakes. As an irrelevant aside, did Hazlewood's crew survive the derailment in 1923? Comments on the practicability of the bearing location arrangement visible below appreciated.

Showers on trains - it'll be jacuzzis on the next batch of stock. And they just told me they were outing me as a collaborator. For God's sake don't tell the boys!