Working Vac pipes... cool or crazy?

[Worzels Works]

It's a topic that rears its head occasionally and mostly dismissed as overly complicated to achieve (from what I have read on online forums outside of S4um) but has anyone made headway over here with doing so?

Ive come across a post on LNER Encyclopedia with a link to the following product:

https://www.pwrs.ca/announcements/view.php?ID=10310

and referencing an old (10+ yrs) article in MRJ by Jim Smith-Wright, would anyone happen to know of the article or have come across a handy modern tip for achieving such details?

I don't think auto coupling of vac pipes could be achieved for UK prototypes unless miniature electro magnets were somehow fashioned into the lower attachment on the stand pipe to release the pipe ends to be able to connect... a real challenge in 4mm but interested to see what peoples experimental thoughts are. I know someone has achieved magnetic loco and brake lamps so the world is our oyster!

As an aside the MU cables by the same manufacturer look to be fine for modelling coach electrical connections a-la modern railtour stock. Coincidentally having the magnets either end of the pipe would also work best for coaching stock run in a fixed rake too.

So, is this 'cool' or am I just crazy?

[Worzels Works]

SO... just after a more thorough search I have come across Mr Triode's threads and excellent modelling of the pipes, happy for this to open up discussion or to be told to think more before I type! or to be a collection of thoughts on if people have actually ended up using working pipes after being fitted...

[jim s-w]

Personally I think it's perfectly normal

brake-pipes-LMS.jpg

Link to the first version of the article here (it's probably closer to 20 years ago than 10 though)

https://p4newstreet.com/articlePDFs/Update42pipes.pdf

Jim

[Worzels Works]

I thought I recognised your name from these parishes Jim, Many thanks for the link. A question if I may, would you recommend any changes for achieving these on Narrow gauge items? besides just being a little more fiddly?

[jim s-w]

Afraid I wouldn't know - Im clueless when it comes to things narrow gauge!

[Terry Bendall]

would you recommend any changes for achieving these on Narrow gauge items? besides just being a little more fiddly?

I have not tried the idea but I would have thought that for a model of a narrow gauge prototype it would depend on the scale you are using. At the narrow gauge railway where I volunteer the air pipes on the prototype are the same size as used on commercial vehicles - about 35mm diameter,and probaby a bit smaller in diameter than standard gauge air pipes. I would have thought that the idea should work in 4mm scale narrow gauge models and certainly in 7mm scale. On the prototype vac pipes are larger in diameter than air pipes

Of course you should really be modelling the valves on the air pipes as well which I don't think Jim has got around to yet!

Terry Bendall

[grovenor-2685]

No use worrying about the valves till you have the compressor working.

[Worzels Works]

Unfortunately I think coal fired 4mm NG with working air pumps may be a little beyond my reach, sorry to disappoint chaps!

However it will indeed be Vac fitted NG and from what I remember of visits to places like the L&B/W&L the pipes there 'feel' similar in the hands to the SG vac pipes I usually wrangle. I think the visual effect of connected pipes will add more to the realism than worrying about what will be a scale ~0.2mm ish for the pipe sizes.

my takeaway from this is I need to renew my W&L membership and sign up for a couple of training days to spend clambering over Earl/Countess with a measuring tape!

[Terry Bendall]

my takeaway from this is I need to renew my W&L membership and sign up for a couple of training days to spend clambering over Earl/Countess with a measuring tape!

Or arrange a visit to the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway in Bedfordshire where you can do all the measuring you want without paying a membership fee.

Terry Bendall

[Worzels Works]

Or arrange a visit to the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway in Bedfordshire where you can do all the measuring you want without paying a membership fee.

Terry Bendall

Alas I think that may even further from west Cornwall than Welshpool the membership isn't to get the measurements, it's for being on the shovel going up Golfa bank with the regulator through the roof (plus I do need Earl/Countess specifically for a model of them!)

P.S Leighton Buzzard is definitely on my visit list, and has been for far too long!

[jim s-w]

Of course things always move on. When I came up with this idea 3d printing wasnt really a thing outside of big industry.

received_638422968276388.jpeg

Courtesy of David Roome, 3d printed flexible vac pipes. Haven't tried to make them connectable yet though.

[Worzels Works]

Hi Jim, completely forgot you'd replied to this, how flexible are those 3D printed ones? Seems like a handy idea and a lovely product having seen them more lately, perhaps glue and a magnet cut into the end could work?

[Roomey]

Currently test some I’ve drawn up for fixed rakes will let you all know how they work