A Highland Miscellany

Mark Tatlow
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Re: A Highland Miscellany

Postby Mark Tatlow » Mon Jan 17, 2022 12:18 pm

Daddyman wrote:Here you go, Mark.
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Thanks David.

I will make the next one with the candescent mantles on the top, as something a bit different but no more NER coaches for me just yet!

Something I see in yours David is that you have fitted the grab handles/door handles. That will make it a bu**er for the lining. I always leave mine off and then put them on after (but I do pre-drill the holes, so they are easy to find through the paint).
Mark Tatlow

Daddyman
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Re: A Highland Miscellany

Postby Daddyman » Mon Jan 17, 2022 1:07 pm

Mark Tatlow wrote: Looking over David's pictures, I see I have missed a door vent. I only put one above the luggage doors - out with the soldering iron again!! I told you lot not to tell me of errors!!


Always two, Mark. Note the whistle too. (Mine has been cascaded back to normal [i.e. non push-pull] stock in the 1930s so doesn't need one [or guard irons].)
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Daddyman
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Re: A Highland Miscellany

Postby Daddyman » Mon Jan 17, 2022 1:10 pm

Mark Tatlow wrote: Something I see in yours David is that you have fitted the grab handles/door handles. That will make it a bu**er for the lining. I always leave mine off and then put them on after (but I do pre-drill the holes, so they are easy to find through the paint).


No lining on LNER brown, Mark! As a result I fit grab handles (but not door handles) before painting as I want to be able to solder as much as possible. I wouldn't like to have to get the angle and alignment of these right with glue - soldering allows adjustment.

Mark Tatlow
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Re: A Highland Miscellany

Postby Mark Tatlow » Mon Jan 17, 2022 1:22 pm

Daddyman wrote:No lining on LNER brown, Mark! As a result I fit grab handles (but not door handles) before painting as I want to be able to solder as much as possible. I wouldn't like to have to get the angle and alignment of these right with glue - soldering allows adjustment.


That makes sense, I had assumed you were in the NER era.

And the trick with things like the adjustment of these is superglue with an accelerator (squirted when you were happy with the location, it then acts instantly). On one occasion I had a child operating the accelerator - well I did until they got bored and went inside, but it was easier!

I'll add the whistle to the to do list!
Mark Tatlow

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Re: A Highland Miscellany

Postby Daddyman » Mon Jan 17, 2022 1:56 pm

Mark Tatlow wrote: On one occasion I had a child operating the accelerator

Sounds like a good idea, Mark. But wait: presumably I'd need to find some use for the child when not employing it in this role? Or can they be acquired by the hour? Do Eileen's do them?

"Bond-it Glue Monster Activator" seems to give a little time for adjustment - it's both a blessing and a curse that it doesn't fix things immediately. But I always get the feeling that using an accelerator weakens the joint.

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grovenor-2685
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Re: A Highland Miscellany

Postby grovenor-2685 » Mon Jan 17, 2022 2:39 pm

It might make sense to put the metal dividers in the clerestory only and stick with plasticard for the lower part. Just a suggestion.
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Mark Tatlow
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Re: A Highland Miscellany

Postby Mark Tatlow » Sun Dec 31, 2023 12:45 pm

After a long pause, caused by that irratating thing called life getting, I am looking to deliver on some long made modelling promises over the holiday season.

The major task is a rather full on gantry signal with no less than eight movements on it, including a rather natty fan route indicator. This is for a friend's layout and is in return for some signal cabins that he built no less than 15 years ago - I told you the promises were long made! Mind you, he hasn't got the layout fully running yet, so I am still ahed of him!

The gantry spans only two lines so it can be formed with channel section. There are good drawings and pictures in LMS Journal no 5 of this. I have made mine from milled brass section and then the landing was a custom etch I designed as it takes a surprisingly large amount of material and effort to construct this from scratch. These etches included the doll base plates although the dolls have a thickened tube at the lower level which of course I forgot and had to undo later work to put on!!

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The signal is to be located on an embankment which meant that I could not simply put flat base plates on the foot of the gantry columns. Instead I have constructed a housing that matches the slope of the embankment and then the baseplates are partially sloped to match this with square sections representing the foundations of the prototype columns. Below these baseplates I have then formed housings to take the servos which will eventually operate the arm actions.

IMG_0671 cropped.JPG


So far, this is pretty easy modelling (although I lost a number of drill bits opening up the stanchion positions on the landing (grrrrrr!). The tough bit comes next.

There are potentially two viewers of this thread who might be thinking that I have long outstanding modelling promises to them too...............I am also working on one of these too!!
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Mark Tatlow

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LesGros
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Re: A Highland Miscellany

Postby LesGros » Sun Dec 31, 2023 1:42 pm

:thumb An interesting project Mark,

Happy New Year to You and All.

Cheerydoo,

Les G
LesG

The man who never made a mistake
never made anything useful

Terry Bendall
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Re: A Highland Miscellany

Postby Terry Bendall » Mon Jan 01, 2024 9:30 am

Some very neat solutions to various problems here Mark. I liked the profiled bases and the tie bar to held the uprights parallel until everything is fixed in place.

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Chas Levin
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Re: A Highland Miscellany

Postby Chas Levin » Mon Jan 01, 2024 11:03 am

Very nice work Mark, as others have said!
Chas

Mark Tatlow
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Re: A Highland Miscellany

Postby Mark Tatlow » Mon Jan 01, 2024 4:22 pm

Once the basic structure of the gantry is in place, the real task of making the signals signally commences. First up were the smoke deflectors and the brackets for the balance weights. Also fitted are the main portions of the fan route indicator, but that will be explained further once I get it going!

IMG_7248 cropped.JPG

For the arm bearing point and lamps I am using some 3D prints produced by Steve Hewitt and available from Shapeways. They can be found here https://www.shapeways.com/product/JJRSB ... arketplace. They are fairly expensive but they are neat and save a lot of manufacture. There is, however, a but - they are very delicate and I am very fearful of thier long term durability. I am highly likely to draw some of my own up and get them cast in lost wax. It will make them even more expensive but I have about a 50% casualy rate at the moment, so maybe in the long term it will be cheaper!

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The arms are Masokits, these are definitely the best available arms for LMS/LNER/BR semaphores. This is especially true of the minature shunt arms as the MSE ones are simply too delicate to bother with (imagine how do I know that.............!). So this is where we are now at with the arms mounted temporarly on the bearings.

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There are five movements in the down direction (three of which operate via the route indicator) and then a pair in the up direction - hence the back to front arms.

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The plates at the top of the dolls are mounting points for ladders. It transpires they are wrong and have already gone!

So the intensity level has dialled up a notch with these portions (especially breaking the bearing/lamp fittings) but it really gets interesting when you try and make these things work.

I don't know myself yet (although I know for the couple of arms I have finished, so I have an inkling), but i think it might be fun to have a little sweepstake on how many moving parts there will be in the finished gantry. Five arms, three fan route indicators and operated by way of angle cranks. Each arm, crank and intermediate wire counts as a moving part, as do the servos....................guesses please?
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Mark Tatlow

Mark Tatlow
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Re: A Highland Miscellany

Postby Mark Tatlow » Mon Jan 01, 2024 4:42 pm

Terry Bendall wrote:Some very neat solutions to various problems here Mark. I liked the profiled bases and the tie bar to held the uprights parallel until everything is fixed in place.

Terry Bendall


Good idea poorly executed.................it was too flimsy to do much. The later pictures show I have replaced with something more substantial.
Mark Tatlow


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