What happened at your workbench today?

JimmyB said:
So the car park levy worked, less cars, therefore less pollution. Why do big business need to be in city centres, moving outside the city reduces pollution, traffic and makes the city a nicer place to be.
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I image there's a balance between not wanting every huge corporation in the city center but also making sure there is actually enough people in the city to make the city work. It's only a small example but my favourite sandwich shop closed in the city very recently. Even though the city is opening up again, with all the workers at home there is no lunch time rush to bolster the day's takings. How many rural bus services exist only because they can make profit shuttling people in and out of the city at the start and end of the day? I would argue that people are the easy thing to move in and out of a city, I don't think we would ever want to go back to a scenario where the city space is attractive to manufacturing again.

The other benefit I suppose is that all the big buildings to house the people are already in the city, what would you do with all the empty offices after? Imagine the fight you would have to put 1% of Canary Wharf up outside some rural town :eek:
Edit: You could knock them down and put in a park I suppose, but if all the people are gone, who will pay for it and who will use it?

Quick, someone get back to trains ;)
 
The government seem confused about what they want to do in the cities after Flu. We've been told that "life will never be the same again" and that working from home will be the new normal, but the Chancellor is keen to have people back in the cities working so that the shops etc dependent on them can reopen. So not quite the quick responding, ducking and weaving, world leading economy of change we've been promised.
 
One of the things that has been forgotten in all of this is that Cities functioned well with Trams (well those that had them) with much less people, thing was that most used public transport that made the thing sustainable. These days all have got used to that little box that takes them everywhere when and where they want to go, if just 50% or so of car use was back to public transport it would all be sustainable. The cities would be for people again with tha cars kept out of centers for them to be much nicer places to be, but too many appear to think it is their right to go where they want when they want and to hell with the environmental costs. Perhaps if transport was charged by unit of Carbon emitted we may see a difference.
 
Yes this was probably not the best of threads to get this discussion into major rant mode. But ..... just reading Rail 935 out yesterday, in Scotland they are proposing a Working Place License (WPL) to help fund public transport projects. Any Coy with in excess of 11 parking places will be expected to pay £428 fee for each of them. France has a similar scheme called Versement Transport (VT) that has been hugely unpopular but is credited with the creation of dozens of Tram Systems in France. Here it is based on employees salaries. Just a look at how many systems there are in France shows what can be done and hopefully may be done in Scotland and likely Wales will follow on. Not a chance in England though, best practice (Nottingham excepted) imported from Europe will never be adopted by England as relatively recent attempts to have a WPL in Cambridge have shown. I would live to be proved wrong in time in that statement.
 
What have I been doing at my work bench today? Absolutely nothing, but I’m sure I will be back at the bench on Saturday.
My latest locomotive waiting to go onto the rolling road:-

A69C86A5-A7D0-44FD-A3A4-C13667E6ABBB.jpeg
 
dunnyrail said:
Yes this was probably not the best of threads to get this discussion into major rant mode. But ..... just reading Rail 935 out yesterday, in Scotland they are proposing a Working Place License (WPL) to help fund public transport projects. Any Coy with in excess of 11 parking places will be expected to pay £428 fee for each of them. France has a similar scheme called Versement Transport (VT) that has been hugely unpopular but is credited with the creation of dozens of Tram Systems in France. Here it is based on employees salaries. Just a look at how many systems there are in France shows what can be done and hopefully may be done in Scotland and likely Wales will follow on. Not a chance in England though, best practice (Nottingham excepted) imported from Europe will never be adopted by England as relatively recent attempts to have a WPL in Cambridge have shown. I would live to be proved wrong in time in that statement.
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ADMIN - A very interesting subject, but could the relevant posts be moved to a separate thread, thank you☺
 
This tender has lost its front planks. It will be close coupled to a wood burning loco. I want the loco and tender to have the same colour scheme.

16263764988411045412803.jpg
 
Seems like converting wagons to tenders is all the rage right now. Today, as a diversion from building my Vale of Ffestiniog loco I have been making preparations for the conversion of my diminutive Accucraft Porter from track to battery/RC operation. As part of that process a means of providing a trailer for all the bits to go in has been done. I have decided to convert one of my AMS "Iron Mountain Coal Cars" for the purpose.

Stage one - it needs a fall plate between it and the loco. I have some of Swift Sixteen's rather nice etched brass checkquer plate in stock to provide the base material. So, I set to work with the cutting discs, milling tools, drills, files, etc'. Two hours later and a bit of soldering to provide a hinged mounting at the coal car end and here is the result of my labours. Next a dummy water tank hatch, a coal hatch and a respray into Matt blac to match the loco. Max

20210719_204549.jpg
 
maxi-model said:
Seems like converting wagons to tenders is all the rage right now. Today, as a diversion from building my Vale of Ffestiniog loco I have been making preparations for the conversion of my diminutive Accucraft Porter from track to battery/RC operation. As part of that process a means of providing a trailer for all the bits to go in has been done. I have decided to convert one of my AMS "Iron Mountain Coal Cars" for the purpose.

Stage one - it needs a fall plate between it and the loco. I have some of Swift Sixteen's rather nice etched brass checkquer plate in stock to provide the base material. So, I set to work with the cutting discs, milling tools, drills, files, etc'. Two hours later and a bit of soldering to provide a hinged mounting at the coal car end and here is the result of my labours. Next a dummy water tank hatch, a coal hatch and a respray into Matt blac to match the loco. Max

View attachment 287872
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Do you have a loco named Quasimodo to match Esmeralda?
Nice tender job, BTW :clap:
 
Chris Vernell said:
Do you have a loco named Quasimodo to match Esmeralda?
Nice tender job, BTW :clap:
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If I had a camel back loco I suppose it would have to carry that name :D The loco commemorates the name of the cat of this house for 20 years. As the loco the name is attached to is the "yard pet" of the West Well Lumber Co, it seemed appropriate (Awww!). Ezzie departed this planet 11 years ago. Her favorite hobbies - killing slot cars, obstructing the line and usurping my place at the workbench seat (she determined it was the "Top Cat" seat, so not for the human's use). Your post gives me another excuse to post these pictures. Max

Biog Ezzie the slot car killer.jpgCat sat on the track 001.jpg
 
A little more work on the Porter's tender today. Scratch built coal hatch and tender top. Water hatch a Garden Railway Specialist item (it will hold the charging socket and main switch. The ladder is an old item from Brandbrigt. It's amazing what I find when I go for a rummage. The tender will have a "switcher's step" at the rear.

Mislaid my Minicraft's chuck key so had to stop. Found a replacement at E.M.A, the plastic weld people. I never realised they are a general modeling, specialising in the film industry, supplier. Might have to take a good look at their websuite Home page. I've done a trial run on the RC/Sound/Battery gear - yes, even with a 12 AA cell battery pack it will all fit. It can all be reverted back to original condition by filling a few small holes and a respray, really. Can't wait to get it all painted, coaled, lettered and numbered up. Max

Aft

20210720_195526.jpg

Fore

20210720_195457.jpg
 
maxi-model said:
If I had a camel back loco I suppose it would have to carry that name :D The loco commemorates the name of the cat of this house for 20 years. As the loco the name is attached to is the "yard pet" of the West Well Lumber Co, it seemed appropriate (Awww!). Ezzie departed this planet 11 years ago. Her favorite hobbies - killing slot cars, obstructing the line and usurping my place at the workbench seat (she determined it was the "Top Cat" seat, so not for the human's use). Your post gives me another excuse to post these pictures. Max

View attachment 287924View attachment 287925
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What wonderful markings.
 
I completed the ballasting around the newly laid fake grass. And here are the results.
93DBA523-6036-4A28-A2D5-FE33CF990C1A.jpegC09578BA-BD95-4887-A39D-4677D261D526.jpeg
This small section of of my railway has a more traditional indoor model railway vibe as it’s built on base boards and is under the pergola rather than passing through the garden proper. I’ve realised that this creates more scenic work - in the garden, the living plants create most of the backdrop to the railway, but here everything has to be provided. The baseboards are covered in roof felt which at least gives a dark coloured base. The fake grass is an eBay off cut - 6mm high and a bit greener than some. But it was cheap - about a tenner for 80cm x 80cm, which has left me with some spare. I glued the grass down with UHU - no the best glue, but it’s easy to work with and after a while sets strongly enough. I use it quite a lot outside - for example glueing figures down, because it keep them in place well enough but isn’t so strong that things can’t be removed if needed.
The ballast is from Natural Scenics. I initially bought a kilo of their mixed grey - but found it was too light. So I then ordered a kilo each of medium and dark grey. Fortunately the version I liked most was an equal mix of all three and I used just under the 3kg I had with a little left over.
The depth of ballast is minimal. This is because I use occupancy current detection for my automation and in the wet weather you need to avoid too much wet material around the detect rail to prevent false positive detections. Many years ago I tried ballast and gave up on it for this very reason, but I’m giving it a go again having put in some mitigations - increased current for a detection and shorter detected sections.
The ballast is held down with exterior PVA diluted 1:1 with water and a drop of washing up liquid. Applied in the morning during this hot spell. All as recommended here by JonD - although was I supposed to spray it all with isopropyl alcohol first? Well I didn’t and it has stuck very firmly.
I’ve pushed some of the ballast into the grass to try to soften the hard edge between the two. Maybe I will do a little more of that.
My next thought will be some sort of backdrop against the fence, but I’m still mulling that over.
For now the improvement has been marked and I’m very pleased with the result!C9FC127D-C2BA-4A25-9B5B-CE063290BF28.jpeg
 
jimmielx said:
I completed the ballasting around the newly laid fake grass. And here are the results.
View attachment 287943View attachment 287944
This small section of of my railway has a more traditional indoor model railway vibe as it’s built on base boards and is under the pergola rather than passing through the garden proper. I’ve realised that this creates more scenic work - in the garden, the living plants create most of the backdrop to the railway, but here everything has to be provided. The baseboards are covered in roof felt which at least gives a dark coloured base. The fake grass is an eBay off cut - 6mm high and a bit greener than some. But it was cheap - about a tenner for 80cm x 80cm, which has left me with some spare. I glued the grass down with UHU - no the best glue, but it’s easy to work with and after a while sets strongly enough. I use it quite a lot outside - for example glueing figures down, because it keep them in place well enough but isn’t so strong that things can’t be removed if needed.
The ballast is from Natural Scenics. I initially bought a kilo of their mixed grey - but found it was too light. So I then ordered a kilo each of medium and dark grey. Fortunately the version I liked most was an equal mix of all three and I used just under the 3kg I had with a little left over.
The depth of ballast is minimal. This is because I use occupancy current detection for my automation and in the wet weather you need to avoid too much wet material around the detect rail to prevent false positive detections. Many years ago I tried ballast and gave up on it for this very reason, but I’m giving it a go again having put in some mitigations - increased current for a detection and shorter detected sections.
The ballast is held down with exterior PVA diluted 1:1 with water and a drop of washing up liquid. Applied in the morning during this hot spell. All as recommended here by JonD - although was I supposed to spray it all with isopropyl alcohol first? Well I didn’t and it has stuck very firmly.
I’ve pushed some of the ballast into the grass to try to soften the hard edge between the two. Maybe I will do a little more of that.
My next thought will be some sort of backdrop against the fence, but I’m still mulling that over.
For now the improvement has been marked and I’m very pleased with the result!View attachment 287946
Click to expand...
Not sure where you got pre spray with Isopropyl Alcohol from, not me. A pre spray of water and a dab of washing up liquid helps with deep ballast and I normally do that but not always necessary. Glad the system worked for you, been doing it for years both indoors and out.
 
dunnyrail said:
Not sure where you got pre spray with Isopropyl Alcohol from, not me. A pre spray of water and a dab of washing up liquid helps with deep ballast and I normally do that but not always necessary. Glad the system worked for you, been doing it for years both indoors and out.
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Ah - then I think I must have got the Iso pre-spray idea from a 00 youtube video recently. Anyway, your recommended system worked a treat - thank you!
 
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