0 Gauge in Paper & a Build Thread

[Plumdragon]

Thank you, Don, for the compliments Must admit, it's good fun doing this, and the basic structure is very quickly accomplished. The fun is in adding all the details, and with the wealth of images of railway kit and kaboodle available on the 'net, it's easy to find inspiration

Here now, we have the basic structure pretty well finished. The steps are the hardest bit to build (goodness knows how they'll pan out in N Gauge....) being made up from five pieces all told. In contrast, of course, the building itself is little more than a box! Those steps have a 'removable' section of top fencing, so can be put against the 'box as seen here, or down the wall.

Still to do are the stove chimney, a water barrel maybe but definitely some guttering, the all-important outside toilet, signs and notices, and some finessing on the colouring. Oh, and a door downstairs and probably a few other things as well as we go along

Plumdragon

[Plumdragon]

Well, the Signal Box, as expected, didn't turn out quite as originally intended

Here, however, is a Photoshop drawing of my finished effort, assembled, if you like, from the renders used for the model. This is very similar to the 'real' one seen previously, only I haven't built another 'real' one as 1) it's more or less the same (a bit longer, is all....) and 2) the 'box I'd like to build for my railway is a lot smaller than this and all wood and 3) my printer's gone all squirly....

No guttering, or outside loo (it's inside ) and not a lot in the way of 'extras'; just a basic, functional Signal Box, which you can find in the Download section of this Forum. There is a table of 'printing percentages' listed with the model, which will enable you to print the 'box for most scales from U.K. '0' to N Gauge. I checked the figures twice, but if anyone finds any discrepancies, please let me know!

Finally, if any of you kind souls feel inclined to make a contribution, however small, toward this and any future models, it would be most appreciated; a PM alert will let me forward my details. Please remember though that this is offered as a free download, so there's absolutely no obligation to do anything except, hopefully, enjoy building it

Plumdragon

[Plumdragon]

P.S; the files uploaded (although the first ones were "too wide", whatever that means!), but I'm not sure where they are, whether there is a waiting time before they appear, whether they're lost in the ether somewhere or even if I've done it right (because it's all new....) Bear with me :-)
Plumdragon

[Plumdragon]

Some progress, albeit slow The driving wheels are here assembled, ready for trimming; assembly follows my usual method as described in the build thread for the little NER Tank Loco. The chassis has acquired some frames, which needed modifying from the original design to clear the motor's driving wheels. Next stage will be fitting up the conrod pins, putting the drivers on their axles and hopefully when the rods are on, a test run under power!
Plumdragon

[Plumdragon]

A little progress as well on the new coal truck; the lettering is going to be a slow job, as there is no font on my PC even close that can duplicate the waywardness of this wagon's original hand-lettering. So, it'll all be done word by word.... I like a challenge
Plumdragon

[Don Boose]

Magnificent! To my American eye, this is the quintessence of what makes pre-grouping British railway equipment so attractive.

It looks to me as if you have found (or created) an Italic font that replicates the prototype rather well.

On! On!

Don

[Plumdragon]

Thank you very much, Don :-)

The font is, indeed, created by Yrs Trly, and as more and more letters are made it becomes easier to 'lift' bits to make new ones. Still going to be a long job, I suspect!

As to your comment regarding the old British pre-grouping stock; there is a wealth of interesting, curious and sometimes bizarre rolling stock and motive power to draw on for inspiration. But you're not short of a few such things over your side of the Pond as well..... I am seriously tempted to have a go at this, full working motion of course, and maybe there's room in there for the big 0 Gauge clockwork motor I picked up cheap

Plumdragon

[Plumdragon]

A quick peek at the workings. The fore and aft axles are held in place with simple card keeper plates on the backs of the horn guides; the over-long conrod pins will be trimmed once the rods are tried out with the motor running, and everything (fingers crossed!) works more or less as it should

Plumdragon

[Plumdragon]

Well, it works (after a fashion!)
Regrettably, after all this work, again there's not enough oomph in the motor to shunt the chassis more than a yard down a straight piece of track - which is odd, as the thing propelled the original plastic loco for ages and ages!

I think this just proves that these motors simply aren't up to the job, which is probably a combination of tired old spring,dodgy paper engineering and too much friction in the paper parts (despite a lot of running in!)

Ah well, I shall have to look for an alternative source of power - am seriously considering rubber bands, which seem to work just fine in balsa airplanes....

Still, it looks alright, although with other commitments pending it may now get shelved again for a while. We shall see
Plumdragon

[maurice]

Wonder about the talcum powder, might not powdered graphite be better ?