big jim

Wish I’d known, you could have collected mine for me! I may pop over on Thursday to get mine

This is the platform, not fantastic but still useable, some of the fine bits have just not taken, possibly due to the fan issue mentioned above Any idea what will have caused the platform to not fully render? It appears the start of the print is not too bad but the end (ie the sides closest the camera) go a bit wonky around the legs The outer support for the platform didn’t take at all and was just a series of individual strands which I cut off, easily replaceable with plastistrip though As I say still useable after a tidy up I recon, good enough for inside the depot

No the bottom has lifting fork pockets in it and the g-code description on thingyverse has feedback saying there is no roof file

3d printing one as we speak!

TBH, the other thing I noticed is the original bust printed with the pla heated up to 175 degrees whereas the next batch I’m playing with seem to have changed to 200 degrees

There is a fan on the extruder head (see bottom pic) or are you on about one being needed somewhere else?

Just 3 from last night, logs to carlisle 60002, just as we were about to leave the loco developed a fault and was unable to take power, a quick bit of fault finding ensued and I had to isolate a traction motor before we could get on our way this morning in Kingmoor, im normally away Home in the first train home but I needed to do something in town so had a kip on the loco then popped into town on my way home And when I finally got back to crewe there was this little lot, 68, MK2s and 37 And that’s yer lot, same job tonight

been playing about with the printer was varying results, after the initial sucess of the mini me bust ive had mixed results with other open source items from thingiverse i tried to print off a few itmes in one go, a 1/2 sized container and a couple of figures for my lad from team fortress 2 computer game, the figures failed misirably as the legs started to flex as the "crotch area" began to print throwing the print out of skew and doing nothing above that level, however the container on the same print came out quite good there is no roof as that has been omitted from the original designers gcode file just a bit of a rough area towards the top end but that is where some of the non printed pla that should have been the character stuck to the side its currently printing out an inspection platform with pretty fine legs and handrails so heres hoping it will complete that without major issue, there are a few dodgy bits looking at it but as it stands so far (68% complete) its not looking too bad ive had another look at the figure were trying to print and have rotated it so its lay on its back this time to get maximum hold, also added supports and base adhesion rings

ive ordered a set of dcc concepts wheels with spring pickups for mentor instead of using the wiper method as i have on the NMT as there is a heck of a lot of friction/resistance on the NMT while it trundles round, if i have more success with those i may well replace the pick up wheels only on the NMT for the same product there are 12 wheels in a pack, enough to do mentor, plp and tru

diverging slightly away from diesel traction, a sparkly new class 91 would be nice, think of those fans on dcc sound

Chiltern was the best TOC for me, nice variety in units, loco hauled, london underground routes etc freight wise the short time I was with fastline was enjoyable, where I am now has a lot more variety compared to when I started here nearly 5 years ago now, it was still very much a fledgling FOC back then with a few flows and ad hoc work and I’ve watched it grow into a far bigger beast in that time with regular flows, New locos, new challenges etc, I do have some ‘erratic’ hours and lots of van driving but not once have I thought of jacking it in and heading back to the steady world of passenger trains despite having a few down days when stuff has got on top of me

Here we go, first attempt That’s about 3cm high, set to the 2nd finest setting, took about 35 mins to print, the original scan of myself was done using an Xbox Kinect as the scanner, really pleased with the result for a 1st go

mine arrived this morning and after 10 mins putting it together and a similar time levelling the bed a couple of times its sat next to me printing off a mini me as i type can confirm no usb connection but the supplied SD card is simple enough to transfer files from the computer to the machine and open them in the menu watch this space........

As long as he hasn’t stolen the batteries from the remote...... https://youtu.be/8KdtgoSCXpU One of jim royle’s best rants ever!!

Family guy have it spot on

Today, travel to Hereford to work the Gloucester RHTT, get here then discover there is a block on the Malvern line so it’s not even coming here, train back home Narked off as I could have gone to Warley instead had anyone in work known about the closure (I kid you not!)

Back to Mentor Wired up some led strips Attached to some pcb with connections to another pcb The other pcb has the opposite connections on Added tabs to it Then wired a decoder to the other side (complete with stay alive) Can’t do anything more with the decoder until I fit pickups to the wheels so I moved on to some tiny LEDs Fit through tiny holes in the roof I will then glue them to some u channel pushed into the holes And quickly wired to the track And the internal lights wired to it too Got to tidy the wires up, also paint the insides grey and add glazing When the decoder is wired up I will have one function for internal lights, one for the roof spotlights and when fitted another function for the milepost lights

didnt finish work til 2am so slept til midday, took the youngest to see santa at a local christmas fete where i bought a vintage 1976 MB games 'dragster' game and a superb condition triang 'hi-way' 1960s pressed steel pick up wagon for £1 wife going out tonight so planned some shed time while the kids play on the ps4/xbox/whatever but cant be bothered now so ill join the eldest playing a bit of gran tourismo sport, they both however want a KFC for tea so im off to get that in a bit tomorrow is work, RHTT hereford to shrewsbury and back

I meant to mention the barrier vehicles the other day, be interesting to see if they get repainted, I wonder if the Colas liveries pair may make an apperance one day (would have to be coupled buckeye to buckeye permanently though or modified) Anyway just one from tonight waiting at Stafford for the tesco express to pass And a vid of it passing https://youtu.be/cDHjv-zIHbs

Can I diversify a touch and do trains I’ve driven/drive in particular liveries, no, tough I’m going to anyway! 08 - RTR 08417 which is the one I passed out on 20/3 - Bachmann planned release in DRS livery 37 - various RTR in Drs/Colas/large logo/green etc 43 - NMT available 47 - various Drs/Colas available 56 - fastline and Colas available RTR 60 - Colas available RTR 66 - ews/Drs/gbrf/fastline/colas/freightliner all available RTR 67 - wsmr/ews/Keith heller/Royal all available (Noncolas....yet!) 70 - Colas livery imminent 73/9 - not available yet RTR 101 - reggie rail due soon? 142 - Mersey/reggie rail/fnw available RTR 150 - fnw/atw available 153 - fnw/atw available 156 - first group Barbie available (needs rebranding to fnw) 158 - FNW/ATW available 165 - available but not chiltern colours 168 - chiltern livery 175 - not available So of that list pretty much everything I’ve driven in my career is available in most liveries apart from the chiltern 165 and 175 unit Coaching stock wise as I only haul yellow coaches around none of those are available rtr apart from a model rail genny van ltd ed and basic NMT coaches

there is someing similar just south of banbury but the opposite way round, they have cut back the foliage and smoothed off the bank to get a view of the signal on a left hand bend, all fine and dandy straight after the new installation was completed but now its startign to grow again, not to an extent to effect the signal but give it another year the daft thing with that particular signal is had they sighted it 200m futher back it would have been on the end of a straight with 1/4 mile of visibility

Anyone who missed out check out amazon today, Black Friday deal on the wanhao i3, £270 Wanhao i3Plus Duplicator; 3D Printer https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01LX8KNV3/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ZNcgAbWQTEYTW

i had a high up bod from network rail with me on a test train last year on the chase line, i invited him into the cab for a look at the signals at night, one i highlighted in particular was just before a foot crossing (50m or so), it was so bright that you couldn't see the crossing until you had passed the signal and your eyes had adjusted back to the darkness, he agreed it was far too bright, had there been something or someone on the crossing there was no way of knowing, with normal signals you could at least make out "shapes" beyond the signal one of the biggest "curses" of led signals is if you stop as per the defensive driving policythe correct distance back from one you cant see the signal number plate 99% of the time

new LED signals are very hard to judge distance wise, last night for example i was doing a rail drop on the halton chord, i had to draw the train forward to drop the rail and having already passed the distant for halton the red was in view, both myself and the ES questioned whether the distance had been measured correctly as the red looked to be 100m or so ahead (despite not having got to its magnet), when the ES went out to check he measured it at 300+ meters away, in fact i even questioned the position of the worksite marker boards he'd put out as they looked to be beyond the signal but they were in fact 50yds my side of it

It’s all dependent on the route, certain signals I like to see way ahead so I know whether to keep the power open, shut off, check the route etc It’s a very rare situation where I’d actually be passing a caution signal at line speed then shutting off and braking for the stop signal, anything could happen between those points, low adheasion, wheel slide etc, I like to have plenty of ‘get out time’ should something go awry, I’be normally got the brake in way before passing the caution Of course there are signals you don’t want to be reading through as that’s as bad as not being able to see ones that apply to you