SteamPower4ever

How about trucks like these ? I'm not done with the design, but they're to scale, they're one piece and they're printable. I have the NWSL wheels and ball bearings, and I'll make a test print as soon as the design is complete. Jens

Still gorgeous ... Actually the MY class and its smaller sister the MX were in fact (or are) both A1A+A1A. Norway had the Di3 class which had the subclasses Di3a and Di3b, which were CC and A1A+A1A respectively The Belgian/Luxemburgian class 202 and the Hungarian class M61 were all CC. All units had GM 567 engines, but - at least for the Danish types - they varied from the B to the D1 types according to time of delivery. Jens

I think MTH's problems with one gauge shipping dates is because of the suppliers in China. When the shipping date is bumped over and over again - at one time a mere two days after I got a different reply by email - it's because they simply don't know or because they're stiffed over and over again by the manufacturer. Something like that, anyway. There's a reason why Märklin withdrew their manufacturing from Asia and returned to Europe. Jens

The project now has its own homepage: https://1in32scale.wordpress.com/ Incidently, today - July 8th - is the 60th anniversary of the hi-level El Capitan Jens

I'm trying to imagine an extruder in my house and the domestic discussions before that would happen. Some years ago I visited Hydro Aluminium which is the largest manufacturer around here, and I got an idea about the possibilities and the pitfalls. As you say, the extruded parts must be stretched after the extrusion to even out tensions in the material. That means the die shape must be 2% larger in all dimensions because stretching a rod of course means the cross section gets slightly smaller. And don't even mention heating the aluminium billet to just below melting temperature before extruding it ... No, I'm leaving the extrusion to the professionals.

Well, it sounds like it's doable then. I'll run with the extrusion for now, but the project is still only aiming at fixing a total design cost. There's no guarantee it will be feasible in the end, so it's nice to have a plan B. Thanks for the inputs, Bob. Much appreciated. Jens

while I do have a plan, I'm certainly not ruling anything out at this time. 1.25 mm is the spacing or wavelength if you will. The ribs are approximately 0.45 mm and the space between the ribs is approx. 0.8 mm Is this still feasible with a mold?

Great job using hand tools, Bob The problem with that approach is the narrow ribs all over the sides and roof. The spacing of those is 1.25 mm, roughly equivalent to 20 ribs per inch, and I don't think a hand tool can do that. I know I'm approaching the tool limit even for the CNC production of an extrusion die.

Earlier on I have been thinking along those lines - milling the ribs on some kind of flat plastic and shaping it on a warm metal tube or whatever, yes. But for now I'm going a different route. None. Unless my computer counts as a machine As the plan is now, the body will be an aluminium extrusion (see this post above), so the pattern or extrusion die will probably be some kind of hardened steel. I have a manufacturer who is willing to make sufficiently small batches, but to spread the cost of the die evenly I do need some volume, so if this pans out, we're looking at - say - 100 parts and upwards. The beauty of extrusion is that once the minimum volume is reached and the die is paid for, the following extrusion batches can be as low as 40 - 50 parts. Surely there could be a market for that kind of volume, even if they're kits. But right now the primary goal is getting a fix for the overall cost, so I can evaluate how to proceed. I still need milling of the extruded parts and you still need the 3D printed parts to complete a car. Of course, if anyone is interested in making a mold of something - like the interior or the truck areas, based on a 3D printed prototype - or whatever - I'm completely fine with that. I am considering opening (parts of) the design to the public - on an open source license or whatever - so anyone may contribute. The only thing I don't want to share is the aluminium extrusion, because competition on that particular part will kill the project. As for any other part of the design, the cheaper it can be made, the better. Jens

Nothing new to show, but much going on behind the curtains. As I indicated in the post above, the corrugation ribs have been quite a job to get right. I've been looking at pictures and drawings over and over to get the number of ribs right in the various sections of the car body, and I think I'm pretty darn close. The one thing I couldn't figure out was the number of ribs on the roof between the two larger ribs. Using the rib size and spacing that I'd arrived at, I ended up with 27 ribs on the center part of the roof. Then one day I came across a video on YouTube, where someone has recorded a trip with the Coast Starlight in 2015. Around 7:38 in the video there's a shot from one of the Superliners out over the roof of the Pacific Parlour car, which - as we all know - really is one of the Sky Lounges from the 1956 El Capitan. The number (26) and shape of the ribs are clearly visible, and a redesign was needed. Not that I didn't know that I needed the redesign, but I'd been waiting for more information, and that was it. I'm quite happy with what I've arrived at now, and I think it's much more production friendly with rounded corners and correct angles on the surfaces, however small those surfaces may be. That's the curse of the CAD programs (and large scale models as it were) - you can zoom in way too much and get really obsessive about a tiny detail that will never show. So now the outside of the extruded part of the car body is done and I'm moving inside to see if my idea for the lighting will work. Jens

I've found one online service capable of 3D printing an entire 1:32 scale car body, but the price is ridiculous, and right now you don't get size, strength and detail in the same package. Both cost and detail of 3D print are improving fast, though, but right now I still think the majority of the body should be extruded. I'm currently working on a redesign of the corrugation after I found some closeups of the Sky Lounge now used as the Pacific Parlour car in the modern day Coast Starlight. The redesign looks better and should be easier to manufacture. One thing is making an exact design, making a manufacturable design is quite another. Production tools have tolerances that don't scale well I'm sure there is a market for interiors as they discuss on that O gauge forum, but I'm not even close to doing that yet. I don't think it's a problem doing it, but the cost will be an issue. Incidentally I think I've figured out how to make correct interior lighting in the cars - both the coaches and the sky lounge. More when I get to that. Jens

While waiting for the parts from Shapeways - which I've just received notice are on their way - I've been painting the interior. It's green. Very green. But that's pretty darn close to how it was on the prototype The painting job was a bit awkward, and I should maybe have painted the parts before assembly, but the result is nice.

A length of Peco SL-800 is also an option of you can find it somewhere. They're aplenty here in Europe. Don't know about the US, but it is code 200 or 205 And there's of course Märklin which is also code 200 or 205, but of course the European tie spacing may be wrong for your diorama. Jens

Well spotted, Joe. The indoor curves are indeed superelevated.

Don't mind if I do Stefan himself is running diesels only, and he's double heading on a regular basis. We talked about adding a small siding after the bridge for a helper engine. There's room for it on the elevated board. Here's one of Stefan's own videos showing a double header and a helper. The BR01 is not mine though. I don't like 3-cylinder engines in DCC as the sound is not good enough. First of all, every decoder seems to use two 3-stroke sounds instead of a correct 6-stroke sound. Secondly, the sounds at speed is compressed way too much, so each stroke sounds wrong and in total it sound really horrible. I normally keep my BR50 at step 20 of 28. Much higher than that and the DCC sound is compressed too much even for a two cylinder freight engine. But in excuse for the poor BR01 slipping - those brass passenger coaches are really heavy, and curves and grades are a bad mix ... Jens

Thank you. I've met and know several of the people there, yes. They've formed a new club - the "Spor 1 Live Steam Team" that has built a modular layout to participate in shows and exhibitions. Nothing fancy on the layout, just a straight dual track oval with sidings and without any landscape so it's easy to clean after a weekend of live steam. They hold international steam-ups at the hotel layout, which are attended by people from all over the world. I've still to figure out how you get a 1:32 scale live steam on a plane, but there you go

ATSF F7: The announcement of the next delay has now been scheduled for August '16.

Been working a bit more on the guard's van. Having found the free CAD program that I'm using for that other project, I'm now designing some of the details I need next. The car itself now has a roof made from wooden strips, and the floorboards on the end platforms are also done, although they're not in the picture. The car body must be supported by struts from the frame - 9 on each side. They're fairly delicate, so the prospect of making 18 pcs. by hand has held me back. However, one hour of 3D CAD resulted in this model: The roof overhangs over the end platforms are supported by some intricate brackets, and while I do have those in etched brass, they're too coarse for my taste. 3D CAD once again: The roof vents from the 6 compartments are available, but the toilet vent I need to make myself. I'm eyeballing it, as I don't have the drawings or measures. The inner parts of the roof vents where the passengers may open and close the vents are clearly visible on a large scale model, so I made those too: All the models are uploaded to Shapeways and are being processed as I write this. By chance I found a local shop that offers laser cut acrylic at reasonable prices. Clear acrylic is hard and clear as glass. A quick 2D drawing and here comes my windows which fit into the pockets in the veneer sandwich walls: Moving forward again ... Jens

No offense taken Sounds more like 3-4 minutes into my video it's the same beat as that of the river Kwai steamer. Maybe they used a BR50 sound for the river Kwai scene to give it more oomph than the small engine? Certainly a 2-cylinder engine anyway, and even small steamers can sound pretty good, so who knows? Good thing Alec Guiness wasn't there to blow up Stefan's bridge

Last Sunday my friend Stefan invited to 'open garden' for operation on the newly completed first stage of his garden layout. Here's the video I got. It's a bit longer than usual, so grab a cold one and enjoy the sights and sounds. It's really a great layout. Jens

Here's another video from the 2014 event:

Cool chase video I gotta have one of those. 3751 that is. And a San Bernardino Freeway to chase on Jens

And yes - the Heljan Nohab does sound pretty cool. A German review of the prototype suggests that you should buy the model for the sound alone The model is a joint effort by Heljan and ESU, and along with Heljan, ESU is selling the Nohabs in their Pullman product line. It will have some cool features like automatic curve squeal and "sparks" from the brake shoes when slamming the brakes. The Nohabs are of course shipping with the ESU flagship decoder - LokSound XL v4. The same as I'll be fitting into my MTH F7s once they get here. Jens

There's no specs as such. The first two layouts shown in the 2012 video are made by a woodfitter. The modules are stackable in a very clever way and two people can set up or dismantle an entire layout in a very short tine. Other layouts are custom made to no particular standard. The largest layout in the videos belongs to my club, and although modular, that layout is a monster to move from place to place. The trouble is that a permanent gauge 1 layout requires a lot of space, and the rent for such space is more than most clubs can handle. Especially in the larger cities where the club members live. Consequently most layouts are modular and usually in storage or in a smaller workshop, and they only come out to play at the fair and hobby shows. There is a European modular standard called Fremo32 which defines standard module profiles, but that standard was defined after most of these layouts were started. Jens

If you're in Denmark in the middle of november, you may consider attending the 4th Danish gauge 1 fair. Once again the fair takes place in the small town of Ferritslev on the island of Fyn (Funen), and once again it's arranged by a friend of mine, Stefan Hupfeldt. Details are still scarce, but as Stefan's own layout is now stationary, that one is not participating. A new club has announced its participation, but I don't know much about it yet. There will be modular club layouts and dealers and pretty much what could be seen at the fair in 2014 - plus whatever has happened in the two years since then. I for one will need to turn my attention to the scratch built guard's van ... We expect a lot of Nohabs to roam the layouts and hopefully I can add some GM roar from my F7s. Jens Video from 2014: Video from 2012: