Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[john coffin]

I use something called Design Cad, which is a lot less expensive than Turbo Cad Pro, but then the amateur version of Turbo Cad is not too bad either.
Some use Corel Draw, but I found that my engineering background made it more difficult for me to understand how to use it.

The important thing to understand is that different etchers have different input needs, some make their own films, others have them bought in,
so this complicates the output part of the work.

Whilst many of you may well be quite competent computer users, it is often difficult to understand all the procedures that have to happen.
In general the etchers need a file in DWG or DXF, that is then converted by them using another programme, and each of them use different ones.

So what you find is that whilst drawing the loco and its parts is relatively easy, it is the output that causes you most problems.
Also remembering the scaling to ensure it comes out right.

It is not too difficult, but it does take time.

Paul

[Atso]

Hi Graeme,

For designing etches, allowing for cusps, etc try the tutorial under the heading 'Metal Etching for Models' towards the bottom of the page of the link below.

http://www.hollywoodfoundry.com/HowToPapers.shtm

Hope this helps.

[Atlantic 3279]

Quick replies out of necessity on account of continuing pressure of time:

1. Thanks for the various links. It will take me some time before I can follow them all up, but at least I can now pin down the article in MRJ.

2. The bulge over the cylinders IS represented in the existing resin moulding for the Bugatti front. It was there in all of the preceding images, and those of the test/master model that were put on here over two and a half years ago. It is however SUBTLE and does not show well in certain lights, nor in most photographs.

3. The cylinders on 2002 to 2006 were / are all the same size, as were those on 2001 after the Lentz gear was ditched. The only difference for modelling purposes is that in order to fit within the resin skirts, which have to be thick enough to be strong, the cylinders have to be relieved of a generous slice of material off their outer faces, while simultaneously leaving part of the rear valve chest extension and the whole of the rear valve guides in place. I'll do that slimming down exercise if requested on any set of my resin cylinders that is destined for use with a Bugatti front, or I can leave it to the user. It's a fairly quick and simple job once you know what to do and how much to slice off, a piercing saw and a bit of tidying with a file producing the necessary result.

4. Nothing is ready for ordering yet as I haven't considered cost, although I do have a note of some previously interested parties, including Simon (he'll be relieved to know) and I've produced an appropriate number of resin parts to suit. I assumed that some or all potential users of the parts would want to know about the etching of the parts to complete the valve gear before committing themselves. The valve gear CAN be completed using hand-cut parts instead, or a mixture of hand cut parts and items robbed from something such as a Comet V2 etch if people want to do that instead. My two models have hand cut reverse reach rods and supporting brackets, one has Comet V2 parts for the links at the front of the valve gear, the other has hand cut parts for those, both have a home-concocted arrangement of Nickel silver sheet from the surrounding material on an etch plus two small pieces of 1/16" square brass bar soldered up to adapt the motion bracket stretcher to fit the Hornby chassis. If everybody is happy with a set of notes and drawings to guide the application of a DIY solution to problem of the missing parts, then shall I stop worrying about getting a supplementary etch done? I don't mind saving myself the time and effort....

[mick b]

Personally I would prefer a etch if possible.

[Daddyman]

2. The bulge over the cylinders IS represented in the existing resin moulding for the Bugatti front. It was there in all of the preceding images, and those of the test/master model that were put on here over two and a half years ago. It is however SUBTLE and does not show well in certain lights, nor in most photographs.

3. The cylinders on 2002 to 2006 were / are all the same size, as were those on 2001 after the Lentz gear was ditched. The only difference for modelling purposes is that in order to fit within the resin skirts, which have to be thick enough to be strong, the cylinders have to be relieved of a generous slice of material off their outer faces, while simultaneously leaving part of the rear valve chest extension and the whole of the rear valve guides in place. I'll do that slimming down exercise if requested on any set of my resin cylinders that is destined for use with a Bugatti front, or I can leave it to the user. It's a fairly quick and simple job once you know what to do and how much to slice off, a piercing saw and a bit of tidying with a file producing the necessary result.

Thanks for the clarification, Graeme.

[Atlantic 3279]

Interestingly, this comes direct from PPD's own website, from among the FAQ's:

Does PPD accept hand drawn artwork?

Ideally artwork should be supplied in digital form as this will result in a high quality etched sheet, we can where absolutely necessary use hand drawn artwork, please provide the drawing in black and white scaled as large as possible on A4 paper, unfortunately we cannot guarantee the quality of the final etched parts when artwork is generated by hand.

[Atlantic 3279]

At last finding time today to phone PPD to verify the truth or meaning of the above statement, I'd now say it is (to say the least) just a little misleading from my point of view. They CANNOT work directly from any hand drawn or printed paper artwork, even if reduced quality of the etch would not be a problem for the customer. No matter how large and no matter how razor-sharp and crystal clear any drawings might be, unless they receive them as one of their specified "vector file" formats they can do nothing with them unless the customer stands the cost of having PPD re-draw everything in one of the specified vector file formats. As has been widely reported previously they have no camera that can process real "hard copy" artwork, and scanners that can nominally produced scanned files in PDF format are apparently no use either, since the scanned files are still rastor files rather than vector files, despite sharing the PDF file name. Although their website also (again misleadingly) only "advises against" rastor files such as jpg, tiff and bitmp, I was also told flatly by phone that these file types are unacceptable.

In my opinion, if a rule is an outright rule, then it should be stated as a RULE, not made to sound more polite and "fluffy" by describing it as "advice" or by suggesting vaguely that adherence to the rule or disregard of the rule only affects quality! Potential customers without the luxury of suitable technical illustrator programs could easily find that they have wasted large amounts of time on preparation of artwork by "other available means" only to find it utterly useless.

[dlester]

After finding time to look at some pictures, I realize that my earlier question about visible rivets on the sidesheets is easy to answer. Stirling tenders they may be, but not one image I've seen showing what appears to be a class D or class C tender has rivets heads showing above soleplate level.

Sorry, it's been so long since I last checked in here, but as I'm hunting through my own private list of Stirling tenders, I can now answer this question.

It appears that snaphead rivets were in use during Stirling's time in office, and that with Ivatt, counter-sunk rivets were then used. There are some beautiful images of newly built Stirling Singles in LTC Rolt's "Patrick Stirling's Locomotives", Hamish Hamilton, 1964, especially page 59 which shows a close up of No.5, with what looks like a 3553 or 3850 gallon tender attached.

The other image I have showing "snaphead" rivets on a Stirling "D" tender is GNRS Archive ref P/05/1122, which shows No. 4137 passing Harringay sometime after 1928 (number on the cab side). Presumably, this is before 1931, as Malcolm Crawley's tender allocations has 4137 attached to "C" class tender 1028 from 17/1/31 through to 1948.

[dlester]

.. And another -- perhaps more accessible image -- is in Yeadon, volume 37A, "J1-4", page 33, bottom image of 4134, with what looks to be a "C" class tender (smaller wheels, lower mounted springs). Look at the closely spaced rivets at the top (holding the flairing on) and the bottom.

Interesting toolbox too, showing steel banding reinforcement.

[Atlantic 3279]

I've just had a sort of a "tip-off" by e-mail regarding image hosting site Photobucket. It looks, at a glance, as if their new terms of service from 28th June this year are abolishing image linking from their free accounts, and henceforth only allowing image linking to other sites (such as this) for paying customers - much the same form of cynical pressure that Imageshack applied to their free users a couple of years ago. If the rules are applied retrospectively to existing free accounts, then I have to choose either to pay them (unlikely) or let more of the large images that I've included in my thread on here disappear. Time does not yet allow me to work back through everything a re-post all images direct to this site.

If anybody wants to save any favourites, NOW would be a good time to copy them!

As all of my Photobucket-hosted images are for public consumption anyway, if the links do cease to work but you are keen to delve in an find particular images, this might give a starting point for the dedicated searcher: http://s828.photobucket.com/user/Atlant ... t=3&page=1

[Atso]

Personally I think that photobucket has overstepped the mark with this. I appreciate that they need to make money but between having to upgrade the account and taking forever to do anything with the site due to all the pop up adverts I think it is time for me to move away from this 'service'.

I've been busy deleting all my photos from the site, a bit difficult because of the previously mentioned adverts but I'm getting there.

Edit: I've just requested that my account be deleted. If anyone else is also trying to do this follow the instructions provided on the page below:

http://support.photobucket.com/hc/en-us ... y-Account-

[Woodcock29]

HI Graeme

Thanks for your comments above re photobucket - I have now been busily saving some of the photos you posted that are of specific interest.

Andrew

[Atlantic 3279]

I see that changes to the way that imageshack are now hosting old images, uploaded when they still offered free hosting, have wrecked most of the image links on this thread between pages 17 and 213, i.e. most of it! Only payers now get automatic functioning of image links. I have established that the links to many of the free images can actually be restored, but it is a one image at a time, tedious task, so I haven't bothered with any more than a couple of "test" images. Images more than four years old appear to have been removed entirely. It's just as well I have my own records. With the very many imageshack-hosted images that I had in this and other threads on this site, the task of going through them all would be massively time-consuming. I apologize for the effect that this loss of images has. I hope Photobucket don't do the same thing in due course, otherwise most of the images after page 213 will vanish too.

NB, if you wish to see the images despite the broken links, see:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2443&p=113141#p113140
and follow the method.

Anything familiar about the above.......

[Nova]

as a suggestion, try Imgur for hosting images

[Atlantic 3279]

When Imageshack decided to put on the highwayman's mask a bit more than three years ago I was fooled by their promise to continue to host older images, free of charge, and was thus caught with my trousers well and truly down when they later disabled the image links (without telling me), and later still starting apparently deleting images altogether (again without warning), leaving me with the task of trying to remember (or guess) which images should go in which places should I ever want to restore my older forum posts. I still haven't found time to deal with those problems, which affect the pages prior to page 213 in this thread.

I hope I've saved myself some trouble now that Photobucket is going a similar way. While the family went strawberry picking today I rushed through the pages from 213 onwards, copying into a document every entry of my own that contains images hosted by Photobucket, before they disappear. At least I'll now have a ready reference if and when I get chance to attempt a restoration.....