Rewanui - a 1940 West Coast NZ layout in 1:64

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

I had a bit of a Christmas morning sort of experience on Saturday as a package of etching appeared on the doorstep.  It quickly turned into that sort of Christmas when you get socks rather than toys...

Amongst other things I'd etched a We locomotive.  These projects are long term and this was version 1, so some problems were anticipated.  Unfortunately there was some issue and the etchings for the superstructure did not reflect my artwork.  Fortunately all the major parts were OK, or at least salvageable.  So as they needed to be redone, I thought I'd prove the parts as there is little point in getting replacements with errors.  The etch contans alternative parts for different locomotives/periods.

It all went together really well.  There are a few issues that need more relaxed tolerance and one or two things that can be improved, but on the whole a very buildable locomotive body (this is a solid day's work spread over 3 days).  It's a quick proving without great care taken, but the design ensures almost all soldering is from the inside so it's nice and tidy.  One innovation I tried was to make the cab roof part of the cab interior assembly.  This worked very well and gives a secure roof that also stiffens the interior. The backhead shown earlier in this thread will be very visible.

This one will be parked for a bit while I get back to Wa217 and other things and await the reworked parts.

[finescalerr]

On my best day I couldn't turn out anything as good as that reject. -- Russ

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

On my best day I couldn't turn out anything as good as that reject. -- Russ

My rejects are some of my best work!

The 3 'T's. Tricks, tools and techniques.  Design makes a huge difference too. I could show you pretty easily. I've had my wife build my kits to prove a point, and my son had a go soldering up etches when he was about 5 years old. It's not hard at all, but you do need to know the methods.  Nobody reads my instructions of course.

I had to fret out some of those windows by hand - you'll see on the etch they haven't etched through.

[Hauk]

I still remember the feeling when I unpacked my first sheet of etchings.
I truly felt like the king of modelling, ignoring completly that all praise was really due to the etcher.
And soon enough all my design mistakes raised their ugly heads...

But after a few generations of etches I started to get things right. I can see no reason that all the good people on this forum should not be able to achive at least a good results.

[Bill Gill]

I've studied litle packets of etched kits hanging on pegs near the checkout counter at a craft store, wondering if they might include any little bits that I could make use of on my layout. But I've never dreamed of designing custom parts and getting them etched. Really impressive to see.   

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

I still remember the feeling when I unpacked my first sheet of etchings.
I truly felt like the king of modelling, ignoring completly that all praise was really due to the etcher.
And soon enough all my design mistakes raised their ugly heads...

But after a few generations of etches I started to get things right. I can see no reason that all the good people on this forum should not be able to achive at least a good results.

I felt exactly the same!!

I didn't start with complete locomotives of course.  Simple parts to start with, moving into things like semaphore signals, graduating to wagons and then to locomotives.  At each step you learn something and accumulate little innovations and tricks you can use in subsequent projects.  There are lessons in the things that don't work so well too.

As with castings and prints, I do etching for others as well.  It's quite useful for me to do small outside projects as they can fill up space on sheets to make the process more viable.

[Hauk]

I still remember the feeling when I unpacked my first sheet of etchings.
I truly felt like the king of modelling, ignoring completly that all praise was really due to the etcher.
And soon enough all my design mistakes raised their ugly heads...

But after a few generations of etches I started to get things right. I can see no reason that all the good people on this forum should not be able to achive at least a good results.

I felt exactly the same!!

I didn't start with complete locomotives of course.  Simple parts to start with, moving into things like semaphore signals, graduating to wagons and then to locomotives.  At each step you learn something and accumulate little innovations and tricks you can use in subsequent projects.  There are lessons in the things that don't work so well too.

As with castings and prints, I do etching for others as well.  It's quite useful for me to do small outside projects as they can fill up space on sheets to make the process more viable.

In the hubris of my youth, I did of course start with a locomotive! The sheet of etchings looked smashing, but in reality it was just a collection of parts that was almost impossible to build. For the second generation of etchings I did my homework and learned te basics of folding lines, tap/slots connections and indexing holes. Using these concepts I was able to make a decent kit that could be built with reasonable effort. A third generation of etchings was made after discovering that using two different sheet thicknesses (0.3mm and 0,5mm) would be benficial.

I really encourage people that still havent tried to design their own etchings to give it a try. And I can think of no one better to work with than Lawrence for a first project.

[finescalerr]

A wonderful idea in theory. In practice, though, I'd commission Lawrence to build the whole model for me. Heck, if I had more money, I'd keep him on retainer! -- Russ

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

A wonderful idea in theory. In practice, though, I'd commission Lawrence to build the whole model for me. Heck, if I had more money, I'd keep him on retainer! -- Russ

Thanks for the love, but my productivity would soon disappoint :-)

[Bernhard]

This etched plate is a small work of art in itself.

Bernhard

[Barney]

Another one that takes your breath away - big time
Barney

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

It's been a while since I updated.  The attached video shows layout progress.

There's a number of things going on:

• Track laying is done.  Almost all the yard trackage will be buried in ballast so I've avoided sleepers for much of it to simplify ballasting.
• I've been playing with DCC Ex which makes servos easy to use.  Turnouts and uncouplers use these.  There's also some tricky custom interface stuff in development which has been fun. It helps to have offspring versed in such things.
• I've refined my uncoupling mechanism to the point where it has been fully installed in the layout.

Coupling and uncoupling is virtually 100% on first attempt, and if not then the second attempt nails it.  This is really important as the layout is essentially a shunting plank at high level.  Manual uncoupling simply wouldn't work. If anyone is interested in the nuts and bolts there's a full description at https://nzfinescale.com/staying-connected-and-letting-go/

The control system is still a work in progress. It's pretty much fully functional but we keep finding things to tweak and refine (Throttle colour scheme is one of those!!).  DCC Ex is running on an Arduino Mega.  Very straightforward.  We are using a Raspberry Pi to provide the user interface and it's bespoke, not JMRI.  The actual interface is a series of webpages (track panel, throttles etc) that update in real time.  Any wifi connected device (phone/tablet etc) can control the layout and multiple connected devices are OK.  There's a huge bunch of DCC functionality that we don't need, so we've just focussed on an interface that we like and that does only what we require.  The Arduino can communicate via the I2C protocol so control of turnouts, uncoupling lighting, sensors and so on, while via the DCC Ex software is not actually using DCC protocols.  This is WAY simpler and cheaper than using stationary decoders. The throttles, of course, are entirely DCC.

Trackwork is all tested so now needs ballasting.  The uncouplers work well, but I need to fit and adjust them to all of my stock.  This isn't hard to do and in most cases will just be a hook substitution.

None of this is proper modelling of course, but it's all the necessary underlying nuts and bolts needed to make sure the models will actually perform as intended.

[finescalerr]

Why didn't you design functional 1:64 scale brakemen to handle coupling and uncoupling? Aside from that oversight, nice job. -- Russ

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

Why didn't you design functional 1:64 scale brakemen to handle coupling and uncoupling? Aside from that oversight, nice job. -- Russ

Actually, that's the way we are doing it in 9mm.  :-)

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

With an upcoming show there's pressure to get some stuff done...

So back on to Wa 217 which is now blasted and primed.  There's some stuff to tidy, but it's nearly there.


I've also put up the reference photo of the locomotive fresh from overhaul in 1940 (Stan Rockliff photo via Graham McClare)