TLM Etch

[tony brenchley]

Rolling Stock Components, Poster Boards and Station Awning Brackets

This is first of two posts giving details of the smaller items on our new etch. The second will cover the signalling equipment.

The items available and unit prices are:

McIntosh Patent (3 position) brake - £1
Early carriage axleguards - £1
Early goods wagon axleguards - CRA06 - 2 vertical legs - £1
CRA07 - 1 vertical and 1 angled legs - £1
CRA08 - 2 angled legs - £1
Station Awning Bracket - based on Monfieth - 11' (44mm) span x 7' (28mm) - £1
CR Poster Boards - set of 2 single plus one double - £1

And now for the pictures

McIntosh Patent brake Forum.jpg (228.91 KiB) Viewed 25645 times

W Irons Forum.jpg (211.29 KiB) Viewed 25645 times

Awning Bracket and Boards Forum.jpg (282.32 KiB) Viewed 25645 times

There are limited quantities of some items so as usual its first come etc.

Any questions and orders to me via email at [email protected] . If you order with your CCTs the postage will be free. If not please add £1 per reasonable order. All payments should be made direct to the CRA. I have attached details of payment methods below.

Have fun with this lot. I promised you reasonable prices.

Tony B

Payments for True Line Models.docx

(13.21 KiB) Downloaded 563 times

[tony brenchley]

Poster Boards

I regret to confirm that these are all now sold so please do not include with your orders.

Tony B

[Alan K]

Wow - that was quick! Have you expertly predicted and fulfilled the demand or has demand outnumbered supply?
I would have thought that at least the McIntosh Patent Brake item would be worth continuing as an optional brake alternative for future wagon offerings.

Alan

[tony brenchley]

Signal Components

This is the second post with detail of the signal components on the etch

After much consideration we have decided to sell these as a set of components as they are on each etch. These components were used as fillers on the etch and are scattered throughout it and I spent many happy hours extricating the larger items from the etches. The very small components are fortunately assembled together and cannot be divided up with out risk of damage so I have left them intact.

The full inventory on each etch is;

CR signal spectacle plates - 10 large, 4 dwarf and 2 that Ian Terrell has put a question mark against.
CR signal counter weights and pulleys - too numerous to count
CR signal blinders - 15
CR signal cast lever plates - 27
CR mainline signal arms - Stop 13, Distant 4
CR goods signal arms - Stop 3, Distant 2
CR dwarf signal arms - 11
CR signal arm - Shunt ahead - 1
CR signal arms - Wrong line - 3

These are contained on 4 small etched sheets and in a bag containing the signal arms and lever plates. If any of the very small parts are missing from your set they are probably now in our Dyson vacuum cleaner

The price to CRA members for the full set is £5. I would allow £2 for postage as there is more weigh involved than with the other small components.

The ordering and payment details are included in my first post.

The pictures say it all so here they are:

Spectacle plates Forum.jpg (174.56 KiB) Viewed 25604 times

Pulleys and balance weights 1 Forum.jpg (171.46 KiB) Viewed 25604 times

Pulleys and balance weights 2 Forum..jpg (219.78 KiB) Viewed 25604 times

Signal arms and components Forum.jpg (236.4 KiB) Viewed 25604 times

You can also have signalling fun with these.

Tony B

[jasp]

Tony
Clearly your recent health problems have not had a significant effect on yourTLM activities!
Having been a party to all that you have done, on behalf of myself, and, probably much more importantly, the Association, thank you for all that you have achieved. I am sure our members have little idea of what goes on “behind the scenes”
Jim Pairman
Chairman, CRA

[Alan K]

I've just realised my post yesterday didn't make any sense! I didn't read Tony's post properly and thought it meant all the etches. Another senior moment.....!
However I would like to add a 'Well Done' to Tony for such sterling work from TLM.

Alan

[tony brenchley]

Thanks Jim and Alan

Unfortunately my excursion to hospital occurred at the wrong time to influence the final choice of contents on the etch and there were some imbalances. I thought the poster boards would go quickly and we could have done with a lot more of these.

The main purpose of the etch was to produce the CCT underframes and brakes for the forthcoming D59 mineral wagon. We had 12 sheets produced which gave us 48 CCT underframes and 96 brake etches. It also means that for most of the smaller stuff there are 12 only including 12 sets of signal equipment. If there is sufficient demand we may be able to order extra sheets but let's sell some of this lot first.

Rest assured Alan there are plenty of Mcintosh brake etches as we had 4 to a sheet.

I did intend to suggest that some members may want to purchase sets of signal equipment with a view to sharing them with modelling colleagues.

Tony B

[tony brenchley]

Postal Charges

In a previous post I suggested allowing £2 for postage for a set of signal parts. I was a bit overcautious and discovered yesterday that at least two sets of signal components will go by first class post for 98p.

So why not treat yourself.

Tony B

[tony brenchley]

Mystery Customer

I have email confirmation of a payment of £3 by Paypal from David Philip. This is presumably for small etches but I have had no email or Forum message so tell me what this is for.

Could Mr Philip please make contact me preferably by email at [email protected] to confirm his order.

Thanks

Tony B i

[dumb buffer]

This is subscription.

Allan F

[tony brenchley]

Help!

Has anybody received an unexpected gift of a small packet of CR05 Old carriage axleguards with their order? I can't find them and after an extensive search at home all I can think is that I inadvertently put them in somebody's order.

Tony B

[Steve Parsons]

Thank you Tony my etches and CCT arrived safe and sound this morning thank you no extra bits I'm afraid.

Steve

[Steve Parsons]

Tony I was just thinking, some one was asking after station accessories and after the speed in which your etched notice boards went (missed out there) also your beautiful station awnings do you think there's a market for an etch of station fixtures and fittings with things like benches. barrows, trollies, passenger barriers etc also more of your awnings and notice boards and other paraphernalia seen around a typical Caledonian station.

Perhaps if you need to "baulk" a sheet out how about some signal box fittings like eve brackets or even window frames etc.

What do you think?
Steve

[tony brenchley]

Thanks for your interest Steve

There are lots of things we could put on an etched sheet but there are all sorts of things to be considered to make this a reality.

The first is that the etched sheets are approximately 12" square so we would need to fill the sheet with goodies. This would then require a phototool to be prepared and if the cost of this was spread over a limited number of sheets it would make the whole process and the resulting etches very expensive. We also need the services of somebody who can produce the artwork for the phototool.

Ian Terrell has the skills to do this and fortunately for us already had artwork for many of the items that were on our recent etch. Therefore the production costs were much lower than they would be if we were starting from scratch.

Ian is the expert and I will ask him what the chances are for getting a relatively small number of small items produced as an etch. I think we may have to get these added to somebody else's etch as I don't think we are going to fill up another full sheet in the near future.

Tony B

[lindsay_g]

If more parts are to be etched, I'd suggest we complete the set of outside W irons by producing those with straight outer legs but set at a more acute angle. The ones on the present etch seem to be those fitted generally to mineral wagons, but a number of brake and other vehicles had the more acute angled W irons, e.g. :

Brake Van No6.jpg (185.18 KiB) Viewed 25261 times

No criticism intended with this etch, I was well pleased to make several purchases which filled a gap. Long may such initiatives continue. (And just for Tony : No, I wasn't the recipient of excess brake etches)

Lindsay

[forbesp]

I am right in thinking that you can just make out the brake wheel in the left side verandah of brake van

[dumb buffer]

The photograph of the Brake Van does intrigue me. At the right hand end there is some stuff which may be collision damage. And the van seems to be at an odd angle. Do you have the rest of the picture, Lindsay?

Allan F

[lindsay_g]

Peter, not sure if you can actually see the brake column r wheel in the picture, but it would have been situated in the left verandah in the picture.

Allan, yup there is collision damage and yup it is at an odd angle. It's a snippet from Brake Van section in the Wagons book.

Lindsay

[Orbiston]

Are there any plans to produce signal box walkway and roof brackets?

[jasp]

No further plans for etched components at the moment but may be considered in the future.
For those having a particular wish, or need, provision of etched parts can be assisted by providing digital drawings, preferably Autocad compatible.
Jim P

[Orbiston]

Is it possibly ble to laser etch "glasses" for signal "eyes".

[lindsay_g]

I just want to bring to everyone's attention some limitations with the outside W irons and McIntosh brake on the etch, just in case you've purchased items and laid them aside for specific wagons. Before I do, I just want to say that this isn't getting at what has been produced, the production of such items needs to be encouraged not criticised. This is just to highlight the fact that these items were added to a number of wagons and they would vary from wagon to wagon - after this evenings ponderings, I can now add to the number of variations of W irons that I thought existed.

Several variations of straight leg W irons existed, and I've already reported on the fact that I altered the angle of the outer legs to suit the 10t Goods Brake that I was building.

Tonight, I thought I'd add the McIntosh brake etch (CRA03) to a part built diagram 24 open goods wagon, and started by checking how everything would line up before taking anything off the etch. It immediately became obvious that something was wrong, but not too long before I realised why. The etch is designed for an 8' 6" wheelbase, but the open goods has a 9' wheelbase. The etch even says it's for the 8' 6" wheelbase, but I'm not sure if this has been publicised, and I hadn't twigged until tonight that it was wheelbase specific. So, no good for several wagons including the TLM Diagram 3 covered van to which some were added. Obviously OK for the TLM mineral wagon, but I've no idea which of the 2 wheelbase lengths will be the most prolific amidst modellers. The main starting frame has got to be lengthened, the several push rods need lengthened or replaced - I don't want to think about the remainder tonight!

So, I decided to add cranked outside W irons from the etch (CRA06) to a 10t Loco Coal wagon (been meaning to do this for a while so that I can post a Silhouette cutter file for these wagons). When I was lining up the etch and comparing it with the Caley drawing of the wagon something seemed odd - the etch looked well undersized. So back to the drawings and measurements, and the etch is well out for these wagons. However, has anyone noticed the difference between the W irons on these and the outside framed bogies? I think the etch was designed for the 6 and 7 ton bogies and comparing it quickly to the drawings of same it looks OK. The gap between the inner upright legs is 6.5" compared to 7.5" on the Loco wagons, and all legs are a uniform 3" compared to the inner ones being 3.5" on the Loco wagon. So, the Bill Bedford and C&L outside irons which I thought were overscale (they are but not greatly) are better suited to the Loco coal wagons. Writing this, I don't think many other types wagons of wagons had cranked outside W irons (swivels and ballast did). I reckon that the cranked legs were mostly designed for outside framed minerals so that the outer legs went vertical between the outer framing so this sizing issue might be confined to very few wagons beyond the bogies.

Tomorrow evening can't be any more counter productive - or can it?

Lindsay

[tony brenchley]

Lindsay

You are probably correct about the w-irons. Ian Terrell did some trial etches for these a couple of years ago when he was working with Allan Ferguson on Allan's underframe for the mineral bogies. Ian already had the artwork and added it to our sheet of etches.

I sent Ian the prototype information from the Railway Engineer on the McIntosh brake. These articles show the general features of the brake but not a specific wheelbase. Ian never asked and I did not specify what the wheelbase should be. I assumed he would do it for 9' to suit the D24 open wagons but he chose 8' 6". You will have to ask him why.

I should have exercised more control over the content of the etch but it was not a good time for me and I was far away from the action!

Apologies to anybody who has been disappointed.

Tony B

[Alan K]

But 8'6" is right wheelbase for the Diagram 46 - and that's in the True Line Models range! So I think you're being a bit harsh on yourself (and Ian) there,Tony. I haven't tried it out, but wouldn't it be 'tweakable' to make the 8'6" fit a 9' wheelbase? It's only an extra 1mm in each direction, and an increased thickness of each brake shoe would take up say 1/2mm of that. I would say it's easier to surmount than lengthening the lever arm.

Alan

[tony brenchley]

Thanks Alan

I had thought that the brake etches could be tweaked to 9' w/b in exactly the way you propose although I haven't tried it yet.

Tony