RSC 2-8-0 CONSOLIDATION

[ozinoz]

That is what I love about this place.

Sometimes you cant see things because you are too close; sometimes you have information or knowledge that can help out. It is all about constructively making your point.

Harold, as a prospective buyer, thanks so much for the info and for the way you got the information across and Mike, thanks for your understanding and acknowledgement. Payware or not, a wonderful model and looking forward to its release...

My



Grant

[mrennie]

That is what I love about this place.

Sometimes you cant see things because you are too close; sometimes you have information or knowledge that can help out. It is all about constructively making your point.

Harold, as a prospective buyer, thanks so much for the info and for the way you got the information across and Mike, thanks for your understanding and acknowledgement. Payware or not, a wonderful model and looking forward to its release...

My



Grant

You're absolutely right. Now that I look at the pictures again, I can see how way off those domes are It's a good thing that Harold pointed it out in time to fix it before release. I must've been asleep when I did them.

I'll check the steam chests again, although I think (crosses fingers) they're right, otherwise the whole motion wouldn't have lined up perfectly with the valves and pistons. i did them separately and brought them together when they were done, and they fit like a glove (apart from one time when I accidentally dragged the whole frame up an inch or two!).

Cheers,

Mike

[mrennie]

I've corrected the domes. This time I scanned the relevant part of the drawings and pasted them onto the face of a cube, with the corrected z-y dimensions, behind the domes, so that I could match their profiles with the drawings. Here are the before and after screenshots from 3DC:

Before (yeah, yuck!):

DomesBefore.jpg

After (huge difference, methinks!):

DomesAfter.jpg

Thanks again, Harold

[dejoh]

Wow, looks great. I really like seeing people working together without negitive attitudes.
Some folks would be defensive and distant. My hats off to you both.
This loco will get me into steam for RW for sure.

[mrennie]

I've just sent four new screenshots to Matt at RSC. I hope he posts those and not the ones I sent yesterday before correcting the domes!

About the width of the steam chest, I just realised that the confusion might be coming from what you see beneath the smokebox. There's a sort of wall, wider than the steam chest that forms part of the cradle supporting the smokebox:

SmokeboxCradle.jpg

You'll see that what's behind the wall is narrower. That's how I've modelled it.

Cheers,

Mike

[hminky]

What is beneath the smokebox is part of the steam chest.

Using my "bionic eye" the steam chest at that point is at the most only about 2" out from the cylinder block part. It doesn't extend further than the relief valve on the cylinder.

There is an unusual flange at the smokebox part. The rest of the steam chest is only as wide as at the cylinders.

Harold

[mrennie]

Right again Harold ... I had to reduce the length of that piece by about 1/3rd. It was probably a mistake somewhere in the process of converting from the measurements, taken with a ruler, on the diagram into the measurements in 3DC. You certainly do have a good eye for spotting these things!

Thanks again,

Mike

[hminky]

You certainly do have a good idea for spotting these things!

Probably from too many years in "solid" modeling. Discovered steam locomotives seem to be proportional.

I did On30 for awhile:

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/

I wasn't happy with the "wrong" 30 inch gauge and investigated and discovered Scale55 which would make HO track correct for Three Foot narrow gauge:

http://www.55n3.org/

All the 1/4"/foot scale equipment had an equivalent in 5.5mm/foot.

I guess I have looked at a whole bunch of locomotive drawings.

Glad I could have helped.

Harold

[mrennie]

Of course, I meant "good eye" (sometimes I don't even know what I'm typing!)

Interesting stuff about the "solid" modelling. I used to have a huge 00 layout, but sadly it's all gone (well, the locos and rolling stock are packed away safely, waiting for when I can start on a new layout).

[hminky]

I finally had room to build a large layout and found that building it wasn't as much fun as I thought:



I never got beyond that half of my 4x8 even though I expanded to a 4x16. Had originally planned to fill my 23x52 basement. Luckily found virtual railroading.

Commend your modeling, never could get the hang of "artsy" modelers. Made a the mesh for a building in Pro-e an engineering modeler and textured it in Blender:



Looking forward to your locomotive.

Harold

[mrennie]

I noticed the building when browsing the website ... very nice indeed.

Here's how the Consolidation looks now, with the narrower steam chest:

2012-11-15_00005.jpg

There's still a lot to do, but it's getting there.

[hminky]

That looks great

Harold

[mrennie]

That looks great

Harold

Thanks Harold, I appreciate it

Let me know if you spot anything else.

There is something you might notice. In that screenshot, the lifting links aren't joined properly to the radius rods. That's because I animated the whole motion, up as far as the radius rods, with the valves set for fully forward (the radius rods are intersecting the bottom of the links), but I also animated the reversing mechanism all the way from the Johnson bar up as far as the lifting links. I took the screenshot with the reverser in the (default) neutral position (hence the lifting links are higher). The problem is how to join the two animations. It looks as if I'd have to make a separate animation of the motion for every position of the reverser, i.e. every length of valve stroke (where "every" means 40, because to get the animation smooth, I had to divide each rotation of the wheels into 40 steps). That would mean 40x40, or 1600, animation steps. It tooks days to do just 40. And all that just to get the lifting links to lift the radius rod and change the length of travel of the valve crosshead. I think I'll have to fudge it somehow.

Cheers,

Mike

[mrennie]

Matt put up a new screenshot, thankfully with the new domes, but unfortunately before I'd had a chance to correct the fat steam chest



Oh well, at least folks (I learnt that word from Obama and Romney) will see an improvement in the next work-in-progress shot.

By the way, I also just finished modelling the cylinder ** mechanism, all the way from the lever up to the cocks themselves, fully animated.

[dejoh]

Looks great. Why in da heal can't anybody take a shot with the sun shining on your locomotive?
There always shown in the shadows. Take 6-7 shots and pick out the best. Bring out the best.
Put some light on the subject.