NZFF

Ok, now that I'm at retirement age, I need something to keep me happy while pottering around. I went looking for something which was the opposite of flightsim scenery, so I settled on.... model railway! Ostensibly for my grandson, who won't be old enough to use it for another decade, but it'll probably take me that long.
Here in Silverstream we have the Silverstream Railway Museum, which is a section of the old Hutt Valley line. I've never visited the place, as it's been CDTC (Closed Due to Covid) since I shifted here. I did take one picture, sticking my phone against the wire gate...



I have asked via their website if/when I can visit, but haven't heard back yet. I am really keen for my son to fly his drone there, as that gives a great deal of detail in the photos. I have flown his drone from here to the Silverstream shopping centre, which is great fun, but the railway is tucked behind a hill, so my son won't let me fly it from here! Spoil-sport...

Luckily the area is covered by Google Earth photogrammetry, which gives a nice overview of the layout:



I have absolutely no experience with this sort of thing, except for what I've learnt making fs scenery. I've built a fairly useful 3D computer model, using LINZ DEM data:



...and draped LINZ photo imagery over the top:



I have yet to decide how big it will be, but I will have to start small, as I'm short on space here. It will probably be N scale, though, which has always appealed to me. Most of the details/buildings etc (and probably most of the rolling stock initially as I can't afford to buy much) will be 3D printed. I have almost made a final decision on which printer I'll buy, and hopefully I can share the cost with my son, who has always wanted one.

It is amazing how many great resources are available on the internet, we didn't have that in my day. I've been glued to Youtube for a couple of weeks. Here's hoping I can actually get this project underway.

We also have an interest in railwaying here. Ours is OO British Rail from the late 70s / early 80s as that was when my old man lived over there. All diesel with a few steam trains for good measure. I get going N for space reasons but looking around, N locos are nearly as expensive as OO...

chopper_nut wrote:N locos are nearly as expensive as OO..

From what I've seen, the scale doesn't affect the price much at all, in fact N can be trickier to manufacture, so no savings going small:) OO is a bit too big for me, although I do plan to print the ticket office shown in my first post at different scales, and see what happens. It may be that I might lose too much detail going tiny, but from what I've seen online, N is a popular choice for 3D printing.

Locomotive-wise, everything I like starts at $400, and goes up to $800. However I do need a rather specific collection, based on the museum's actual stock. So I will look at finding some suitable chassis', and 3D printing what goes on top. Initially, they could even be static, fully 3D-printed, until I can afford to get something better.

(The museum site linked above has just last week been updated to something a lot nicer, well-worth a look.)

Some of the finest railway modelling is done at Pendon https://pendonmuseum.com/
Mike

Looking at those locos they're really specialist so you're going to have a hard time finding the exact ones. Might be a good idea to get onto the local railway groups for some ideas

chopper_nut wrote:Looking at those locos they're really specialist so you're going to have a hard time finding the exact ones. Might be a good idea to get onto the local railway groups for some ideas

Yes, my provisional plan is to 3D print the bodies, and drop onto a cheap chassis. I'd just do the same as I do with FS scenery -- take plenty of photos, and build an accurate model from those. The only difference is that I'd then have to paint the models, something entirely out of my wheelhouse:)
That's why the 3D printer needs to be the first step, without a reliable way to get accurate models it wouldn't be worth the effort -- the goal is the same as FS scenery, to have an accurate model of something which actually exists.

emfrat wrote:Some of the finest railway modelling is done at Pendon https://pendonmuseum.com/
Mike

Those layouts are bloody impressive, I have to tone down my expectations though, which is why I'm starting small!

See these Rob? Not sure what gauge the sale translates to... Not N, that's for sure

https://www.trademe.co.nz/3529062681

This might help: https://www.nzmrg.org.nz/webpage-123/starting-out.html

I was a bit surprised to see such a strong railway modelling community in NZ. Must be something to do with the long UK-type winter nights

chopper_nut wrote:See these Rob? Not sure what gauge the sale translates to... Not N, that's for sure

That's TT scale, which may actually be a better choice for 3D printing, I still need to test a few models to see how much detail is retained with the different scales. Smaller is better, as the printer has a limited print size. I am reasonably confident that I can do a good job of the modelling, as what I do for FS scenery uses a lot of the same techniques -- lots of photos, accurate measurements, for example.
This is exactly the sort of thing I plan to print -- I ordered the printer yesterday (entirely sober!), about 8 or 9 days till delivered. When I told my son, he immediately -- and without telling me -- transferred half the cost to my account. Plus he's promised to tidy up the workshop so I can have some bench space.

emfrat wrote:This might help: https://www.nzmrg.org.nz/webpage-123/starting-out.html

I was a bit surprised to see such a strong railway modelling community in NZ. Must be something to do with the long UK-type winter nights

I didn't actually have that link, looks fantastic. Yeah, and I notice that Christchurch is over-represented compared to where I live now. Not much to do down there in the winter...

Ha, never even heard of TT scale. Quite a few modern NZ locos available in OO but I don't think I've ever seen any in other scales. We do OO here because that's what was around when dad started in the 70s. Not much of the scenery done but we'll get there.







Good fun all around, especially when you start playing with DCC.

Sorry about the hijack

Nice!
Just from some weekend research -- 'TT' stands for table-top. In New Zealand, TT is called NZ120, and it seems a very useful gauge, in that it uses N gauge track, but models are a bit bigger. Becoming more of an option for me, now that I've found this store.

Ah yeah N track makes more sense. There are some really cool things on that page. Not badly priced either

chopper_nut wrote:Ha, never even heard of TT scale.

In olden times, Hornby Dublo was 00, 4mm/ft on 16.5mm gauge track, cast metal locos and tinplate rolling stock
Their main rival was Tri-ang HO (= Half O) 3.5mm/ft on 16.5 gauge track, moulded plastic locos and rolling stock. They offered a lot of USA outline stuff, hence the slightly smaller scale.
The British outline stuff was still done at 4mm/ft, If I remember correctly. Tri-ang also offered TT Gauge sets (as Rob says, 'TableTop') These were 3mm/ft on 12mm gauge track.
Now it is all called Triang-Hornby and I think TT has disappeared. However, there was still lots of 12mm track available and at 4mm/ft that was exactly 3ft, ideal for many UK narrow-gauge lines which led to HOn3 as a standard for modelling narrow-gauge lines.
There is so much great gear to be had these days, especially in controllers, that I have been sorely tempted to take up model railways again. Just after 1995 I bought this house, what we call a 'highset' and relaxing underthehouse in my hammock I thought how great it would be to set up a radio-controlled live steam train - you need at least O Gauge for that - to chuff up into the kitchen and operate a refrigerated hopper which would load a bottle of coolant to be brought back down to my hammock.

toprob wrote: I ordered the printer yesterday (entirely sober!), about 8 or 9 days till delivered. When I told my son, he immediately -- and without telling me -- transferred half the cost to my account. Plus he's promised to tidy up the workshop so I can have some bench space.

What sort of printer did you order Rob? Have been thinking about getting one for a while myself.

emfrat wrote:to chuff up into the kitchen and operate a refrigerated hopper which would load a bottle of coolant to be brought back down to my hammock

Yeah, I can imagine with N scale it would need to be an endless supply of tanker cars...

deaneb wrote:What sort of printer did you order Rob? Have been thinking about getting one for a while myself.

The Elegoo Mars 3 resin printer. With a couple of bottles of resin it came to $665 shipped from Australia. I would normal buy local, but in this case the lower price from Amazon was too attractive. I decided against a filament printer, even though they tend to be cheaper and build bigger, as all the railway modelers on Youtube recommended resin for the detail. I could have gone a bit bigger than the Mars for almost double the price, but really the small improvement wouldn't have made much difference for N scale -- I will be able to build all the objects in the top two images in this thread, except the sheds would need to be done in 3 sections. Buying the bigger resin printer wouldn't help in this case. Using a handy scale calculator, I can build buildings up to roughly 20m x 12.8m x 27m. (That's real-world to N scale, of course.)

I'm glad to have my son onboard*, although I didn't expect that. However he works for Weta Workshop, and has a real interest in the sort of thing they do, including an obsession with LOTR. Apparently Weta has rooms full of 3D printers of all sizes. Hopefully when covid is over I can do the tour. I figure if my son finds this printer too small, he can spring for something bigger down the track*. (*Sorry, all the puns are unintentional.)

Hi Rob,yes the Silverstream railway is really worth a visit, all voluntary restoration (when they have a live weekend). Took my kids there many times while they were growing up.

I'll always remember the big KA steam loco in action, very impressive. unfortunately it's dying in the shed awaiting a boiler refit.

I live just around the corner in Stokes Valley.

Keep us posted on your progress, I've also reached pension age but still work 3 days a week. It helps fund my electronic hobbies and music

Paul

Paul, yeah, Stokes Valley is definitely just around the corner. Small world.
Speaking of, the printer arrived this morning, meant to be due next week, so a pleasant surprise. However I need to wait till tomorrow to give it a test, as today is a child-care day! Will certainly post any progress here.
Priced track earlier this week, good grief, I need 10 turnouts for my layout, roughly $30 each or anywhere up to $120 each for remotely operated. So I'm watching trademe.

Gi'day Rob,

Ah! NZ120 eh? My old scale.

A few web sites to maybe help you get started:
- Trackgang Products <https://trackgangproducts.co.nz/> stockists of mostly Modern Image Loco Kits, trackside accessories, et cetera.
- Historic Steam is a separate kettle-of-fish ... the Motorised Dandruff blog <https://motoriseddandruff.blogspot.com/> is a mine of helpful tips 'n tricks (especially bush locos). But you have to drill down.
- NZ120.org <https://nzr120.blogspot.com/> has a ton of useful files to download ... and, finally
- And, I see you have already discovered Peter Bryant's Kiwi Trains <https://www.shapeways.com/shops/kiwitrains> a prolific supplier of 3D printed shells (Modern Image and Historic Steam, sadly still no 2-6-4T Wf locos though ... grrr ...)

There was once an active nz120 forum, but that appears to have vanished into the ether

Hope this is of some small interest.

Regards
Dorian
(who now runs Fairwether Farm, a 7/8ths agricultural model garden railway.)

Cheers, Dorian, thanks for the links. This weekend I hope to see what scale I can print for, and still retain plenty of detail. I am aiming for N scale, as that will allow me to model the railway museum on two standard sheets of ply 1200x600mm. (To start with, anyway, I won't overextend myself by too much!) TT would mean losing the edges of the scenery, but would still work.
Today I discovered T scale, which is 1/3 of N...



One day I hope we'll have printers that can handle that size:) I could model all of Silverstream on a 1200x1200 sheet!

Currently printing my first test print, 16% done, 2 hours to go.