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Stained/Fusing Glass Display Cases For Model Trains Locked

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 2:29 PM

Three poles with crossarms, crossarm supports, safety pins, and four holes for the '3-phase' lines. If you can get this far without splitting the wooden pieces, you're doing well. 

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 5:05 PM

Safety pins are cut and shaped into lamp mast arms and small pieces of wood are carved into lamp housings and fixed to the ends of the mast arms.

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 5:20 PM

Before gluing the housings in place, the heat shrink tubing needs to be cut to length.

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 5:32 PM

Now the heat shrink, LED and housing are put in place at the same time.

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 6:19 PM

Housings are painted and glued to both the safety pin and LED.

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Posted by tstage on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 6:29 PM

To ask the question again that someone queried about on pg 4:

  • How will you hide the lighting wires if the poles are not hollow?...Or,
  • Will you run your wires between the light poles in order to provide power to the lights using the metal "insulators" as a contact?

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Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 7:15 PM

Used my butane torch on the heat shrink tubing, then connected the 3-phase neutral line to the LED negative with the current-limiting resistor disguised as a small transformer or inductor By painting it black. Painted the pole brown. The positive lead from the LED will be connected to the (empty) high terminal on the crossarm.

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 7:28 PM

As I said before, the three phase terminals on each pole will be live with the neutral line electrical ground. The wires between poles will be clip-ons so easily removed or reconfigured. The power poles on my street are not hollow.

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 7:42 PM

One high line will be 3 volts dc to drive the power pole lighting. The other two high lines can be different voltages, ac or dc to drive other devices of interest.

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Posted by tstage on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 8:15 PM

OldSchoolScratchbuilder

As I said before, the three phase terminals on each pole will be live with the neutral line electrical ground. The wires between poles will be clip-ons so easily removed or reconfigured. The power poles on my street are not hollow.

From your earlier post it was difficult to determine if you meant real '3-phase', or merely nominal (i.e. mimicked) '3-phase'.  Thanks for the clarification.

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Thursday, November 23, 2017 7:05 AM

Power pole is completed and operational. Once the power lines are attached the mirror will make it look like the lines continue into the distance. The power pole by the tunnel will be a different design since the power lines have to pass through the tunnel To the power sources behind the fused glass back plate.

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Thursday, November 23, 2017 7:07 AM

Easy clip-on lines (4 of them) will be designed next.

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Posted by richhotrain on Thursday, November 23, 2017 7:21 AM

OldSchoolScratchbuilder

Power pole is completed and operational. Once the power lines are attached the mirror will make it look like the lines continue into the distance. The power pole by the tunnel will be a different design since the power lines have to pass through the tunnel To the power sources behind the fused glass back plate.

 

You need to move that pole farther away from the mirror. The mirrored pole is too close to the adjacent pole.

Alton Junction

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Thursday, November 23, 2017 7:30 AM

richhotrain

You need to move that pole farther away from the mirror. The mirrored pole is too close to the adjacent pole.

No I don't. This display case is a piece of artwork, and like art, it needs to be viewed from different angles with various interpretations. Everyone will imagine something different when they look inside. For example, the engineer in a locomotive looking back through a mirror might see this.

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Thursday, November 23, 2017 11:10 AM

Now that I can build poles of various types with ease, I will focus on developing a clip-on wire to connect them. I'll give a few of my spare poles to Maritime Hobbies next week with the connecting '3-phase' wires.

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Posted by tstage on Thursday, November 23, 2017 12:26 PM

OldSchoolScratchbuilder
richhotrain

You need to move that pole farther away from the mirror. The mirrored pole is too close to the adjacent pole.

No I don't. This display case is a piece of artwork, and like art, it needs to be viewed from different angles with various interpretations. Everyone will imagine something different when they look inside. For example, the engineer in a locomotive looking back through a mirror might see this.

I have to agree with Rich on this one.  If you want the effect of the lightpoles in the mirror to look evenly spaced with the poles in the display case, the pole nearest the mirror should be half the distance to the mirror as it is to the pole to the right of it.  That way it looks even throughout.  Does that make sense?

It's kinda like planting trees on your layout offset from but too near your backdrop and lighting them from the front.  The shadows cast on the backdrop spoil the illusion, which is what I thought was the intended use of the mirror in your display.  But, it's artwork - as you label it.  And one "interpretation" thinks that the lightpole too close to the mirror will spoil the effect it was thought you were trying to achieve.

So, no - the engineer looking back would not see this.  He would see lightpoles that were generally evenly spaced from one another.

Tom

https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling

Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Thursday, November 23, 2017 12:44 PM

It's going to look very cool just the way I'm doing it.

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Thursday, November 23, 2017 8:24 PM

Now have a testbed where I will develop several electronic circuits and other features for the display case. This includes variable-length clip-ons, substation tower, catenary enhancers, lighting, and celestial features.

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Posted by richhotrain on Friday, November 24, 2017 4:43 AM

OldSchoolScratchbuilder

It's going to look very cool just the way I'm doing it. 

Scratch, it looks like the prototype has saved you.   Cool

telephone_poles.jpg

Alton Junction

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Friday, November 24, 2017 5:26 AM

Amazing!

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Posted by tstage on Friday, November 24, 2017 6:05 AM

BUT...in the photo they are evenly spaced apart from one another, which is my point.  Do you see any pair that is noticeably closer than the rest?  Answer: No, you don't.

THAT is the primary issue I see with the one pole that is closest to the mirror in the display.  It's reflection is going to appear close and the other light poles - albeit real or reflected - will be further apart from those.  So, anyone looking at it will immediately say, "Oh, he used a mirror."  That's my "interpretation"...

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Friday, November 24, 2017 7:08 AM

Too much traditional thinking going on. Several of you are trying too hard to anticipate what I am going to do next. You should know by now I am unpredictable and non-conforming. This is a gypsum quarry not a main line or country road. It's near the end of the line for this power feed. As a wise man once said, it ain't over until it's over.

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Posted by tstage on Friday, November 24, 2017 7:14 AM

More power to you, Mr. Furlow...

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Friday, November 24, 2017 9:24 AM

tstage

More power to you, Mr. Furlow...

 

No idea who that is but I'll take it as sarcasm - not very appropriate for a moderator in my view. Just outside of the National Gypsum Quarry in Milford, NS are these three transformers with, count them, TWO poles close together. This is my prototype. I only need to make one and a half transformers using the mirror, moving one to the outside of the pole.

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Posted by chutton01 on Friday, November 24, 2017 1:13 PM

OldSchoolScratchbuilder
 
tstage

More power to you, Mr. Furlow...

 

No idea who that is but I'll take it as sarcasm - not very appropriate for a moderator in my view.


I am certain that the reference is to Malcolm Furlow, a fairly well known modeler and artist (at least among the more long-term members of the modeling community) who has written articles for MR and other magazines in the past. His modeling is...well, this may sum it up best:
It was obvious to me, anyway, that the artist was painting, and modeling an IMPRESSION of the scenery and culture, not modeling a 100% accurate prototype scene. The impression came thru as a great capture of the feel for that part of the country
.
He was (actually is, he's alive and still painting) known to be more interested in conveying the feel and atmosphere of a modeled scene, rather than 100% rivet counting accuracy.  Also he's accused of being a bit...whimsical in his modeling.
Sound familiar, OldSchool?

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Posted by tstage on Friday, November 24, 2017 1:44 PM

OldSchool,

Sarcasm - no.  I was referring to Malcolm Furlow, who used model railroading as an inspiration for his art work.  Look him up.

The above photo now makes sense.  Okay, so why couldn't you have shared this before?  It's frustrating to ask you questions about your project because you aren't very forthcoming with your answers.  Or, you completely ignore them altogether.

If you post something here on the forum you should expect from time-to-time that people are going to inquire (out of curiosity) why you do what you do.  We often share information and ideas with one another, which - in part - I think you are doing with this display project of yours.

All you had to say was, "Yes, I get what you are saying about the light pole being rather close to the mirror.  I actually have an idea and will post a photo of it soon in the hopes that it will explain what I'm trying to accomplish".  I would then have said to myself, "Okay" and waited for your posted picture above.  Your responses instead come across somewhat flippant:

OldSchoolScratchbuilder
No I don't. This display case is a piece of artwork, and like art, it needs to be viewed from different angles with various interpretations.

OldSchoolScratchbuilder
It's going to look very cool just the way I'm doing it.

OldSchoolScratchbuilder
Too much traditional thinking going on. Several of you are trying too hard to anticipate what I am going to do next. You should know by now I am unpredictable and non-conforming.

Or, to put it another way: "Shut up - I'm an artist.  I do what I want".

So, again - thank you for sharing the prototype picture.  In the future, may I suggest that if someone asks a question, take the time and care to answer their question as best you can; being more forthcoming with your answers rather than mysterious.

FWIW...

Tom

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Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Friday, November 24, 2017 1:46 PM

Guess I shouldn't be a copycat Furlow. Here is my case with almost equally-spaced plastic poles with no wires.

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Friday, November 24, 2017 1:55 PM

I think I like the case this way. A diorama illustrating the 'Furlow Effect'. Time to glue everything down and move on to the next project.

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Friday, November 24, 2017 4:05 PM

Tribute to Malcolm Furlow coming along very well. Plastic poles without wires glued in place with exactly 1.5 inches between adjacent poles - too close for prototype Distance. I'll spray the gypsum, too large for prototype, with Woodland Scenic Cement next.

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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Friday, November 24, 2017 5:18 PM

Added plastic cows on crushed green glass grass, a plastic tractor, and a scratchbuilt wooden shed. Added scale gypsum ballast. Everything is glued down except the cows and tractor. Most of it made in China.

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