Over the coming months, I will be walking you through the process of how the backscenes were selected for each part of the layout here at oorail. The layout uses a number of backscenes that are blended together. Each article will explain the choices, how the backscenes were blended into the layout and problems that I ran into.

This first article introduces you to the concept of backscenes. In this article I will explain why you might want a backscene and where to buy them. There are links to the original videos produced in 2015 showing the installation of the backscenes.

What is a backscene and why do you want one?

The backscene provides a background for your layout. The correct backscene will create the illusion that your layout continues off into the distance. Without a backscene your layout will lack depth and look unrealistic. The backscene will help hide unwanted parts of the loft, garage, shed, room or basement where your layout is located.

Using the the scene above as an example, taken by my late father (John D. Buswell) of Britannia Class 70013, Oliver Cromwell at the Ais Gill Summit on November 8th 1968. You can see the scene is made up of three basic parts - the foreground, the subject and the background. The foreground in this case is a field with a stone wall, the subject is 70013 with the Fifteen Guinea Special and the background contains rolling hills. You can see below how the scene would look without the background.

What is a Photographic Backscene?

There are several different techniques to achieve a backscene. Many modellers enjoy using paints to create a backscene by hand. This technique works very well for elements such as the sky, distant hills and the shoreline.

Photographic backscenes are a series of photographs that have been digitally stitched together and scaled appropriately for a specific model railway scale. These scenes are printed on a high quality paper which can then be attached to the wall or purpose built boards that attach to the back of your layout.

The backscenes used at oorail are from a company in the UK called Art Printers (https://www.art-printers.com/). They sell backscenes that are 24 inches, 15 inches and 9 inches high. Their products are available in both standard and premium version. The premium products are self-adhesive. The 15 inch Premium Backscenes are what I used at oorail.

How to install ID Backscenes on your Model Railway

This video from oorail.com walks you through adding ID Backscenes to your model railway. You will see exactly what arrives in the mail, how to test mount the backscene, how to trim the backscene and how to test the final installation before removing the self adhesive backing. This video also looks a…

oorail.co.ukoorail.com

How do you pick a backscene?

Selecting a backscene for your layout is just as important as picking a rough location or era for your layout. If your layout is set in the countryside during the early BR days starting in 1948, then selecting a modern industrial backscene just isn't going to work. However a product such as "The Old Mill Town" or "Hills and Dales" from ID Backscenes would work well.

Deciding what to pick depends really on the location and era you are looking to model. Not sure what location and era to model? That is perfectly OK. One option in this case is to browse the selection of backscenes that are available, then looking through railway photographs on-line to find a suitable location and era that matches that backscene. Another option would be to select a handful of railway photographs that you really like and seeing what backscenes are available that are a close or at least plausible match.

The size of your layout and possibly expansion in the future is something to consider as well. There are many packs of backscenes that work together. Each pack consists of two sections that are typically about 1.5 meters (almost 5 feet) in length, so one pack will cover just shy of 3 meters (not quite 10 feet). The Hills and Dales pack mentioned above is available in four packs which would cover just under 12 meters (39.5 feet).

It is possible with clever modelling to use completely different backscenes on a larger layout. You have to be careful that the sky matches up and that you have the space on the baseboards to realistically make the transition work, but its definitely an achievable goal.

Example of How to Pick a Backscene

Lets take this photo at Ais Gill Summit as an example. The backscene is going to provide the background from just below the top of the track bed in the bottom left up to the very top of the sky. We're not going to get an exact match but this gives you a bit of modellers license to experiment with the overall look and feel of your layout.

The first thing to decide is what elements of the photo you want to keep, in this case we're going to keep the hillside as we're going to use a slight incline to give the impression the railway is climbing towards the summit. We will also want to keep the proximity of the hillside reasonably close to what it is in the photograph. So the height the hillside reaches in the backscene will be an important factor.

The second thing to decide is the time of year, if you are aiming for a winter scene, then you're not going to want to have trees in full bloom in the background.

With this in mind, I would look at the following backscenes:

• Village 203A (Available in up to 4 packs)
• Hills and Dales 206A (Available in up to 2 packs)
• Old Mill Town 230A (Available in up to 2 packs)
• Harvest Hills 242 (Single pack only)
• Llaneris 255A (Available in up to 2 packs)
• Hills and Dales 207A (Available in up to 4 Packs)

The size of the layout might impact your choice of backscenes for such a project, for example if you are creating a large layout with the incline showing the climb to the summit, then you might want to consider one of the four pack options. If you are just creating a small snapshot of the summit itself, then you might want to consider just one of the 207A Hills and Dales packs that are a close match to the photograph. You might decide you really like the larger mountainous look of Llaneris and alter the scene slightly.

As you can see dropping in different backscenes can produce a completely different look and feel to the scene. Selecting something like 207A will give us something close to the photograph while selecting 203A (Village) will give us a much brighter but flatter scene. Perhaps you like the look of the scene in the photograph but don't want to tackle an incline.

Making Backscenes Seamlessly Work

We will wrap up this introduction to backscenes with a look at how we seamlessly integrated scenes together on the oorail layout...

Next Article...

In the next article I will look at Brewery Road section of the layout at oorail. That article will look at how I blended the backscene into the layout...

We are pleased to introduce the first 3D printable magnetic NEM couplings for the Hornby HST / Mk3 / Mk3SD NEM rolling stock. The only coupling on the market today that is always in stock and available instantly! Unlike other magnetic couplings, these couplings are designed to be automatically uncoupled without the 'Hand of God'.

Available now:

• Mk3 / HST (NEM, Slam door)
• Mk3SD / HST (NEM, Slide door)

In this article, we will:

• Introduce you to the Trackside3D couplings
• Show you how to 3D print them on a Creality Ender 3
• Look at different magnet options
• Show you how to install the magnets
• Explain some of the Key Features
• Look at the specially designed Mk3SD coupling
• Suggested upgrades for the Ender 3 (optional)
• Automatic Uncoupling
• Whats next?

The cost in materials (PLA plus magnets) to produce 10 pairs of couplings is approximately £1.28, about one tenth the cost of other retail product packs which typically sell for around £12.95. The digital download to produce the coupling costs less than £2, you only need to buy the download once and can produce unlimited prints for personal use.

What you will need to print these are:

1. Filament 3D Printer (such as the Creality Ender 3) [£215]
2. Roll of black PLA (or PETG) [£18]
3. Pack of 3mm (diameter) x 4mm (height) cylinder magnets [~£6]
4. Trackside3D HST Slam Door NEM coupling pack [£1.99]

Some of the advantages with the Trackside 3D couplings:

• Unlimited printing for personal use
• FREE Lifetime Design Updates
• Designed and tested for specific rolling stock
• Your choice of magnets
• Both axial and diametric magnets are supported
• Use Axial magnets for North or South couplings
• Use Diametric magnets for no polarity couplings
• Rotate Diametric magnets for stronger north/south couplings
• Break one, just quickly reprint replacements and swap magnets
• Always in-stock
• Instant delivery (no shipping, no delays)
• More prototypical looking (modeled on real Mk3 coupling)
• Prototypical coupling action and sound
• Designed for automatic uncoupling
• Come in NEM adjustable and fixed lengths
• Couplings "float" using the magnetic field enabling close coupling on tighter curves

Trackside3D provide FREE Lifetime updates. If the 3D printing technology improves, if Trackside3D tweaks the design or correct an unforeseen design problem, the updated object files are available to everyone who has purchased the design. The system will send you an email alerting you to the availability of an updated design. This doesn't cover new variants or new designs based on an existing product.

Introducing the Trackside3D Couplings

Check back for our upcoming YouTube video, or subscribe to our YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/oorail to make sure you get a front row seat and never miss any of our cool model railway innovations!

You can download the couplings from Trackside3D:

https://trackside3d.co.uk/collections/couplings-041/products/t3d-041-000-nem-hst-mk3-coach-couplings-slamdoor

https://trackside3d.co.uk/collections/couplings-041/products/t3d-041-004-nem-hst-mk3-coach-couplings-slidedoor

How to print the couplings on an Ender 3

The couplings are printed with the Trackside3D small object settings, along with the following changes:

1. Heated Bed Temperature should be 68C
2. Nozzle Temperature should be 218C
3. Black filament (PLA recommended)
4. Brim should be enabled
5. Print speed should be reduced to 10mm/sec
6. Brim print speed should be at 20mm/sec
7. Travel speed can be left as-is (adjust if needed)
8. Supports enabled (for HST stepped coupling and Mk3SD)
9. Support settings should be tri-hexagon
10. Enable retraction between layer changes

Here are the Cura settings we used to successfully print the couplings on the Creality Ender 3, Ender 5 and CR-10:

The infill density of 100% produces a stronger coupling, given the small size and delicate nature of the NEM dove tail, I wouldn't recommend adjusting this to save a tiny amount of plastic filament. Likewise the Tri-Hexagon pattern has worked well for us in testing.

The print speed of 10mm/s and initial layer speed are critical parts to a successful print. Keeping the travel speed at 120 mm/sec is important as due to the small area the nozzle is working in, you want it to move away to another area quickly. Retraction is also important, especially during layer change. This will prevent the print from being distorted with too much heat due to the proximity of the nozzle.

Supports are necessary for our HST power car couplings because the coupling head is elevated, as the 3D printer cannot print in thin area for very long distances, you need to enable supports. Since most modellers will only need two HST power car couplings per set, I would recommend printing the two HST power car couplings in a single print job with supports enabled, and then print the HST Mk3 Slam-door couplings in a separate print job with supports disabled.

For a successful print, I would recommend copying the support settings EXACTLY as they are shown above and below. You could potentially play around with the Support Pattern and Density (could stand to be reduced a few percentage points). Adjusting the support density and Support Z distance will make the supports easier (or more difficult if you adjust them the other way) to remove from the print. If you are having difficulty cleanly removing the supports from the print, you should look into adjusting this.

You can safely ignore the warnings (orange) in Cura, it will print just fine with these settings. For the Build Plate Adhesion, we recommend using Brim due to the small size of the prints. The Brim helps keep the small print stuck to the print surface for the entire length of the print. We had consistent print problems (mostly prints lifting from the print surface) with skirt or no adhesion type. If you are looking to reduce post-print cleanup, I would recommend reducing the width and/or brim line count.

We used Hatchbox3D Black PLA, Overture3D Black PLA and Proto-Pasta HTPLA when testing the couplings.

Choosing your magnets

These HST Mk3 / Mk3SD couplings are designed to work with cylinder magnets with a diameter of 3mm or 1/8". The optimal size of magnet is 3mm, but 1/8" is 3.175mm, so the design can accommodate 1/8" magnets.

The optimal magnet height (thickness) for the design is 4mm, however the design will work with magnets between 2mm and 6mm in height. It will also work with two 3mm x 2mm magnets. For magnets available in imperial, we recommend magnets up to 3/16" in height (4.76mm).

Cylinder magnets are available in two different types, Axial and Diametric. Axial magnets have the N/S pole split across the center axis, so the top half of the magnet is North, and the bottom half is South. Diametric magnets have the poles split across the diameter. So the left hand side of the magnet is North and the right hand side of the magnet is South.

When choosing a magnet for a coupling there are three things to consider:

1. Magnet Strength (long, heavy trains, inclines, tight curves etc)
2. Polarity or Non-polarity (restricted or unrestricted coupling options)
3. Automatic Uncoupling (important for shunting etc)

Depending which combination of these are important to you, will determine the type of magnet you will want to buy for your 3D printed couplings.

If you plan to pull long heavy trains around tight curves or long inclines, then you will want to consider stronger neodynium magnets. These magnets are slightly more expensive than your standard ferrite fridge magnets, and considerably stronger. They are available in a variety of sizes and strengths, more common ones are N35, N42 and N52. The trade-off with a more powerful magnet is that it makes automatic uncoupling more challenging due to the strength of the magnetic fields involved.

Polarity basically means you have one coupling with the North pole facing outwards, and another coupling with the South pole facing outwards. They are attracted to each other, as opposite poles attract. However this approach restricts coupling arrangements, you will not be able to connect a North pole coupling to another North pole coupling.

To get around this problem you need to either use two magnets side by side with opposite poles, or a single magnet installed sideways so that both the North and South poles are facing outwards. For our couplings, this means using a different type of magnet:

From the table above you can see that its possible to support polarity, non-polarity and even both by carefully selecting a different style of magnet.

It should be noted that depending on the magnet, if you are using both poles facing outwards for non-polarity, you may have a slightly weaker connection than if you had the north and south poles head on, however in most cases this should be negligible.

Our approach to automatic uncoupling requires a fine balance between the strength of the magnetic field between the couplings and the automatic uncoupler. If the magnetic field between the couplings is too strong, perhaps you went all out with a powerful N52 magnet, then automatic uncoupling becomes more challenging, as you need a larger opposing magnetic field to uncouple. For rolling stock where the NEM pocket is attached to the bogie, too much opposing force will result in derailment.

In testing we had a lot of success using much cheaper "Amazon" fridge magnets with the uncoupler. This worked very well with freight rolling stock and our GWR Mk3 slam door (standard) sets, even up to 8 coaches. Simple options such as a stronger neodymium bar magnet placed in the baseboard under the track, and adjusting the train speed over the top of the magnet to decouple, worked well. More complex options such as offsetting magnets on opposing sides and electromagnets with sensors, also had good results.

This solution requires a fine balance, a weaker magnetic field between couplings makes automatic uncoupling a lot easier. The trade-off though is you could end up with random uncoupling on inclines or if you decide to add too many coaches to a rake. A magnet-coupling combination that works fine for one type of coach might not work for another set as well.

A good example of this are the Scotrail Mk3SD coaches, these worked fine being pushed (power car at the end) with the same "fridge" magnets we tested out on the GWR Mk3 Slam Door coaches. However, when being pulled we noticed the magnets would occasionally run into problems traversing a set of Hornby curved points. They ran perfectly on other sections of the layout. Swapping out the magnets for stronger N42 cylinder magnets instantly solved the problem, but required some adjustments to the automatic uncoupler in order to get it to work properly again. Using N35, or a stronger ferrite magnet, neither of which I had on hand, probably would have resulted in better results.

If you want to do automatic uncoupling, we highly recommend starting off with weaker magnets, such as those fridge / craft magnets you can buy on Amazon. You want to find "Just Enough Magnet" for what you want to couple up, which involves finding the weakest magnet that works. This involves starting off with a weak magnet, and swapping it out with stronger ones until you find ones that work. If you find the fridge / craft magnets just don't work for you, start with the lowest possible neodymium magnet you can find, most likely N35.

The magnets we used were sourced from K&J Magnetics and Amazon, however there are plenty of on-line suppliers in the UK and across Europe that can also supply you with magnets. The magnets we used from K&J Magnetics are as follows:

How to install the magnets

The magnets are easy to install:

1. Remove the brim from the print by hand
2. Use a knife / sharp edge to strip excess plastic from the part
3. Use a knife to open the prongs on the NEM dovetail (if necessary)
4. Use a small file to clean up any excess plastic on the part
5. Repeat 1-4 for the coupling cap (Mk3 standard only)
6. Use a small flat screwdriver to insert the 3mm x 4mm magnet
7. Place the coupling cap over the top of the magnet
8. Optionally glue the coupling cap with Tamiya Extra Thin Cement Glue (Mk3 standard only)

For the Mk3SD couplings, we recommend using axial magnets and make them all exactly the same way. For ours, we place the south pole in first. This will enable non-polarity operation and makes it very easy to create the couplings.

If you are assembling a lot of couplings, we recommend using a reference magnet (with a known N/S pole) or print a pair of reference couplings that you don't use. We suggest marking either the north or south couplings with a silver or white permanent marker at the end of the dovetail. That way, you can easily identify the couplings. We have produced a NEM height tool which can accommodate a 1/8" or 3mm block (cube) magnet. This can be used to create reference magnets. You can also just print out a spare coupling and install a magnet in it as a reference magnet.

The Mk3 standard couplings must be of opposite polarity to work if you are using axial magnets, so one coupling must have the North pole on top, and South pole on the bottom. The other coupling must have the South pole on top and the North pole on the bottom. For convenience, we recommend putting a North/South coupling on one end, and South/North coupling on the other.

In the Mk3 standard couplings, diametric magnets will work as both non-polarity couplings and polarity couplings. To use the diametric magnets as a non-polarity coupling, simply align the open area of the coupling so that both the North and South poles are exposed in the opening. To use the diametric magnets as a polarity coupling, simply make sure only one pole is exposed in the opening. This is achieved by rotating the magnet. In most cases, you will likely want to glue the diametric magnet in place once you have it orientated the way you want it to prevent it from moving due to magnetic forces. The coupling is designed to hold the magnet in place without gluing, we recommend gluing the coupling cap in place and only gluing the magnet if you run into problems.

Key Features of the new couplings (Slam Door)

Both the HST Power Car and Mk3 Coach couplings feature an optimized NEM dovetail design. The design features fraction of a mm narrower dovetail with a wider gap between the tails which facilitates easy installation.

The wider design towards the outside edge of the NEM pocket which slopes inwards results in a snug connection with the NEM pocket without the risk of damaging the pocket or the coupling.

The HST power car couplings are stepped as the NEM pocket is low on the power cars compared to the Mk3 coaches. The Trackside3D HST coupling has a reinforced edge, not only does this add stability and strengthen the coupling for smoother operation, it also minimizes the amount of support material needed when 3D printing, resulting in an easier to remove and stronger coupling.

The 3mm (diameter) x 4mm (height) cylinder magnet is secured in a casing that maximizes the surface area between the magnets while securing the magnet. The design allows the magnet to slightly "float" when coupled enabling bogie movement (e.g. GWR Mk3 Slam Door) around tight curves. The design can accommodate 1/8" diameter cylinder magnets.

The couplings are designed with an angled arm on one side and the magnet casing is angled to produce a more prototypical coupling motion when the magnets are in close proximity. The couplings approach at a slight angle, then the magnetic force gently clamps them together. There is no violent smashing together of rolling stock like some retail magnetic couplings with oversized magnets.

The mirror-image couplings are angled in such a way that they are balanced. The magnetic field and the angle of the coupling help to produce a more realistic motion when the train is moving. The couplings are notched slightly so that the couplings interlock in place with the force of the magnet.

The Mk3 coach couplings come in a number of fixed lengths for different levels of close coupling. An adjustable version without the NEM block allows you to control the distance between coaches by adjusting how much of the NEM dovetail is inserted into the NEM pocket.

The coupling cap is a small circular piece of plastic that is inserted above the magnet into the coupling. This can be glued in place to secure the magnet further. It will also make the magnet less visible. The coupling caps come in a variety of heights which result in either a recessed, flush or slightly protruding circle on the top of the magnet.

For reference, here is an image of a real Mk3 coach coupling (aka. a buckeye coupling):

A modified design for the Mk3 Slide Door Rolling Stock

The new Mk3SD rolling stock (GWR, ScotRail, Cross Country) use a completely different design to attach the NEM pocket to the passenger stock. The new Mk3SD coaches have a NEM pocket attached to the body shell that slides inside a channel, which reduces the clearance between the NEM pocket and the body. The new coaches have additional detailing parts, including a small buckeye coupler. This required a modification to the coupling design. (Note: We are currently testing a version of our original design that is slightly lower for the Mk3SD, this will be available in a few days).

The Mk3SD couplings are very similar to the Mk3 couplings. The cylinder shaped coupling head is rotated 90 degrees and slightly offset for a balanced coupling. The coupling head faces straight-on instead of at an angle. The couplings are shorter as there is no overlap between the couplings.

The Mk3SD coupling has the cylinder coupling head rotated 90 degrees. The cylinder is slightly offset for balance and is slightly closed more than the standard Mk3 coupler. This is to prevent very strong 3mm magnets from being pulled out of the coupling head. The coupling is slightly shorter and narrower than the Mk3 coupler for slam door coaches. As the magnet attaches straight on, there is no need for the arm in this design.

Suggested upgrades to the Ender 3

These upgrades are not necessary for successful prints, however with these upgrades we have noticed a 100% success rate at printing high volumes of couplings and other small items on the Ender. We recommend making the following upgrades to your Ender 3 to make it easier to print very small parts at slow speeds:

1. Replace the Bowden tubing with Capricorn Tubing
2. Replace the Extruder with a Dual-Gear Metal Extruder
3. Replace the Print Bed with a Magnetic Print Bed
4. Replace the nozzle with a hardened steel nozzle
5. Replace the pneumatic fittings

Automatic Uncoupling

The couplings are designed to support automatic uncoupling. We are currently testing a computer controlled uncoupling system.

With axial magnets, the standard Mk3 couplings have either a North pole or a South pole on the bottom, the opposite coupling will have the opposite pole on the bottom (unless you are using a diametric magnet for no polarity operation). The automatic uncoupling works by "capturing" the trailing coach or wagon while the train moves slowly across the capturing magnet. The capturing magnet has a slightly greater magnetic field, as the couplings pass over the capturing magnet, the trailing coupling will lower slightly as it is captured by the capturing magnet. As the train pulls away, the trailing coach remains in place, while the leading coach is repelled (opposite pole) and continues to move forward with the train. Moving over the capturing magnet with sufficient speed will prevent the coupling from being captured. This is why having "Just Enough Magnet" is critical to uncoupling with this method.

For non-polarity couplings, such as the Mk3SD or the Mk3 with a diametric magnet installed. Placing a capturing magnet of opposite polarity on either side of the track in the uncoupling zone will enable you to uncouple different rolling stock by changing the direction of travel over the uncoupler. This requires some degree of experimentation as the distance to track, height and strength of the capturing magnets will vary from layout to layout.

Alternatively, you can uncouple the rolling stock with a magnetic wand. However, we feel that wands are no less desirable for operation than the "Hand of God".

In our initial testing we used a neodymium magnet attached to a small screwdriver. This was placed near one coupling close to the end of the NEM dovetail, this causes the coupling to slightly disengage, then applying power to pull the locomotive away will complete the decoupling process.

We are currently testing a number of designs that support uncoupling with a diametric magnet installed in the coupler and a computer controlled system. Subscribe to our channel and the Trackside3D mailing list to be the first to learn of the latest developments...

Also Available...

Trackside3D have also released:

• Mk3SD (Slide Door) Coupling Pack
• Small Freight Coupling Pack (Release 7/27/2020)
• Coupling Tools

Whats next?

Here is a quick look at some of the things Trackside3D have in development, these products are currently in testing and expected to be available for download between now and September 30th.

• Non-NEM HST Mk3 couplers (we have a ton of these coaches)
• Oxford Rail Mk3A version
• Slam-door T3D-041-000 (same design) for the Mk3SD
• HST/Mk3 variants for larger sized cylinder magnets
• Designs supporting Ring, Disc and Block magnets
• Mk1 / Mk2 coach couplings
• LNER Teak coach couplings
• Three new upcoming design variants
• Variants for older rolling stock (Hornby Railways, Tri-ang, Lima)
• Multi-magnet version (smaller magnets)
• Loco specific variants
• Automatic uncoupler system
• More videos

If there is something specific you are looking for, please complete the form available here.

The oorail project has been testing these magnetic couplings for many months without any issues on a wide range of rolling stock from new releases to Tri-ang. The oorail project is converting all of its stock to use these couplings, so expect an extensive range of couplings tailored and tested by our engineering team, specifically for exact models over the coming weeks and months.

!!! Shed / Loft Temperature Warning !!!

If you plan to leave your rolling stock or any 3D printed items in a loft or shed that gets extremely hot (e.g. no insulation, no air conditioning), then we highly recommend that you use HTPLA or PETG, such as the HTPLA from Proto-Pasta or any of the popular PETG filaments.

HTPLA is High Temperature PLA, this filament is designed for creating 3D printed objects that you might leave in a hot car in the extreme heat of places like Queensland, Arizona, New Mexico or Dubai. While PLA should be perfectly fine for most conditions, using HTPLA or a good quality PETG will guarantee that 3D printed couplings will not soften in high temperature situations in a loft or shed.

Please note: If you are using PETG or HTPLA, you will need to adjust the recommended temperature settings above based on the recommendation from the material manufacturer. We recommend using the upper-end of the recommended temperature scale. When printing PETG, we typically print it around 238 - 242C with a bed temperature between 65 and 80 C.

Thank Mike

These couplings wouldn't exist without the inspirational modelling work done by Mike Buick with his own prototype magnetic couplings. Mike's Facebook posts last Autumn encouraged us to look into magnetic couplings, design and push the limits of filament 3D printing to create the couplings. We have deliberately priced the coupling downloads at a very low price (under £2.00 for unlimited personal prints) to help make purchasing your own 3D printer more affordable. If you find our couplings useful and have saved yourself some funds, we ask that you consider donating to Meningitis Research to give back to Mike for his inspirational work.

Mike’s Oak Road - Raising Money For Meningitis Research

Help Michael Buick raise money to support Meningitis Now

JustGiving

Previous Articles

Interested in how we designed the couplings? Have a look at our previous articles:

3D Printed NEM couplings

Learn how we designed a 3D printable NEM coupling that will print reliably every time on an Ender 3.

oorail.co.ukoorail.com

Magnetic Railway Coupling Design

Learn about the different designs of magnetic railway couplings. In this article we look at opposing pole and dual/multiple opposing pole couplings. How to design couplings without polarity.

oorail.co.ukoorail.com

Last week we discussed our 3D printed NEM coupling design, if you missed it you can find it here:

3D Printed NEM couplings

Learn how we designed a 3D printable NEM coupling that will print reliably every time on an Ender 3.

oorail.co.ukoorail.com

This week we are looking at adding magnets to the coupling design. Why magnets? Well credit needs to go to Mike Buick (British Railway Modelling Facebook group), as shortly after we wrapped up the Eurostar coupling project and were looking at NEM couplings, he posted some photos around mid-October 2019 about his magnetic couplings, including this one...

Mike's series of posts inspired me to order some magnets off Amazon, which is what I did...

So if you find this article useful, you might consider donating to Mike's fundraiser for Meningitis Research, as without Mike's inspiration posts and floating the initial idea of magnetic couplings, long before they were a "thing", I probably wouldn't have even thought of going down this route. However I'm very glad I did..

Mike’s Oak Road - Raising Money For Meningitis Research

Help Michael Buick raise money to support Meningitis Now

JustGiving

So why magnets? Well aside from the very satisfactory coupling noise the magnets make, they make coupling and uncoupling very smooth and simple, with the right design you can achieve close coupling and automatic decoupling.

Is it complex? Not at all, its very basic primary school science. I'm sure you probably remember all that North and South poles, and how opposite poles attract, while like poles repel?

If you are ever wondering if you will ever use the stuff you learnt at school, whether its primary school science, secondary school Physics or advanced Physics at University, I finally found a use for it :)

So in this article we will look at...

• Magnetic Coupling configurations
• Coupling Strength
• Magnetic Fields and Electronics
• Automatic uncoupling
• What magnets are we using

Magnetic Coupling configurations

There are two types of magnetic coupling configuration:

• Opposite poles (N <-> S)
• Dual opposite poles (N/S <-> S/N)

Opposite Pole Couplings

Opposite poles works on the principal that opposite poles attract. This type of coupling will work with any shape of magnet - round, cubed, cylinder, stepped etc. You have one "north" coupling with the north pole facing outwards, and you have one "south" coupling with the south pole facing outwards. When these point at each other they connect as the magnets join together.

These work really well as you are maximizing the available magnet strength, the only downside is that you can only connect a north pole coupling to a south pole coupling. So you need to place a north pole coupling on one end, and south pole coupling on the other end of all your rolling stock. This is fine, but it makes things like shunting or station piloting difficult because you have to make sure the locomotive coupling is the opposite to the end of the rolling stock coupling you are trying to attach to. This will make some configurations not possible when it would have been possible with a normal coupling.

Dual Opposite Poles

Dual opposite pole couplings have a pair of opposing poles arranged side by side. For example, with a North pole on the left and a South pole on the right, this will always result in opposing poles facing each other because of the way the couplings are arranged. This eliminates the need for different polarity couplings, instead you have one design of coupling that has both North and South polarity. When you turn the coupling around to put it in the other end of the rolling stock, the poles are facing the opposite way. This essentially creates a coupling without polarity.

Provided the magnets are arranged side by side (not top/bottom), and the couplings are all made identically the same (eg. North pole always on the left, south pole always on the right), then when you have the magnetic coupling on one end the north pole is on the right, but when you flip the coupling around to go on the opposite end of the rolling stock the north pole is on the left. So it will always line up so opposing poles are facing each other. This works because of the way the train couplings are orientated.

You could easily have the north pole on the right, and the south pole on the left, the trick is to remain uniform across all your magnetic couplings.

There are two ways to achieve dual opposing pole coupling configurations:

• Use two magnets of equal strength, slightly spaced
• Use a cube or cylinderical magnet turned sideways

Using multiple magnets can be done in a number of configurations, you could use two magnets (north/south), you could use four magnets etc. As long as the magnets line up with opposing poles it will work. So a configuration of N-S-N-S will flip to S-N-S-N.

What won't work is arranging magnets above/below, as when its flipped to the other end of the rolling stock, the north magnet will still be facing the north magnet as its still on the top.

Using a single magnet is also possible with cylinderical or cube magnets. The magnet surface that is facing outwards towards the connecting coupling has to have the magnetic field arranged N-S or S-N. This is achieved by turning the magnet sideways, so the left hand side of the magnet is one pole, and the right hand side of the magnet is the opposite pole. You are basically mimicing two magnets with opposing poles. This works because when you cut a magnet in half, you don't end up with a North pole magnet and a south pole magnet, you end up with two smaller magnets with a north and a south pole. This approach works by leveraging the characteristics of a magnetic field.

Cube or cylinderical magnets will work best if you are trying to use a single magnet to achieve dual opposing pole couplings. If you are using two magnets, you may have better luck with smaller round magnets.

The advantage of dual opposing pole couplings is that you don't need to worry about polarity. With dual opposing pole couplings, polarity isn't an issue because you are connecting a north to a south pole, and south to a north pole side by side. The disadvantage to dual opposing pole couplings is that if the magnetic field strength is slightly biased towards one pole or another, your coupling might not smoothly connect. The magnetic field strength maybe slightly weaker than had you connected the magnets dead-on with opposite poles. You can counteract this by using slightly stronger magnets.

Coupling Strength

The strength of the coupling is very important. If the coupling is too weak, when your train pulls away, the coupling will break loose. If the magnetic field is too weak, when you pull longer and heavier loads, the couplings can break loose. They might not break loose right away but at an inconvenient time, such as going around a curve or up an incline. The magnetic field strength is also important because it can have a counter-acting force on the movement of bogies, perhaps just enough to cause a derailment.

Factors that impact the strength of the coupling include:

• Strength of the magnet
• Size of the magnet
• Size of the surface area connecting the magnets
• Weight of the rolling stock
• Weight / Number of rolling stock coupled

The design of the coupling and the characteristics of the magnet will have a massive impact on the performance of the coupling. A simple straight arm dead-on coupling may offer maximum surface area but might not provide the flexibility needed to negotiate some curves, resulting in a derailment.

We've found through testing that you want the magnet to be strong enough to behave like a normal coupling but not too strong that it prevents automatic decoupling.

Magnetic Fields and Electronics

Neodymium magnets are very strong rare earth magnets. They have very powerful attraction forces, so you have to be careful when handling but you also need to be careful about their impact on electronics and magnetic media.

When attaching a coupling with a neodymium magnet to a locomotive, you should be careful to make sure the magnetic field isn't interfering with the operation of the motor. The DC motor that is in your DC or DCC powered locomotive works using magnetic fields. If the coupling is close to the motor and the field is large enough, such as with an N42 or N52 magnet, you could impact the running characteristics of your motor, potentially shortening its life.

Layouts have a lot of sensitive electronic equipment, from off the shelf solutions such as DCC Concept Cobalt products to expensive decoders and controllers like the z21 or ECOS. You should be careful with magnetic couplings, too strong a magnetic field and perhaps accidently leaving your magnet couplings in close proximity to sensitive electronics could cause them to malfunction or fail.

This is why its important to factor in "just enough" magnet to function as a coupling, but not "too much" magnet that you magnetize your expensive HST chassis!

Automatic Uncoupling

One of the requirements we had for our couplings were to make sure they were just as good as stock couplings, this means making sure you can automatically uncouple them.

Stock tension lock couplings can be automatically decoupled by slowly running them over a uncoupler, which is a small spring loaded piece of plastic that touches the part of the coupling that hangs down, causing it to move the tension lock upwards, disengaging it, so the side of the train that is powered moves away leaving the other section behind.

Some systems work by using a wand, which basically does something similar.

For magnetic couplings, there are two options:

1. Electromagnet
2. Static magnet

An electromagnet is a device that generates a magnetic field when powered, the strength of the field can be adjusted by the amount of power fed into the electromagnet. The electromagnet approach could be used to attract or "hold back" one of the couplings, while the opposite side pulls away. Provided the electromagnet applies slightly more force than the coupling, the coupling will disconnect and the train will move away.

The same approach could be taken with a static magnet, the static magnet could be a bar magnet placed under the track or under the baseboard, orientated with a north or south pole facing towards the track. When the train is moved slowly over it, one side of the coupling will be pulled while the other side of the coupling would be repelled, in theory disconnecting the two couplings from each other. This approach however would require making sure the couplings were opposing poles, with one of the poles on the bottom of the coupling.

With either of these approaches, you wouldn't be able to use dual opposing pole couplings, as you'd likely derail the locomotive as both couplings have both poles. So initially it looks like you wouldn't be able to have automated uncoupling and polarity-neutral coupling (that you get with dual opposing pole couplings).

To make things work with dual opposing pole couplings, you would need to use two electromagnets, or possibly two static bar magnets. You would have to place a north pole on one side of the track and south pole on the opposite side of the track, these would need to align with the left/right pole alignment, and possibly offset slight (few mm). When the train passes through the uncoupler, you would need to apply a sufficient field so the magnetic field influences the coupling magnet of the trailing piece of rolling stock but not sufficient enough to influence the other pole on the same coupling. If you do this, you'll be able to generate the same pull / holding back force on the coupling that we mentioned above for single pole couplings. Basically the magnets on each side of the track hold back the opposing pole, while repelling the pole on the opposing coupling. If the force is too much, you will likely derail the train, so you will need to balance this out quite carefully, which is why an electromagnet is probably the best approach.

This goes back to making the magnetic force on the couples just "right", if its too strong, automatic uncoupling becomes very challenging, if its too weak, you'll uncouple going up an incline.

What magnets are we using?

The type of magnet depends on the application, we found that it wasn't necessary to use very strong neodymium magnets, in fact we found that magnets that were too strong made it next to impossible to automatically uncouple without derailing the train.

For freight rolling stock, such as plank wagons, conflats and other two-axle freight, that a 2mm (d) x 3mm (h) magnet worked well in both horizontal and vertical positions. We found that this type of magnet wasn't strong enough and didn't provide enough surface area for pulling coaching stock. We used a 3mm (d) x 4mm (h) magnet for coaching stock on our initial designs, that has worked well with Mk1, Mk2, Mk3 and Mk4 rolling stock. It also has worked well with locomotives.

For dual-opposing poles (or no-polarity couplings), we are using cylinder (3mm x 4mm) and cube (N42 2-3mm) magnets.

Next Article...

3D Printable Magnetic Hornby HST Mk3 Couplings

Trackside3D have produced a 3D printable Mk3 / HST magnetic coupling system for filament printers such as the Ender 3.

oorail.co.ukoorail.com

Our 3D printing project Trackside3D will soon be releasing a series of 3D printable couplings that you can download and print with your 3D printer. The series will include several magnetic coupling designs. This article is to introduce you to some of the research and design work that we have done over the past eight months behind the scenes.

In this article we will explain:

• Why you would want to 3D print couplings
• How the project came about
• What we learnt from the Eurostar
• What is NEM
• Designing the NEM dove-tail

Why would you want to 3D print couplings?

The simple answer is cost savings. Our most complex 3D printable coupling cost less than 4p to produce 10 couplings, which puts the cost of each coupling at approximately 0.4p each. If you want to make magnetic couplings, you just have to add a magnet to the design.

One of our magnetic coupling designs utilize a 3mm diameter cylinder magnet that cost around 6p each. So each coupling with a magnet will run us about 6.4p each, so a pair of magnetic couplings will cost 12.8p.

Retail magnetic couplings cost about £12.95 for a pack of 10 pairs, thats before shipping costs and when you can find them in stock. The cost to 3D print an equivalent 10 pairs is only £1.28. That makes the retail couplings over 10 times more expensive than 3D printing your own!

Each time you 3D print 10 pairs, you are saving £11.67. A couple of packets of magnetic couplings and you will have paid for your 3D printer!

Most of the retail magnetic couplings on the market are produced using a 3D printing or resin process. Many users of some of the brands being pushed by YouTube influencers are finding the NEM dovetail needs adjustment and can often break. Some of the products on the market use overpowered magnets to resolve problems rather than designing a better coupling. When you break a retail coupling, you have no choice but to either try to glue it or buy spares. With your own 3D printer, you can simply print 10 more off for around 4p!

Do you want to hand some punter £12.95 for the same thing you can print at home for £1.28? Every 10 packs or so is almost the price of a new loco!!!

Spares can often be difficult to get your hands on, by 3D printing your couplings, you never have to worry about them being in stock and are never more than 20 minutes away from a new replacement coupling.

Our Design Goals

When we started the 3D printable coupling project back in 2019, we set out to achieve a number of design goals:

• Work as well as stock couplers
• Meet NEM standards
• Look prototypical as possible
• Print reliably on a Creality Ender 3
• Realistic coupling action
• Minimize magnetic fields as much as possible
• Work on small radius curves
• Support close coupling
• Automatic decoupling and coupling
• Affordable

What we learnt from the Eurostar

In October 2019 we took on a small project to create a 3D printed replacement for the Hornby Eurostar coach coupling. The coupling is unique to the Eurostar. It is essentially an oversized NEM pocket with a C shaped clip at the end that clips onto a cylinderical pole that goes down the center of the shared bogie. Over time, the C shaped clip on the Eurostar can become brittle and snap. Finding replacements is extremely difficult, which is why we took on the project. It took only a couple of hours and a few iterations to come up with a working end product.

We printed the Eurostar couplings with Hatchbox Blue PLA and special settings within the Cura slicer. The resulting couplings worked okay but we decided to adjust the size of the opening in the C shape for a better fit, making it easier to couple and decouple the coaches. We also experimented with increasing and decreasing the length between the C shape coupling end and the center rectangle that controlled how far the coupling went into the oversized pocket.

The diameter of the circle and the amount of material between the edge of the circle and the side of the coupling have a direct impact on how flexible the prongs are. If you make the circle too small, the prongs are stiff and difficult to adjust. This makes it difficult to get the coupling in and out of the coach. If you make the circle too big, the prongs become too flexible and the coupling will come out of the coach when the train starts moving. The type of material also impacts these characteristics. We discovered that it was better to increase the diameter of the circle, making the coupling a little looser than the stock but making it easier to get in and out without the potential for damaging the coach or the coupling.

We determined that using a sloping side on the prong fixed the loose coupling problem. By making the prong slightly wider halfway down the prong, then sloping it in slightly for a mm or so, before sloping it more steeply towards the tip, we made it a slightly tighter fit at the edge of the pocket. When combined with the increased diameter of the circle, we ended up with a flexible (easy to install / remove) coupling while making sure the coupling stayed in place no matter how hard the loco pulled the coaches.

These techniques were used again on our NEM magenetic coupling project.

What is NEM?

NEM is a standard for European Model Railways established by MOROP. NEM stands for "Normen Europäischer Modellbahnen" in German or "Normes Européennes de Modélisme ferroviaires" in French. Which translates into European Model Railroad Standards in English. The NEM standards that we use for British Model Railways is actually the NEM HO standard, the ones pertaining to couplings I have listed below:

• NEM 351 - General Coupling Designations
• NEM 352 - Guidelines for Close Coupling
• NEM 360 - Standard Coupling for HO
• NEM 362 - Standards for NEM Pockets (interchangable couplings)
• NEM 363 - Standard for Space Restricted Pockets

The one that was of most interest to us was NEM 362, which defines the standards for NEM pockets. One interesting thing to note with this standard is that its intended for HO scale (not OO scale), there are two dimensions in particular, the height of the NEM pocket (n) and the distance to the edge of the buffer (e). These values are intended for HO scale, but OO scale which uses HO scale track and wheel width, on OO scale bodies. How different manufacturers have interpreted the standard maybe the reason why some British Model Railway manufacturers have differing NEM pocket heights.

Designing the NEM dove-tail

Armed with the NEM 362 standard dimensions for HO, and quickly realizing that this was what other manufacturers were using, we wanted to test out a simple design that enabled us to pull a wagon or coach with a standard tension-lock coupling but also enabled us to test out our own NEM dove-tail design.

So this was our first attempt, doesn't look like much but only took about 5 minutes to produce in blender. The dovetail is simply a rectangular shaped cube, with two cylinders at one end, and we used the boolean/difference modifier to cut a joined cyclinder and rectangular cube shape out to give us the dove-tail prongs.

This first attempt actually worked reasonably well, it went into a Dapol plank wagon without any issues, and the coupling didn't fall out when it was hauled.

The 3D printer did have some issues with the cylinder shapes being so small at the ends, so after printing about six of these, we noticed that some of them had the cylinder shape on the dove-tail kinda squashed, which required some filing down to make it work right, less than ideal. So we tweaked the design...

After a couple of tweaks and test prints, we ended up with the design you see above. This design narrowed the width of the dovetail by about 0.5mm, instead of making half the cylinder parts at the end of the dovetail protrude out, they were now part of the width of the dovetail itself. We also lengthed the size of the cut and increased the diameter of the cyclinder that was cut, two things that we learnt from the Eurostar coupling project.

This design worked very well, however when testing it with heavier loads, we noticed that some NEM pocket sizes weren't quite uniform with the standard. So while the coupling worked fine with some rolling stock, other rolling stock, the coupling would fall out of the NEM pocket under some loads.

Taking what we learnt from the same problem on the Eurostar project, we added some width to the dovetail at the coupling end for a few mm then narrowing it on a slope towards the middle of the dovetail. We also added a cube-style piece to make sure the NEM coupling couldn't be pushed in too far. This results in a perfect connection everytime. For NEM pockets in spec, its narrow enough that the connection is snug but doesn't require force to get it in. For slightly larger NEM pockets that are out of spec, the cube-style block has a piece (on the right) that steps up that provides a snug fit on those larger NEM pockets without impacting the use on standard NEM pockets.

Next Article...

In the next article we will look at how we went about adding magnets to our coupling design and the different types of configurations you can achieve with magnets.

Magnetic Railway Coupling Design

Learn about the different designs of magnetic railway couplings. In this article we look at opposing pole and dual/multiple opposing pole couplings. How to design couplings without polarity.

oorail.co.ukoorail.com

The ESP32 and ESP8266 are low cost (under USD$5 each) system on a chip (computers) that can be programmed to perform specific tasks. These modules have integrated WiFi and Bluetooth, and a healthy selection of digital i/o pins. They are faster and have more memory than the Arduino Uno / Mega platforms. In this article, we will walk you through the setup of the ESP32 and ESP8266 on the Arduino IDE software. The Arduino IDE software is available for FREE, if you haven't installed it yet, you can follow the previous article in this series:

Installing the Arduino IDE for Model Railways

Learn how to install the Arduino IDE, which is a FREE Open Source software program for Windows, MacOS X and Linux, that enables you to edit and load programs onto boards such as the ESP32, ESP8266 and the Arduino family of microcontrollers.

oorail.co.ukoorail.com

In this article we will:

• Explain why this is of interest to Railway Modellers
• Explain why you don't need to be skilled at computers
• Explain how its different from traditional electronic options
• Walk you through configuring the Arduino IDE for ESP

Why are we using the Arduino IDE?

The Arduino IDE is a software application that will take our code and convert it to something the ESP32/ESP8266 boards can understand. The Arduino IDE is designed with beginners in mind, so it is very easy for people with no previous computer skills to use. In this article, we will be adding support for the ESP32 and ESP8266 boards to the Arduino IDE.

Is there anything I need to do before following this guide?

Yes, you will want to have installed the Arduino IDE on your computer. You can download and install the Arduino IDE for Windows, MacOS X and Linux from https://www.arduino.cc/en/main/software.

You will also need an ESP32/ESP8266 module, USB to micro-USB cable, a breadboard and solid core wire. However those aren't necessary to setup the software. We recommend that you try setting up the software first or while you are waiting for the hardware components to arrive. If you need a shopping list, you can use these Amazon links and help support our project too. We recommend getting at a minimum:

• ESP32 or ESP8266 modules
• Jumper Wires (male and female) or solid core wire
• Breadboards

You can find these on these lists that help support our project:

• Amazon UK
• Amazon USA

What has this got to do with Model Railways?

The ESP32/ESP8266 modules can be used to control everything on your layout, from turning lights in specific buildings on and off, to controlling train identification, train detection, level crossings and even controlling your DC or DCC powered locomotives. There is no limit to what you can control with the ESP32/ESP8266 modules on your railway.

I'm a Railway Modeller not a Computer Programmer!

You don't need to have any computer programming skills to use the ESP32/ESP8266. We have written the code and make it available for FREE for you to download under an Open Source license. All you have to do is download our code, add in your WiFi information to your local copy of the code, and send it to the ESP32/ESP8266 module when its plugged into your computer. It is far simplier than trying to wire an ECoS to a DCC Concepts Cobalt setup.

How is this different from DCC Concepts or Megapoints products?

This solution uses software to provide the logic rather than proprietary hardware. One key advantage is that new features, updates and bug fixes can be easily uploaded via a software update. Hardware products such as those from other companies require replacing the board to a newer version. Another key advantage is the PRICE. The modules we use are industry standard off-the-shelf components, lower cost and higher spec than whats provided in proprietary solutions. The software is available for FREE. So with less work than trying to install a proprietary solution, you can download and go with much more advanced features. Our software leverages the use of WiFi, even if you don't have WiFi, the system can create its own WiFi network between components. This means that you will have less wires (just power) going around your layout. Finally, our system can leverage a large number of available sensors, bringing a range of new data and metrics from your layout, helping you identify problems and improve running on your layout.

Getting Started...

Alright, so now that you know why you would want to embark on this adventure, lets get started with how. If you haven't already installed the Arduino IDE, you can follow this guide first ...

Installing the Arduino IDE for Model Railways

Learn how to install the Arduino IDE, which is a FREE Open Source software program for Windows, MacOS X and Linux, that enables you to edit and load programs onto boards such as the ESP32, ESP8266 and the Arduino family of microcontrollers.

oorail.co.ukoorail.com

You will also need to be connected to the Internet. Start up the Arduino IDE and check the version by clicking on Help then About. You should see a screen like this one, the version number here is 1.8.12. Click anywhere on the screen to return to the application. If you are running a much older version than 1.8.12, you should consider upgrading.

Step 1: Adding the ESP Board URL

The first setup step is to tell the Arduino IDE where to get the ESP32/ESP8266 board information from. To do this we go to the File menu, then click Preferences and you will get a screen a bit like this one:

You want to add the ESP information to the "Additional Boards Manager URLs", simply copy and paste the block below into the box, then click OK.

https://dl.espressif.com/dl/package_esp32_index.json, http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json

Not required for most users:

If you already had Arduino IDE installed, and you had something in the Additional Boards Manager URLs box, simply add a comma to the end of whats in there, then paste the above.

Step 2: Using the Boards Manager

Now that you have told Arduino IDE where to find the information about the ESP32/ESP8266, you need to enable those boards via the board manager. To access the board manager, click on the Tools menu, then look for the Board: option, it will likely say Board: Arduino Uno, as this is the default. Move the mouse over this and a side menu will appear, at the very top of that side menu you will see "Board Manager", click on this.

You will be presented with the Board Manager screen:

Next do a search for ESP in the search box like this:

You are interested in the ESP32 and ESP8266 options, as you can see here:

Next, simply select install for the ESP32 and it will download the packages from the Internet. You have the option here to select different versions, we recommend using the latest version, but if you run into problems, you can always select an older version that you know works.

Once you have completed the ESP32 installation, repeat the process for the ESP8266.

Note the ESP32 and ESP8266 are different software releases, this is why (at the time of writing), the ESP32 code is version 1.0.4, while the older ESP8266 module is version 2.7.1.

Step 3: Select your Board type

Even if you are waiting for your board to arrive, you can still verify the boards are installed and select it. Simply select the Tools menu again, put the mouse of the Board: xxxx menu item (usually Board: Arduino UNO), then move down the side menu that appears and look for your specific ESP32 or ESP8266 board. Unless you have purchased a specific brand name module, you will want to use the generic NodeMCU-32S for ESP32, or either the Generic ESP8266 or NodeMCU 1.0 for ESP8266. The ESP32 and ESP8266 board lists are in separate sections of the list. Usually the vendor will advise which option to use in your product documentation.

Next Steps...

In the next upcoming article, we will show you how to connect your ESP32 or ESP8266 board to your computer and how to test it.

This is a quick how-to article on installing the Arduino IDE. The Arduino IDE is a FREE software program that lets you edit code and upload code to boards such as the Arduino Uno and ESP32 / ESP8266.

These modules can be used to control anything from lights to signals to complete automation. The oorail project has written code for many of these functions, so you can simply download our code and upload it to a board using the Arduino IDE.

In this article we will show you how to:

• Find and Download the Arduino IDE
• Install the IDE

In order to use the Arduino IDE, you will need a computer running either Windows, MacOS X or Linux. The Arduino project does offer a web based editor however this does not support ESP32/ESP8266.

Step 1: Download the Arduino IDE

The first step is to visit https://www.arduino.cc/en/main/software and download the latest version of the Arduino IDE for your computer.

There are a couple of options for downloads, you will want to download the stable release version which is Arduino 1.8.12. Simply locate the system you are using (Windows, MacOS X, Linux, Linux ARM etc) and click to download. If you are using Linux, you will want Linux 64-bit if you are on an Intel or AMD PC, unless you are using a 32-bit PC such as an older Intel Atom based machine. If you are using a Raspberry Pi, you will want the Linux ARM 32-bit for the Raspberry Pi unless you are running the new 64-bit Raspbian on a Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB or 8GB version), in which case you will want Linux ARM 64-bit.

When you click on the option you want to download, you will be presented with an optional donation page. This page donates to the Arduino Project (not oorail), you can select "Just Download" if you would prefer not to donate, or you can select one of the donation amounts. We recommend downloading it, trying it out and if its something you find useful, we highly recommend going back and donating what you feel the value has been to you. This keeps projects you use and enjoy around for the foreseeable future.

When you click either download button, you will be presented with where to save or open the download. For MacOS X and Windows, you can either open or save (then open in step 2). For Linux, we recommend that you save.

Step 2: Installation

For Windows, the downloaded file is an installer. Simply double click the downloaded file and follow the installer instructions. You can find full instructions on the Windows installer on the Arduino website.

For MacOS X, the zip file contains the application. If you are using Safari, it will automatically uncompress it for you. Once unzipped, simply copy the Arduino application to your Applications folder.

For Raspberry Pi or Intel/AMD based Linux systems, the installation has the following steps (skip to step 3 if you are running Windows / MacOS X).

For Linux, we recommend you store the Arduino releases in a dedicated directory. This makes it easier to upgrade, and then go back if anything ever breaks. In our example below, we've installed it in ~/projects/Arduino/ using the following commands:

mkdir -p ~/projects/Arduino
cd ~/projects/Arduino
tar Jxvf ~/Downloads/arduino-1.8.12-linux64.tar.xz

The last command will uncompress the .xz archive to the Arduino/ directory, because of the way the file is archived, this will create an directory called ~/projects/Arduino/arduino-1.8.12/.

The screenshot above shows a successful installation of the archive, and that we have an arduino-1.8.12 directory.

Next we execute the installation script using:

cd arduino-1.8.12
sudo ./install.sh

Upon completion of these commands, you should see the Arduino IDE icon appear on the desktop. The installation is complete.

If you want to upgrade to a later version of the IDE in the future, simply follow the same steps, except instead of arduino-1.8.12, it would be arduino-X.Y.Z where X.Y.Z is the new version number.

Step 3: Starting the Arduino IDE

The final step is to launch the Arduino IDE and make sure that it works. To do this, simply double click on the Arduino IDE icon on the desktop. For MacOS X, if there is no icon on the desktop or in the dock, use the searchlight magnifying glass in the top right hand corner to search for Arduino.

When you launch the application, you will be presented with an empty sketch (what Arduino refers to as a program):

Next Steps

Now that you have the Arduino IDE successfully installed on your computer, you will need to set it up for use with the ESP32 and ESP8266 boards. To find out how to do this, follow the next article in our series:

Model Railway Automation - ESP32 / ESP8266

Learn how to setup the Arduino IDE for ESP32 and ESP8266 boards. Find out why the ESP32/ESP8266 are a valuable tool for your model railway.

oorail.co.ukoorail.com

There are many different ways to add computer control to your layout. It is very easy to start off even with something small such as controlling street lights. This page is intended to be the starting point for anyone interested in trying out computer control.

Ways you can start out with computer control:

• Controlling street lights or station platform lights
• Controlling building lights (such as LEDs in houses, sheds, station buildings etc)
• Controlling signals such as those from Train-Tech
• Detecting trains
• Combining signal control and train detection for automatic signaling
• Using train detection with level crossing lights

As you learn how to add these elements to your layout, you can build up to more ambitious projects such as automatically controlling trains and setting up automated routes (shuttle). This can be done with both DC and DCC. You don't need any expensive specialized hardware you can do it with off-the-shelf commodity electronics that you can buy straight off Amazon or eBay for just a couple of pounds (or dollars).

Web based control

All of the projects we will show you in this series of articles and videos revolves around what we call "web based control". This basically means you can use your phone or tablet or computer to control your layout by simply using the web browser. All of the projects we will show you use what is called a web based API, this simply means that all of the functions can be carried out by URL such as:

http://signal-box-light.local/api/1/lights/off

http://level-crossing.local/api/1/active

This allows us to create a very modular system but also makes it easy for you to test out what you have added to your layout. Each module is a building block that when used together can do very powerful things like control signals, sounds and level crossings automatically as the train travels through your layout.

Part 1: Which boards to use and when to use them

You have to start somewhere right? In this first video, we introduce you to a couple of different types of boards and explain where they are best used. Have a look at the video and then check out the additional information below.

Useful Software

Arduino - Software

Open-source electronic prototyping platform enabling users to create interactive electronic objects.

Software

oorail/oorail-system

Open Source Digital Model Railway / Train Control System - oorail/oorail-system

oorailGitHub

oorail/arduino-rail

Educational Model Railway Projects using the Arduino Platform - oorail/arduino-rail

oorailGitHub

Other useful software includes Raspbian which is a Debian based Linux platform for the Raspberry Pi. You can find useful tools for writing this to SD card over at the Raspberry Pi Downloads.

GPIO pins

GPIO standards for General Purpose Input Ouput. These pins on a microcontroller are used for general purpose digital i/o. They are not defined by default and instead can be controlled by user programming. On some devices, some of the pins are multi-purpose, so a particular pin might be configurable for GPIO and TOUCH, or GPIO and ADC (analog to digital converter). This basically means you can use the pins for whatever your application needs to use them for.

Arduino Microcontroller

The Arduino is a series of microcontrollers that vary in the number of digital i/o and analog i/o pins they have available for programming. These pins are used to communicate with external devices such as sensors, lights or relays to perform a task or gather information. The Arduino modules typically run at about 16MHz and have EEPROM, FLASH and SRAM for memory storage. Each of these is typically a small amount (we are talking bytes and kilobytes not megabytes). These boards are typically programmed to do one or two specific tasks, basically gather information or control something. You would typically use these boards in unison with something like an ESP32 or ESP8266 which might control several of these boards and provide a web interface into the system.

ESP8266

The ESP8266 is a system-on-a-chip device that operates at either 80MHz or 160MHz. It has a 32-bit RISC processor, the L106 based on the Tensilica Xtensa Diamond Standard 106Micro. Some ESP8266 modules have problems with WiFi and give off a lot of heat at 160MHz. The speed option is programmable at boot time. A lot of our projects will use the default settings for this, so you should consider most ESP8266 projects from oorail are running at 80MHz. The ESP8266 has built-in WiFi capability and can easily host a simple asynchronous web server. The ESP8266 has only one processor core and 80K of user-data RAM. The ESP8266 has 32K of instruction ram and 32K of instruction cache. It has 16K of system-data ram. The ESP8266 can work with up to 16MB of flash, however its typically packaged with 512K to 4MB of flash.

ESP32

The ESP32 is a system-on-a-chip device that operates at either 160MHz or 240MHz. It has a 32-bit Xtensa LX-6 processor. This processor is typically dual core but there are single-core versions of the ESP32. There are three versions of the ESP32 available currently that have dual-core processors. The single core version has the identifier "ESP32‑S0WD", so unless you have a specific ESP32 application where you want to use the single core version, you want to avoid purchasing ESP32 modules with this identifier.

The ESP32 module has 520K of SRAM, built in WiFi and Bluetooth and host of other integrated devices. This diagram provides a look at the ESP32 capabilities:

Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi is a Single Board Computer (SBC), the current version is the Raspberry Pi, 4 which runs at 1.5GHz and is a 64-bit Quad-Core ARM Cortex A72 processor. It comes in 1GB, 2GB and 4GB versions. It is a full blown computer that boots from micro SD card and runs the Linux operating system (ARM architecture). The Raspberry Pi can be used with touch screens to create control panels, used as a central computer or even as a desktop replacement.

Where to buy components

If you are ready to get started you can buy modules from a variety of places, we would recommend that you check out the specific project you are looking to follow. Each of the projects have their own parts lists as we release them.

However if you are just looking for general ESP32, ESP8266, Raspberry Pi or Arduino modules you can check out the current lists we have at our Amazon Shop:

For those residing in North America:

https://www.amazon.com/shop/oorail.com?listId=2Z1JTH5TNSRM5

For those residing in the United Kingdom:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/oorail.com?listId=G7YJU1JLW9HL

Other Resources

Here are some of our other related computer control articles and pages...

Computer Controlled Trains

This video gives a brief introduction and a demonstration of a new Digital Model Railway control system called Digital DC (DDC). The DDC control system is FREE to download and the source code is available under the GPLv3 Open Source License. Digital DC (DDC) enables train control via a Web (HTTP) …

oorail.co.ukoorail.com

Digital DC Power Supply

In this video we show you how to use off the shelf power supply units to create a highly reliable power supply for your digital DC (DDC) controller, layout electronics and accessories. We also take a quick look at DIN rail mounting that is used in industrial and telecommunications systems, and how i…

oorail.co.ukoorail.com

Digital DC Project (DDC)

Next Generation of Digital Train Control Welcome to the Digital DC (DDC) Project. DDC is a new model railway control system built using off-the-shelf DC powered electronic components and modules. The software that enables the DDC system is available to download for FREE [https://github.com/oorail/oorail-system/releases…

oorail.co.ukoorail.com

We are very pleased to unveil the new look for oorail. A lot of work has taken place behind the scenes to deliver a better experience for our subscribers and viewers. I wrote this article to explain the changes and the benefits behind them...

New look video intro

Last September we started to experiment with faster video intros on YouTube. Our new look video intro keeps with that concept while incorporating an animated oorail logo. The new intro was created using The Gimp (https://www.gimp.org) and Blender (https://blender.org). The new video entry is quick and hopefully interesting, while still maintaining elements of the oorail branding.

New video techniques

Improvements have been made to our entire video workflow from filming all the way through to rendering for YouTube. On the filming side we have optimized the advanced camera settings for the different shots and films that we shoot. We have determined the base iso settings for each area of the layout and for different types of videos. We have returned to filming and editing in 24 fps. For certain videos we are filming at clips at both 24 fps and 120 fps for new video techniques. We have changed how we film and process colour across all our videos. You won't see these changes in our existing videos, but you will hopefully notice some improvements in upcoming videos. We have also upgraded our software to the latest versions to pickup new features and enhancements.

New Look Website

You have probably noticed the new look website. This is a change that has been in the pipeline for quite a long time. The last website update we did was the first phase and this builds on that. Technical enhancements should provide for a faster and secure user experience. The new design and enhanced theme should make it easier to find and navigate all of our content. The next phase of the project is an on-going effort to enhance our existing content while adding new content to the site.

Easily navigate through all of our content

The old theme did not have the capability to enable viewers to browse through all of our content. The new site enables you to easily navigate through all of our content using the next and previous buttons at the bottom of the home page.

Comments and Likes on articles

We have added support for comments and likes on all of our articles. While YouTube has a good commenting system, we have had a lot of people ask us to support commenting on the articles we post to the site. So we have added support for discussions around our articles.

Exploring the new site: Top of the Page

The new site features the same top navigation menu as the old site. As we move on to the next phase of updating existing content while adding lots of new content, this menu is going to change. Over the coming weeks you will see more layout focused content, enabling you to explore and learn more about the layout here at oorail. As new content is added and existing content is updated, we will update this menu to further enhance your experience with the site. The left hand side of the top menu has an icon to share oorail on various social media platforms. The right hand side has a new search feature, simply type in what you are looking for and browse through the results...

Featured Articles

The new website has a featured articles carousel. These include a mix of new articles, trending, popular and some of our favorite articles. The site should display five at a time, and there will be between 10 and 15 articles on the list at any one time.

Currently below the featured articles is an advertisement bar for Trackside3D (our downloadable 3D printable model shop). This advertisement is temporary, over the next couple of weeks we will be replacing this with some layout focused content instead. We have a pretty neat idea for what is going there, so check back for updates.

Breaking News and the Main Page

The new site features a 'breaking news' bar which contains recent announcements from oorail.

The rest of the page is made up of three columns, the left most column is the recent articles which you can browse page by page (see above). The middle column contains several featured article sections:

• Information
• Train Control
• 3D Printing
• Projects

Information will contain pinned guides to explore different types of content on our site based on your interests (eg. explore our layouts, start your own layout, research etc).

Train Control features articles related to DC, DCC and computer control topics like Digital DC.

3D Printing features articles related to 3D printing.

Projects will feature updates from our many projects from the Class 66 RHTT to the APT-P project.

The right most column has links to our social media content such as YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. The tag cloud enables you to quickly do searches for our tagged content. We expect to leverage this column more in the future.

Code Highlighting

Another feature we have added to the site, primarily for the Digital DC and our Train Control System, is the ability to easily highlight blocks of code like this, which we hope will make it easier to explain:

    case OORAIL_LCSTATE_APPROACH:
      digitalWrite(OORAIL_LED_CENTER, HIGH);
      delay(oorail_lc_timer_approach);
      oorail_level_crossing_active = OORAIL_LCSTATE_WARNING;
      oorail_level_crossing_approach = 1;
      oorail_level_crossing_count = 0;
      Serial.println(" [##] DEBUG - count reset");
      oorail_core_zero_lock = 1;
      oorail_core_zero_active = 1;
      oorail_core_zero_lock = 0;      
      break;

Problems, Suggestions and Feedback

If you run into any problems, have suggestions or feedback for the new site. Please use the new comment system below for this article. One thing we are aware of is that by default the new system uses the three column design while our old system used a single or double column design. We will be manually reviewing and updating the older content to use either two, one or no sidebars depending on how things look. So please be patient. Over the coming weeks we will be synchronizing our website content with our YouTube channel, so we are aware of videos that do not have articles on this site, most are from 2012 - 2013. These will be added, along with additional article text, links, tags and downloads as needed.

This video gives a brief introduction and a demonstration of a new Digital Model Railway control system called Digital DC (DDC). The DDC control system is FREE to download and the source code is available under the GPLv3 Open Source License.

Digital DC (DDC) enables train control via a Web (HTTP) API interface. This means you can control the train by simply sending web requests in your browser or via the command line using a tool like curl or wget.

Some benefits release 1.0.0 offers over standard DC:

- Lights are a constant brightness, not tied to speed

- 1023 speed control steps for ultra-fine control (DCC has 128)

- Control via Web (Browser / CMD line)

- Source code available

This approach enables a highly modular system using state of the art IoT (Internet of Things) technologies. All of the hardware components are available off the shelf, keeping costs low. This system in the future will enable full automation, digital control via an app and much much more.

This initial release was released on Tuesday February 4th 2020 and features the oorail-ddc-tm module, or track control module. A how-to video on how to build the system will be available soon. The system uses 12V DC and is compatible with Analogue DC and DCC Ready locomotives.

This is a new system that is under development, we release a weekly private build to paid subscribers on Tuesdays, and about once a month (time permitting) we issue a full public release build. So if you would like to support the project's development check out the subscription options at https://oorail.co.uk/digital-dc/

In this video we show you how to use off the shelf power supply units to create a highly reliable power supply for your digital DC (DDC) controller, layout electronics and accessories. We also take a quick look at DIN rail mounting that is used in industrial and telecommunications systems, and how it can be used on your layout. This solution can also be used as a 12V DC Input for non-powered train controllers or as a power source for an accessories bus.

This video is part of our Digital DC (DDC) power project which is part of a solution for building a modern computer-based DC control system. You can find out more about Digital DC at https://oorail.co.uk/digital-dc.

Episode 2 of Model Railway Train formations takes a look at a present day rake of Scotrail Mk2F coaches used with Class 68 loco hauled passenger services on the Fife Circle Line.

Fife Circle Line

The Class 68 / Mk2F loco hauled passenger services run on the Fife Circle Line which is a local rail service that runs north from Edinburgh. It provides services to the towns south of Fife and coastal towns along the Firth of Forth. The line is actually a point to point line, with trains reversing at Edinburgh Waverley, and a bi-directional balloon loop at the Fife end.

Scotrail Saltire Livery

The Scotrail Saltire livery was first introduced around 2008 and is designed to be operator independent so that the fleet does not need repainted every couple of years. The operator branding on the Mk2F coaches for example is on the doors.

Current Operator

The current operator of Scotrail services is Abellio which took over the franchise on April 1st 2015. Having failed to meet performance criteria for a contract extension, the Abellio will cease to operate the franchise in March 2022.

Suitable Era

The locomotives and rolling stock listed below / shown in the video are suitable from around April 2015 until March 2022. You can see a video of the real full sized prototype delivering two Class 68s and Mk2F coaches on March 30th 2015:

Locomotives

The Class 68 is available from Dapol in OO scale. Both the Scotrail Saltire and Direct Rail Services (DRS) liveries were produced.

Livery Match

The Dapol Class 68 and the Hornby Mk2F coaches in Scotrail Saltire livery appear to be an exact match, no visible colour differences between the liveries from different manufacturers. We have not seen the Bachmann Mk2F coaches yet.

Train Formations

There are four standard train formations that can be seen on the Fife Circle Line in Scotland today involving the Mk2F and Class 68 on passenger loco hauled services. Two of the most common formations can be found in the first diagram, this can be achieved with one Hornby Mk2F BSO and five Hornby Mk2F TSO. Unfortunately there is a very limited number of factory running numbers so you will need to purchase duplicates and optionally renumber.

In addition to the above two very common formations, two additional formations can be seen regularly that replace one of the TSO with a second BSO:

If you would like to be able to reproduce all four formations you will need 2 x BSO and 5 x TSO, with one of the seven coaches being unused (either a TSO or BSO depending on the chosen formation).

Upcoming Models

If you missed the Hornby BSO/TSO releases R4892, R4893 and R4893A, the good news is that Bachmann have both DC and DCC versions of the Mk2F in Scotrail Saltire livery due out in 2020. You can find more details over at Bachmann:

39-680: Mk2F TSO in Scotrail Saltire Livery

39-704: Mk2F BSO in Scotrail Saltire Livery

The DCC versions have the same product codes but with a DC suffix.

Research

In addition to photographs, we reviewed dozens of YouTube videos featuring recent Class 68 and Mk2F coaches. Here are a couple of our favorites:

Related Models

The Scotrail HST in Inter7Cities livery from Hornby would be a good companion to the Scotrail Saltire Class 68 or DRS Class 68 with the Scotrail Saltire Mk2F coaches, especially if you are modeling Edinburgh Waverley.

Today we're showing you a very simple trick with 3D printing that enables you to print an object designed for one scale in another. This is very easy to do and is done without needing to change the 3D model. Essentially if your 3D model is designed well, then you can print the same file in multiple different scales by simply adjusting the scaling factor in the slicer.

So what is a slicer? This is software that takes the 3D model, the profile for your 3D printer and generates what is called g-code for your printer. To keep things simple, g-code is basically instructions for the 3D printer to print the object, think of it as telling the printer to go left, right and so on. The slicer is a powerful piece of software as it enables you to generate support structures, control printer temperatures, determine bed adhesion and an insane level of tweaks and customization for individual print projects. Technical advances in the slicer is what has driven FDM to a very viable modeling technology.

Identifying the Original Scale

The first step is to identify the scale being used in the 3D model you are trying to print. If you have downloaded a model from Trackside3D then those files are in OO scale, so OO is the source scale. If you have downloaded an STL from Thingiverse, then the designer will usually indicate if a model is N, HO, O or some other scale.

Calculating the Scaling Factor

Once you know the original scale and the target scale, you can calculate the scaling factor.

To calculate the scaling factor use:

Original Scale / New Scale = Scaling Factor

So for OO scale, the scale is 1:76.2, to convert this to HO Scale (1:87) you would do the following:

76.2 / 87 = 0.87586

So we round this up to 0.876, when the scaling factor is less than 1, then you are scaling the model down. If you have a scaling factor greater than 1, then you are scaling up.

To convert the Scaling Factor to a percentage, simply multiply it by 100.

So the final formula is:

( Original Scale / New Scale ) * 100 = Scaling Percentage

The Scaling Percentage is what you place into Cura with Uniform Scaling enabled.

So for our OO -> HO conversion, it is:

76.2 / 87 = 0.876 * 100 which yields 87.6%. So we drop 87.6 into Cura.

Scaling Cheat Sheet

The above cheat sheet shows the scaling conversion factors with the target scales on the left:

• N (2mm - 1:152)
• N (standard - 1:148)
• HO (3.5mm - 1:87)
• OO (4mm - 1:76.2)
• O (USA - 1:48)
• O (UK - 7mm - 1:43.5)

With the source scales along the top. Here are the conversion factors that we typically use for Trackside3D:

• OO -> N (1:152) 50.13%
• OO -> N (1:148) 51.49%
• OO -> HO (1:87) 87.59%
• OO -> O (1:48) 158.75%
• OO -> O (1:43.5) 175.17%

Now you can watch it in action:

You can find our Amazon Shops at:

https://oorail.co.uk/shopping-oorail/

So life can be quite demanding, from work to family life to transporting kids from one activity to another, finding the time for something as time intensive as railway modeling can be quite difficult. Over the years, I've managed to squeeze time out of holidays, skipping valuable hours of sleep and insane levels of multitasking, such as building card kits while entertaining young kids.

Like most people in western civilization, I've been taught to carve out time for large projects and try to cram as much as I can into an unrealistic amount of time, then feel bad that projects are half completed and still stuck in some until I find another five hours kind of limbo. So finding time for modeling projects always meant trying to find several hours, which usually meant staying up really late into the early hours of the morning.

For almost the past two years I have been pushing the envelope of 3D printing for Railway Modeling. This past summer I decided to expand the Trackside3D project and built a full scale 3D printing lab next to the oorail layout. The lab currently has about sixteen FDM printers and one MSLA printer from AnyCubic. One of the interesting things about managing a 3D printing lab like this is that each print job takes hours, so you spend small amounts of time queuing printers up. That maybe 20 minutes here loading new files up and starting a new print, 15 minutes there loading new filament and maybe 30 minutes occasionally performing maintenance. The 3D printers are constantly working and it is a great feeling to see so much progress on tons of projects over a short period of time. Productivity on the layout was at an all time high with my army of 3D printers doing a lot of the mundane modeling work for me.

That got me thinking about how I tackle modeling projects on the layout, faced with yet another weekend of not having the large blocks of time usually needed for projects, I started thinking about how efficient the 3D printing lab is and that is what reminded me of the Japanese practice of Kaizen. I have heard of the principal numerous times, sometimes even using it in the workplace for Software Development. I quickly Google Searched the details and refreshed my memory about the technique. The more I read about Kaizen, the more I felt the principal was perfect for Model Railways. Rather than sitting around thinking wow I don't have the time for these projects and seeing month after month roll by with little to no progress on the layout. I decided that I would try to adapt Kaizen to the Model Railway. My thinking was that if I could make small changes at different parts of the layout, instead of maybe watching TV for 30 minutes or going to bed a little later, that over time, the sum of all those small changes would yield much bigger results. Which in essence is exactly what Kaizen is.

With that, the 15 Minutes of Modeling segment was born. So far it has been a really good success. Projects such as fixing the mainline curves around Castle Hill, fixing bad solder joints on the mainline and working on scenic projects that have sat there for years, are now suddenly complete. The layout seems more interesting now and I feel like I'm making progress and considerably more productive.

So with that, here is the playlist for 15 Minutes of Model. What can you get done?

Between manufacturers like Oxford Diecast, Pocketbond "Classix", Base Toys, EFE, Britbus and Rapido, there are plenty of options for vehicles for your model railway in OO scale. Vehicles range from cars to buses to commercial vehicles to military vehicles. One piece of useful information that is regularly lacking from online shops like Hattons or Kernow Model Center, is the era that the vehicle belongs to. Unless you are looking for a specific vehicle or are very knowledgeable about cars, it can be quite a challenge to pick the right vehicles. Hattons often have very good deals on buses and commercial vehicles, but how do you know if they are too new or too old for your layout? In the video below we explain the method we use for selecting vehicles and why vehicles help set the scene on the layout...

You can watch the video below where I explain and provide some examples...

Time Traveling

The first thing you need to think about is when your layout is set. Are you running a steam-era layout from the Big Four (GWR, LMS, LNER or SR) or British Railways era steam (1945 - 1968), perhaps you are running something in the BR Blue era or present day?

You don't need to be 'stuck' in a particular moment of time either. On our layout we run everything from early steam through to the present day. We keep the vehicles in plastic container boxes for the appropriate era. That way, if the running session is set in the 1930s, we can break out the appropriate cars and rolling stock for that time. When it is time to run a modern HST or Class 800, the appropriate vehicles are pulled out of the box and placed on the layout.  

Location... Location... Location...

The next thing you need to consider is location! This is particularly important for vehicles like buses, dust carts or delivery vehicles. If your layout is set in Scotland, you are probably not going to see a bright red London bus, but likewise if your layout is set in Leeds, you probably won't see a local Scottish delivery vehicle. Now you can always repaint or re-livery commercial vehicles, so you can still take advantage of those bargains.

Aside from the obvious advantages we have mentioned above when selecting commercial vehicles. You also need to consider the types of vehicle you would see at the location you are modeling. If you have a Post Office for example, you would see Royal Mail vehicles in the vicinity. Look at the location you are modeling and think if the vehicle you are planning to place there makes sense or not...

Vehicle Condition

The next thing to consider is how would the vehicle look at that time and that location? The nice thing with a more modern era is that you have a wider selection of vehicles because you could potentially use cars from the 1960s and 1970s in a present day layout. Depending on the location, they could be a valued classic car, very glossy and clean. The same vehicle though could be out behind the garage as someones next project vehicle in a less than new condition. Once you've decided on an appropriate finish for the vehicle, you can decide to weather it or add some rust, or shine it up like its just come out of the car wash.

Cars

Figuring out which cars are suitable for your layout is very easy if the number plate is from 1963 or later. You simply decode the number plate for the model car, and you'll immediately know which year the car was first registered.

For cars prior to 1963, you will need to do a little bit of research to determine when that model car was first produced. Depending on your personal preference, it maybe sufficient to just know the plate is before 1963 or an earlier plate from 1903 to the mid-1930s.

Some of the number plate systems have an area identifier which tells you where the vehicle was first registered. People often relocate to different parts of the country, cars are also regularly sold, so having an area identifier that matches the area you are modeling isn't too important. Although if you are creating custom number plates, you may want to have more of a certain sequence to reflect that some of the cars would have area identifiers that match the local area.

You can find a list of present day area identifiers as well as a calculator to decode UK number plates at https://www.newreg.co.uk/dvla-number-plate-identifiers/

If you are placing an older car on a more modern layout, don't forget to consider the model and make of the car. Is it a collectible model that may have been taken care of more carefully than someones old banger of a car? A model of car that is more appealing to an older car buyer may have had less mileage, stored in a garage and well cared for. While other models maybe more likely to be well used during its lifetime.

Buses

There are a number of companies that manufacturer model buses, including some new comers to the market like Rapido. Just like model cars and trains, buses can easily be repainted and modified to match the area you are modeling. At a minimum, this might involve just updating the bus number and destination board.

Just like cars, you can use the number plate on the bus to determine the year the bus would have started to enter service. Unlike cars though, buses have liveries that may have ceased to be used at some point during the lifetime the bus was in service. Some bus companies no longer exist. There are a number of questions you need to evaluate whether a bus is suitable for your layout or not...

• Does the livery of the bus suit my chosen time period?
• Does the bus livery or company match my chosen region?
• Would the bus have been passing through my area (if it was from a different region) ?
• Was the bus company still operating during that time?
• Was a newer livery applied to an older bus? In this case the livery maybe unsuitable for the reg year.
• In the case of a bus company that was out of business, what happened to the fleet?
• Would this bus have been in service during my chosen time period?

Some of the liveries on buses are from test buses owned by the manufacturer. For example. we have a Britbus Metropolitan Double Decker bus with a Metropolitan livery and The Bus of the Future on the destination board. This bus has a number plate of NVP 533W. which would place it between 1963 and 1983, the bus being a W-reg vehicle, places it between August 1980 and July 1981. This particular bus would work well if we were doing a running session from the early 1980s, however the bus would be too new for a early 1970s session and the livery perhaps a little too old for a 1990s or 2000s layout. You can use this information to make an informed purchase, especially when hunting bargains.

A good example is this current bargain (as of September 2019) over at Hattons, which can be found at https://www.hattons.co.uk/24069/britbus_r803_scania_alexander_r_d_deck_bus_maidstone_boro_line_/stockdetail.aspx.

This particular bus has a Boro' Line Maidstone livery, so its specific to the Maidstone borough in Kent, and would have been seen on routes in and around the area. The Boro' Line branding was introduced in October 1986. This particular bus has a number plate of E702 XKR, which means its an E-reg number plate, dating it to August 1987 to July 1988. The Boro' Line service went into administration in February 1992. While the livery and age of the bus may limit its possible uses, the type of bus - Scania Alexander R, was quite extensively used and that opens up a wide range of possibilities to simply repaint the bus. However, if you are looking for a bus that belongs to an earlier time, you will need to find another option.

Commercial Vehicles

Commercial vehicles are a little more forgiving than buses, provided that the company was operating at the time of your layout. Some common sense is also needed for commercial vehicles. For example, if you have modeled a Shell or BP petrol station, its unlikely that you would have petrol delivered by a Texaco tanker truck.

Other than that, it should be quite easy to either repaint or weather away the fact the brewery truck is for a Scottish distillery when you are looking for something for your Welsh layout.

You will want to consider if a vehicle is too old for viable commercial use. For example, a delivery truck from the 1950s is more than likely not still in use today. Applying some common sense will go a long way when trying to determine if the model and condition of the commercial vehicle where its applicable for your layout.

Its quite possible that an old delivery truck might be on display at a factory or museum on a present day layout. However its unlikely that branding from a time long gone would be seen on a more modern layout.

Don't Forget the Milk!

There are a number of milk floats available in OO scale, provided the number plate is not in the future for your layout, these make a fantastic addition to any layout, as they wouldn't be out of place parked in front of a house on your layout!

Number Plate Method

The number plate method is by far the quickest and easiest way to figure out if a vehicle is suitable for your layout. Whether you already have the vehicle or you are looking at pictures online or examining the vehicle at your local model shop, simply decoding the number plate will help you make an informed decision.

Cheat Sheet

Below is a quick cheat sheet for matching number plates to eras, each type of number plate is explained in detail below.

AB51CDE Two Letters, Two Numbers, Three Letters Current System (Sept 2001 - )

A123ABC One Letter, One to Three Numbers, Three Letters (8/1983 - 9/2001)

ABC 123A  Three Letters, One to Three Numbers, One Letter (1963 - 1983)

ABC 123  Three Letters, One to Three Numbers or reversed (Before 1963)

AB 1234  One or Two Letters, One to Four Numbers or reversed (1903 - mid 1930s)

Current Number Plates (From September 1st 2001)

The current number plate system in the UK consists of two letters, two numbers and three letters. The first two letters are the area identifier, the first letter denotes the general area while the second letter is the specific town or city. The area identifier used in this system are different from ones used in previous UK number plate systems.

The two numbers indicate the year / time period that the vehicle was first registered. You can find a table listing the years and identifiers below. The three letters are unique to the vehicle being registered.

Old Prefix Letter Number Plates (August 1983 to August 2001)

Prior to August 2001, the old prefix letter number plates consisted of a letter, three numbers and three letters. The first letter indicates the year the vehicle was first registered, now keep in mind that "first registered" doesn't always mean "manufactured". A car manufactured in 1985 may not have been sold and registered until 1986 or 1987 even.

The last two letters are the area identifier for where the vehicle was registered. The three numbers and the second letter are unique to the vehicle.

Example: A152 SUW

In our video, one of the vehicles we look at is a Rover SD1 3500 Vitesse in Metropolitan Police livery. This vehicle is from August 1983 to July 1984, the unique identifier for this vehicle is 152S, while UW is the area identifier.

You can find a list of the years and their corresponding prefix letters below.

Old Suffix Letter Number Plates (January 1963 to July 1983)

Between 1963 and 1983, the number plates had a suffix letter that denoted the year the vehicle was first registered. These plates had a format of three letters, three numbers and a suffix letter. The first letter and three numbers were unique to the vehicle. The second and third letters were the area identifier and the last letter indicated the year. You can find a list of years and letters below.

In our video we took a look at a number of vehicles with this style of plate. One Ford Escort XR3i in yellow had the number plate RWX 295W. This number plate indicates the car was first registered between August 1980 and July 1981.

Old Three Letter Number Plates (Before 1963)

From the mid-1930s until December 1962, number plates were in a three letter and three number format. These number plates were typically black with white/silver/grey lettering. These number plates could be reversed, so JAS 240 or 240 JAS. The first letter and the number were the unique identifier for the vehicle while the second and third letters were the area identifier. If the plates were reversed, the second and third letters were still the area identifier. Unfortunately there is no way to identify the year but these number plates were issued in sequence. So in our example above, JAS 240, the area would have issued this as JAS 1 to JAS 999, then KAS 1 to JAS 999. So a first letter further down the alphabet might give you a ballpark idea that the number plate is closer to 1963 than the 1930s, however it could depend on the area how much closer.

It is important to note that while these plates always had three letters, they had up to three numbers, so to continue with our example, JAS 1, JAS 12, JAS 123 but it doesn't look like you would have had JAS 001 or JAS 012.

This style of number plate was issued in some areas until 1965, it is worth noting that these plates are being issued today for re-registration of classic vehicles. You can tell if a plate is a re-registration because it will have a plate between ASL100 and YSL999. The SL area identifier was never used during the original registration period and can be used to recognize a re-registration in modern times.

Old 1 or 2 Letter and 1 to 4 Number Plates (1903 to Mid-1930s)

From 1903 until the Mid-1930s, the number plates had one or two letters, and up to four numbers. It is worth noting that a few rare plates were issued in the 1950s/1960s when three letter registration numbers ran out.

These older plates were issued in sequence from 1 to 9999. The one or two letters denoted the area identifier. Re-registration for vintage vehicles older than 1931 use SV8000 to SV9999, this series was never originally used. Just like the system use from the 1930s until 1963, this number plate system was also used in reverse.

Reflective Number Plates

The following is courtesy of Ian Barker, contributed via YouTube comments, and worth mentioning here.

Number plates switched to reflective (white front, yellow rear) plates from the earlier black and silver type.

Reflective plates first became available as an option from 1967 with the E suffix. They became compulsory on new cars from 1975 with the P suffix. If you look at contemporary TV and film though you'll find that reflective plates were pretty much the norm on new cars by the early 1970s.

The government has muddied the waters a bit recently by making black and silver plates legal on classic cars in line with the 40 year rule for free road tax. I've noticed this leading to one or two errors in period dramas where cars are wearing black and silver plates that wouldn't have been legal at the time.

Manufacturers of OO scale Road Vehicles

The following are some of the manufacturers that produce OO scale road vehicles.

Oxford Diecast: https://www.oxforddiecast.co.uk/

Pocketbond Classix: http://www.pocketbond.co.uk/BrandMenu.aspx

Rapido Trains UK: http://www.rapidouk.com

EFE: https://www.bachmann.co.uk/exclusive-first-editions/

Bus Companies

The National Bus Company (NBC - not to be confused with the American TV network) was a nationalized (state owned public company) that was responsible for a number of subsidiary regional bus companies. It operated from January 1969 until April 1988. The company had a very recognizable double-N logo.

Historically there has been an extensive number of bus operating companies in the UK, far too many to list in this article. You can click here for an extensive list. The current bus operating companies in the UK can be found here. Here is a list of the larger groups:

• Arriva
• FirstGroup
• Go-Ahead Group
• National Express
• Stagecoach Group

Some of the model buses we have represent the following companies:

• Go Whippet
• National Bus (Bristol and East Midland)
• Trathens

There are plenty of photographs to help you research vehicles on the Internet. Flickr is one site that is very popular with British Transport photographers, and has a wealth of information. You can click here for an extensive list of UK Bus groups on Flickr, which you can then pick and choose from to suit the location or general region of the UK you are modeling. This technique also works for other vehicles.

Further Research

There are lots of ways to do additional research, if you are a modern modeler, this is as easy as looking around outside the next time you are headed into town. If you are modeling a time in the past, then groups of flickr as well as YouTube are great resources. You just need to use a bit of common sense when searching.

For example, Leyland manufactured a lot of lorries and buses in the UK, so searching for Leyland specific groups on flickr will yield a lot of useful photographs. Websites like pinterest and British Pathe are valuable assets to the modeler.

If you are looking for photographs of cars, remember that thinking a little outside the box can yield fantastic results. A couple of examples are this search for petrol stations or this group featuring cars at kerbs or this group featuring car parks.

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The Heljan Class 58 is a fantastic model and by far superior to the Hornby Class 58 from the 1980s. However with a little effort, the Class 58 from Hornby can be made to look the part for any layout. Hornby made a number of Class 58 models starting in 1982. This project focuses on the R.250 style original Class 58 from Hornby. You can read more about the various Hornby Class 58's at http://www.hornbyguide.com/class_details.asp?classid=31.

These models can be found for under £30 at various retailers as pre-owned as well as on auction sites like eBay. This first video in the series looks at several 58s we picked up from eBay and the subsequent repairs done to them...

If you are lucky enough to pick one up that doesn't need repair, then some quick maintenance is usually sufficient to get them running smoothly...

Once running smoothly again, we were able to move on to the next part of the project which was to get the Hornby Class 58 a little closer to the excellent standard of the Heljan model...

The final touch is to add some weathering...

With the project finished we take a final look at what was done and the end result...

For a second hand locomotive that has a base cost of under 30 quid, the end result is fantastic and worth the effort. Look for future projects on our channel, as we have several other Class 58s waiting for similar refurbishing...

In the meantime, if you enjoyed this project, why not check out our Class 66 project at https://oorail.co.uk/class-66-rhtt-project/