NSWGR Small Station Signs and Shapeways Changes

I have just uploaded two sets of small wall mounted station signs for NSWGR station buildings to my Shapeways Signals Branch shop.

These signs are based on actual measurements that were taken from signs on Junee station building and used to scale other size signs based on the size of the bracket used and other aspects such as the spacing of the wording used on the signs, height of the sign, etc.

Firstly there is a basic set of signs for a small station.

Secondly there is a large set of all the sign variations I could find on a search of photographs in books and elsewhere.

The brackets on the signs are the most common type I could see in the photographs. While I saw a couple of other types I suspect that they might be repairs.

There is also a very early fancy style of sign and bracket that I haven't done.

The signs have a 1 mm peg that is designed to be inserted into a 1 mm hole drilled in the wall of the station building.

Painting instructions are on the shop in the product description for the signs.


Shapeways Changes

A word of caution here, Shapeways is currently changing the look and operation of their web site. Luckily the shop doesn't seem to have changed so far but for us designers they have been moving a lot of things around, very useful, NOT!

Shapeways has a new Chief Executive Officer and I think a new board, so this will be him showing that he is doing something.

Another thing I have noticed is the lack of any discounts or free shipping offers, I don't know if these types of offers will continue or not but several materials have been removed from their 3D printing range so I suspect that there is some belt tightening going on.

Also you will see that most items on the shop now have very odd pricing, this was always the case if you viewed the shop showing Australian Dollars due to the currency exchange rate. However, now the US Dollar prices are odd, this is due to the fact that Shapeways has included the Australian 10% GST as required by our government.

I guess we will get used to the changes.

Model of Aberdeen Station Building

I appear to have been a bit quiet of late but not so. I have spent some time working on a HO model of Aberdeen Station building for Ron Cunningham's Werris Creek layout.

For a number of years there was the start of the Aberdeen station building sitting on the platform of the Aberdeen on the Werris Creek layout. This model consisted of the walls in Slaters brick backed with about 0.060 " plastic. As I had a plan of the building I mulled over what to do about it. One Friday night at our a meeting I removed the building from the layout and told Ron I had taken it so he wouldn't wonder where it had gone.

A month later I returned it complete and ready to place on the platform.

I had decided to draw up all the windows, doors, gable ends, awning post with cast iron brackets and chimneys; then print them on my ANYCUBIC Photon 3D DLP printer. It turned out to be a bit of a mission as I had to draw up the brick arches that are over the windows and doors. Now that wasn't too bad but the fun started when I had to cut the shaped holes for the arches into the existing walls that were about 0.080" thick!

Ron had also missed a door to the 'Out Of' part of the building in the rear wall which is not visible in the very few photos of the Aberdeen station building (but it was on the plan).

As the building had no roof as yet I decided to try something different and I printed a roof in two halves on my Cocoon Create Model Maker PLA filament printer. These roof sections really gave the building a lot of strength. I had to do the roof in two parts as my printer is only a baby and didn't have a big enough build platform for the whole roof.

Even with the 3D printed parts the model was still a challenge due to the extra detail parts that still needed to be added. what had I started!.

The corrugated roof was added using some polystyrene sheeting and all those angles for the hip roof was a lot of fun, NOT!

The bricks were done to look like 'common' bricks as that is what they seemed to be. I had to guess a bit with the brick colour and also for the roof which appeared to be a very weathered green roof. I did my usual common brick effect using Tamiya Buff, followed by a watery off white wash for the mortar and then I used a watercolour pencil of a darkish brown to give the burn marks usually seen on common bricks in NSW.

Anyway I got there in the end and presented the station to Ron two meetings later.

Here are the only Aberdeen station building pics I could find:

Aberdeen in its early years

Aberdeen in 1958

Aberdeen undated - Train Hobby book - Country Stations of NSW Part 5

Here is a link to the Aberdeen Station Building Plan.

And here is the model:

I will put the 3D parts on my Shapeways Signals Branch shop if there is any interest, just let me know.

Yes, I know, I still have to finish the Werris Creek station building, it is getting closer, next job is to work out how to do the brick platform edging, easy enough to say.