Hi to all. I have recently joined up, and posted a few comments here and there, before it ocurred to me that an introduction is the proper way to begin. My name is Paul and it has been twenty minutes since I last thought about model railways, so I'm definitely a lost cause! The term 'railways' should offer a clue as to where I live, one of those places where we drive on the 'wrong' side of the road, New Zealand. My favourite road is NYC, late steam/early diesel era, but I'm into any big steam. Right now I am sketching a plan for a switching layout with a harbourside theme, and building a gearbox for my AHM IHB 0-8-0 kit which I was lucky enough to buy locally - I don't want to assemble it until I know I have the drive working properly, but I'm making life difficult for myself by using a contrate gear and two stages of spur gears to get away from the friction of a worm drive. I have drawn up a fully enclosed gearbox housing (I am a CAD draughtsman by profession) to be rapid-prototyped by Shapeways, just waiting on finances to allow the parts to be ordered.
Further to the draughting thing, I would like to create some parts for some of the more unusual NYC freight equipment - I've always liked the distinctive ribbed ends on older cars - but I'm struggling to find decent plans for these, plus I don't really understand the history/what is appropriate for the period I am modelling, so I'd love to hear from any NYC fans out there who can offer some guidance. We have a very good brass casting company in NZ, whom I have already used for castings from RP masters, and it is surprisingly inexpensive to create models this way....I just need better information to work from.
Regards
Paul Woods
Whangarei, NZ.