Video of Intervale featuring 92 and Standard Stock

Wonderful..

F

Some serious trackwork there. It drove me mad doing my little bit, but at 1m30s in you get a hint of a profusion of crossovers on Intervale. Would love to see a 'look down' view of all that track.

Also some serious work has gone into the tunnel casings (or whatever the correct term is for them).

If memory serves, the arcing on Intervale is delivered by magnets on the bottom of the train crossing a reed switch that is connected to a high-intensity blue LED. Dead sure it was covered on the Metromodels site.

The arcing is indeed as is outlined on the Metromodels site, by way of a magnetic reed switch embedded in the track. Us a white LED, as these are colour balanced to daylight and look bluish under incandescent light. Also, I drive them form one source which is an LED flickering candle module. This gives a more realistic flicker when the train passes over it at slow speed. The motor bogies trigger the reed switch off the motor magnets, so it does help to have the driving bogies on the same part of the train as the prototype.

As far as the tunnels go, I cheated a bit by using 2.25 inch outer-diameter shop-vac hose. This is flexible and corrugated (although the corrugation is the inverse of the real tube tunnel, but gives the effect). I lay the track on foamboard about 1 inch wide, as underlay then cut about a 3/4 inch strip out of the shop-vac hose. The hose then sits snugly either side of the foamboard, covering the track. This took some work on getting the diameter right with the curves, to get sufficient clearances with the rolling stock(especially the Metromodels which is a bit wider than the EFE or Standard Stock).

That's it Charlie, I put magnets on the bogies of the 92 stock where there are pick-up shoes and no motors (in the case of the model). The end DMs have two Tenshodos each, so not problem there.

@ Charlie, I think it all depends on how much time you want to spend on electrics and wiring rather than building and operating trains.
The early Tenshodos (15 years ago) had gear problems which I replaced. The ones in the 92 stock are 5 years old and still seem to be fine. I have done a lot of work with the the Endo motor bogies which are available from Metromodels and these seem to work much better than the Tenshodos. The very heavy white metal Standard stock is running on Endos (one in each DM) and they work where the Tenshodos would just simply fall over and die.

One word for that.... Inspirational! I'm getting seriously itchy modelling fingers now. Truly superb work sir. I look forward to seeing more.

Very impressive, especially the arcing.

I can see a lot of time and patience has gone into that. Keep them coming!

@underground16, I bought the 92 stock back around 2002 when Metromodels was just starting up making these as kits and they could be bought as individual cars. I then spent two years (on and off) super detailing this unit.

Bronzeonion: Yes! I have talked to EFE and even written to Creative Masters for more LU models. I am surprised that nobody has made a model of the 1972 TS (Metromodels made a kit some years ago). Based on the success that EFE have had with the 38TS and 62TS, you'd think more model manufacturers would be headed in that direction. Bachmann and Hornby are now in the 3rd rail EMU business, so perhaps there's hope one of them will start a foray into the LU range.

Model manufacturers have to outlay thousands of pounds in developing a new model, something in the region of £8,000 to £10,000 for a bus or a tube car such as the EFE model. So a manufacturer has to be very choosy about what to make. The 38/59/62 TS was chosen because the actual differences were relatively small, basically the cab ends and they appeared in several different livery's. At the other end of the spectrum don't expect to see a model of the '83 TS very soon. After taking into account manufacturing and transport costs as well as dealers mark up and other costs the profit on an individual model is very small, often less than 50p per item so a manufacturer has to make sure that he or she picks a good un!

According to a reply I recieved from one of the major manufacturers the total cost of tooling for a new locomotive is around £100,000. That having been said, Airfix GMR were at the prototype stage of producing a 1938 tube set when the company folded. It would be interesting to see if Hornby or Bachmann (who appeared to share the spoils) acquired any of the developement work.

Cyberman, I can't get over how good that Standard stock looks. I really must get my set painted.

Thanks, Glyn. Just spray paint.

Yes, I have long suspected this....