One for the NER conniseurs

Yep the whole thing is planked. Never dome lofting so that might be fun, but that's what it's about learning new techniques!

 

Using a mixture of internet photos and imagination the Cab end details have been provisionally drawn up and won't be changed unless I can get back to Locomotion for a proper photo session.



Next to do battle with the ploughs front prow. Rob suggested it would be possible with the loft function. I have to admit I know the theory of lofting but have never tried it, so in for a penny in for a pound or to take the sceptics view more bashing head on wall time.

 

I spent a good while yesterday learning how and what was possible using the loft function. Initially I concentrating on trying to draw the curved side of the plough with some success but not quite what I wanted. The problem is to get the sketches on each offset plane correct anyway having not quite got it right, but moved on to try draw the planking on the the curved body which was an abject failure so all this bit needs rethinking.

In order to feel I had achieved something I went on to fiddle about with the actual prow again with some success but not completely satisfactorily. This is where I am up to but if any of the 3d guys have any suggestions I an open to suggestions.

Mossy

 

Opps wrong piccie.

 

Hi Rob.

You have a head cold, I've got total brain fade, the only know treatment is a brown paper bag over the head to reduce the gibbering, sunny weather and inspiration, the last two sadly in very short supply!

Mossy

 

Loft Conversion the hard way

After all the practicing on the prow of the plough I finally knew what to do and how to do it, what I couldn't get my head around was the shape needed to represent the side of the plough. Well after spending most of Friday, Saturday and this morning, countless offset planes and sketches, most of which got deleted, loft conversion eat your heart out, intravenous tea and nicotine I have got this far. Not perfect but I am learning all the time. There are definite refinements to be made but at least it's progress of a sort not least is to eliminate the wobbly interface between the side and base. At least I have broken my loft virginity!

The next battle is how to represent the planking on the plough sides.
Mossy

 

Youp! Youp!

No matter what I did I couldn't get the No 12's plough to plough base correct, the wavey line in post 48 should be a straight line, even copious doses of tannin and nicotine failed. So in complete frustration I drew the body of plough no 7 and 8, the only 4 wheeled ploughs the NER ever built. These were specifically for the Rosedale branch and couldn't be 6 wheels as they wouldn't get over the kip at the top of Ingleby incline. A Nice easy and relaxing session which resulted in:



Being a glutton for punishment I then went on to do battle with it's plough, hmmm good plan this, can't get No 12's plough right so do another one???
I had decided rather than map it from the sketch to apply a bit of logical thought and maths. Everything worked perfectly so I now have a plough and the logic to redraw No 12's plough. There are inevitably a few bits to tidy up, but that small beer compared to the previous problems.



Mossy

 

Rob/Paul/Andy

Almost cracked the planking problem using Sweep and some jiggery/pokery , but my knowledge of sweep is minimal.

What I have done is by reference to the prow side I have drawn a planking cut (a .2mm rectangle penetrating roughly 2mm into the prow side) exactly when one of the sketches used for the loft is positioned. The horizontal line is the loft sketch.



I then selected the rectangle, sweep, then made the prow side visible and changed new body to cut. In the sweep dialog it requires a profile to follow, so I made the loft sketch visible and selected it as the profile.



For a significant portion of the side a cut appears, but towards the top as you can see by the red cut line it tapers to nothing (see above) and I have no idea why, you can probably see it best dying away in the side view below. Any suggestions?

Mossy

 

Gents,

Sussed it, mea culpa but that's no surprise. First up I was using the wrong profile, the inside edge of the loft sketch not the outside, so I switched over to the outside one, but that didn't work as 360 include the prow and end sections in the profile and gave a nasty error message. So I stretched the rectangle out a further 5 mm and drew a new profile 1mm outside the original one - it worked a treat, all I have to do now is repeat the excersie another 9 times, wont that be fun!

Mossy

 

Not perfect but p.d.g. is I say so myself. I lost about 3 hours work, cos I didn't save it, 360 froze and the "recover file" is as much use as a chocky fire guard. Remarkably knowing how and what to do it took less than an hour to get back to where I was. Best thing of all is coming up with a solution where the master builder Mr Pulham couldn't think of a way to do it! A P7 Snow plough prow:



Mossy

 

Paul

You would be horrified to know how many hours, deleted sketches, total restarts, cups of tea and smokes it's taken to get this far, but I now have a pretty good idea of the capabilities of loft and sweep and anyway the weather has been c..p so it's not been wasted time.

The next battle is the prow roof which I have been doing battle with for the last 2 hours, its basically the shape of the top of the side(without the prow), but at the right-hand end it's arched which then tapers down to nothing at the left-hand end. Thus far all efforts have come to nothing but the battle goes on.

Mossy

 

Rob, your apprentice is looking forward to questions from the master.

 

The Plough roof, done by lofting an arc to the sides top sketch and then a couple of fillets to round off sharp lies.
Not sure about it, but as close as I have got - I need to think about it a bit more.

Mossy

 

As much as a number of people have complimented the snow plough, there were things I wasn't happy with and knew they could be done better, so I have spent the early hours of yesterday and today to completely redesign and re model the prow. The changes aren't visible in a simple viewing but I know where they are.



The lower third of the plough share is sheeted in steel plate. Another steel plate should run from the top of this and cover the junction between the plough body and plough share this hasn't been modelled yet. The problems I have are a) I don't know if it's a flat sheet or is curved to fit the plough body b) it's angled in both XZ and YZ planes and c) I haven't a clue how to draw it. Such is life!

Mossy