Test Running a t-gauge train on the layout

This time, we test run a Hankyu t-gauge motor unit on the roughed out layout. We also fix some problems with bridges and tunnels. T-gauge tunnels need ready access from above, to reach derailed or stopped trains and (most importantly) to clean the track. With an impossibly small scale of 1:450, even small flecks of dust can stop your train dead!

A couple of problems were identified with my layout's 3D printed bridges. The rail arches of the larger bridge, loosely based on the Clifton Suspension Bridge, turned out to be too low for the trains to pass through. The miscalculation was based on the fact that I'd forgotten that the raised eichindo trackbed is around 1.5 mm tall! This comedy error was quickly rectified and the 3D bridge model was fixed for future printing. The layout's smaller 3D printed bridges posed a slightly different problem - once assembled, they were just too narrow to admit the eichindo trackbed. Again, a simple problem, easily fixed in the 3D model.



As makers, we often forget that this is one of the powers of 3D printing - the ability to allow us to prototype the models in working situations and then to fix and change future models based on what we discover! Even rewatching the videos now, I'm struck by the fact that some of the early 3D components on my t-gauge layout were wildly heavy and overscaled. For me, a major problem with t-gauge was to change my scale mindset from 00/H0 to 1:450 - a huge jump in thinking!

Next stop - starting to add buildings to the industrial side of the layout!



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