Quality Streetcar models in Nscale

[Dwight in Toronto]

George - I tried your brilliant idea of using a very small font size on my laser printer.

The iconic streetcar route here in Toronto is/was “501 Queen St”, so I printed that using font sizes 2, 4, 6 & 8.  It looks like size 4 has good potential.  There’s a chance that this might work!

I’ll report back.

[peteski]

George - I tried your brilliant idea of using a very small font size on my laser printer.

The iconic streetcar route here in Toronto is/was “501 Queen St”, so I printed that using font sizes 2, 4, 6 & 8.  It looks like size 4 has good potential.  There’s a chance that this might work!

I’ll report back.

Different typefaces (fonts) are also more readable than others in small sizes.  You could experiment further with san-seriff fonts like ubiquitous Arial or Helvetica. Don't be afraid to also try bold versions. Those are usual more readable in small size.

[nickelplate759]

Also, MS Word (if you are using that) will let you enter some decimal font sizes (like 3.75).

[Dwight in Toronto]

You guys are the best!  I used all of those suggestions, and settled on a font and size that ended up fitting in that itsy bitsy space. 

I used font size 3, and as mentioned earlier, reproduced the  “501 Queen St” streetcar route sign.   I drilled and trimmed away the destination sign area of the shell to open it up, and then affixed the printed letterboard.

I also drilled a hole in the centre of the roof, right above the destination sign, and formed the small ‘advance lamp’ using a few tiny drops of clear UV-cured plastic, placing some on the inside of the shell as well, effectively creating a plastic ‘light pipe’.  A careful dab with a Sharpie on both the inside and outside lense area of the clear plastic bead recreated the bright green colour of the prototype.  I then used a hit-&-miss approach to colour-match the cream tone of the shell, and carefully dabbed paint around the bottom, sides and back of the lamp “housing”, leaving the green lense exposed on the front. 

I set up F1 to toggle the LED that lights up the sign board and the advance lamp.  F0 is used to turn on the head- and tail-lights.  As shown in the pic, I think that the results are quite satisfactory.  For some reason, it looks even better to the naked eye - none of my iPad photo attempts seem to be able to accurately convey how it really looks, which is too bad.

Anyway, here’s where things are at:







Thanks again guys for all the suggestions.

Next up - tackle that ‘people catcher’, and add car number decals.

[johnb]

you're going to hate me...I found this...

https://www.shapeways.com/product/65C3KQKQ6/n-scale-prewar-pcc-ttc-body-1?optionId=301318372&li=shops
https://www.shapeways.com/product/W3CWGK29D/n-scale-prewar-pcc-ttc-body-2

[Dwight in Toronto]

johnb … lol, what a coincidence!  Yes, that shell features a nicely done advance light on the front edge of the roof.  I could never shape something that small, to achieve that level of detail.

But that shell you found lists at $54!!!  The one I’ve been using was recently retrieved from a parts box where it had been lost and forgotten for the last 14 years. 

Nice find though!

[peteski]

The backlit destination sign (and the green light) look great Dwight!

[Dwight in Toronto]

Thank you Peter - as I said, for some reason it looks even better IRL.  I don’t know what it is with iPad up-close pics.  It’s as if there is some pixelation or something going on in places.  Weird.

[peteski]

Thank you Peter - as I said, for some reason it looks even better IRL.  I don’t know what it is with iPad up-close pics.  It’s as if there is some pixelation or something going on in places.  Weird.

Well, the LED behind the sign is so bright that some light leaks through the black background.  The black toner is not fully opaque. If you look at it with your eyes  in a dark room and use magnifier to closer look, you would likely see the light leakage through the black areas.  You could likely use much higher resistor value (10k or more) to dim the LED enough to stop the light bleed.

Using the AUX dimming function in the decoder will likely not help when taking photos.  Decoder usines PWM to make the LEDs appear dimmer to the human eye, but the PWM light pulses are still at full brightness. While it fools the eye into thinking the LED looks dimmer, the camera image sensor will likely see the full brightness pulses.

[Dwight in Toronto]

Thanks for the reply.  I learned from you and others on the groups.io, some time ago, how the LED dimming function works on ESU decoders - everything you said makes sense.

In anticipation of wanting a dimmer LED for those two roof-line features, I used an smd resistor that was something like 8.4 or 8.6 K or thereabouts. 

No worries … the ‘on-the-track’ appearance/result exceeded my expectations, and is entirely acceptable, and that’s what really matters!

[R L Smith]

Really nice work Dwight.

Fortunately, you can save the $54 for the shell John linked to, as it is a prewar carbody. Your Toronto cars have the "standee" windows as presented on the Bachmann shell. Here is the CTA version:



Although for me, I may spring for one as it represents the El Paso PCCs that my company rebuilt a few years ago.




Ron

[johnb]

Really nice work Dwight.

Fortunately, you can save the $54 for the shell John linked to, as it is a prewar carbody. Your Toronto cars have the "standee" windows as presented on the Bachmann shell. Here is the CTA version:



Although for me, I may spring for one as it represents the El Paso PCCs that my company rebuilt a few years ago.




Ron

Toronto had both pre and post war cars...

[R L Smith]

I stand corrected.

150 "pre-war" design cars were delivered to Toronto.  Vancouver and Montreal also had the pre-war version.

[Dwight in Toronto]

I soldered up the ‘people catcher’ using 0.020 brass rod (0.51 mm) and fixed it to the front of the chassis.  Also applied ‘4100’ number decals to the front, rear and right & left rear quarter panels:





I’m thinking of maybe adding the retractor cable to the rear of the car (not sure what the proper term is) … you know, the wire or rope or whatever that spools into that bell housing located between the taillights, and pulls down the pantograph.  

Gotta look for some very thin thread or some such!

[peteski]

I soldered up the ‘people catcher’ using 0.020 brass rod (0.51 mm) and fixed it to the front of the chassis.  Also applied ‘4100’ number decals to the front, rear and right & left rear quarter panels:
...
Gotta look for some very thin thread or some such!

That looks great Dwight!
Try a human hair (if you still have some left).     Or ask a friend.   I think it would be perfect for this task.  Thin, strong and flexible.