Trafostation No 1 - Part 1 One of the landmarks of Polish lanscape are tower style trafostations. There is a great variation of architectural designs and variety of materials were used to construct them. In communist times some of them were constructed using prefabricated concrete panels. Here is a real example of this type of trafostation: Due to the fact that a fellow modeller from Polish "Trainboard" (actually the name of the forum is "Modelling") who is specializing in small series production of different items (mainly in HO) started to experiment with production of small concrete parts using plaster I asked him (challanged him !) to produce something in Z scale. One of the item is concrete panels - very often used to create temporarily road during construction precesses. Actually those rads exists in some places for years ... This inspired me to try to model a trafostation of that type. Construction started with styrodur base. Then the "concrete" panels were glued. Actually I did not have enough panels made of plaster so i had to use some of them lasercut from cartoon. Corner panels were made out of paper: Basic structure is ready for painting: ... and is painted.
That is a really unique structure and the model is a clever design. I'm guessing that these would be common along the railroad and on a Polish/Eastern European layout you would need a number of these. Mark
Great build! Mark, these structures are used to house electronics for the catenary system. You can see the vents at the top of the structure to help with air circulation. Lutke offers kits for these: http://www.ztrackcenter.com/luetke/luetke-buildings/luetke-73220 But I LOVE the build shown above. It has so much personality! Rob
Most of those structures are used rather to supply electricity to households not for train's catenary. Medium voltage power is reduced into low power which is supplied to houses (230Volts). Next steps in building process: Base of the roof is installed: The roof is covered. I made it using small pieces of sanding paper. Vents are painted. Preparation of bigger insulators: Some weathering and the final look:
zdrasa, I just came across this while looking at the post for Z scale. I have been playing around with drawings of interesting Z scale stuff. I see you have put a lot of work into this and you have done some outstanding work. I'm also from the US and really don't know a lot about the Catenary system. But I wanted to take a shot of doing one with 3D printing. I have done a design from the photo you had provided here. I found it very interesting!!! This is what I have come up with this is just a Digital preview of the tower with the type of material used and this material is Frosted ultra Detail material which show good details since the detail I got wasn't much because I really didn't know that much about it except for it helps power the trains. http://shpws.me/KNqq Sorry couldn't download photo. Link above Best Regards, Walt
Hello Walt, I have already seen some of your designs at Shapeways. They are very interesting and I have already purchased some of them. Two items: https://www.shapeways.com/product/V5CJBVZB7/conveyor-z-scale?optionId=40539829&li=ostatus https://www.shapeways.com/product/U...-p-h-excavator-z?optionId=41856820&li=ostatus are still waiting to be used. I plan to have a querry on my layout and those items will have to play a role in this area. I think that you can recognize your design on the photos below. The first one used an item actually broken during painting but the secont one is 100% fine Coming back to Trafostations... As I wrote prewiously those towers are used to transform power. This is done actually mostly for general power distrubution purpuses not only for the railway catenary systems. They in most cases transform medium voltage 15 kV or 20kV into 400V/230V and transform AC/DC power. There are plenty of different designs. I am going to show some other types I have modelled in future posts. This particular tower which was an inspiration for the model I've made is located in Poland in small village called Wola Hankowska: https://www.google.pl/maps/place/Wo...2!3m1!1s0x4710b129c7af18d1:0x1d413e9894d325a1 The village has no railway so this tower is used to supply households. Unfortunately the place is located 250 km from my place so I can not supply with some more photos of the tower. There is a chance that I will be able to have some more photos next year (maybe I will have to make a business trip nearby). Your 3D Shapeways model is really great ! I am happy that you were inspired by my post. I looked at the design at Shapeways including an animation and the view of all 4 walls. Although I do not have some more photos of other walls I have some (minor) comments concerning the design: 1. Small "window" above the door into the tower in reality is made of "glass bricks" similar to those: You design them to be raised over the surface of the concrete panel. They should be rather on the same level. 2. There are also some smaller insulators on the same wall (with the door) below bigger insulator you designed. 3. I think that the wall opposite to the wall with the door is designed correctly as exactly the same, of course without the door. 4. The wall on the left hand side of the wall with the door (no photo but some things can be deducted/assumed based on observations of other trafo-towers) should have different type of electric insulators devices. That is the place where medium-voltage is supplied to the tower and it should look rather like on the photo below: The diagram shows the logic of that part: I hope this can help to improve and get the 3D model more prototypical. Once again: GOOD JOB ! When the model will be ready for Shapeways distribution - please let me know. I will post an information on Polish Z Forum (it is really small community ) Pawel
Pawel, Thanks for all the information! For the shapeway stuff the best thing I have found to clean them is a soft bristle paint brush and some dawn dish soap. I found that the hot tap water will also help removing the wax but like you found out they break easy. I also run cold water after the hot then let them air dry. The bestine works well also on the FUD (Frosted Ultra Detailed Material). Letting them air dry and set for a couple of day also helps for some reason they still have wax and some oil on them when you get them from shapeways. Putting on a spray primer Tamiya white looks best seems to make them a little stronger. The Fordson's tractor I have also done a set of four with regular wheels. also did set of grain Bins Behlen with a auger tower. http://shpws.me/KFW9 http://shpws.me/KFRi http://shpws.me/KwNw http://shpws.me/KwOp Back to the catenary systems I will print the model I did soon and post a photo of it when I get it. If they come out good, and I can keep the cost down I will make a set of them. right now I'm looking at a group of four. When these are use along the rails how are these spaced, feet apart or miles? I see that the roof on the second one is like a house roof! I'm always looking for odd pieces to do. I'm not a professional Designer but have always been good in making things. I have fun with the 3D programs on my PC. The photo of the Diagram when zoom in gets fuzzie. my email is southernnscale@yahoo.com. Well! thanks again. Have fun! keep in contact always looking for something to design. I remember you said something about a querry. Is that with rock. I have two models for rock and loaders. I have this one it a Farish Gravel plant http://shpws.me/HKX1 http://shpws.me/HKX3 Best Regards, Walt
FYI - here are concrete block and brick HO versions from Artitec - the latter is also available in N. They produce very high quality kits, but have severely limited North American distribution.
It is a pity that Artitec practically discontinued Z-line products. At this moment they have some bikes in Z-scale only. They used to have much broader Z offer with resin models some years ago. There was also Z Trafo-tower as well. You can see it on the photo below: Artitec product is permanenly placed on my ZELLIN layout (on the right). My schratchbuoilding project is temporarily placed on the left side.
As I mentioned in my posts this type of tower-trafostations is used mainly for "general electricity supply purposes". As far as railway catenary systems are concerned I did some more research and found that those installations are generally bigger. In most cases they are located 20-30 km from each other. The architectural designs differ. In Poland you can find some of German origin - build approximetely in 1920-1930: Brick ones : Tower style (extended): Modern style: Of course they are more "railway related" but in my opinion "tower style" is ... more "sexy-looking". Towers style trafostations are also quite often located very close to railways also due to the fact that often the same or similar (pararel) paths were used both for railway and electricity lines. Well I think that next post should be ... more about scratchbuilding project No 2 ...
Hey! I tried to send email but it was returned. I did a reply from the one you sent. Don't know what the problem was. Got your pictures of the Catenary system towers. just received some 3D models I had printed . one was the new tractor and the grain bins. Is there another email address to use? Sorry! It wouldn't send back! Thanks for the photo's I downloaded them. Best Regards, Walt
Trafostation No 2 I already had the styrodur base for the next tower so .. I decided to built another Trafo-tower. This time I decided to model the red brick with flat roof type. In reality it can be something like this: To make walls I used bricks panel from Schuckertz. Doors were made out of aluminium foil. For vents I used some pieces of old photoetched parts from my HO time (parts of passanger car steps). I am not satisfied with the wall's joints. But it was all done using only simple tools. Both towers (No 1 and No 2) looks like this: I am satisfied with my learning curve - I think that the electric insulators are much better - not that oversized.
Looks really great! Like the brick work! is that printed paper or plastic molded brick. I checked the site page and not really good at reading. couldn't fine it in English. Keep up the good work. I have started a second one yet did a water tower and tried to make rock base. This is what I got! This is Z scale! http://shpws.me/KPuV
What is the basic height and width of these Catenary buildings? 10 to 15Feet wide and 20 to 30 feet tall. that is my guess from the photo!
Brick work is plastic molded. But this is some specific type of plastic. It is not typical plastic used to mold models of houses by producers like KIBRI or Vollmer. It is thinner and more elastic. In Europe this type of plastic is used to produce single use plates to eat. Molded bricks I used is the right one on the photo below (left plate is KIBRI product - definitely oversized and small part is something left from the house kit). The coin is +/- size of a dime. Schutzkertz building materials in 1:200 can be find here: http://www.schuckertz.de/modellmaterial/haus-und-hof/?p=1&f=27 The water tower is really nice. This is American style - we do not have this type of design in Europe. By the way European water towers designs vary beetween countries and regions as well.
I get familiar with the content of the electricians' forum. First of all some additional photos of electric equipment on the wall - the place where medium voltage power is supplied into the tower. I hope it helps to better understand how this part should be modelled. And some detailed drawings with measurements. One should remember that real measurements may vary depending on design of the tower.All measurements are metric !
These photo are much better this time the drawings are very clear. Yesterday I did the one with bricks just to see how they would look. Here is the one you said was HO scale with all brick this s just the render in FUD Which is the same material as the tractor you got. I hope the size is right I just took a guess because I couldn't find and measurements on the internet here. they are different here. for some reason these photo's I'm trying to show you is the same on this site page but the copy won't load on this site. Are these diagrams in mm? http://shpws.me/KQlD
Also I For got to tell you! If that tractor was damaged when you got it and if you took photo's of it you can send them to Shapeways and they will do reprint of the tractor for free. There shouldn't be any damages! They have been getting better and better at shipping things in good shape. I have had this problem to with them and I just take pictures of the shipping label from in side the box and pictures of the broken piece. I be watching your post to see the next project you do great work and thanks for sharing!! best Regards, Walt
Walt, Your new design looks very good. With 3D technique you got more possibilities to get architectural effects - especially the effect of 3D wall - the bricks are not flat but some of them are raised - great. To add realism I would add smaller incpection door on one of the walls. When you look at photos you find it on practically every tower. Those "doors" are rather window size and are made of metal. The diagrams are measured in mm which means that the tower is 8,15 meters tall. My observation is that different designs may have slightly different sizes. Pawel