Chassis dimensions and the new handbook

Hugh Norwood · June 20, 2021, 10:53

Me? I'm just the editor... I can't tell you anything about it! <grin>

Stephen Rainsbury · June 20, 2021, 12:17

I may have missed it but would this be a good candidate for a database on the website?

This could be index by name/year etc and contain photos, drawings and links to other sites.

Hobby · June 20, 2021, 13:10

See my last post, Stephen! ;)

Hugh Norwood · June 20, 2021, 13:59

my personal preference would be for a collection of diagrams held (probably in the Members' area) on the Society's Web Site. The big advantage of this method is the ease of adding to it.

Hobby · June 20, 2021, 14:19

Well that's four of us agreed on that (as per my OP(!)), but we've rather added to Julian's workload if it's agreed! I suspect a series of scans of the original diagrams and then photos submitted by members like the ones done by Hugh and that one I nicked from NGRM (I can't remember who did it!). TBH the photo version would be much better as it gives detail a line drawing can't, like where bits of surplus chassis can be hacked off!

Graeme Dunbar · June 20, 2021, 15:31

Yes, Hugh's 'police mugshots' are excellent and show up all sorts of detail that a line drawing might not. For a start it looks like it will be a clear way to show the different materials and sub assemblies that could be relevant if it seems a chassis might need a bit of hacking as you say Blair.

Edit: in addition one or more 'three quarter' or similar views might help?

David Weber · June 20, 2021, 15:39

I'd agree that a handbook is not the place to go into details like currently available chassis lists. Handbooks for the "big picture' stuff that never really changes, at least not at all quickly, periodicals and websites for the precise details of current 'trends'. I'm thinking for instance about the.16mm Association handbook that came out last year. Nothing in that that won't continue to be relevant for decades, because it's a book about the scale as a whole, not about what is currently 'trendy' in the scale

The contents of a website section could easily enough be duplicated as printouts. Perhaps once/a few times a year a 'most recent' copy of the website chassis list could be sent out as a supplement with the News?

By the way, my preference is still for line drawings over photographs. Not that I'd expect anyone to go to the trouble of providing one when the manufacturer hasn't.

Hobby · June 20, 2021, 15:52

Another thought is when a new chassis is produced the drawing or photo is included in the News and then added to the website?

Stephen Rainsbury · June 20, 2021, 23:36

Quote from: Hobby on June 20, 2021, 14:19
Well that's four of us agreed on that (as per my OP(!)), but we've rather added to Julian's workload if it's agreed! I suspect a series of scans of the original diagrams and then photos submitted by members like the ones done by Hugh and that one I nicked from NGRM (I can't remember who did it!)...

If we are going to nick stuff from NGRM and make it available on the website, perhaps we should make that public access?

Hobby · June 21, 2021, 08:58

When I said "nicked" I meant I'd seen it on NGRM, someone else had posted it but I couldn't remember who, it's actually been posted on Imgur and is there for all to see, if we wanted to use it I could probably find who's it is easy enough and ask them!

However if we are going to put some work into doing this (and using the old diagrams) then I feel it is appropriate that Members get the benefit rather than the general public. Though once the Handbook is sold to someone they could easily pass it on or sell it to a non member!

Stephen Rainsbury · June 22, 2021, 09:34

Quote from: Hobby on June 21, 2021, 08:58
When I said "nicked" I meant I'd seen it on NGRM, someone else had posted it but I couldn't remember who, it's actually been posted on Imgur and is there for all to see, if we wanted to use it I could probably find who's it is easy enough and ask them!

However if we are going to put some work into doing this (and using the old diagrams) then I feel it is appropriate that Members get the benefit rather than the general public. Though once the Handbook is sold to someone they could easily pass it on or sell it to a non member!

Fair point, then maybe just make index visible, and maybe 4 or 5 locos as a teaser to encourage people to join up :-)

Hobby · June 22, 2021, 10:03

I think Hugh inadvertently hit the nail on the head of why this has never been done again when he said that he'd taken a couple of hours just to do one! I've taken some photos of the Roco O/S frame 0-6-0 just now and will get round to it when I'm not working or on holiday (possible in a couple of weeks or so) but it won't be as detailed as Hugh's, the dimensions will be simply of w/base and diameter and dimensions of the metal body block over it (the cab and rear bunker are plastic.

Just out of interest, Hugh, what software programme did you use to do it?

Hugh Norwood · June 22, 2021, 19:38

Quote from: Hobby on June 22, 2021, 10:03
Just out of interest, Hugh, what software programme did you use to do it?

I used my go-to photo editing program Paint Shop Pro (7) to straighten the images then crop them closely.

I then brought the four into Microsoft Publisher and used horizontal and vertical guide lines to scale and line up the images to each other. Then labeling was a doddle.

I created a PDF document and took a screen shot of the PDF (you can't get a decent screen shot of a document in Publisher itself as it will display "frames"!)

Back to Paint Shop Pro to crop the screen shot and save it as a JPG.

You could certainly use any image editing program to do the photos. I used Publisher for the other bits because I have it on my PC and I'm fairly good at using it.

Ian McAulay · June 22, 2021, 19:56

Quote from: hughn on June 22, 2021, 19:38
I created a PDF document and took a screen shot of the PDF (you can't get a decent screen shot of a document in Publisher itself as it will display "frames"!)

Hugh: you can actually go straight to JPG (or PNG) from Publisher. File then Export (as if doing a PDF) then click on change file type and you will find a range of image types you can produce.

Hope that's useful

Ian

Graeme Dunbar · June 22, 2021, 22:18

I've been using PDF24 which is free software for various pdf related tasks and it can extract or convert images in a pdf document to an image file that can be edited in an image editor. Unfortunately it seems it is only to JPG*, though I see there are other pdf to PNG convertors (which should be better for line drawings) available.

https://tools.pdf24.org/en/

PDF24 can either be downloaded or run online.

*Edit: my mistake it can produce PNG files too.