Hi Peter
Since You were the one who said

I wonder if you might have any thoughts on this



It's a card insert with cobbles and the inner portion of the groove printed on it.
This is the prototype and I need to find a better colour for the inner rail but my printer wont do silver or rust.
Just thought you might have some comments before I start developing curves and points and before I drop it on the tram thread.

Regards
Jim

It certainly looks the part Jim but surely it will suffer from the same problem as using plasticard inserts - a lack of flexibility or, alternatively, having to have a massive range to cope with the multitude of curves and point-work etc.

If one used set-track, it would work if you had a print for every possibility but that would need a considerable portfolio.

I've also discovered another problem with "printed" inserts - that of maintaining the colours and tones. 

It seems, in my printer at least, that every ink cartridge gives a slightly different hue.  That's not a massive problem on a Scalescenes building because each could be slightly different.  On a tram track however, it would soon look like a veggie patch …………..:roll::roll:.

Hi Peter
I agree about the wiggly track needs but, as Baldrick says,"I have a cunning plan" and the fact of the matter is that ALL printed scenery will fade so it must be sprayed with a fixing varnish before you assemble it and afterwards as well or you will lose the colours. No matter what paint you use or even if you use plastic you will get fading.
As far as the veg salad bit goes just take a quick look outside your house and tell me how far you can see a continuously consistant colour on the road.
Printers are the least reliable and most notoriously firmware engineered bits of kit in the world. Mine carefully fades out the printout when I have run out of ink, only thing is, I am using non standard cartridges which have three times the capacity of standard ones and the ink has not run out so why does the printout fade away? This means that there is probably still ink in the manufacturers cartridges when the printer lies to you.  Also twice now my printer has put up a message sying that it has reached the end of its designed life but when I take it round to my mate in the trade he empties the little tank that the ink, sucked out of the cartridge during "setup" and cleaning goes into, and uses a programme to reset the fimware and I have a printer again.

As far as curves and points go I will need to produce 6 inch, 7 inch, 8 inch and 9 inch radii and regardless of what I do pointwork will be a nightmare and down to cutting out little bits to fit each individual set of points but if I can get points to work as per the original with only a small single moving tounge then I MAY be able to standardise things. However we shall see.
I'll send you the revised straights and instructions shortly and you can have a look and a play for practical criticism purposes.

Regards
Jim

Have you looked at "Electric Avenue" pointwork Jim ?  They have a clever method of switching.  Not quite prototypical but not far off.

It will be interesting to see what you finally come up with regarding the printed cobbles.

Peter
Check your email
Jim