ICE/Shinkansen Portal prototype

[Webskipper]

Faller 272582 Tunnel Portal 25x170x100mm

Does this look like it can be stretched out to 4.5 inches? Modern tunnel standard is 1 9/32"/32mm or 17 feet (1:1).

A little hot water can really help make big changes to plastic.  Hold form, soak for a minute or two then drop into ice water for a few more minutes.

http://www.faller.de/xs_db/DOKUMENT_DB/www/anleitungen/272582_anl_01.pdf

[inobu]

ok, So I'm back at it.............

What I did was take the WS portal 1156 and impose the ICE portal behind it to get a clearance and size reference. I know that some have complained about
the size of the WS portal. I extended it 4.75 mm on each side and 2 mm on the height.



The Double Unitrack fits exactly in the WS Portal where as the code 80 track can be adjusted based on looks.

The 4.75 mm can give you a 30 inch walkway on each side it you want.

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I'm going to add a lip on the back inner wall so a styrene sheet can be placed inside of the tunnel adding wall depth. I think with that you could add tunnel lights along the wall.

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I simplified it. If something look off or is missing let me know.

Inobu

[inobu]

Webskipper,

I don't think the stretching is going to work. Its too long and not enough material.

I stretch this portal and the distortion level is high.

I'm not sure that you can control (evenly expand the plastic) without tearing or shredding it.

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This is a 124mm span from inner wall to inner wall.

  

[Webskipper]

You're right. Looks like clearance issues. Sweet program.

I'll take two commercial ones and kit bash them to make it work.

[inobu]

 I know its different from what you have but I'm trying to give you a few looks.

This is a center cut which may be the easiest method.

You may be able to disguise the front with a sign.

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Inobu  

[Webskipper]

You may be able to disguise the front with a sign.

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Inobu 

Exactly my thought. A sign, signal lamps, or just some overgrown vegetation.

Oblonged with flat ceiling, it still looks very cool.  The second one with rounded ceilings bound to be tall and its going to be loud with all that air compressed by 3 passing bullets. :)

The intended tunnel length will be about 4-5 inches. Just enough to separate my layout from the other Ntrak scenes.

[inobu]

OK,

I'm going for it.

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Its going to be a three piece portal. The pieces are represented by the 3 color's with the crown, left and right side. If I can I'm going to try to get it to two pieces crown and wall. We will see.

Urethane plastic likely, concrete gray or close.

Hopefully I can get the first article done in a day or so.

Inobu     

[Bernard]

Yes!

[Webskipper]

You're teasing us with the sexy black carbon fiber.

[inobu]

lol,

Gonna get it done....while I have the time.

Inobu

[Webskipper]

I bought 2 Faller Ice tunnel portals to see how 2 will work with 4 tracks.

Will post the results.

[linkey]

You're teasing us with the sexy black carbon fiber.

Now, now Webskipper, don't give Inobu any ideas lol

[inobu]

Should have something to show by next week. Unexpected issue and holidays slowed me down.

Inobu

[Webskipper]

My Noch 34840 ICE Tunnel portals arrived. Little disappointed. Its hand painted foam. Expected a better paint job. It does have a good starting point for a hillside or mountain.

Still waiting on the Faller, which looks like the winner. It comes with a short length of tunnel which forms a perfect angle for the portal. No guessing.

[inobu]

Foam ?

What kind?



Inobu

[Webskipper]

Hard foam.

80mm wide for two tracks.

[inobu]

I had a couple of design issues again that I had to work out. So I basically had to start over.

Everything looks good now and I added the feature that allows you to slip a sheet of styrene into the face to extend the tunnel depth. It has the front and rear piece that holds the styrene in a arc. You can glue or just tape the outside in case you want to change the depth.

Here is the final rendering of it.  

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This portals is about a 8" or 210mm in depth from tip to rear. The styrene center is about 4" or 97mm.    

Without the center extension the portal is about 4.5" or 116mm

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The slot is for a .03" or .77mm sheet of styrene. You can see where it slides into the front. The rear piece has both a slot and lip (you can see it in the lower left of the image) so it can be flipped around if you don't need the depth. It fits into the rear of the front piece.  

There is a bit of a seam but if you paint the wall a flat gradient to black you should not see it.
What is good about this is you can really expand on it. Add lights to the styrene, glue wall images to the interior. Because its sturdy you can really work with it.  

Inobu

This is it, what ever happens happens, I got to move on to my next project. lol

[Webskipper]

The Faller ICE portals I ordered 2 months ago will be here Tuesday. Interested in seeing how to widen them.

Awesome job Inobu!

[inobu]

Thanks,

Now I see why it takes so long for stuff to come out. Lot of rework.

Inobu

[Webskipper]

Faller ICE Portal 272582 and Noch ICE Portal 34840 Pics.

The Faller gives the modeler a choice of portal widths, a clear plastic tunnel shell, concrete decal, and sign decals.

The Noch is a foam version that is ready to a part of the landscape.

Inobu out did himself on the scratch built version.

[disturbman]

Inobu, that's an incredible job! This portal is really beautiful.

[cteno4]

whoops i missed this! I agree, superb job Inobu! so is it going into production?! brilliant with the styrene insert! what is the width at the base of the mouth there? im starting to think if this might work on the jrm mountain portals!

jeff

[inobu]

Thanks guys..........This thing is killing my. I still have to go back and make some modifications to avoid a few undercuts so another revision is in the works....so much for "this is it".....

Jeff here are the dimensions.

The portal inside heights is 2.13" (54mm).

The width 2.72" (69mm) inner floor edges at the mouth.

The total heights is 2.82" (71.75 mm)

The main portal depth is 2.68" (68mm)

The rear extension is 1.57" (40 mm)

With a styrene insert you should be able to extend it another6" (150mm)

I kept it close to the WS portal

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I'm telling you.............because of the styrene sheet you can add lights so easy.


Inobu




   

[inobu]

Part 1 Done....

After..what? a year.... I got the first part done. 2 more to go. I should have it done in a day or so. Finally.

I think these will be really good pieces....at least I hope.

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Inobu

[cteno4]

Inobu,

very cool. i have to set up that end of the layout next week to measure stuff for our new skirting so ill see if this can fit into our mountain entrances.

you going to start producing some of these for sale now?!

jeff

[inobu]

I got the entrance completed. Here is the core piece. I am trying to get the surface texture to have a concrete look. I used black ABS and it does not show the contours in this photo.

I will post a finished piece next.

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I though I would take the pic outside so you can see what I was referring to "concrete look".

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Hopefully the detail will carryover giving a concrete poured sectional look.

 

Inobu  
 

[linkey]

Now the question is Inobu, will you be making a mass production of these portals and be selling them :)

[inobu]

Now the question is Inobu, will you be making a mass production of these portals and be selling them :)

Yes,

As soon as I can get a finished piece I will know where to set the pricing.....this thing has been a challenge and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.........I just hope its not a train........

Inobu   

What's really neat is this is the only one in the world.

[Webskipper]

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Beautiful!

[keitaro]

Mate i love that portal.

May i make a suggestion though ?

I would preffer it to be either longer at the rear maybe 5cm more in length as you will see the detail of the tunnel change with that short length.

Or have an extension tube for straight and curved of say 10 - 15 cm in length to sell as well. The inside would look awesome if it extended more and would be awesome to drill small holes in for small leds inside along the tube.

Curve i guess would be suitable to match the rear of the portal but maybe extend wider at the other end to accomodate for shinkansen size curves. eg. widens enough to accomdate say tomix 280-45 through to 465-45 track or kato's equivalent.

maybe not so wide as 465 as it is in a tunnel and looks don't matter for curves.

just my two cents otherwise that tunnel is looking like a beauty

[Webskipper]

I would preffer it to be either longer at the rear maybe 5cm more in length as you will see the detail of the tunnel change with that short length.

That's the beauty of his design. It's a portal.

The modeler creates the tunnel tube.

[Bernard]

Really great portal, all your work in designing/making it was worth it.

[inobu]

Mate i love that portal.

May i make a suggestion though ?

I would preffer it to be either longer at the rear maybe 5cm more in length as you will see the detail of the tunnel change with that short length.

Or have an extension tube for straight and curved of say 10 - 15 cm in length to sell as well. The inside would look awesome if it extended more and would be awesome to drill small holes in for small leds inside along the tube.

Curve i guess would be suitable to match the rear of the portal but maybe extend wider at the other end to accomodate for shinkansen size curves. eg. widens enough to accomdate say tomix 280-45 through to 465-45 track or kato's equivalent.

maybe not so wide as 465 as it is in a tunnel and looks don't matter for curves.

just my two cents otherwise that tunnel is looking like a beauty

Keitaro,

I'm with you....that's why it took so long....trying to cover the issues you speak of.

You can extend the portal to 21 cm or so. On the back side of the portal is a .74mm grove that's 4.2 mm deep. It allows you to slide a styrene sheet or thick card stock into the back of the portal to extend the walls.

Also lights can be installed on the styrene sheets as you indicated.

As WebSkip stated the modeler can build to wall out to his needs . 

I have a rear extension designed that add 40mm but its not cost effective. In essence its a portal without a crown. One would be better off using styrene to extend the portal and getting another portal for a few dollars more. So I may not produce it.

The short tunnel wall is for layouts with space constrain as a curve can be placed at the entrance. Under these conditions you have to paint/black out the walls to create a quick shadow transition in order to give/skew the tunnel depth.

I'm going to build a portal scene as to show what the final product will looks like. With that I can create a best practice and build recommendation.

Inobu
 

[inobu]

Really great portal, all your work in designing/making it was worth it.

Thanks......also your subtle cough's helped me along too...lol.

Inobu

[cteno4]

inobu,

really stunning work! i think you are right keep it to the basic portal and let the rest up to the modeler for the tunnel. trying to take this out too far will just make it complicated and harder to get out or even modify by the user.

i need to do a mock up to see if we can use this on the jrm layout as our portals are on unitrak double viaduct curves. it think your portal will be just at the kato wall up near where the car body ends would be poking out on the curves so i think safe. i know its not prototypical to have a portal for shinkansens on a curve, but it was the only place we could locate the mountain. i might now think of using your portals and extend them out to the straight areas and just cover the track up to the mountain with tunnel roof, but doing that on a curve with the oval cross section will be a challenge!

jeff

[inobu]

Jeff,

The portal is the same width as the double viaduct wall. If you were to trim the first wall block the portal would sit right on the edge. Its pretty much lines up with the wall at the arcs.

Inobu

[cteno4]

inobu,

thanks thats pretty much what it looked like when i was placing my piece of paper cut out to your foot print. could i bother you to shoot me a pdf of a head on outline of the inside of the tunnel so i can do a quick cut out to make sure it will function on the curve? i just want to make uber sure it will work well in this odd situation before i get these and tearing up the mountain is going to be a little wince for curt!

i think the portals will look fantastic on the layout as ours now are just temporary bits of greenmax tunnels that are not proper shinkansen portals.

thanks

jeff

[inobu]

Jeff,

I guess from a customer service perspective I should have done this long time ago....sorry....A picture is a 1000 words.

The clearance does not matter as the wall stops at the end of the track. You build the wall along the via duct 

Notice in the second pic. The via duct is narrower than the portal.

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Inobu

[cteno4]

Inobu,

thanks so much for doing this! you are right it is worth a 1000 works!

it looks like it might work. my only concern is that it will be a tad inside kato walls and i need to put some shinkansen cars on one to make sure that there are a few mm clearance on the current wall on a curve.

with the current mountain set up i would need to mount one in the middle of a curve, but with some tunnel extension and adding a bit more mountain on one side we could bring that portal over to the junction of a straight to the curve.

are you going to move forward to producing some?

thanks again for the picts and the profile pdf. its really a slick portal!

cheers

jeff

[inobu]

OK Jeff,

Seeing is believing....lol....

I did this so you can sleep well to night. Here is what I did. I disconnected the track from the viaduct and slid it a part just before the tabs so everything is flush. I dropped the portal in between and placed a 500 on the track. No problem.

You see the viaduct is inside of the portal. There is a lot of room to play with.

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Here is the head room shot....also this is the grove where you can slide the styrene into to extend the wall.

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I'm trying to get the mold setup now....Hopefully I can get it going soon.

Inobu

Foot note.
While I had everything out I tested a Gunderson Maxi

and the portal needed to be lifted a mm higher in order for it to clear it . So the US container can run through it with a tiny shim.

[Martijn Meerts]

The question is, why would a Gunderson Maxi want to go through an ICE/Shinkansen portal? :)

[cteno4]

Inobu,

thanks mucho, now i can sleep! although now ive started to think moving the portals out some more might be nice anyway thats part of the mountain that curt and i sort of left dangling when we shaped it and curt mocked up with some chopped up green max portal bits. im thinking this will be a good summer project to fiddle with. one corner of the mountain at the yard was waiting to be detailed depending on what was done with the yard end detailing.

let us know when its going into production!

cheers

jeff

[inobu]

The question is, why would a Gunderson Maxi want to go through an ICE/Shinkansen portal? :)

LOL.........well........I just put a portal in between and viaduct on a curve so testing the height of a Gunderson Maxi did not seem to far fetched at the time......lol

It proves the height clearance for sure.

Inobu







 

[Rintintin]

Hello inobu,

Congratulations on your ICE/Shinkansen tunnel portal project, it's running great! 

I want to use these kind of tunnels in my future layout, and I bought some of Faller and Noch, but they do not convince me too.

And I also happened to do some "real" tunnel, ie a kind of tube through which trains pass, and not just imitate the tunnel from the beginning. I know it may seem silly, but hey, it's an idea! 

Thanks for sharing your ideas with us!

Cheers,
RiNtiNtiN.

[nik_n_dad]

The question is, why would a Gunderson Maxi want to go through an ICE/Shinkansen portal? :)

Nik runs just about everything everywhere, so this is pretty cool.  Yeah, not much prototypical here.....

[inobu]

Update:


I'm building a scene using the portal to verify everything (My biggest problem is squeezing in time for it). I want to be able to compete an install and display it. I wish I could dedicate more time to it but I have to eat....

I have half of the prework done on the terrain. I'm finding that there is a slope angle threshold that you need to adhere to in order for it to look natural. 

Inobu