Weekend Photos - July 2024

[webenda]

You invited Turner over for the photoshoot.

The Southern boxcar is half off the track.

I’ve seen such glitches in AI generated images...are you tweezing around in the ether again

Y'all saw the problem with last month's final photo but none guessed the cause.


The trucks are too small to reach the track, the car is floating above the rails. Another problem is that the couplers are kinda small. I could not get them to close on regular couplers. In the photo the couplers are resting on top of the Baby Ruth and Frisco couplers.

I had the same problem with the ATSF boxcar. I swapped the little trucks for two bigger trucks to solve the problem.

[healey36]

As a customer of numerous Shapeways-affiliated designers, this is really disappointing:

https://www.tctmagazine.com/additive-manufacturing-3d-printing-news/latest-additive-manufacturing-3d-printing-news/shapeways-ceases-operations-and-files-for-bankruptcy/

Hopefully these folks resurface independently, and soon.

[webenda]

How could Shapeways go from #1 to bankrupt overnight?

Shapeways
https://www.shapeways.com
Shapeways is the #1 online 3D printing service company. Working with over a million customers since 2007 - Get 3D products and parts delivered to over 100 ...
Investor Relations
Shapeways is a leader in the large and fast-growing digital ...

So, all the companies selling model railroad parts that were made by Shapeways will have to find another 3D printer company.

[healey36]

I've no idea, as they were not, in my experience, an inexpensive printer of bits. Perhaps as the tech improved and the cost of printing hardware became more affordable, designers found other outlets to market their stuff.

[webenda]

How could Shapeways go from #1 to bankrupt overnight?

Found it! It was not overnight. It was year after year of poor management starting in 2018.

Remember Atlas Shrugged? In response to increasingly burdensome laws and regulations executives of successful companies left the companies. Without the leadership of the one person with the "knack" the companies began to fail.

Shapeways was founded in 2007 by Peter Weijmarshausen, Robert Schouwenburg and Marleen Vogelaar.
When Weijmarshausen as the CEO first reached out to developers, many of them laughed and told him it was impossible. But, he never took no for an answer and eventually found a great team that helped shape Shapeways.

In August 2017, it was announced that the co-founder CEO Peter (the knack) Weijmarshausen would step down from his CEO role. And after months of searching, Shapeways announced in February 2018 the appointment of Gregory Kress (ex-General Electric and former president and COO of online learning service Open Education) as the new CEO. Under the new leadership, the company shifted gears and started the downhill run to bankruptcy.

That is my opinion based on this article:=> https://insight.openexo.com/shapeways-f ... -of-shape/

I don't know why Weijmarshausen stepped down, burdensome laws and regulations were not mentioned in the article.

[webenda]

Gregory Kress explains his new business model for Shapeways... https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/21/3d-pr ... -new-ceo/#!


Well! That didn't work.

[healey36]

According to LinkedIn, Peter Weijmarshausen is currently the cofounder of Humane Genomics, a company whose mission is "building a platform to engineer cancer killing viruses with exceptional selectivity and efficiency."

[webenda]

Thank you healy36, that explains a lot.
When you found the URL for Human Genomics did you see the image of a 3D printer printing DNA to transfect (insert) into a virus body to build a cancer-killing virus?

[webenda]

It doesn't seem right that Lionel's Critters are taller and wider than common Lionel boxcars.


It seems that the size relationship between a critter and the railroad cars should be more like this:

[healey36]

Postwar Lionel boxcars are quite undersized, as I recall. Throw a few 6464-series behind a Williams O-gauge diesel and it looks pretty silly.

I'm curious, however, to know what is meant by a "critter"?

[webenda]

I'm curious, however, to know what is meant by a "critter"?

My definition: a critter is a small diesel-powered locomotive.

Since you asked, I better come up with something more definitive.

"Loosely defined, a critter is a 300-1000 h.p. light-duty or industrial switching locomotive that weighs less than 100 tons, although most tip the scales at less than half that weight."
--Trains Magazine
https://www.trains.com/trn/train-basics ... ginehouse/

The trains link has everything I need to know about a critter.

Thank you for the question, Healy36.

[webenda]

I'm curious, however, to know what is meant by a "critter"?

Since size has nothing to do with what a critter is, I did not know what is meant by a "critter."

This very tall TP56 is a "critter."


TP56 uses a CAT 375 BHP turbocharged engine (a critter has 300-1000 h.p.)
TP56 weighs 80 tons (a critter weighs less than 100 tons.)

[healey36]

Thanks for the clarification. Other than the Army switcher, I've nothing in O-gauge that might qualify.

[Jim K]

Testing to see if I can remember how to post a photo! Hope this works. A paper relay house by Clever Models.

Train ON!

Jim K

[Norton]

Speaking critters, finally got around to adding Command to my K-Line Plymouth. Installed a 2200 Blunami which allowed me to keep smoke plus add sound and motion. The DCC Blunami works over the air and does not interfere with TMCC or DCS as DCC on the track does.



Pete