I love the press releases we get through the “door” at DEVELOP3D. Amongst the odd things inviting you to a Porn Exhibition in Munich to the stunning tediousness of someone, somewhere, launching a new stapler (seriously, it wasn’t even a nice one – it didn’t come in green). Then you get things that are just too funny (but equally as impressive).
Today’s jem has come from i4, an Edinburgh-based Product Design house, who have just announced details of a project its been working for ‘Just Like The Real Thing‘ (JLTRT), a model railway company owned by none other than Pete Waterman. Yes. THAT Pete Waterman. The man that brought us Musical Youth, Kylie Minogue, Steps and some others.
JLTRT is Waterman’s model railway company based in Irvine, Ayrshire and they appointed i4 Product Design to design a model diesel locomotive, the ‘Class 26’ for the company. The team where tasked with creating a true representation of the Class 26 diesel loco through building a CAD model of the train. The project is due to be complete within the next few weeks. Then, JLTRT will start the manufacturing process at its plant in Irvine ad will launch next year.
As you can see from these pics, it’s an impressive beast. Modelled in SolidWorks but what I found most interest where the comments from Laurie Lynch, managing director for JLTRT who commented on i4’s work on the product “i4 Product Design has really come up trumps on this project. Being a market leader in model trains, we’re all about creating kits that our customers will be delighted with. That’s why we need to work with talented, professional designers who combined with our years of experience, can help create high-end models that our demanding modelers expect from us. We’ve been really impressed with i4’s work – they have an enviable reputation for delivering on time and to budget and work really well with our team. Our aim is to develop a long-term relationship with i4 and create more model trains in the future.”
Finally, I was pondering what music video to post. To be honest, while I admire Waterman’s engineering-related interests and biz acumen, most of music output has been pretty much crap. Then I discovered an interesting fact. For a very brief period, Pete Waterman managed this lot. (who are on tour this year and I’ve just got tickets to see them in wolves). Enjoy the most gratuitous link to a music video ever. But its worth it.
