u/400HPMustang

This it the MTH GE Evolution Hybrid ES 44AC and matching caboose set from 2022. I've wanted some version of the GE Evolution Hybrid ES 44AC since I first saw them in 2010. Of course I couldn't afford the Lionel Vision Line version in 2010 and I still can't afford it 😄 Fortunately for me MTH has released a few versions of these. This set from 2022 is a Proto Sound 3.0 engine but since I lack any modern control system I run it in conventional mode and that's fine with me. The start up sounds, running sounds, horn, bell, and squealing brakes when it slows down is enough for me. What it does however need, is a few appropriate looking cars to go between the engine and caboose.

I left this running and went to make lunch a little bit ago and realized I could hear the sounds throughout the house. I came back in the office to pull it down and turn the sound down. It smokes like you wouldn't believe too. I put some JT Megasteam in it and it started billowing away. I need to get some unscented or maybe the diesel scented because all I have is the coal fired steamer I use in the Polar Express set.

I made something you don't see very often in O gauge: a Chicago bungalow. And lucky you, you all get a half-assed history lesson and and a half-assed architecture lesson because I'm neither a historian nor an architect.

This is one of the more specifically Chicago things I've modeled so far: a classic Chicago-style brick bungalow in O gauge.

Bungalows obviously exist all over the country, but the Chicago bungalow developed into its own distinct local form ; brick construction, long and narrow to fit Chicago lots, a low hipped roof, raised front porch, full basement and usually a front dormer. Tens of thousands of them were built around the city in what became known as Chicago's "Bungalow Belt."

And despite how incredibly common they are in Chicago, I really don't see them represented very often in O gauge. Model railroads tend to have plenty of Victorians, farmhouses, generic suburban houses, stations and industrial buildings, but not much of the ordinary residential architecture that makes Chicago actually look like Chicago.

So I decided to fix that.

This is a fully 3D-printable O-gauge Chicago bungalow with the brick shell, foundation, porch/stairs, separate windows and doors, removable roof, dormer and split chimney all modeled as printable parts.

And, in the most historically irresponsible version of events, we can apparently trace this entire project back to Mrs. O'Leary's cow:

Cow allegedly kicks lantern → Chicago burns → Chicago gets considerably more enthusiastic about masonry → Chicago fills up with brick houses → 150 years later some idiot spends an unreasonable amount of time making one 1:48 scale.

Thanks, cow.

https://preview.redd.it/7k1am02heshh1.jpg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7119349a59eae764a98fc37545e4a37dcfb7f63e

https://preview.redd.it/rqdtlz1heshh1.jpg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d2411a56f93bc044afc52bfb8382677e07a17e3e

https://preview.redd.it/ckb6d02heshh1.jpg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=64834f8eb934d73343ab3eb566d6af711a728c21

https://preview.redd.it/rmvtcz1heshh1.jpg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=df8f8fb38849a4dcc3fd568964d68367e5c11ffd

https://preview.redd.it/uiai0zrieshh1.jpg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a13c65e16a7462a24210710156bc242af3817128

https://preview.redd.it/mjctyyrieshh1.jpg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=68b6d28914687c5ba5fe95ee19b5c0e5ded52ece

https://preview.redd.it/mr575yrieshh1.jpg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e48558258f0ea780777a71bffc0e747a80eaada6

I’ve been working on a set of 3D-printable girder-style bridge sections for curved O-gauge track, and I finally have them ready to share. The project originally started out as just O42 curves because that's what I run in my office. Then I decided that I could do some quick work and make it compatible with a wider range of curves. Then I figured somebody might want a section of straight girder that mates with this and then I spiraled out of control and here we are.

The set includes:

• O31 curved sections
• O36 curved sections
• O42 curved sections
• O54 curved sections
• A matching 8-inch straight section

The sections can be used directly on a layout or placed on top of my separate girder-style track supports to build a taller bridge or elevated approach. The pieces have flat mating ends, so multiple sections can be joined together to make longer bridges, curves, or complete elevated runs.

Robot is sitting in a room. A room that it's been in before mind you and knows it's way in and out of and has decided that the path to the dock is blocked. Robot did this in two rooms this morning. If I remote control it and spin it around in a circle then resume cleaning the robot finds its way out of the room and back to the dock. Good stuff.

Q: What even is a sanding tower?

A: A sanding tower is a tall trackside structure used by railroads to fill a locomotive's onboard sand storage tanks. These tall bins use gravity or compressed air to pour dry sand through long hoses directly into the sandboxes of trains.

Just wanted to share a cigar project I worked on for myself. I laser engraved a two cigar tube and then designed and printed a friction fit Zippo caddy for it. Works really well if you don’t want to carry a whole kit with you can you pre-cut your cigars. I just toss it in my bag and go.

https://preview.redd.it/qkxpqm72l6gh1.jpg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f2bdca0765f8b3b52f40cfe7d02ed3cb4f386fa6

https://preview.redd.it/hm5qom72l6gh1.jpg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e473eaa61292c301391ed1c0537a0426b5b56a7

https://preview.redd.it/n5xizl72l6gh1.jpg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e9348a5eca93d4105ade6b042dbac22a762409d3

https://preview.redd.it/rm6ihm72l6gh1.jpg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f7dd0ee500f526cb012c804e5e12973719513713

https://preview.redd.it/io0wgm72l6gh1.jpg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=39228d5af550e706865d817dfd9407f357f6e93c

https://preview.redd.it/l8qtdn72l6gh1.jpg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4839702c0463f13f0239cba7b06990b036868073

This is the K-Line K-2701A Chicago South Shore & South Bend interurban set, generally listed as a 1991 release. It consists of two approximately 18-inch O-scale cars—one powered and one unpowered—with six-bulb interior lighting, directional headlights and marker lights, working metal pantographs, metal grab irons and steps, and hefty die-cast Brill-style trucks. Mine is numbered 33 and 302, with 302 decorated as the diner but they did a couple other sets with different car numbers.

The real car 33 was a Standard Steel coach built in 1929, while 302 was one of two Pullman dining cars built for the South Shore in 1927. K-Line’s models are more about capturing the overall appearance and personality of the old orange interurbans than being exact, rivet-for-rivet replicas, but they certainly have presence when they’re running.

Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, the South Shore has always had a special place in my heart. The old orange interurbans were gone before my lifetime. The remaining short cars made their final runs at the end of 1982 but the idea of these trains running out of Chicago, through the South Side and industrial communities, and across northern Indiana to South Bend still feels very close to home. It’s a connection based more on place and history than firsthand memory, but that sometimes makes a train just as meaningful.

They’re big cars, but they look fantastic sweeping around the O42 curves and passing the little station. The illuminated silhouettes in the windows are especially cool once they’re moving.

It’s a trolley so it’s train adjacent. Anyway I posted a video of this thing last night running like crap if you could even call it running.

I took it all apart (again) this morning, cleaned it (again), polished the brushes with a 600 grit buffing wheel on my Dremel, oiled the armature, applied grease where grease should be, bent the spring on the sliding shoe up so it has more friction, made sure (again) all the gears turn freely.

Now the trolley runs, bumps, and reverses with no stoppages. Had it going around the O42 loop for a while until I decided to bring out the 40” bumper track you see here.

A few photos I took today at Pullman Railroad Days. The Illinois Central electric commuter rail cars and the 1960 CTA bus in particular. There was lots to see and do but these were of particular interest to me.

I’m spending my evening trying to track down why this thing is only running in one direction reliably. Going the other way it just stops and I gotta tap the bumper to get it started again.

Already cleaned the wheels and rollers, oiled the axle bearings and oiled lubricated where the manual says to. Gonna dig into it more later but I’m entertaining ideas to check.

Hit something today unavoidable and my spring did this. Any possible way to get it back together or am I buying a new spring?

Not so patiently waiting for my recent eBay purchases to show up (that could be a while), so I’m sitting here watching my makerspace fill up with coal fired steamer scented JT Mega Steam being pumped out by my Williams NYC semi-scale Hudson.

I just published my new O-Gauge Vehicle Grade Crossing on MakerWorld.

It was designed specifically for Lionel tubular O and O-27 track, with the roadway sitting level with the top of the rails.

Features include:

• Single- or double-track configurations
• Adjustable road width and track spacing
• Brick, wood-plank, or smooth roadway surfaces
• Flared approaches
• Printable rail-channel and dovetail fit-test coupons
• Support-friendly parts designed for normal FDM printers

Double track sections connect with full-height vertical dovetails, so the crossing can be built to the width and track configuration you need. The final dovetail clearance was physically tested, and the sections fit together cleanly while still being removable.

MakerWorld link: https://makerworld.com/en/models/3085370-o-gauge-tubular-track-vehicle-grade-crossing#profileId-3475521

I’d love to see how it looks on other layouts if anyone prints one.

Being able to spend a few minutes just watching a train circle the layout is something special. It’s a different kind of relaxation.

This temporary floor layout takes up way too much space in my makerspace, so it’ll have to be packed away soon. But for now, it’s incredibly satisfying to see the pieces I’ve designed and printed, along with a little childlike imagination brings the scene to life, paired with a Williams locomotive and tender pulling a string of Lionel cars.

Moments like this make all those hours spent designing, printing, testing, and tweaking feel worth it.

After a whole lot of modeling, test printing, reprinting, measuring, adjusting, gluing, and occasionally questioning my life choices, I finally finished my 3D-printable O gauge Hellgate bridge. Like literally this morning. The glue set on the last piece and I took some photos and then put it on the floor to run the New York Central through it. Video Proof

The design is an homage to the classic No. 300 and No. 305 bridges rather than an exact copy of either one. The overall dimensions fall somewhere between the two, and I added quite a bit of extra brickwork, structural detail, removable pieces, and other features intended for modern FDM printing.

The finished bridge was fully printed and assembled in real life—not just rendered—and I’ve now uploaded the project to MakerWorld.

The upload includes:

• A prearranged 3MF project for Bambu printers
• Supports already added in the 3MF where needed
• Individual STL files for the Bambu-sized version
• A separate set of larger STL files for 500 mm printers such as the SV08 Max
• An illustrated assembly guide
• A parts inspection checklist

It is definitely not a small print. The bridge is made up of a lot of individual parts, but the segmented version allows the full structure to be printed on standard Bambu-sized build plates.

I also tried to make the instructions reasonably thorough because honestly this is a LOT.

I’m really happy with how the finished model turned out. If anybody here prints one, please share photos. I’d genuinely love to see how people finish it and what it looks like on different layouts.

MakerWorld link: https://makerworld.com/en/models/3054085-o-gauge-hellgate-bridge#profileId-3436098

This may shock some of you but the transition from 3D model to real life plastic toy bridge isn’t always straightforward. I’ve been printing, measuring, updating my model, printing some more. Basically wash, rinse repeat. The completed model will take about 1.1kg of filament. I’ve used considerably more in the pursuit of making this bridge and having its parts fit for assembly. The real hard part has been making this printable on smaller 256mm printers.

Note: The parts pictured are not the final versions (at least not all of them) and are being used for test fitting.