u/richard7k

Big news everyone! Yesterday I got Blender and started making a 3D model of one of the starships from my scifi story “Defrost the Galaxy”. Here’s my progress as of when I went to bed last night after several hours of practice.

Meet TSSC Demeter (CGH-001), the first Demeter-class interplanetary patrol cruiser in the Tuonela State Security Force. This is one of the ships that gets the plot started, as it is the command ship during the capture of Agenorian Commonwealth science vessel Fiammetta Wilson. Its two known sisters are TSSC Pallada (CGH-002) and TSSC Venera (CGH-003). 

It was commissioned about ten years ago and modified over time. The ship is currently commanded by Colonel (First Class) Hilda Weiss and doubles as the flagship of General (Third Class) Enyo Harfang and the Ophion Brigade. Its home port is the icy garrison moon Naxos, which orbits the outermost gas giant planet Ophion. 

TSSC Demeter is still “under construction” but so far I’ve defined the basic hull shape (loosely inspired by zeppelins and submarines) and added about half the weapons. It already has 8 guided missile launchers installed, as well as most of the twin-gun main laser turrets and about half of the single-gun point-defense laser turrets. The next steps are to add the engines and remaining weapons, detail the hangar, add some airlocks/radiators/greeblies, and start decorating the ship. 

The Demeter is about 200 meters long, with a crew of 300 and range of one month in standard operating mode. The hyperdrive is rated for 10 lightspeed equivalents. The Demeter also carries 8 sublight shuttles, as it is too large and heavy to land on or take off from a planet with terrestrial gravity.

I decided to try building the ship myself in Blender rather than telling AI to build one for me. Let me know what you think of the ship, and any tips for making models in Blender.

The Aurora, Elgin & Fox River Electric Company (AEFRE) was one of several trolley lines operating in Illinois in the “golden age” of interurbans. It never touched Chicago itself but it connected several Chicago Aurora & Elgin lines that spread out west of the city. After it closed in 1934, car 303 (St. Louis Car Co., 1924) was sold to the Cleveland Interurban Railroad and moved to Ohio. It was converted to a one-man car and operated on the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit line between downtown Cleveland and the eastern suburb until retired in 1955. It used to run at Trolleyville USA until that museum closed, and since 2009 it has been undergoing restoration at the Northern Ohio Railway Museum in Seville. When I visited with some friends in July 2025, I was shown the restoration of 303.

Cleveland Transit System “bluebird” rapid transit car 109 (St. Louis Car Co., 1954) returns to the main Northern Ohio Railway Museum car barn in Seville ahead of a July 2025 thunderstorm. The line it used to run on is now the Greater Cleveland RTA Red Line. Since the line is partly underground and partly overground, does it still count as a subway in this group?

Cleveland Transit System “bluebird” rapid transit car 109 (St. Louis Car Co., 1954) returns to the main Northern Ohio Railway Museum car barn in Seville ahead of a July 2025 thunderstorm. The line it used to run on is now the Greater Cleveland RTA Red Line.

Cleveland Transit System “bluebird” rapid transit car 109 (St. Louis Car Co., 1954) returns to the main Northern Ohio Railway Museum car barn in Seville ahead of a July 2025 thunderstorm. The line it used to run on is now the Greater Cleveland RTA Red Line.

Cleveland Transit System “bluebird” rapid transit car 109 (St. Louis Car Co., 1954) returns to the main Northern Ohio Railway Museum car barn in Seville ahead of a July 2025 thunderstorm. The line it used to run on is now the Greater Cleveland RTA Red Line.

Preserved at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Maine since 1963, Boston & Maine Railroad 8-passenger gasoline-powered speeder 500 (Fairmont, 1936) was one of the featured cars in the museum's 85th anniversary parade on the Labor Day 2024 weekend.

MBTA Blue Line subway car 0559 (St. Louis Car Co., 1951) and Green Line articulated SLRV 3424 (Boeing Vertol, 1976) were two ex-Boston railcars parked outdoors and awaiting restoration when I visited the Seashore Trolley Museum (Maine) in 2024 for its 85th anniversary.

The USA is now 250 years old, so here's a preserved American subway car! New York City R33 car 9327 (St. Louis Car Co., 1963) ran until 2004 and was preserved by Maine's Seashore Trolley Museum the following year. It ran as a baseball shuttle in the 2000 World Series, which ended with the Yankees beating the Mets. When I visited in 2024 for the museum's 85th anniversary, 9327 was displayed in redbird livery and decorated as a "Subway Series 2000" car working the 7/Flushing express to Shea Stadium (home of the Mets).

Here’s Morrison Hill Station at the Seashore Trolley Museum (Kennebunkport, Maine) as it looked about two years ago during the museum’s 85th anniversary festival. This is one of the few pictures of the station that I took without a trolley passing by or stopping there. Note the unusual railroad crossing warning sign.

Since I’m an American railfan who particularly likes tramways and electric trains, I’m proud that the USA (now 250 years old!) is the country that created the PCC. Two that I saw at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum when I visited in July 2025 were Pittsburgh Railways streetcar 1138 (St. Louis Car Co., 1937) and SEPTA ex Philadelphia Suburban Transportation “Red Arrow Lines” PCC-bodied suburban car 24 (St. Louis Car Co., 1949).

Hankyū electric train 9403 crosses a street in Ibaraki City (Osaka Prefecture, Japan) before speeding through Minami-Ibaraki Station as a northbound limited express for Kyoto-Kawaramachi.

(Seen December 2024)

An East Japan Railway Company (JR East) Tōhoku Shinkansen Series E5 bullet train (Hayabusa?) and a Yamanote Line Series E235 commuter train meet near Nippori Station in Tokyo.
(seen December 2024)

Since today (July 1) is Canada Day, here’s some more Canadian railroad history. Even before World War II, Canadian National Railways were starting “dieselization“ and built some Beardmore-powered (later Cummins-powered) “doodlebug” railcars at their own Pointe-Saint-Charles shops in Montréal in the 1920s. CN 15820 successfully ran nonstop from Toronto to Vancouver without breaking down, while sister 15824 (built 1926) was donated to the Canadian Railroad Historical Association in 1964. When I first visited the Exporail museum near Montréal in December 2022, CN 15824 was on display with the engine compartment open to show the prime mover.

Since today (July 1) is Canada Day, here’s some more Canadian railroad history. Even before World War II, Canadian National Railways were starting “dieselization“ and built some Beardmore-powered (later Cummins-powered) “doodlebug” railcars at their own Pointe-Saint-Charles shops in Montréal in the 1920s. CN 15820 successfully ran nonstop from Toronto to Vancouver without breaking down, while sister 15824 (built 1926) was donated to the Canadian Railroad Historical Association in 1964. When I first visited the Exporail museum near Montréal in December 2022, CN 15824 was on display with the engine compartment open to show the prime mover.

Since today (July 1) is Canada Day, here’s some more Canadian railroad history. Even before World War II, Canadian National Railways were starting “dieselization“ and built some Beardmore-powered (later Cummins-powered) “doodlebug” railcars at their own Pointe-Saint-Charles shops in Montréal in the 1920s. CN 15820 successfully ran nonstop from Toronto to Vancouver without breaking down, while sister 15824 (built 1926) was donated to the Canadian Railroad Historical Association in 1964. When I first visited the Exporail museum near Montréal in December 2022, CN 15824 was on display with the engine compartment open to show the prime mover.

Canadian Pacific Railway M-630/DRF-30f diesel locomotive 4563 (MLW, 1970?) was displayed outdoors in red-white-black Multimark livery on my second visit to the Exporail museum (near Montréal) in May 2024. Canadian Pacific operated the 3000-horsepower M-630, Montréal Locomotive Works’ version of the ALCO C630, as a heavy freight locomotive on western lines. 4563 was retired in 1995 as one of the last M-630s still in revenue service.

Canadian Pacific Railway M-630/DRF-30f diesel locomotive 4563 (MLW, 1970?) was displayed outdoors in red-white-black Multimark livery on my second visit to the Exporail museum (near Montréal) in May 2024. Canadian Pacific operated the 3000-horsepower M-630, Montréal Locomotive Works’ version of the ALCO C630, as a heavy freight locomotive on western lines. 4563 was retired in 1995 as one of the last M-630s still in revenue service.

Canadian National Railway 70-ton ER-6a diesel switcher N° 30 (General Electric, 1950) was still on outdoor display in post-1961 livery when I visited the Exporail museum near Montréal shortly after Christmas in December 2025.

Tōbu Railway (Nikkō Line) 1067mm/3'6" gauge articulated tram 203 (Kisha Seizō, 1954) sits in front of the Tōbu Museum in Tokyo, where it has been displayed after the closure of the Nikkō tramway in 1968.  The livery reminds me, vaguely, of the North Shore Line "Electroliner" of the USA.

(seen June 2022)