r/3dPrintingInModelRail

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Users bcentsale and 382Whistles expressed interest in New Have Railroad style catenary towers in the comments for https://old.reddit.com/r/nscalemodeltrains/comments/1vr4qk6/a_detail_i_am_proud_of_that_i_forgot_to_post/. I was a bit frustrated with my latest structure model's progress, so I decided to model the New Have style catenary towers in N Scale. The STL file is available.

Doing a bit of an experiment to see if I can 3d print a layout, the first 3 boards are now wired trains are running (btw ignore the missing buffer and coal on the j50, I brought it like that and im going to fix it one day)

A little update on the 1916 IRT car I’ve been working on for the elevated railway project.

The model is mostly finished now and this is the first time I’ve been able to put the complete body on the elevated structure and station. Seeing it in place definitely helped me catch a few things I still want to tweak.

This test was printed with a 0.4 mm nozzle. I’m actually pretty happy with the rivet and window detail, but I think this model is right on the edge of what makes sense with a 0.4. I’m going to pick up a 0.2 mm nozzle and see if i can print the smaller details, particularly around the windows and front/rear panels.

I also modelled a basic interior since the windows are large enough that an empty shell looked a bit strange.
I’ve decided not to 3D print the running gear. I’ll use ready-made bogies and metal wheelsets instead. At this scale I’d rather have reliable running gear than force everything to be printed.
Still a few adjustments to make, but the car itself is getting pretty close.

This album is progress on my N-Track module. I hope to show the module at a Nov. train show.

• 48"x30"
• Lauan Plywood construction (everything cut from a single 4'x8' sheet. - Soft pine dimensional lumber is used for C-clamp placement and as a base for screwing/mounting the legs.
• All structures, bridges, abutments, railings, fences, etc. are original 3D models printed on a Bambu A1 with PLA 0.4mm nozzle and 0.2mm layer heights. Apart from the Kato track and raw materials, there are no commercial kits or components.
• Rocks are hand carved plaster over foam board insulation.
• The three required community tracks run through the module below grade. The scenery including rocks and structures lifts out easily to access the community tracks.
• The rocky side is the front. The module is setup to be an annex to my regular layout as well as a display unit. The rocks align with scenery on my main layout.
• The track plan is inspired from David K. Smith's Jersey City Industrial

This is a printed sawmill I bult.

I couldn't just leave E-waste lying in the street, and later I had the idea!

Since this version of the coach won't go into full production and remain a display piece for my friend, the USB cable is an ideal way of powering it. Add a switch to change sides of the tail lights, add an array of warm white LEDs, and voilá! Desk display piece with mood lighting!

I haven't yet professionally insulated the leads with heatshrink due to the remaining fixtures that are to be connected still, but I just had to test the idea for shits and giggles! I just find it so neat already!

Remember, kids, always check what sort of power is applied to the leads with a multimeter before reappropriating them! That's what I did! You never know whether a cheap cable is colour-coded correctly consequently!

There are several different versions of this floating about on Thingiverse, so figuring out what goes where was a pain in the arse... We're going to finish building this version with some modified parts if necessary (the aggregate compartment for the undercarriage and the floor are designed to fit a specific length and combination of parts that is completely unclear) and then we're going to start over using only parts that I revised.

I'm almost done adding guiding pins for easier assembly to every body section (lining them up by hand, guhhhh it was horrible and error-prone), and I've also modified the end section with holes for a 3mm LED on each side and deflectors that can be painted, and room to spare for a thin acrylic sheet lens.

When everything is done, there will be variants of different lengths and scales, for those whom want to extend their roster of Piko coaches and need something that fits in with them, for those whom want no compromise in prototypical proportions, and for those whom just want a nice coach that goes through curves just fine.

Edit: While editing the files I prepared for rescaling and found out that the files are actually roughly 1:32 still. Assemblying the coach with the full amount of windows still leada to a shorter-than-prototypical coach. Oh well. More to fiddle with.

So for the youth group of the model railway club I call home, the kids picked an F7 model off Thingiverse to print as our first 3D print locomotive project, but as I was tweaking minor details of the model for easier assembly and printing, I kept on running into aesthetic and constructional issues. No disrespect to the creator, but I got itchy fingers and saw that renovating the old model would be more fuss. So I did what I always do: Start from scratch! The screenshot is the result of about three hours of starting from a blank slate. In some spots it's not up to my standards yet, but it delights me to no end how far I've come in such a short time!

Like all of my creations, this will end up on Thingiverse for free and open source, because I'm just in it for the love of the game, and not for profit. Sharing my stuff for others to enjoy is half the fun, because a good thing shared is just at least 1.5 times better than keeping it to yourself, right?

Once I've finalised the proportions, the next step will be prepping the model for breaking it into sections so it can be printed without issue.

I'm probably going to go for 1:25 compromise scale, simply because of the megalomania of a huge model, but I'll see if I can make it easily adjustable for fully scale gauge 1 (1:32) and 1:29.