With the rebuild of Fen End Pit underway I need to build a couple more Hudson 'Jubilee' style points. In the past I've made the sleepers by heating plasticard and squashing it in a hand made press tool but in this day and age I thought I'd have a go at 3D printing. The original drawings I'd made in 2D were imported into Onshape and then bits extruded and cut out to make a 3D model of the turnout. This then got exported as an STL file and downloaded onto the Ultimaker 2 printer we have in Makespace. The print took about 3 hours while I was busy on the laser-cutter making more bits for baseboards.

This first attempt was printed in PLA, I think I'll probably have a go in ABS ultimately. The printer added 'brim' around the outside of the print which helps it stick down to the bed of the printer. Having got the print home and trimmed off the brim the result doesn't look bad. The top surface of the sleepers is reasonably smooth and I think that just a very light sand will do the job well.

Even in this cruel enlargement the sleepers look good to me, the 'undercut' in the corrugations held up pretty well. The plan is that that holes in the sleeps will take a 3D printed rail fastening so all I need to do is bend and file the rails. There is also a recess drawn in to allow for a little bit of brass sheet to be used to solder the components of the 'V' together.

The webs between the sleepers will be hidden by the ballast sand which the track sit on.

So, could I have made the parts myself in under 3 hours? probably...
Could I have made the parts while building baseboards? no...

I'll let you know how it progresses.

David