Rolling stock

[NeilMac]

There has not been much activity on here recently, so I thought I would add some photographs of my 3d printed rolling stock which I have now painted.

 

 

Firstly a US 40' boxcar. This is designed to be accurate scale length, rather than adjusted to fit an available chassis, therefore the chassis does need cutting to fit the model

 

Secondly for the UK (although possibly relevent to the USA as well), a container wagon for 3 x 20' containers.

 

Had I painted this with 2 containers the same colour, and not blackened the gap between them, then this would equally have represented a wagon carrying 1 x 20' container plus one 40' in this scale.

[Switcher102]

Brilliant Neil - gosh the detail you can get at such a small scale, amazing. Yes, the first thing I noticed was the trucks too close together but that can be altered, you've done the right thing. Tell me, does T gauge have the same problem as virtually all the other gauges in that American stock is always a smaller scale than the British? I have seen T gauge marked as 1:500 scale in a video I linked in another thread. I took it that was a mistake, but is it? Surely American stock is not a smaller scale in T gauge aswell?

 

I model in O gauge and will be using T gauge to represent 5 inch gauge. I'm a stickler for correct scale so being as I want both American and British stock I am having to make my American stock (it being at 1:48 scale and British at 1:43 scale). I have decided to go down the 3D printing route in order to get my 1:43 scale American. I've started learning 123D Design and have joined the Shapeways Community. Any advice on 3D printed appreciated. What software do you use?

 

Rich 

[NeilMac]

Rich,

 

The proportions can be a compromise in T due to the size of the couplers. The same thing happened in Z in the early days with the Marklin freight cars. Either the trucks were too far in, but the coupling distance between cars was close to correct, or else the truck spacing was right but there was a large gap when the cars were coupled. As you say, you can adjust this either way on the T gauge models to be which ever way you think is the best trade off between the two.

 

As for scale, basically there is not much ready to run available currently other than the HST and ICE (plus of cource all the Japanese railcars), so most of the models out there are 3d prints, and are therefore scale to whatever the designer chooses. For my models I make both UK and US models to 1/450.

 

For my 3d designs I use Google Sketchup. I am not sure how it stacks up to other packages as it is the only one I have really used. My logic here was that it was better to really learn one package than try and use more than one. There are some known difficulties with Sketchup which need to be worked around - in particular making small models, so they are more applicable to T rather than O - but it is free so I stuck with it!

 

As for Shapeways (which is the only printed I have used, again made the decision to stick with just one), the only thing I would suggest is that for O the cost of the models could be high. The problem here would be if the first print does not work then as you keep trying the cost will go up. You could check the cost by just looking at what similar items (in terms of overall size) are currently available in the Shapeways shops in your scale. These will have had a mark up added which you need not pay on your own models, but it will give an idea.

 

Also, following on with cost, check the pricing for your chosen material. If it is price by volume of material used then ensure that, where possible, your designs are not solid where they do not need to be as that obviously reduces the material needed - just watch out for the minimum wall thickness. Also if your material has a one of cost per model, rather than per item, then put more than one model into a file to save on printing cost.

[Switcher102]

Thanks for that thorough reply Neil. Helpful info on 3D printing. I tried Sketchup first but came across a problem that I could not solve. It just would not do the curve I wanted (whereas it would elsewhere on the drawing), it kept attaching part of the curve to something else and I could not figure out why. I might revisit that drawing and perhaps redo it and see if the problem comes up again. Not too happy with 123D Design either yet as I cannot see that it has the facility to draw guide lines. Must have guide lines.

Not having got properly into T gauge yet I didn't know about the problem with the couplings. Yes, I see. Also the trucks and wheels are too big. Although American stock is bigger than ours I think their wheels are smaller which I presume is because that means they can be lower and therefore more carrying space available.

 

Keep up the good work

Rich

[NeilMac]

Rich, you have hit one of the problems with Sketchup there - that is how it combines curves or circles and straight lines. i.e. not well! If a circle with the default number of segments is bisected by a straight line up/down or left/right going through the centre then it will be OK. At any other angle, or not through the centre it can end up distorting the circle or the line to join the two (circles can only be joined at the ends of the small straight line segments they are made up from).

 

I stick with Sketchup despite this, because I know other packages have similar, but different, problem areas, so I have made a decision to stick with one and learn all the work arounds needed.

 

I have recently received a pack of 4 adjustable chassis from tgauge.com, so I am developing plans for other freight stock, both US and UK outline and from various eras - so it will still be sometime yet before I can assemble a consistent historically accurate train!

[Switcher102]

Thanks for the Sketchup advice Neil, I will have another go with it and see if I can work around that problem on the drawing I was doing.

Good luck with your project.
Rich