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Ferry wagons


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  • RMweb Gold

A few ferry wagons in HO - variations of the Ferry High, plus the Ferry Tube. All are printed in FUD as an integral unit because of the various brackets that connect solebar to body. This in turn means that inside bearings have to be used as the axleguards would probably break when bending them out to fit pinpoint axles. All were produced under the Print It Anyway scheme as minimum wall thickness etc is violated in several places. Bearing / brake shoe assemblies and RIV buffers are attached in or underneath the wagon.

 

RIV plain bearings and sheet rail (not operational as it would be too fragile)

 

post-31898-0-35907900-1510087845_thumb.jpg

 

Roller bearings and sheet rail

 

post-31898-0-50660700-1510087864_thumb.jpg

 

Roller bearings and no sheet rail

 

post-31898-0-62000200-1510087955_thumb.jpg

 

Cut-down version

 

post-31898-0-31710100-1510088033_thumb.jpg

 

Ferry Tube

 

post-31898-0-26822700-1510088057_thumb.jpg

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It would be quite easy to do just body and solebar in 1 piece 3d print then sent it for resin casting, and then do a 3d print of all the springs/axleboxes/buffers etc in whitemetal and etched W irons - I have at least some of that ready to go because of my Cargowagon twins and would be interested in a collaboration to take that forward in 4mm?  http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/117966-4mm-hfirrs3-cargowaggon-iwa-twin-van-kit/

 

Jon

Edited by jonhall
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They do look nice.

When it is possible toproduce to order etched brass bts and other cast bits, all done by a company online like Shapeways , then it will be possible to set up a sustainable business. Nothing against those who are now producng or developing various kits by more traditional methods, but look at the number of small outfits that have fallen off the treadmill over past few years( I won't even mention Coopercraft!).

I am not trying to be negative, just practical. 3D printing services have shown what new technology can do and its ability to provide a worldwide service, not hindered  by  international trade rules. I am sure something similar could be set up for etched  and cast metal .

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They do look nice.

When it is possible toproduce to order etched brass bts and other cast bits, all done by a company online like Shapeways , then it will be possible to set up a sustainable business. Nothing against those who are now producng or developing various kits by more traditional methods, but look at the number of small outfits that have fallen off the treadmill over past few years( I won't even mention Coopercraft!).

I am not trying to be negative, just practical. 3D printing services have shown what new technology can do and its ability to provide a worldwide service, not hindered  by  international trade rules. I am sure something similar could be set up for etched  and cast metal .

 

I have a friend who has been making a living producing etched brass and whitemetal kits for 37 years, that doesn't seem unsustainable to me?

 

You seem to actually mean an on-demand or virtual business, where the owner only does the IP creation and none of the labour or investment in stock or tooling, and production/packing/shipping, because it's all contracted out, that's one way of doing business, and perhaps is going to be the way of the future, but I'm not sure its any more sustainable than the traditional way.

 

Very few kit ranges that have fallen by the wayside have done so when the original owner has been in a position to continue them, most have faltered when the original owner has been unable to continue through ill health or death, or because the original owner has changed jobs/lifestyles, unless the business is sold to a new owner that actually has a similar skill set to the original owner (and at the right price) then the business will stagnate or falter.

 

Jon

Edited by jonhall
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  • RMweb Gold

As there is limited trade support for UK-outline HO I have tended to adopt an "all-inclusive" approach for my designs, having previously been caught out when a particular component is discontinued or difficult to obtain. If suitable parts are readily available in 4mm then I suppose that it would be possible to delete much of the underframe equipment so it is easier to fit them, although redesign would otherwise be restricted to resizing. As far as resin casting goes, I am not sure if the design would stand up to it, because of the thinness of some areas. Designing a kit from scratch might be more effective than converting an integral design.

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As there is limited trade support for UK-outline HO I have tended to adopt an "all-inclusive" approach for my designs, having previously been caught out when a particular component is discontinued or difficult to obtain. If suitable parts are readily available in 4mm then I suppose that it would be possible to delete much of the underframe equipment so it is easier to fit them, although redesign would otherwise be restricted to resizing. As far as resin casting goes, I am not sure if the design would stand up to it, because of the thinness of some areas. Designing a kit from scratch might be more effective than converting an integral design.

 

How thick are the sides? 

 

Very few of the parts are actually already available from the trade, and the whitemetal bits I have are for a much longer van of continental manufacture, so they wouldn't be re-usable for this project, it just seemed to me that if you already have the sub-components then printing the 'bits' in a really high quality output to use as a master then they could be very economically turned out in w/metal. I would include the variations on the bits (axlebox type for the pipe, springs and buffer head for the tube) in the mould, which would either give the user a choice of fitting if you wanted a simple life packing them, or you could ask the buyer to specify, then generate additional revenue selling the other variants as separate parts. Alas my skill with 3d CAD does not yet run to drawing all these small bits. 

 

I'm sure there is interest from the continent for these in HO, and doing them the Shapeways route does take a lot of the difficulty in marketing and selling in Euro's.

 

Jon

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  • 1 year later...

Hi there,

 

Have you put any more thought to uploading  8/7ths versions of these files to Shapeways*

 

I'd be fairly keen to save myself the work required to construct ferry highs and tubes from Cambrian, Dapol and Parkside parts...

 

* Clearly not that easy.

 

Thanks,

 

 

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