Narrow Gauge rolling stock 3D printing.


747flier said:
Being part of a Narrow minded group (Narrow Gauge) Someone was looking for a 4 wheel D&RGW Caboose. I asked and someone furnished drawings and a day and a half later, "Viola": View attachment 177551Here she is sitting on a flatcar with a WP&YR Shovelnose streaking past on the main line. The floor is a separate piece. Unusually on top is a light with a Charlie Noble on top for cooling.
Click to expand...
I'll confess: I had to go look up Charlie Noble, but now I know.

I do have to commend you, or whoever built the 3D file for the two wood "window close-holders" (not sure how to describe them formally) found on the upper right corner of the right-most cupola window, and on the lower right frame of the center window on the main car body. I thought the upper one was a 3D artifact or dust problem until I saw the lower one and realized it was not.

The detail just below the roof edge between the two windows--long oval shape. It looks like something you might find on the dash of a fifties Ford or Chevy...what the heck IS that? Just a special (cast perhaps) detail?

The whole caboose is really neat. I don't recall the CN atop the cupola on the D&RGW beese, but it's otherwise very, very good.
 
These cabooses went through a lot of mods, this is directly from a commonly available drawing and some available photos of a restoration. The light on top with the CN for ventilation is an unusual feature. I believe these were removed. At some point these were converted to 8 wheels instead of four.

I of course do my own designs and printing. I released the .stl file to an HON3 group who expressed interest in this item.
 
I decided to press ahead with doing a 4 wheel undercarriage. I really don't have enough detailed info to do this section fully accurately but the outsides will look OK. First print was pretty successful but I decided to widen it up 0.30 mm to allow free rolling without having to drill the axel pits.

Also also ballasted, assembled and painted WP&Y tank car #28, eventually will install numbers and White Speed lettering and trucks/couplers. This the I poured in fine shot through the hole for the dome, fixed it with Tightblond glue and installed the dome. .
 
Have the new un numbered WP tank #28 running well and a new #30 ready for trucks and couplers. Trying out the Kadee #705 couplers, little cuties! A critical deal to having a good running car is the square level of the truck base of the bolster. These don't always print perfectly so sometimes the car has to be tested and tuned with a fine file. Using my own trucks doesn't help! On the printer currently printing two three hopper car, getting closer to having as many of these as WP! Fill them partially with ballast or coal. Liking fairly heavy cars, they are tolerant of ny beginners track work. HON3 is fussier than HO bit maybe easier than N.
 
Hopper cars printed and sprayed with a flat black. I numbered and put the WP on the side the #28 tank car. Needs to be weathered a bit. The white lettering really stands out on the black car. On the others I airbrushed a very thin paint coat to dull them down. This one is running on some Kadee HGR Bettendorfs and sporting the 705 couplers. Running well so far. My 909 Caboose has been tuned and sports new couplers and runs well as any now.

The DRGW short boose will be shortly fitted out with steps and undercarriage. Needs a short bit of steel added under the floor for weight, thought I had some but no soap so far. Bar stock not expensive and easily available. Undercarriage needs some further tuning for optimal rolling characteristics.

Tom
 
Picked up some steel bar stock at the hardware store, a couple of bucks worth will weight a lot of cars! It's about the only way of successfully weighting flatcars. What I am is SOL (somewhat out of luck) of couplers. I like the new (to me) Kadee 705 couplers. However I learned an interesting operation lesson! I had a derailment and the cover of the draft boy is only a press fit. So these are a little tricky to reassemble, getting the micro spring in place and replacing the cover. For a caboose I often glue the coupler in place as the screw will stick through the end platform. So, as with the 714 couplers I take my wood burning pencil and spot weld the cover on at a couple of spots.

Cheers: Tom
 

This is a 50 min plus ride in the cab of a WP loco riding from Skagway to The top of the White Pass. very interesting!

Tom
 
I have been looking around at getting some more couplers (Kadee 705) and wheels and trucks. I found them at Model train stuff who I have ordered from many times. I got all the way down to shipping, all this stuff would rattle around in the bottom of a sandwich bag, and they wanted $43 to ship it via PO, which should have been a max of about $6 for a small flat rate box or envelope. I've seen this type of thing on Evil Bay where they are padding the shipping, a lot. Perhaps for the MB Klien this is the new management?
 
Some things don't go well, I tried several times to order directly from Kadee but never got any email response that my order went through. As opposed to receiving a sophisticated joystick form my NYC Fav B&H Photo which arrived in Alaska from less than 24 hrs after I ordered it for the same price as "stuff" wanted to ship a small bag of stuff by slow boat and dog sled.
 
Ordered a bunch more trucks but no couplers showed up. Oh well, tried again! I designed and printed two WP&YR 1200 series drop center flatcars. Under the drop center is a steel bar stock which adds very low weight. Initial test behind the loco went well. WP only had three of these so including the one I built by traditional scratch methods, I now have three.

Cheers: Tom
 
I borrowed a couple of couplers to try these out. the secret to having a good running 3D printed car is careful alignment ot the truck bolsters. The printing process will not always have these perfect and of course later alignment is essential fro both ends. A little more difficult to ascertain is the longitudinal alignment. A very small misalignment will cause the truck to want to lift out at turnouts. After some very careful adjustment of the bolster with a file eventually results in good alignment. The truck screw has to be tight enough to allow very little fore and aft rocker but good swivel. Currently with their low CG these ar amongst my best runners!
 
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