CN Yellowhead Division

[Scottl]

The end of another year and almost exactly 2 years into my current layout.  I am happy with the progress I made this year in scenery.  I'm spending these days mostly working on 3D printing and finishing projects that have been set aside for a long time.  This week I finished four N Scale Kits 53' NSC well cars.  Really nice units to add some variety to intermodal trains and the metal body makes them a good weight too.



Lots of 3D printed intermodal goodness coming in 2025 with the Thrall 40' singles and 5-unit, Trinity 53' 3-unit and the Greenbrier 53' stand alones all in varying stages of design and printing.

Happy New Year to everyone at The Railwire!  All the best to you and your familiy in the year to come.

[tefsom85]

Hey Scott,
great looking layout and models!   Can you remind us which 3D printer you are using for these prints?   Did you do the CAD for these yourself?

[Scottl]

Thanks @tefsom85.  I do all of my CAD with online Tinkercad (free).  I have an Anycubic Photon Mono 4X and I use the Anycubic workshop for supporting the prints, and Anycubic resins with on default settings.  Pretty simple but I am pleased with the results!

PS:  The models above are actually from N Scale Kits.  I'm not sure if they are still in business but they have some nice products.

[tefsom85]

Doh!    I'm a little slow on the uptake, I guess.   I had seen your prints a few posts back and thought these were the same.  In any case, all of your work has been stellar and enjoy watching.
- Will

[Scottl]

Thanks, 3D printing has added a great aspect to modeling and I am having a lot of fun with it.

The Thrall 40' stand alone well cars are 'in production' so I have turned my attention to the Trinity 53' 3-unit cars.  These are probably a one-off for me because I was motivated by the N Scale Kits version that I bought a few years ago.  Their kit had very nice etched walkways and ladders but the castings for the cars were (to be polite) unacceptable.  They had 3D print layer lines and were terribly warped and not especially clean castings either. The brake components were lumps of metal and the decals printed on a substandard printer. So I decided to do my own bodies and use the etches.

Like so many cars, there are many variations produced but they are fairly distintive from the outwardly-similar NSC cars.  I have no idea what specific prototype N Scale Kits was using as I can't find a photo that matches their details.   My version is the early type with prominent IBC connector boxes on each quarter, a solid undersupport for the walkway that wraps around the ends of the container, and open lift points in the corners. 

This is print test v3 which only needs coupler-truck adjustment and fine tuning of the articulated joint.  All the nice brake, piping and IBC box details come out clean (with minimal supports). In my haste to remove bottom supports I broke a few of the floor braces but they are solid and don't deform.  With lessons learned from the Thrall car, this came together very quickly and the remaining two units of the set use the same components in different combinations. 

[Scottl]

The Trinity 3-unit 53' cars have progressed nicely. This test print of the A and B cars is to fine tune the ride height and make sure everything works.  I'll use the N Scale kits etches with the walkway posts printed for uniformity (and so I don't need to bend all those parts!) and correct the brake details across the three cars.  I am also going to put in 1/4" X 0.41 mm brass strips along the interior longitudinal sides to stabilize them and add a bit of weight.

This project was much faster than the first Thrall cars.  I learned a lot of tricks and workflows to make the drawings more consistent and to get the coupler-truck arrangement correct. 

[GaryHinshaw]

That Trinity set is looking really great now.  What is your estimate of the weight with the brass added?  Is it comparable to a Kato well?

[Scottl]

That Trinity set is looking really great now.  What is your estimate of the weight with the brass added?  Is it comparable to a Kato well?

Thanks.  Unfortunately with the brass they are about 11 g each.  I have some weights I picked up at the hobby shop that will go inside a container and bring it up to 45 g.

[samusi01]

Trying to recall what modeling app you are using and drawing a blank. Does it allow you to copy/paste components from one design into another?

[Scottl]

@samusi01 I'm using Tinkercad (online, free).  It is very simplistic in concept but powerful once you learn how to scale everything accurately.  I could not recommend it for organic designs (not withstanding the new bezier curve feature), but it is ideal for rectilinear designs like freight cars and other manufactured items.

Tinkercad allows copy paste so it makes multi-unit designs very fast.  The C unit of the Trinity set took 20 minutes to build from components from the A B units.

[basementcalling]

@samusi01 I'm using Tinkercad (online, free).  It is very simplistic in concept but powerful once you learn how to scale everything accurately.  I could not recommend it for organic designs (not withstanding the new bezier curve feature), but it is ideal for rectilinear designs like freight cars and other manufactured items.

Tinkercad allows copy paste so it makes multi-unit designs very fast.  The C unit of the Trinity set took 20 minutes to build from components from the A B units.

You are multi talented for sure. I have difficulty drawing squares and rectangles even in tinkercad, or any other 3d drawing program.

[Scottl]

Well, I can't do a square cut with styrene, so there are people here with skills I can only dream of.  Indeed, without 3D printing (which makes basically perfect models), I wouldn't contemplate building a freight car.

There is a learning curve of course, but Tinkercad is pretty intuitive and the watching a few youtube videos gave me insights into the more subtle features.

I think there is a lot of voodoo-mystique about 3D design and printing out there.  Once I got over my own hang up about the chemicals (with a proper set of PPE and ventilation), I have used a basic machine (Photon Mono 4X), basic resin* and default settings for everything.  No mixes, no tweaking exposure settings, no fancy stuff.  I've had two failures printing, both of which were due to letting the resin vat go dry.  Honestly, it is an incredible modeling tool and I keep coming up with things I want to print.  More intermodal cars, trackside details, the Jasper train station and related buildings all look to be ideal for printing.

*OK, I did use ABS-like resin for my trucks to get a stronger material.

[samusi01]

Good to know about tinkercad. I’ve not used it, been using fusion for a decade or so now.

[basementcalling]

Well, I can't do a square cut with styrene, so there are people here with skills I can only dream of.  Indeed, without 3D printing (which makes basically perfect models), I wouldn't contemplate building a freight car.

There is a learning curve of course, but Tinkercad is pretty intuitive and the watching a few youtube videos gave me insights into the more subtle features.

I think there is a lot of voodoo-mystique about 3D design and printing out there.  Once I got over my own hang up about the chemicals (with a proper set of PPE and ventilation), I have used a basic machine (Photon Mono 4X), basic resin* and default settings for everything.  No mixes, no tweaking exposure settings, no fancy stuff.  I've had two failures printing, both of which were due to letting the resin vat go dry.  Honestly, it is an incredible modeling tool and I keep coming up with things I want to print.  More intermodal cars, trackside details, the Jasper train station and related buildings all look to be ideal for printing.

*OK, I did use ABS-like resin for my trucks to get a stronger material.

Starting to semi-seriously consider adding one to my arsenal, but for now I'm sticking with the primitive Dremel FMD printers at the Maker Space in the public library here. Hard part there is getting reservations for printer time; they are popular.  And without a computer at home (Chromebook only for a long time) I can't download and edit files from Thingiverse or other places unless I am in the library.

Seems a bit pointless to print a tiny file that takes 3 hours only to have to go back the next day to pick it up because reservations are in 2 hour blocks. If you get the last one of the day they'll let the printer run until completion, or you can try to luck into a day where back to back timeslots are available. Definitely not a way to get multiple prints in one day, though I guess in theory someone could edit a couple SLR files to load the print area with several cars, buildings, or whatever and hope everything completes ok overnight.

[Scottl]

Yes, it would be very frustrating to have to deal with a busy library unit.

Assuming you have a computer now, a home printer can be bought for less than a sound locomotive.  Not inexpensive, but I value things by how much time I get from them, and I get a lot more out of my printer than any locomotive.  You might be able to get an older, inexpensive one from marketplace.  I am sure lots of people trade up as new models come out.  As we've seen in other threads here, the newest models are not always straightforward to use.