Weekend Update 4/17/22

[CNR5529]

I was able to get the whole part off the sprue in one piece with no effort at all. The three connecting sprues between the brake rigging levers will stay in place until I am ready to install the part on the car. This resin is fairly flexible, but I wouldnt want to put too much stress on the chain alone.

[delamaize]

And finally I got started on the last car of the train… a very awkward 40ft box car. It has a door only on one side, and had previously been strengthened and fitted with 8.5 foot doors. I’ve been waiting a long time to do this car as 40 ft box cars with an 8.5 foot Youngstown door are hard to find, and this is a bit of a taller door so the parts in the market don’t work. Well I was rummaging in the parts bin looking for something else and found some left over doors from a Kaslo 50ft NSC box car. Well what are the odds, it’s an 8.5ft Youngstown door. Another check mark in the win column.









With some massaging and some Archer rivets it’s a pretty good representation of this signature car in the train.


More in the build thread.


Craig

Why did they remove the door from one side?

[dem34]

Doors are a moving part that can be a maintenance hassle or liability even if you don't plan on ever using it. Therefore removing it mean you don't have to worry about it.

[timwatson]

By the way, anyone who has ever said see through N scale chain is impossible, well...
(Attachment Link)

Really great work! That IS impressive.

[thomasjmdavis]

A little over 2.5 hours, printed with 50 micron layer height. Havent tried printing finer layer heights yet.

Let me ask the other question.....how long did it take to do all the CAD work on that amazing model?  (The print times don't worry me- I can easily waste several hours while a printer is running.  The steep hill from my point of view is the hours of CAD work to get a model ready to print, and the time invested in learning one or more CAD systems).

BTW- the links of that chain are smaller than the print artifacts on some shapeways models I've purchased.  Very impressive work.

[peteski]

Let me ask the other question.....how long did it take to do all the CAD work on that amazing model?  (The print times don't worry me- I can easily waste several hours while a printer is running.  The steep hill from my point of view is the hours of CAD work to get a model ready to print, and the time invested in learning one or more CAD systems).

I've been contemplating the same thing.
There must be many hours of design time spent on these printouts. But looking at this from another angle, the design time could be considered hobby time.  After all, regardless of whether we are doing some scratch- or kit-building, weathering, or spending the time on the computer designing models, it is all part of our hobby time.  One is physical, the other virtual.

[CNR5529]

Really great work! That IS impressive.

Thanks! That particular part is from a caboose kit designed by David Bedard, so credit where credit is due. I just shrunk his HO design down to N scale, but was pleasantly surprised to see the Sonic Mini 8k able to render it!

Here is another one of my creations, a mostly to scale archbar truck replacement for bachmann tenders (@craigolio1, @BCR 570, these would fit earlier versions of 1077 ). It uses the bmann pickups. The eye bolts for the safety chains have through holes, and the leafsprings are actually hollow! The trucks are surprisingly robust.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Let me ask the other question.....how long did it take to do all the CAD work on that amazing model?

Many months working a few hours here and there on it. And like Peteski suggests, I consider design time part of my hobby time. It really is equivalent to scratchbuilding, just virtually. The advantage is I can then make many more copies quickly once the model is complete.

[craigolio1]

Why did they remove the door from one side?

The train only has stations and unloading platforms on the one side of the line. So the box car only gets unloaded from one side. It’s always full of quads and snow mobiles and such so all I can think of is that it allows them to load right against the wall? But they could do that anyway if the door was still there I guess. I don’t know why it only has one door…. But it does, and it’s yet another odd duck member of the consist.

Craig.

[nkalanaga]

If it's always loaded and unload from the same side, removing the other door cuts the chances of theft or vandalism in half.

Way off topic, but a possible use for 3D printers that leave obvious layer lines:  Masters for resin-cast unwrapped lumber loads.  Print the top with individual board detail, vary the ends of the boards so they show slightly "sloppy" stacking, and use the layer artifacts for the sides of the boards.  It would be easy to create half a dozen variations of the same stack size, and make them in multiple board lengths, without the boring (and expensive) job of stacking stripwood.  Unwrapped lumber was common into the 70s, so there should be a market for the castings.

[BCR 570]

archbar truck replacement for bachmann tenders (@craigolio1, @BCR 570, these would fit earlier versions of 1077 ).

Yes please!

Tim

[m_nanson]

https://navigator.innovation.ca/en/facility/national-research-council-canada/rail-testing-facilities

Oh , happy Easter

What is interesting about the NRC Rail testing facility in Ottawa Uplands, is due to the expansion of of the line 2 LRT of the O-train it has been completely cut off from the North American rail network. and I am not sure if the connection will be restored when the LRT is completed.


Mike

[JMaurer1]

Sweet looking trucks...are you going to make those available?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Sweet looking trucks...are you going to make those available?

If not, John has done them:
https://www.keystonedetails.com/keystone-customs/2021/3/22/n-archbar-drop-in-truck-for-bachmann-tenders-2pk

Also Fox & Andrews trucks:
https://www.keystonedetails.com/keystone-customs/2021/3/22/n-fox-drop-in-truck-for-bachmann-tenders
https://www.keystonedetails.com/keystone-customs/2021/3/22/n-sprung-fox-drop-in-truck-for-bachmann-tenders
https://www.keystonedetails.com/keystone-customs/2021/3/22/n-andrews-drop-in-truck-for-bachmann-tenders-2pk

[sd80mac]

Hi Modelers,

This weekend, I was inspired by a Z-scale through truss bridge kit that I saw on eBay produced by Sankei. The kit was really well designed and nicely laser cut from either thick card stock or chipboard. I wanted to see if I could produce a useable N-scale deck girder bridge for myself, so I worked out the engineering in Inkscape, and then cut the design out of 80lb. card stock (.015” thick) with my little 5 watt diode laser cutter. There are several bridge lengths shown which include 30, 50, and 80 foot variants, plus a 50ft and 80ft though plate girder that I designed after solidifying the design of the the deck girder bridge. They are assembled using medium and thin CA, and after all of the joints were glued I soaked the card stock with thin CA to harden and strengthen the bridges.

[samusi01]

Very nice work, @sd80mac 

Lasers are great, aren’t they? I’ve had success with using varying thicknesses of laserboard to help with various details I’ve done on the bridges I’ve designed, which include both deck and through plate girder and through truss.

Sam