Flexicoil sideframes

[chrismears]

I've been fooling around with a design for Flexicoil sideframes since Life-Like first released their sw1200. My original design replaced the entire basket. I'm really proud of the design and how well they worked out but the resulting part is a delicate one. I've had a lot of requests for these and thought a compromise might be to offer just the sideframes themselves without the rest of the basket. This evening I've been uploading these to my Shapeways store. I'm listing them in sets of four, either to suit a single engine or in four sets of four frames (enough for four engines).



Here's a link to the page on Shapeways for the part with some more details on their design:
http://shpws.me/z8oe

• Axle spacing based on Life-Like sw1200 at 15.1mm
• The back of the sideframe is reinforced to make it a little more durable during production - this can be filed away easily enough
• The journals are bored out to accept axle ends and the cups from the pickup strips but might need a little further opening up

As exciting as it is to have these in production and their predecessors I'm equally excited to try out the Micro Trains ones when they arrive on the market. Either way, we're pushing forward to more Canadian switchers.

Cheers


/chris

[Chris333]

I thought Microtrains already tooled these 

[nkalanaga]

They did, but if they don't sell theirs as parts, people who already own LL locos might be interested in these.  Also, being made in a glueable material, they could be used for other models.   I imagine the MT parts are Delrin, or something similar, and not easily attached to non-LL/MT trucks.

[lock4244]

Something fitting for the Atlas GP-9 would also be pretty useful... a good number of CN GP-9's had flexicoils.

[chrismears]

I thought Microtrains already tooled these 

You're absoloutely correct Chris. They do and they look pretty nice from what I've seen. I know I'm keen to try them out too. My project was just one of those things I needed to get out of my system. Ever since I bought my first LL sw I've wanted this option and tried a number of different ways to get to it. I've since been able to print and fit a set of these, on their basket frame, to an engine and feel pretty good about this.

I've been working on a variety of parts with thoughts of Canadian sw1200rs and "Sweep" kits in mind and thought that including sideframes with those would be a worthwhile option.

Cheers


/chris

[chrismears]

Something fitting for the Atlas GP-9 would also be pretty useful... a good number of CN GP-9's had flexicoils.

CN's lightweight GP's would be a terrific project. When I first started playing around with these sideframes had similar thoughts to your's. The SW's truck is a shorter wheelbase than a GP's so the same sideframe can't be used on both. My thoughts then turned to compromise options and I stretched a set the necessary distance to match the GP wheelbase and mounted them on my own truck basket based on the Atlas Chinese truck - these worked but were even more delicate than the sw1200rs ones. All this said, I would happily stretch just the sideframes as shown above to match the GP wheelbase and offer them if anyone was interested.


/chris

[Spades]

Chris
As been stated there is Micro Trains and Miniature by Eric produced flexicoil side frames in resin as well.   I wish you well with your venture n scale needs detail parts.  However small that market maybe.


G

[Iain]

I wonder if the MT mechanism will fit in the LL shell.  It would be nice to be able to do Beaufort and Morehead 1203.

[Philip H]

I wonder if the MT mechanism will fit in the LL shell.  It would be nice to be able to do Beaufort and Morehead 1203.

Well seeing as the MT mech is the newer version of the LL mech (there were two versions according to spookshow)  I would assume so.