Percy TEsts the Fit

3D models are all very well and good, but there are practical aspects to fitting a gear train inside an existing model. In particular, Percy received a bunch of weight in the boiler and saddle tanks. Who knows if the theoretical drive will actually fit? In about 20 minutes, the filament printer made rough approximations […]

Percy Considers a New Motor

Time has flown by and it is already three years since Percy emerged from the paint shop as GTR 2543. For those unfamiliar with the tale, the eight-month saga whereby Thomas the Tank Engine’s cheeky friend, Percy, sacrificed himself for science and good-running can be found here. The most significant discovery of the period is […]

Coal Car Test Print

From 3D file to the first print always makes me feel like a ten-year-old on Christmas morning. A ten-year-old with a ventilator, gloves and safety glasses in a basement workshop that smells more of chemicals than of pine. With this being the first whole car I’ve attempted to print, I hardly expected it to work […]

Coal Car Brakes

The brake systems on hopper cars are often tight for space. So, it’s useful to be able to check clearances before construction. In the case of the coal cars, I found the train line was a little too close to truck bolster for my liking, and so, I raised it a scale inch or two. […]

Flat Cars Finished?

With the loads painted, the flat cars are substantially finished. I sprayed the underframes with a dusting of Vallejo “Smoke” so they’d look like they’ve done work if they should ever flip over. The trucks, body and the steel and iron parts received a muddy wash of raw umber and white so they’d look look […]

Painting Wood Loads

I had three flat car loads to experiment upon, and with time running short before the Railway Modellers’ Meet, I got right to work. I had picked up a Vallejo paint pack for wood and leather when I went to Burnaby Hobbies for some primer. The “Dark Sand” in the pack seemed a good starting […]

Lumber Loads

The 3D printer has been busy cranking out loads of lumber for the flat cars as I get ready for this year’s Railway Modellers’ Meet. I’d already printed quite a few loads, some of which are “factory seconds” and good only for experimenting, when I went back and looked at some photos of Canada Atlantic […]

Finishing the Cattle Chutes

The Railway Modellers Meet is approaching, and it’s time to finish some of these projects so I can bring them to the display. There was almost nothing left to do to the cattle chute module except decide what to do about the end of track. After perusing my collection of Canada Atlantic photos, I concluded […]

Lumber Load Trials

The flat cars, despite being scratch built the old-fashioned way, were jig-built so that the loads can be swapped. The trick is to confidently locate the stake pockets in a 3D model to locate the stakes themselves. I started by measuring, and then printed a couple of test loads on the FDM printer. Its resolution […]

FeatureScript Changes the Game

Speaking of flat cars, what about their loads? Most of the time, these cars would have carried lumber or logs. Without a sawmill on the line, it is unlikely they carried logs in my town, but there is a photo of a flat car of lumber in Pembroke. I’d always imagined I would create lumber […]