Print your own loco and parts

[The flying brit]

Hi guys,

Have been watching sams trains on YouTube with some interest recently, especially the recent videos where he has been using a 3D printer to make wagons and carriages.

Was also wondering what you guys thought about using this technology to make replacement parts for fine details that have come off of locos you have that are damaged. And what your experiences are with it. I’ve seen Sam on YouTube making his own replacement parts for internal mechanisms on models that have worn out, ie new plastic cogs or gear wheels etc.

And if you know where suitable software for designing said replacement parts can be found, I unfortunately have a few damaged locos and being in Tokyo means that it’s also extremely difficult and costly to order replacement parts from the uk ie Peters spares and the like.

Finally before I go I was wondering if anyone here has attempted to use a 3D printer to design and build a loco body shell that they could then fit onto a new or old chassis, after all the technology used is basically the same as the guys at Hornby use, just not as expensive or as sophisticated. It would be interesting to see the results of such an experiment,especially considering that collectors of die cast cars have long been known to cut up and cannibalise models to create their own creations, so why not try something similar with model trains.

Would be interesting to you guys thoughts and opinions on this.

Cheers The Flying Brit.

[atom3624]

If you're in Tokyo, you're in the best place for this technology one would have thought.

I've no hands on experience, but many parts will need high definition - part of programming / software used and printer equipment I presume.

The other for me is just how tough / resilient and indeed flexible is the plastic used in 3D printing?

As it's printed in layers, how obvious is this stratification, and how easily can it be smoothed, where required?

Al.

[Rana Temporia]

I have bought a number of 3D printed locos for fitting to Hornby (and other) chassis which have ranged from fine scale models to quite poor representations. Some of the worst I have had were for 009 locos.

With regards the stratification, I have two 009 locos and a couple of 00 ones that are almost to the same standard as a plastic kit, you have to look very hard to realise that have been printed, but I paid appropriately for them. I have built a few cheap kits (not endorsing them but have a look at Budget Model Railways website, they use Hornby chassis) that need more work with a file and filler but can still produce good non-prototypical models. As long as you have a few modelling skills they are great.

As with anything, with this technology quality costs and if you want to order something see if there is a review or have a good look at the photos.

There is plenty of information on actual 3D printing online and you can get people to print your design if you have the capability to do that part of the process. There are also free downloadable designs but I haven’t seen any for UK locos.

Will Hornby ever do 3D print files for download? It is an option for models to fit their chassis that are available as spares. Personally I would like the chassis available as CAD or 3D models, it’d be easy to design something around them then.

I am not sure how much the printing medium costs. A large 3D print could prove quite expensive.

[The flying brit]

Hi Guys,

and thanks to all who have since replied to this post even though it’s only been up about 12 hours.

As regards my question about 3D printing I asked because I thought it would be an interesting adjunct to the hobby, in conjunction with buying locos and rolling stock as well as building layouts.

When watching Sam on his videos on Sams trains, I’ve seen him 3D print simple wagons and coaches in a matter of only a few hours with very impressive end results.

I will take a look online for some files for printing stuff, though if anyone could point me in the right direction ie give me some links to some websites that would be appreciated.

It would be great if you really could just download files from the net that enable you to print model trains as impressive as those that are available to buy commercially, though it would also sadly mean that manufacturers like Hornby could find themselves out of business. Who knows maybe in about 20 or so Years when this technology has really evolved even further that could well be the case, having been born in 1977 and grown up in the 80s when I was kid this technology it was still the stuff of science fiction or the big Hollywood movies I grew up watching.

As regards the availability of this technology it’s pretty abundant where I am that’s for sure.

Anyway would be interested to hear you guys opinion on this subject ie whether or not you think this technology could or couldn’t enhance our hobby as a whole overall, I know Sams been putting up quite a few new videos showing of his recent prints so I guess he at least must think so.

Anyway cheers The Flying Brit.

[EnGee]

I have a 3D printer and I now wonder how I ever managed without one!. It's a Creality CR-10S and cost about £300. It's a long way from top of the range but produces pretty reasonably results if you print slowly in high definition. This a filament printer, most professional ones are resin based. (and cost a lot more!)

I have used it for producing signal surrounds, point switches, fences, window frames, steps, level crossing barriers, newspaper stands and bike racks for the local convenience store, swings and slides in the kids playground, and a whole host of other things. My best achievement being a whole rake of complete coal wagons. Yes, if you look closely at them you can just about see the layering but going round the track they look brilliant - in my opinion! Some little brass bearings from somewhere in Scotland and some wheels/axles from Dupol and you're ready to go.

I use Tinkercad for designing/drawing, it's free and very effective and easy to use. I guess if you were a professional draughtsman you might find it's limitations but it does fine for me.

If you want to find some pre-designed files ready to download and print have a look at ThingyVerse, a strange website with a useless search facility but loads of stuff there, if you can find it!

A few things to bear in mind. Unfortunately they not exactly plug and play and can take quite a bit of time experimenting and getting the setup right, depending on the filament used, the temperature and humidity of surrounding air, temperature of nozzle, feed to nozzle and a host of other reason that seem to change as they seem fit but for no apparent reason! Also, you can't just plonk the design of a train on the printer and expect it to print all in one go. All the pieces have to printed separately and need a flat surface to stick to the printer base. As an example, the chassis on my wagons, the bits you see from the side with all the brake and suspension detail, were printed separately and horizontally. These were then glued on to the bottom edge of the wagon vertically.

You won't regret it - go for it.

[Rana Temporia]

Just had a quick look at Thingyverse. Using HO railway and OO railway in the search engine I got quite a lot of items including a L&Y Class 29. As I said earlier, Hornby could get involved (if they wanted to) by providing downloadable loco bodies (at cost or free) to be printed to match their RTR chassis so at least they would be making on them.

Plenary of other companies are doing just that with 3D printed bodies available for the 040 and 060 Peckett chassis and the standard 040 one. It’s something they need to be aware of.

[RDS]

@EnGee

That sounds very interesting. Are you able to show us any pictures of your work.

[EnGee]

@EnGee

That sounds very interesting. Are you able to show us any pictures of your work.

 

 

My layout shares loft space with our boiler, which unfortunately has decided to throw a wobbler. Now I would prefer to play trains than mend boilers but apparently Mrs EnGee does not see it that way, even when I pointed out it was summer and we didn't actually need a boiler.

After numerous trips to the local plumber I am making some progress and the carpet is gradually drying out! When I can get everything working again and get the loft back to usable, I will take some photos and post them up, but it probably won't be until next week.

Thanks for your interest.

[Rana Temporia]

I was thinking about this on a long walk last night and it could potentially be a real winner for Hornby. Other people are making money providing 3D printed kits / complete bodies for Hornby chassis. This means that Hornby sell locos as donor units as the complete chassis are not available as spares (I know, I have looked). The most popular appear to be the Jouef/Electrotren 060 Tank sold as an NCB loco in the UK, both Peckett tanks, the L&Y Pug and the basic 040 chassis. The loco bodies are supplied for around £15 to £60+ ready printed. People are buying them, anyone who uses eBay will have seen the number of Peckett and Electrotren bodies for sale.

When Hornby bring out a new loco/chassis all they need to do is produce some virtual alternative bodies for it. This should only take an experienced 3D CAD technician a couple of days at most and that would be the whole development cost. The files for these bodies could then be offered either free or for a small cost to download and print. Hornby would sell more locos because people want the chassis off them and there are no physical development costs as the new bodies only exist as a computer programme until the customer prints them at their own expense. As part of the purchase cost Hornby could offer a pack with handrail knobs, wire etc. To finish the locos off, or even have a choice between a basic version with moulded handrails (possibly free) and a better version with the accessory pack.

Hornby could even offer a 3D printing service and it would also help support small businesses who have one and offer printing as a service.

Of course, Hornby could make the complete chassis available as spares to save on the cost of putting the bodies together, remember when that was an option?

[81F]

I've produced a body for a GWR 0-6-0 saddle tank and 517 0-4-2T using Hornby chassis which I get printed for me by a company called shapeways. I have also made a few replacement bogies (all GWR at present) to replace the BR Mk1 types which Hornby and Lima use on their Siphons and short clerestories. In addition I have made several alternative coal wagon bodies for Dapol 21T hopper wagon chassis.

Below is my second attempt at a 517 which I will matt varnish once I have done the transfers on the other side and fitted the safety valve cover.

The chassis is actually a modified Dapol 14XX which is the same as the Hornby Railroad version but with shiny wheel rims.

[RDS]

@EnGee

Sorry to hear about your boiler. Looking on the bright side, at least it has failed when you don't need it because it doesn't normally happen like that.

Hope you get it fixed soon and look forward to seeing your pictures.

[Rana Temporia]

I had the box open so here are some 3D printed kits that I have built. The Yorkshire Engine Co one at the front of the first photo is a one piece print based on a prototype and is on a modified Tri-ang Nellie chassis. It needed very little work to the body before painting. The other two were freelance and are both on the current Hornby 0-4-0 chassis. They were kits and required quite a bit of filing and filling, however I enjoyed doing it. I have built a couple more of these but they are in a different box. The olive green one is very similar to an Andrew Barclay shunter.

I have some excellent 009 ones but don’t have easy access to them at the moment.

If I could produce my own to this standard I would seriously consider getting a printer but would never use a make of paint beginning with T again.

I would also recommend that for any 3D printed model, invest in a set of decent buffers beforehand.

[RDS]

@RT

Thanks for sharing.

This is becoming a very interesting thread.

[81F]

Hello RT, is one of those a Yorkshire Locomotive company Engine available on ebay? if yes I bought one a few weeks ago9 and am trying to work out if it needs a Triang Nellie or one of the new standard 0-4-0s

[Rana Temporia]

81F it is, it’s a Nellie chassis. You need to remove 3-4mm from each end to get the wheels in the right location. I can post some pics of the chassis if you need them?

The buffers are some brass ones I had from another project. 3D printed buffers are often not good.

The other two are Budget Model Railways kits which take the modern Hornby chassis.

The chevrons on the YE loco are some I drew on CAD for some yellow versions of the BMR locos I have and luckily they fit OK. They are printed on good quality paper and stuck on the buffer beams with Bostick. With a bit of paint around the edges they are quite effective. I still need to add the sand pipes to that loco.

The other two need the roofs sorting. The others I built have the gaps filled and smoothed.

[96RAF]

Hornby has already shown us in The Engine Shed that they produce 3-D printed prototypes for their locos, so they should already have the files that they could possibly ‘sell’ to folk to print their own.

A word of caution though is the printing material. I have been lucky enough to get my hands on a couple of these proof of concept bodies and one of them was like cheese, whereas the other one was much more robust. Both painted up well in acrylic after using a primer undercoat.

[Rana Temporia]

I just had a go at some old fashioned 2D printing. I have made overlays for locos before, but having some time recently I decided to draw an imaginary loco for the Garstang and Knott End Railway to use a spare Nellie I had. The G&KER was real and served a rural part of Lancashire but although it had several saddle tanks, the only side tanks it had rather than an 040 of dubious heritage were both Manning Wardles, an 060 called Knott End and a 260 called Blackpool.

I knew the results wouldn’t be great as my printer is rubbish but at least I know the sizes are right and once I can get access to a decent laser printer they should be OK to do. The names and the G&KER are gold shaded blue as per the real railway but it doesn’t show up too well on the prints.

I would do a better job of cutting out decent prints!

[Ankh]

As others said - I don't know how I survived before I got my printer - unreplaceable tool which I can highly recommend.

There are two basic types of printers (I'll be simplifying things here):

• FDM / plastic (PLA or ABS material) - great for parts or large objects where quality is not that important, strong material. Fairly easy to set up and run. Not much post-processing. Not really good for printing models where you'd expect high quality (layering effect).
• resin - not as strong material as plastic but quality is as good as from a factory. That's what's used for pre-production samples. There is a lot when it comes to handling, setting up, post-processing so make sure you understand what you're getting into. There are also much more smelly (proper carbon filter can help a lot).

I have both plastic (5 years) and resin (2 years) printers - I use plastic for all sort of parts, resin for locos and wagons. You can't achieve smooth finish on plastic printer, resin is as smooth as baby's skin. You can use plastic for locos but this is very bottom of a budget loco (nothing wrong with that if that works for you).

Worth mentioning - 3D printing is a hobby itself - don't expect plug-and-play equipment. There is a learning curve and you will have many frustrating evenings trying to figure out what went wrong. You should also feel fairly comfortable when it comes to basic repairs and parts replacement.

Another thing to consider is what you're going to do once you have your print. If you go for a loco or a wagon, you will need to paint it, and this is yet another hobby. Even the best print can be easily ruined by poor painting skills.

Hope that helps a bit.

[81F]

@ RT,

Thanks for the info,

[Deem]

Hello

I know I am late joining this post, just got my first FDM printer from my nephew, I need to print this part

 

The pathway for Pendolino is missing on one of the coach, so I need to make one, I am just wondering if anyone try this before, so I can make one. Any help if possible will be appreciated.

[What About The Bee]

Hi @Deem

I gave it three days, hopeful that someone was willing to share their CAD work with you.  

This is the underlying dilemma with 3D printing.  If you haven't the design, the printer cannot print it.  Plenty of free designs available, but when there is a want a particular part, it remains unfulfilled.

You will apparently have to design the part yourself.  I've been using FreeCAD to design.  Passing those designs to a 3D printing house has proved successful.  You may wish to try your hand at FreeCAD, or another CAD program, if that suits your fancy.  I suspect you have an existing part that you wish to copy, so that can be a real advantage.

Bee

[ntpntpntp]

I use my resin printer for producing spares for my N gauge models.  Parts I've not been able to find as original spares, adapter mounts for installing alternative motors, or simple small parts such as buffers which are too expensive to buy from Europe when postage etc. is included.   I've built up a small library of bits and pieces 🙂 I have to say I find resin prints much better than FDM for this sort of thing, being finer detail and smooth finish.  

They've all been drawn up by myself in Fusion 360 (free version for personal use), mostly by measuring and copying an existing part.   I'll admit my CAD skills are very much only at the beginner stage but I get there, quite often it only takes a couple of iterations to get a correct look and fit 🙂   If you have a 3D printer you really do need to learn how to produce your own items, you cannot expect someone else to have done it for you although there are some designs out there. 

For example, I had a similar need for replacement corridor bellows on an Arnold ICE set I'd acquired very cheaply., and I also wanted to replace the couplings with magnetic types 

This was another cheap second hand model which arrived with some of the coach steps damaged so I produced suitable replacements.

Edited September 27 by ntpntpntp

[Deem]

Very nice @ntpntpntp, also thanks for sharing.

I got FDM printer last week (wanted to have Rasin based but i got this quite cheap so i thought why not try this first and learn at the same time) and I am trying to build pathway for class 390 coach, still at very early stage. I think easiest way to print in 3D is 3D scanner but they are very expensive so that's out of question, second option is to draw from sctrach, I am struggling with that, if I was to be honest. But will get there like you said.

[Deem]

8 hours ago, What About The Bee said:

Hi @Deem

I gave it three days, hopeful that someone was willing to share their CAD work with you.  

This is the underlying dilemma with 3D printing.  If you haven't the design, the printer cannot print it.  Plenty of free designs available, but when there is a want a particular part, it remains unfulfilled.

You will apparently have to design the part yourself.  I've been using FreeCAD to design.  Passing those designs to a 3D printing house has proved successful.  You may wish to try your hand at FreeCAD, or another CAD program, if that suits your fancy.  I suspect you have an existing part that you wish to copy, so that can be a real advantage.

Bee

Just saw your advice and wanted to day thanks.

[Brew Man]

I agree with ntp x 3, resin printers are better for small, high detail items, but FDM has its place too. I have FreeCad installed but I am making very slow progress. If anyone can point me to an idiot's guide to getting started I'd appreciate it.