Fooling Around with Kiwi Trains: Adventures in 3D Modeling & Featuring 1:120 - 1:2 Scale : N, HO, O, G, 5inch, 7.25inch & 15inch Gauges! No Ads, Just Some Nutty Tales from Peter Bryant @ Portland Railroad, Northland NZ If the image has a star on the bottom right corner then its modified with AI and shouldn't be taken seriously.
3D Printed 1:24 DBR Class. The entire body less the bogies & fuel tank, took exactly 1kg of material at a cost of $40 via sandbrooks in auckland, including a time cost of roughly 5 days.
Prototype - Photo by R.Bryant - 1997 DBR 1200
1:24 DBR Class, "sectionalized". If anyone is selling g gauge SD35, SD24, SD7/9's on ebay beware, its going to be chopped up on arrival, huge festival & burning ceremony. bands n everything.
1:24 Wab on left about to receive correct cylinders.
Pretty happy with results thus far, more sanding in places will give it a nice smooth look. Printing of detail parts, cab interior, fuel tank & bogies continue.
After Painting & adding printed details such as handrails & steps., 2mm thick. Longhood top handrails still to print.
Also visible behind the Dbr is a (Lewis Holden) Designed 1:24 scale GSX 20Ft side opening container.
1:24 Dbr
1:24 Dbr, Now with all handrails & showing off the 1:24 50ft Car First Class BPX25175 (Neil Wards Design 4 9mm)
Largest decals i've yet had to print/apply 1:24 Dbr 1200
1:24 Dbr 1200 "the other side/end"
Da control stand on left, dbr on right, many considerations, big handles that might survive printing.
Da control stand, yet to print the Da... I blame the gin.
New drivers meet with senior management, their arms & expression seemingly in a state of disbelief upon learning their fate.
A more fitting control stand for the Dbr, drivers remain in pose of utter disbelief.
Everything in place, and a crew that looks like their being paid.
Thus far 4 sections printed. The white section was printed about 7 months ago now, and since I've experienced warping failures since due to the sheer size of the sections. Still not perfect (see slight gaps in the laminating that need some bog) but finally back on track after repairing the UP Plus 2. Sections are joined together with printed adapter parts..
Another section completed & sitting in place. Bogies finally removed from donor loco.
Showing the result of printers behaving badly. The 2nd section from the left suffered a rather large moth landing on the surface & got stuck in the print, thrashing about causing the fragile supports to fail. Lucky I saw it. If it happened overnight then the printer would continue to print regardless. The primer grey section (center) is going to be a paint & decal test, might even put glazing, lights in & mount it on a picture frame. Possibly coming out of a tunnel portal, dunno yet.
1:24 Dl progress so far, all sections finally printed! The cab ends were the most difficult but simply changing the object orientation on the printer was the breakthrough. The joining of the sections on the Right-hand side cab is out by 0.5mm, so work required to fix it best i can.
And after a lick of paint
In good fashion, Its better to go back to old posts such as this & keep em updated, as there's no sense rushing these things.
Some pics are adding quite a bit of detail, for the first time decent airhoses, handgrabs etc.
Showing the placement of detail parts, which are pre-aligned & grouped into seperate files accordingly ready for printing.
This week sees a model of the Portland Cement Pecket No5 drawn & mostly 3d printed. The actual prototype resides nearby at the Heritage Park, Maunu, Whangarei.
Portland Cement Peckett 23 Nov 1963 - 13yo Bruce H in cab facing camera
Peckett slowly takes shape, free running chassis, with a meccano gear installed for motorization. The F looks mighty in comparison.
Mostly assembled, with more detailing work to come.
The pistons are placed 2mm away from the chassis on both sides, to allow the thicker rods to move freely
No ashpan or firebox, the space will be taken up by an electric motor & worm
Easter Friday lineup Wanted to see the 1:24 Pecket, F & Ja in a line for size comparison photoshoot.
1:24 Ja, F & Peckett, A much better comparison photo, tender hasn't fallen off the track in this pic.
1:24 Pecket & F, easily transportable size
1:24 Pecket & F negotiating 1 of the 10 promised bridges northland will receive. Admittedly its built of meccano but remains within budget.
The bridges will be a shared rail & 1 road lane, thus fixing whatever the issue is with the current bridges. The bridge won't fit a 1:24 DL class or even a high cube container, but that's a problem for tomorrow.
While this has nothing to do with 3d printing, it's certainly train related.
The track was constructed from old shelving L lengths while wood 2x1's cut to length formed the sleepers. So far Ive managed to build 5 sections of track making up 4.5 metres.
With steel & aluminium L & flat strip used to build the body frame. The brass whistle will be powered with a $40 small 12v compressor delivering 120 psi.
The headlight is a supercheapauto.co.nz 4x led "water proof number plate light" that cost $15.
Polly so far, front window section is made from generic wood photo frames & balsa PVA glued overnight. The window section is removable and slots in at the bottom with 1 screw from above. I've replaced the glass with 4mm thick perspex to keep fingers safe should the worst happen.
Cab side panels, window frames & door remain to be done.
After further work, the control panel has an analog voltmeter, light control & a whistle "button" driving 150psi on demand via 12v rather than store it in a reservoir.
Coming together slowly... $5 Warehouse picture frames firmly in place.
If I built up the courage I would video myself riding this, Shes got enough traction to pull me on a small 4 wheeler with all my weight on this wagon (skinny woman performing yoga got nothing on me riding this small platform back and forth).
The loco is a 5 inch gauge 0-4-0 in the image of industrial TR shunter. Although it's really inspired by my dad & Neil's locos shown below.
Showing off a bogied flat wagon, thanks to the help of a mate with a welder a basic bogie was fabricated out of mild steel. each wheel is made of 2 mild steel disks. One forming the flange, the other forming the wheel itself. The "wheel" spun on the lathe and attached then welded to the axle. The bearings formed from nuts borrowed from some ones car wheel. Both bogie pivots on a ball bearing mech similar to that of an office chair, affording a very stable platform.
The bogie on the wagon closer to the loco is actually a steam tender 4 wheel chassis with all sprung axles. The wheel diameter & spacing is the same as the welded bogie.
5inch Battery Electric loco & bogie wagon hauling meself. A knock can be heard from the driving wheels when accelerating in reverse, so more work needs doing there. Managed to haul 2 people with the loco. Any more and she wheel spins, impressive considering the track head is 1.5mm thick and should really be 4-5mm thick to give decent traction. Adding weight to the loco is the next step.
Track & sleepers are formed from 10x10mm Bar, The track joining sections were formed in a jig. Once I grind down the track ends they should bolt together well.
5x2mtr straight sections finished of the 5 Inch track. You couldn't bang the sleepers off with a hammer, nice neat welds. Need to visit Vulcan steel & stock up on materials. Then another straight section followed by 12x curved sections, similar in mindset to any starter trainset. Starting to think about turnouts now, will not be difficult. In the meantime a novel use has been found in tracking shots with the camera & tripod riding on the roller bearing wheel bogied wagon, incidentally no brakes yet!
Whilst I had aimed for fathers day to set the track up at the parents place on the deck, a week or 2 won't hurt. Managed to get a video of dad taking it for a run on the smartphone, but did give both mum & dad a ride in the end, the dogs we're pretty scared of the whole event & ran away whenever the train moved. By the end both dogs made the trip cuddled & restrained in my arms & seemed to relax to the whole idea. Dad made the comment its been 13 years since he drove a locomotive for the then wank owned railways.
