I have a 3d printer that sits idle most of the time. I thought one day of what it might take to 3d print train cars. I have a pretty good background using Autocad from my previous employment and set out on the task. The first question was “What am I going to draw?” Considering that the bed on my printer is only 6″ x 6″ and my experimentation told me that anything of any size takes quite a bit of time to print, I determined something small like an ore car would be the way to go. Looking from left to right you can see my progress. There have been a lot of trials as I get more familiar with the printer. The car on the very right is a Walthers Soo Line ore car from a 1950 design that is my target. Things are moving along nicely and a friend sent me schematics for Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range cars from various periods so I have plenty of information to work with if I can find the time. More to follow…..
