Before the Storm - New 3D Printed Flat Cars
NOTE: This model railroad video is not intended for anyone under 14 years of age due to the use of small parts, dangerous tools, electrical items, glues, and paints.
I recently found a nicely designed 3D download (N-Scale) on "Thingiverse" of a special cargo load for a transition era (WWII/Korean War) military train. I also have some N-Scale military vehicles but did not have any flat cars available for the vehicles and the cargo so I went back to "Thingiverse" and found a nice N-Scale 40 foot flat car. This video shows the results of printing the special cargo as well as some 40 foot flat cars and discussing how I created a 50 foot flat car from the 40 footer.
Hopefully we won't have an "Ice Megedon" this year like the "Snow Megedon" we had last February here in Central Texas.
The train sounds in the opening trailer were taken from a legal copy of the Apple iMovie application that I own.
The music in the closing trailer is an original composition made using a legal copy of the Apple Garageband application that I own.
The flat cars look great John! Can't wait to see them painted, etc. Hope the storm spares you!
Hi John, Thank you for your comments. Around this area, ice is the worst that we get especially since our power is sketchy these days.....John
Looking good John, what a cost savings idea to get some additional rolling stock. Thanks for sharing and stay safe. Ken
Hi Ken, Thank you for your comments. I was pretty pleased how well my new printer did those flat cars......John
Outstanding job brother can’t wait to see them done thank you for sharing be safe and enjoy the trains 🚂
Thank you for your comments, they are most appreciated....John
Thats going to be an awesome train when done john. Excellent work on the flats, can't wait to see them painted! Take care!
Thank you Ian. I appreciate your comments.....John
Nice flat cars .great video thanks for sharing David
Hi David, Thank you for watching and your comments….John
Very cool! I love military models!
Dennis, Thank you for your comments. I have collected the vehicles over a number of years. Yesterday I did find the WWII decals for marking the trucks and tanks. They take a lot of patience to apply as they are so small……John
Nice work, Like the cars.
Thank you Eric. They were printed on the Vyper….John
Loving the blue they look great John. Keep up the great work....Gary
Thank you Gary. They are currently blue as that was the color of the PLA that I used printing them. They will all be painted either boxcar red or Pullman green or maybe something else in the future…..John
the storm already here lol it's nice seeing you getting into printing some cars i had to splice a few
Hey Dwight, Hopefully the storm won't get too bad but we will know in the morning. Splicing that 40 footer into a 50 footer worked out pretty well.....John
that is a nice army of vehicles and an army of flat cars. cheers Rob
Hi Rob, Thanks for watching and commenting…..John
Nicely done John. Now if they were in HO scale!,, Very nice job good luck and at least you have something do if the power goes out.
Hi Steve, Thank you. They do have a couple of HO flats listed on Thingiverse and probably more on Cults.com (another 3D site). If the power goes out again, I will be spending most of the time trying to keep my well house from freezing up....John
Hi John they look excellent mate ....
Thank you Ron. The new Vyper prints much better so far than my older daVinci 1.0 Pro....John
Well do I’ve been thinking if this was possible and you have shown how thank you
You are most welcome Shaun. Thanks for commenting....John
They look good John, hope it not a bad storm, will be sending you a email soon. Bob
Hey Bob, Thank you for watching and your comments. Tonight we are just watching the weather changing and tomorrow is going to be awful. I just hope we don't get a lot of ice....John
Looking forward to seeing the train. I agree about the cost of putting a train together, it's taken me a few years together [an SP overnight train] if it wasn't for a friend that slod me some cars I would still being trying. Now I'm working onto the next stage with piggyback which is even worse as they wanting $40 for each car, Wow! The cars and trucks look grear👍👍👍👍👍
Hi Jack, Thank you for watching and commenting. I was shocked at the price of flat cars, both used and new, especially when needing 11 cars which to acquire would be between $100+ to over $200+. I absolutely agree that RTR rolling stock has been slowly approaching ridiculous levels in price. A few months ago I purchased a 12 car set of brass passenger cars for a lower price than plastic cars……John
@@tanzj WOW!
good jod thanks lee
Lee, Thank you for watching and commenting...John
I love them, would you sell some of the flat cars like you made ?
Tony, do you have a printer? If so the I can send the STL file to you. I have also posted them on Tinkercad for use by the public……John
@@tanzj i haven’t got one i think i need to buy a pc before i can use one, maybe later i can get all that. Thanks for the reply
@@tonypike5785 The flat car design was started by someone else and I modified it for my use so I can’t sell them but you could print them yourself if and when you were able to. Sorry…..John
Cool. Nice printed ones. So, is the blue paint scheme your rr paint scheme?
Hey Drew, Thanks for watching and your comments. The current PLA that I am using for printing is the light blue color. I probably will paint them either boxcar red or Pullman green when I get to that task…..John
@@tanzj - Oh ya. Ha ha I guess I assumed you already painted them.
Greta job! Did you ever consider making some for sale?
Hi George, Thanks for your comments. The cars are not my design so I cannot sell them……John
@@tanzj Thanks
John do you happen to know the part number for those trucks? I’m looking to start printing cars and don’t know which trucks to buy from micro trains
Hi, I generally use MTL Bettendorf medium extension trucks that I buy in 10 packs. The new P/N is 00310022 and the older one is 1003-10…….John
@@tanzj John thank you I appreciate the response
how is the weight on those printed flat cars?
Hi Sparky, I have not weighed them, however, after adding the MicroTrains trucks with metal wheels plus the vehicles I believe that they will be fairly close to the correct weight in N scale to run properly. The printed car by itself is lighter than a commercial car since they usually have an embedded flat weight. The design might be able to be modified with a hollowed out top surface for added weight which could then be covered with a scale lumber top so that the car could run empty. I will let you know how they do weight wise in the next couple of days, assuming that we have power……John