BOXCABS!

[wazzou]

It’s really pretty quiet @Chris333
Will you pair it up with another one or just run it solo?

[Chris333]

It’s really pretty quiet @Chris333
Will you pair it up with another one or just run it solo?

They were built together with pilots on only one end, but some time later they were split up and pilots added. One place says it was rebuilt in 1929, just a year after it was built. I like it better by itself:
http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/prrn4403a5.jpg

[Chris333]

You already know what this is 



To fit a Bachmann 44 tonner chassis. But as this shows. The bottom is correct and top would be the Bachmann 44T.

[wazzou]

I like it better by itself:

I agree.

[delamaize]

How does that run without a tender for power pickups?

Meh. I took out the traction tire driver, and it made a huge difference. Pretty much, if your trackwork is good, and you have powered frogs, it's not bad. It would benefit from a Keep Alive Cap, That's for sure.

Only problem there: the MDC engines have their motors in the tender.

It's only a problem, until it's not. With the small motors, and gear heads that are available now. I bet something could be worked out.

[CNscale]

I asked on a Sketchup forum how to fix these problems and without laughing, they all laughed at me. Like how I could quickly have drawn it in Sketchup using a few rectangles. I have never once in 3-4 years of Sketchup used a rectangle.

And they kept telling me about making groups, but I didn't understand one bit of it. Even went and watched a few videos and really have no idea why I need to make groups. If I need to I just copy and paste to get multipule items.

They did show me how array works though.

And after they all told me I needed to redraw all those circles to change their segment count. I redrew it. Then someone comes along and tells me there is a plugin that would have done it all in one step. Installed it and he was right. Why does a drawing program need plugins?

Either way I got a boxcab.

I consider myself barely Sketchup-literate myself, and I find the stuff you do amazing.

But speaking as a software geek I will say that copy-paste may not be the best way to create duplicate items, particularly large quantities of an identical item, like rivets for example. When you copy-paste, the program treats the new item as a completely independent entity, allowing you to later modify one item without affecting the item you copied it from. But it also means that the program has to keep a separate copy of all the instructions for drawing each item in memory, and execute all of them every time it refreshes the screen. If you have, for example, several hundred rivets created this way, it will consume a lot more memory and dramatically slow down the program.

But if your design doesn't call for several hundred individually unique rivets, it's much more efficient to store one set of instructions for drawing a rivet in memory, along with a list of locations where each "clone" of the rivet should appear. Your file will be smaller and your drawing program will use less memory and refresh faster. In Sketchup you could design a rivet as a 'component', which would also allow you to easily import it into other drawings that need rivets as well.

[Chris333]

So now we have Erie boxcab #20 




The radiators and mufflers are separate pieces. After this I added headlights to the fronts of the radiators. Also made the pilots separate pieces to help to end windows from leaning inward. Those are in the particle generator right now.

[Cajonpassfan]

Sweet!
Otto

[nkalanaga]

I wonder if that Erie unit would fit on a Kato EH-10 chassis?  Leave the radiators off and it would make a nice boxcab electric.

[Chris333]

Approximately 1000 years ago (give or take) I made a chassis for a boxcab, but it is in pieces right now. It used Tomytec TM-04 chassis trucks and that chassis is no longer made or available.


I even make etch artwork:


But I only got this far (the small one is Z scale)

[Chris333]

Math question or am I even looking at this right?

The coupler situation on the 44 tonner is tight I can make the boxcab to scale and make it fit the chassis. But there is like no room left for couplers.

The 44T frame is 2.058" long and my current hole for it is 1.993" long. Won't fit. So instead of stretching the whole model 10 scale inches, I just want to slightly upsize the whole body. This will keep proportions looking right.

1.993 is 96.84% of 2.058. So if I scale the whole model up 3.16% will this make my opening 2.058"   

I could just do it and print it out to find if I'm right, but that is a waste of resin.

[samusi01]

If you scale it in your modeling program, can you not measure it in there?

[Chris333]

Not really. I make it in Sketchup and export it in a different file. Then I use Netfabb to resize and check for errors. And use ChiTuBox to add the supports.

I just tried to figure it out again and got 3.27% instead of 3.16%.

[milw12]

Would stretching it 10" N scale really be noticeable? That would keep the height and width correct at least. My calculations come in at .0625 or 1/16 or an inch. Then again up sizing proportionally shouldn't be all that noticeable either.

I was wondering if that the new boxcab was the same as a dim memory of an old etch, seems that my question was answered. Liking the recent progress, the LIRR is a gem.

Lucas

[thomasjmdavis]

This might not be helpful, really, but I get 3.2614%. (.065/1.993 x 100 to give percentage- with apologies to modern math teachers who no doubt have a completely different way to do this) I would speculate that 3.27 will get you there, with the extra fraction of a thousandth to give you space for getting it together. Plus, of course, being within .005 over 2 inches is probably getting close to the practical resolution of the printer in any case.

And I would not worry too much about anyone noticing. If I was going to get that picky with calipers, I would have to part with 90% of my collection.