3D-printed unit train: Georgia Power NSC 2400 hoppers

[legostudios34]

Detailed video on my 3D-printed Georgia Power limestone train that I've been working on over the last couple years - I show some runbys, some close-ups, and talk about the design and printing process.

Best,
Baxter

[JeffB]

Nicely done!

What printer are you using for this?

Jeff

[bbunge]

Congrats and nice job.  I've basically made a unit train of about 45 B&O hoppers in N scale.  This is a lot of time and effort but very rewarding.  In some respects the printing is the easy part, the painting and decaling is just a lot of repetitive work.  I put some "easter eggs" in a couple of my cars, hope you did too - things like some upside down numbers and in my case, a single C&O hopper in the B&O train.

Bob

[legostudios34]

Thank you gentlemen!

Jeff, I use an Elegoo Saturn S printer

Bob, no easter eggs for me - I tried to stick rather close to the prototype here. All that painting and decaling was certainly repetitive...

Best,
Baxter

[Rivet Miscounter]

Love the cars and enjoyed the video.   Layout is great too...the highway overpass scene is really nice.

I noticed in the comments that you aren't currently producing/selling the cars or selling/licensing the STL's, but if that changes please put me on the list of interested parties for the STL.   I'm in Z so I would have to rework the file quite a bit as the end rails likely wouldn't translate very well.   But having the basic carbody would be a nice start.   I don't need a ton of these as the train I'm modeling was a mix of the NSC 2400's and the older Ortners.  I was just going to stick with the Ortners as a stand-in, but anyway...if you decide to do anything with it just please let us know here on The Railwire.

[legostudios34]

Thank you Doug!

Admittedly, I'm not sure how well these would work in Z scale. I had a ton of issues with the endcages warping even in HO - I can't imagine thinning them down to Z scale and not running into issues. I'll let y'all know if I start selling cars or .stl files.

Best,
Baxter

[Rivet Miscounter]

Admittedly, I'm not sure how well these would work in Z scale. I had a ton of issues with the endcages warping even in HO - I can't imagine thinning them down to Z scale and not running into issues. I'll let y'all know if I start selling cars or .stl files.

I expect the best idea would be to just eliminate the railing altogether and then use brass ladder stock to do it.  If doing a whole train of them that would be a bit much, but I really only need maybe 5-6 of them.   There is another unit train I could model that is a solid set of them (black cars with MWAX reporting marks) but I think this mixed train is a better use of what is available.   And this is really the lowest of low priorities for me so no big deal either way.   Just thought I'd comment in case the opportunity is there.

[MILWcoastdiv]

Hi, is the heated enclosure vented to the outside?  I just got into resin printing and man o man the fumes.  I'm in the NE so printing in the garage isn't possible so I almost need a big paint booth for the printer. 

The hoppers are incredible.  I printed a Gunderson wood chip hopper off thingy verse  came out really nice in N scale but the actual design was a bit off once I started comparing to prototype photos.

Mario

[sirenwerks]

I'm not one for the modern stuff but this was an excellently executed piece of modeling. Your locos and layout are gorgeous too. Thanks for the video and inspiration.