LMS Open Wagons

D1666

In Railways to Poole Harbour page 104 there is a picture dated April 1956 of M144743 at Furzebrook on clay traffic. It looks like an LMS D1666 and the rest of the wagons in the picture look the same. I could use several of these so it looks like an ideal candidate for my first 3D printed wagon body. With minor modifications the drawing could be converted to other diagrams.

It has taken me much longer than I ever expected. I need to add rope hooks, door latches and label clips but I hope to be ready for my first trial print by Christmas (2017).

The body includes the solebars and headstocks and is designed to fit Andrew Thomas' chassis. I have already printed the wooden underframe (below) and floor. The plan is to cast these to give some weight. The first castings look promising.

14 January 2018

This is my first 3D print of this wagon. The hole for the floor is too big. The body has printed at the large end of the Shapeways tolerance and the floor was at the short end so there is a 0.25mm gap. Next time I will include the floor with the body but still keep the frame separate. The tolerances are +/- 0.2mm over 100mm.

I am pleased with the detail but it is very difficult to photograph in its raw translucent form and my first attempt at painting was not very good as seen below.

14 June 2019

Here is progress to date using my new Anycubic Photon printer. The good news is that the there no rough surfaces below the strapping and nuts as on the Shapeways examples.

Small holes, including those for the turned buffer heads, tend to finish up as just a dimple. I have separated the buffer bodies, added the head and printed them separately. The heads are perfectly smooth and appear to be strong. I will add holes to the headstocks for these buffers. There is also the option of printing the buffer bodies at Shapeways with holes for turned buffer heads.

Some of the small nuts don't look right. They appear a bit elongated. I have experimented with various solutions and a small nut drawn as a cylinder looks much more acceptable.

The wheels and axles in this example were printed at Shapeways. The printed half axle with a 1mm rod through the middle is beyond the capability of the Photon.