Customizable Car Creator

Create Custom Railroad Freight Cars

Summary

Note: Do not bother to try this on Thingiverse's Customizer. It won't work. You must download the files and run it in OpenSCAD on your local machine. It works there.

When you make trees for your layout, some are very detailed used as a focus point for a scene. Others are just puffballs to create the look and feel of trees in the distance. The cars that are created by this program are the puffball trees of you car collection. They are not highly detailed stars of the scene, they are the background to fill out and add depth to your collection. They are not a precise model of any prototype but are intended to look like typical cars that fill out a scene. I have tried to make them look as good as I can, based on prototype photos, but they are intentionally generic. This is intended as a way to produce a large number of cars inexpensively. We don't have Blue Box models any more, so I made this.

This program has a lot of parameters. I have tried to make the default values be pretty good choices for most of them. I model in N-Scale so most choices are ones that produce cars that I like in N-Scale. I have also tested fairly thoroughly in HO Scale. I print on a resin printer so size is limited. Z, S, O, and G Scales are supported, but many of the values have not been tested and may not even work. Feel free to make changes to support other scales that I have not gotten around to. If you do, please report back to me so that your better values can be incorporated into the main code.

Trucks and couplers are not included in these designs. These all are intended to use regular commercial trucks and couplers such as Kadee or MicroTrains trucks and couplers. The standard mounting techniques should work as expected.

Note: Because of limitations in OpenSCAD and the STL file structure the output files are not manifest and will show errors. The easiest way to fix this is to load the STL files into Microsoft's 3DBuilder program and use it to repair the files. They always work fine after that.

Printing

I have the best luck printing these on a resin printer directly on the build plate without any extra supports beyond the ones that are supplied if Use Supports is turned on. I have tested these at 0.025 mm layer height. I have not tested them on a FDM printer. If you do, let me know how it turns out.

Parameters

The default values are ones that I think make a good looking car. You can choose what you like. Most are self explanatory.

Scale

This controls which scale will be produced. Scales supported at present are Z, N, HO, S, O, and G. I use a resin printer for testing, so N and HO have been used for testing. Other scales will work, but many of the internal parameters have not been set to proper values. That remains to be done and is one area that others can help with.

Car Type

This selects the kind of car that will be generated. At present only flatcars and gondolas have been implemented. As other types are added, they will be added to this list.

Car Length in Feet, Car Width in Feet, and Car Height in Feet

These set the overall dimensions of the car that is generated. All of these dimensions are given in prototype dimensions. Appropriate scaling is done within the program.

Car Features

These control aspects of the model itself.

• Side Sill Depth in Inches: .
• Side Sill Thickness in Inches: .
• Fish Belly Depth in Inches: .
• Fish Belly Angle Length in Feet: .
• Pockets per Side: On flatcars this will set the number of stake pockets. On gondolas, this will control the number vertical ribs.
• Truck Height in Inches: This is the height from the rail head up to the top of the truck where it sits on the bolster. If Use Body Mount Couplers is off, this will have no effect.
• Bolster Height in Inches: This is the height of the bolster. Something in the area of 18 inches works well.
• Use Body Mount Couplers: This will produce a mounting point for coupler mountings. I designed using Kadee #5 with standard trucks in HO and MicroTrains 1015 couplers and standard trucks in N Scale. I have not tested in any other scale. If this is off it will produce a car suitable for truck mounted couplers. In N Scale truck mounted couplers are common, but in HO body mounted couplers seem to be preferred.

Layout

These control things about generating the model for printing.

• Space Between Car Parts: This controls the separation between the parts of the model.
• Fudge Factor in Inches: Adds a small additional space to the walls of the model so that the floor can fit between them. This is needed because 3d printers often have a little spread around the parts. I use about 2 inches.
• Show Rivets: This is not currently implemented.
• Use Supports: This controls whether the supports are generated. For printing on a resin printer it is best to have this turned on. When using an FDM it might be best to turn it off. If this is off, the user will need to supply supports where needed.

Asking for help

If you like these, please help by letting me know what is not right on these models. If you find something that is not right on these please tell me so that I can fix it.